Atiku: CBN Household survey has exposed state propaganda

Says citizens priced out of decent homes

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has described the latest Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Household Expectations Survey as a damning verdict on President Bola Tinubu’s economic policies.

Atiku, who is also the Presidential Candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), said the survey had stripped the propaganda of the President Bola Tinubu administration on the economy of whatever credibility it had left.

The former Vice President, in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, said an economy in which citizens were abandoning plans to buy homes, cars and basic household assets could not credibly be advertised as one on the path to prosperity.

A recent survey by the CBN had indicated that the rising cost of living was exerting more financial pressure on households and businesses.

Atiku noted that, according to the survey, buying conditions stood at just 28.7 points for motor vehicles, 28.9 for consumer durables and 30.0 for buildings and landed property. He stated that it was even more disturbing that “willingness to purchase vehicles fell to 18.7 points, while buildings and landed property stood at only 19.2 points.”

The ADC candidate stated that “These are not figures manufactured by the opposition. They are the verdict of Nigerian households captured by the Central Bank under President Tinubu’s own government.

“What the figures tell us is simple: Nigerians are being priced out of decent living. A home is becoming a fantasy. A car is becoming a luxury. Household appliances are increasingly beyond reach. Families are exhausting their incomes on food, transportation, electricity, school fees and other necessities, leaving practically nothing for savings, investment or asset acquisition.

“Only recently, the Jollof Index told us what Tinubu’s economy has done to the Nigerian kitchen. Now the CBN survey is telling us what it has done to the Nigerian dream.

“The numbers make the tragedy even more stark. According to the latest SBM Jollof Index, the ingredients required to prepare a single pot of jollof rice for a family of five now cost an average of ₦29,578. Think about what that means for a worker earning the ₦70,000 minimum wage: one ordinary pot of jollof rice can swallow more than 40 per cent of an entire month’s salary, before rent, transportation, electricity, school fees and healthcare are considered.

“And this is the same economy in which Nigerians are now postponing the purchase of homes, cars and basic household assets because there is simply no disposable income left. Tinubu has not merely made life more expensive; his policies are steadily pricing ordinary Nigerians out of food, comfort, asset ownership and the basic dignity of a decent life.”

Furthermore, Atiku stated that it was particularly insulting for the present administration to continue celebrating headline macroeconomic indicators while the personal economies of Nigerian families deteriorated.

“Government officials can celebrate GDP growth, foreign reserves and other statistics from air-conditioned conference rooms, but ordinary Nigerians have become unwilling economists, calculating every cup of rice, every litre of fuel and every transport fare before deciding what their families can afford. Between official statistics and empty cooking pots, the cooking pots do not lie.

“An economy is not successful merely because government officials can quote favourable statistics. An economy succeeds when citizens can work, earn, eat, save, invest and progressively improve their standard of living.

“Before there is GDP, there must be dinner. Before there is prosperity, there must be purchasing power. And before a government congratulates itself on reform, ordinary citizens must be able to see and feel improvement in their own lives,” Atiku stated.

The former Vice President, while stating that Nigerians deserved an economy where work produced dignity and income created opportunity, rather than one where every household ambition was sacrificed merely to survive until the next payday, charged President Tinubu to stop celebrating ‘PowerPoint economics’.