Tunde Fashola: Nigerians aren’t the only ones living in poverty, even Americans steal petrol

Tunde Fashola, the Minister of Works and Housing, said on Friday that growing living costs and economic hardship are not unique to Nigeria. Mr Fashola compares Nigeria’s burning crisis to circumstances in other countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom.

Mr Fashola was confronted with a chart of economic indices during an appearance on ‘Politics Today,’ which showed a 220 percent increase in fertiliser prices between 2020 and 2022, a 59.45 percent depreciation of the naira, and a 129 percent increase in the price of cooking gas during the same period. Mr Fashola says the statistics should not be published in isolation.
“I think it is perhaps not helpful to publish that spreadsheet in isolation. What you should do is to compare it with the rest of the world. Tell me anywhere in the world where the cost of living is not rising, whether it is UK, US,” Mr Fashola told the political magazine programme.

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“Just three days ago, CNN was showing a footage of Americans stealing fuel and they would not be stealing fuel and they would not be stealing if it was cheap; these are very challenging times globally. So this is not an isolated occurrence that affects Nigeria only,” he added.

The minister’s comments come as Nigerians are witnessing increased hardship in several areas, especially fuel shortages and inflation. President Muhammadu Buhari rode to power in 2015 promising to tackle these issues, but analysts said little evidence exists to suggest anything could turn for the better in the remaining one year of the regime’s two terms.

Still, Mr Fashola said the administration is responding to the economic challenges inflicted by the global pandemic and the results are becoming visible.

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“When Covid happened, we responded and put up an economic sustainability committee, and we cushioned the impact of the difficult times on Nigeria through a suite of measures. And the impact and result are now there for us to see,” the former Lagos governor said.