PART 13 OF 50: THE SILENT ROBBERY
Aare Amerijoye DOT.B
No one broke into Mallam Garba’s house.
No one pointed a gun at him. No one hacked his account, forged his signature or emptied his tin box. And yet, between 2023 and today, two-thirds of eleven years of his life disappeared.
For eleven years he drove a taxi in Kano, from before the dawn prayer until long after the streets went quiet. Every week he set something aside. By early 2023 he had saved a little over three million naira for one purpose: to send his eldest son abroad to study engineering.
At the official rate in early 2023, those savings were worth more than six thousand dollars. They weren’t a fortune, but they were a foundation: a ticket, a first year’s fees and a start.
Today the three million naira is still in his account. Every kobo is accounted for.
It is now worth about two thousand three hundred dollars.
His son is still in Kano.
This is the crime of our time. It leaves no fingerprints, makes no noise and has touched every Nigerian who earns, saves or spends in naira.
The most successful robbery in Nigeria needed no gun. It needed only the naira.
THE ARITHMETIC OF LOSS
In May 2023, the official exchange rate stood at about ₦460 to the dollar.
On 21 October 2026, it stood at about ₦1,333.
Measured against the dollar, the naira lost roughly two-thirds of its value in three and a half years. Whatever a Nigerian held in naira in May 2023, whether a salary, a pension, savings, school fees or business capital, now commands about a third of what it once did in the wider world.
Economists call it depreciation. Nigerian families call it something simpler. They call it watching their lives shrink.
You can see it in the pensioner in Ibadan who saved for thirty years and now finds that her savings buy the medicines of ten.
You can see it in the parents in Owerri whose daughter studies abroad, who must now find nearly three times the naira to pay the same fees.
You can see it in the spare parts dealer at Ladipo, Lagos, whose stock costs three times more to bring in, while his customers’ pockets have not grown at all.
You can see it in the maize farmer in Yola, whose fertiliser, seed and tractor parts are all priced in a currency he has never held.
You can see it in the nurse in Abuja, who watches gloves, drugs and machines climb out of her hospital’s reach, because most of them are imported.
A falling currency is never just a figure on a chart. It is a decision about whose labour is worth less.
When the naira falls, it does not fall alone. It falls on the people.
THE PAYSLIP THAT LIES
Consider the Nigerian worker.
After a long struggle, the national minimum wage rose from ₦30,000 to ₦70,000. On paper, that is more than double.
But measure it in what it can buy in the world. In May 2023, at about ₦460 to the dollar, the ₦30,000 minimum wage was worth about $65. Today, at about ₦1,333, the ₦70,000 minimum wage is worth about $52.
The number on the payslip more than doubled, and what the wage is really worth fell.
That is why a civil servant in Osogbo who received a “raise” feels poorer than before. He has not misread his situation. He has read it exactly.
They gave the worker bigger numbers and smaller money.
THE MONEY ILLUSION
The same sleight of hand is being performed with the nation’s accounts.
Every month the government announces record allocations from the Federation Account: trillions of naira, the largest sums in our history, presented as proof that the economy is booming.
On 9 September 2026, Atiku looked behind the numbers.
In 2019, the Federation Account shared about ₦7.85 trillion, worth roughly $25.6 billion at the time. In 2025, it shared about ₦21.9 trillion, worth roughly $14.6 billion.
The naira figure nearly tripled. Its real value, measured in dollars, fell by more than 40 per cent.
Atiku gave it its proper name: “That is not an economic miracle. That is money illusion.”
Then he delivered the sentence that should be written on the wall of every finance ministry in Africa:
“Bigger numbers do not cancel smaller value.”
And he asked the question no government spokesman has answered: “If the states are swimming in unprecedented revenues, why are they still drowning in debt?”
A government can print larger numbers. It cannot print value. Value is created in one way only: by producing things that people at home and abroad want to buy.
“BUT THE NAIRA HAS STABILISED”
Their defenders will say the naira has steadied, and they are partly right. It has recovered from its worst days and now trades around ₦1,330 to the dollar at the official window.
But ask Mallam Garba whether he feels rescued.
A house that has burnt down and then stops burning has not been rebuilt. It has only stopped burning.
A currency that settles at a third of its former value has not returned what it took. The pensioner’s savings have not come back. The worker’s lost value has not come back. The fees the Owerri family paid at the worst rate have not come back. Mallam Garba’s son is still in Kano.
Stability at the bottom of a pit is not recovery. It is a quieter form of loss.
The fire may have stopped. The house is still ash.
Let us be honest about one thing, because honesty is our strength. Unifying Nigeria’s multiple exchange rates was an idea serious economists, Atiku among them, had long supported. The problem was never the idea. It was the order. A wise government fixes production first and cushions its people, then lets the currency find its level. This government let the currency fall first and left production in chains. It took the medicine and threw away the food that should have come with it.
WHY THE NAIRA KEEPS LOSING
Strip away the jargon and the explanation fits in one sentence. A currency is strong when the world needs it, and the world needs your currency when it wants to buy what you make.
A nation that produces little and imports much must constantly chase dollars to pay its bills. When dollars are scarce, their price rises, and a rising dollar is simply a falling naira seen from the other side.
Now look honestly at Nigeria.
We import much of the food on our tables. Atiku has noted that agricultural trade swung from a ₦740.27 billion surplus to a ₦56.13 billion deficit, while agricultural exports fell by 33.3 per cent.
We still import refined fuel. In August 2026, roughly three in every ten litres of petrol supplied to Nigerians came from abroad.
We import medicines, machinery, spare parts, fertiliser, fabrics and even toothpicks.
And the trade that should earn us money is still held back. Years after the land borders were shut in 2019, they have reopened only in stages, and the government itself admits that some northern crossings still operate under restrictions. Legal trade that should flow freely between Nigeria and its neighbours still moves through narrow gates.
At the same time, producing at home has become punishingly expensive. Power is unreliable and costly, fuel is dear, loans are out of reach, transport is a burden and farms are unsafe. Atiku captured it precisely on 7 October 2026: “He has made production expensive and called the resulting hardship reform.”
Every barrier to production at home sends Nigeria back to the dollar market for goods it should have made itself. And every trip to that market weakens the naira a little more.
A currency cannot be defended with press conferences. It is defended by what a nation produces.
A nation that makes nothing will always have a currency worth very little.
ATIKU’S ANSWER: BACK THE NAIRA WITH PRODUCTION
This is where Atiku’s plan becomes not just a list of promises but a single, coherent strategy. Every major commitment points in the same direction: make Nigeria produce, export and earn, so that the world needs the naira again.
Refine it here. The targeted, capped production subsidy in the Atiku Economic Recovery Plan rewards refineries that process Nigerian crude in Nigeria for the Nigerian market. Every litre refined at home is a litre that does not drain scarce dollars.
Grow it here. Point 9 of the 12 Point Agenda, Return to Farms, commits to securing farms, cutting farming costs and financing farmers. The campaign’s target of 20 million farmers on 20 million hectares means less food imported and more food exported. Every bag of rice grown in Kebbi saves dollars, and every tonne of sesame, cashew and ginger shipped abroad earns them.
Power it here. Point 6 and the target of 20 million kilowatts, or 20,000 megawatts, mean factories that can produce at a cost that competes with the world, rather than closing their gates.
Trade it here. Point 4 revives the ports of the East and South-South, at Port Harcourt, Calabar, Warri and the Ibom Deep Sea Port in Akwa Ibom, so that goods no longer crawl for weeks through congested gateways. Point 5 commits to reopening the land borders that remain shut or restricted to legal trade, and to reviving lawful cross-border business, so that the young traders who carry goods between Nigeria and Benin, Niger, Chad and Cameroon can earn openly again. Atiku has said it in his own words: “I am going to reopen the borders and I will.” More working ports and open, lawful trade mean more Nigerian goods reaching markets beyond our shores, and more foreign currency flowing home.
Finance the makers. Point 7, the $10 billion Youth and Women Fund, puts capital into the hands of the young entrepreneurs and women traders who make and sell, so that Nigeria makes more and imports less.
Govern with discipline. At his screening on 20 May 2026, Atiku committed to fiscal discipline and private sector expansion. A government that borrows and spends without restraint weakens its own currency, while one that manages its finances with discipline earns the confidence that brings investment.
Open the books. Point 11 commits to auditing contracts and publishing procurement. Capital goes where it can see the rules and trust the figures.
Taken together, these are not separate promises. They are one design, and Atiku has summed it up in a single line:
Grow it here. Process it here. Refine it here. Create the jobs here. Make life affordable here.
THE RECORD BEHIND THE PROMISE
Any candidate can describe a cure. The question is who has administered one before.
A currency is protected by the reserves behind it, and Nigerians have seen what strong reserves look like.
When Atiku served as Vice President and statutory chairman of the National Economic Council, Nigeria’s external reserves rose from $3.7 billion to about $45 billion. In 2005, the Paris Club wrote off $18 billion of Nigeria’s debt, and in 2006 Nigeria exited that debt entirely. The economy grew from about $58 billion to about $270 billion.
Those reserves were the shield of the naira. Debt fell, savings rose, and the nation had a cushion to absorb shocks instead of passing every one of them straight to its people.
The conviction has not changed. In 2023, his Covenant with Nigerians argued that Nigeria must produce more, export more and earn its way to a stronger economy. In 2027 he returns with the machinery to do it: the production subsidy, Return to Farms, the revived ports, open legal trade across our borders, the 20,000 megawatts and the $10 billion fund.
He built the shield once. He knows how it is built.
TO EVERY MALLAM GARBA
To Mallam Garba in Kano, holding savings that are no longer enough. To the pensioner in Ibadan whose life’s work shrank while she slept. To the parents in Owerri paying fees across the sea. To the dealer at Ladipo, the farmer in Yola, the nurse in Abuja and the worker in Osogbo who received a raise and became poorer. To the young trader in Illela or Seme who waits at a narrow gate for trade that should flow freely.
You did not waste your money. Your money was devalued for you.
Yet there is one thing you hold whose value no exchange rate can erode and no central bank can devalue.
Your vote.
So let this article travel beyond you. Share it with your traders’ and importers’ associations, your cross-border traders, your pensioners’ and workers’ unions, your parents’ groups, your family platforms and your church and mosque communities. Then do Mallam Garba’s arithmetic together, with your own figures: a salary, a savings balance, the price of a bag of rice. Ask what it was worth in 2023 and what it is worth now. When the room falls silent, share Atiku’s words, “Bigger numbers do not cancel smaller value”, and explain the plan behind them. A naira backed by production is a naira that can stand again.
Collect your PVC if it is ready, and keep checking with INEC until it is. On Saturday, 16 January 2027, go early, vote, stay and protect your vote until the result is pasted at your polling unit.
Tonight, Mallam Garba will open his tin box and count money that no longer honours his labour.
On 16 January, vote to make it count again.
Vote Atiku. Vote Amaechi. Vote ADC.
Next: Part 14, The price of everything: inflation.
#Atiku2027 #AtikuAmaechi2027 #AtikusAnswers #VoteADC #ProduceItHere
Aare Amerijoye DOT.B
Director General,
The Narrative Force
thenarrativeforce.org
24 October 2026
