What you published, Reno Omokri, is not economic commentary; it is gaslighting elevated to doctrine. It is a glossy sermon delivered to an audience whose stomachs are empty, whose transport fares have doubled, whose rents have ballooned, and whose salaries have been reduced to ceremonial figures. To celebrate so-called “price drops” under Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress is to mock the poor with numbers, to insult hunger with hashtags, to preach prosperity to people now forced to buy food by the piece.
This is not a disagreement.
It is a public indictment.
THE CENTRAL FRAUD: CONFUSING FLUCTUATION WITH AFFORDABILITY.
Prices did not “go down.” They detonated, pulverised household budgets, and then staggered marginally, after which applause was demanded. A retreat from catastrophe is not recovery. When arsonists bring a cup of water after an inferno, no sane society pins medals on their chests.
The APC method has been consistent: ignite inflation, devalue the currency, strip purchasing power, then celebrate minor oscillations as miracles. That is not reform. It is economic sadism wrapped in optimism.
THE COST OF LIVING: WHERE PROPAGANDA COLLAPSES.
FOOD — SURVIVAL HAS BEEN TAXED.
Rice (50kg):Tinubu met rice at approximately ₦35,000–₦40,000 in 2023.Today it sells between ₦70,000–₦90,000, depending on location. Varying significantly by brand (local versus imported). Locations, market conditions( like naira stability), and retailer ,with popular brands like Big Bull and Mama’s pride .
Families now measure meals with calculators, not appetite.
Garri:Once the poor man’s insurance policy, now priced like a boutique commodity. Traders sell half-cups; dignity itself is portioned.
Tomatoes and Pepper:
Prices swing like a pendulum of despair. Mothers buy two tomatoes, not baskets. Pepper is now counted, not scooped.
PROTEIN — THE MOST CRUEL ASSAULT.
- Fowl: ₦5,000 (2023) →#25,000 and ₦30,000–₦40,000
- Goat: ₦25,000 → ₦100,000–₦150,000
- Cow: ₦150,000 (2022) → ₦500,000
Meat has migrated from diet to ceremony. Protein is now a rumour.
ENERGY AND TRANSPORT — THE INVISIBLE LEVY
Fuel (full tank):
₦13,000 (2023) → ₦55,000 – ₦70,000.
Movement itself has become a privilege.Transport fares have not forgiven anyone.
Electricity: “Low tariffs” mean nothing when supply is erratic. Nigerians pay tariff plus generator plus fuel. Darkness is cheap; light is punitive.
HOUSING, HEALTH, EDUCATION — THE SILENT STRANGLE
- Rent: Increases of 50–100% are routine. Evictions are casual. Shelter has become a negotiation.
- Healthcare: Drugs priced beyond reach; clinics demand cash up front. Illness is now a debt trap.
- Education: Fees climb while incomes crawl. Children are withdrawn; futures are postponed.
This is the cost of living, not the press-statement version, but the one paid daily in sweat, sacrifice, and shame.
THE SALARY MIRAGE: NUMBERS WITHOUT POWER
Yes, the minimum wage moved from ₦30,000 to ₦70,000, on paper.In reality, it buys less than before. Transport gulps a third. Food humiliates the rest. Rent laughs last.
Under Obasanjo/Atiku, workers:
- Built houses
- Bought cars
- Trained children
- Saved with dignity
Under APC:
- Workers survive; they do not live
- Salaries evaporate before mid-month
- Aspiration has been replaced by rationing
- A wage increase that cannot raise living standards is economic theatre, not reform.
GDP VOODOO AND NAIRA NECROMANCY.
Quoting GDP growth in naira terms during currency collapse is sleight of hand. When the naira falls, numbers rise while lives sink. GDP that cannot buy rice, fuel, rent, and protein is a museum statistic,pretty, pointless, and cruel.
This obsession with nominal figures is governance by illusion.
VEGETABLE OIL: THE LIE OF “CRASHED PRICES”
Let us address directly the audacity of the claim that “the payment for vegetable oils has crashed.”
In what country?
In what market?
In what kitchen?
In real Nigeria, outside social media laboratories:
25 litres of vegetable oil:
- 2022: ₦28,000–₦32,000
- 2024 peak: ₦90,000–₦120,000
- 2025 “after the so-called crash”: ₦65,000–₦85,000, depending on location and different prices for different types.
That is not a crash.
That is a man pushed off a cliff and congratulated for crawling halfway back up the rocks.
Households now ration oil by the spoon, reuse it until colour and smell surrender, and dilute it like medicine. Sachet oil, once a convenience, has become a symbol of enforced poverty.
If this is what “crashed prices” look like, then language itself has collapsed under APC economics.
BEANS: WHEN PROTEIN BECAME A PRIVILEGE.
Beans were explicitly mentioned and conveniently left unexamined by propagandists. Let us examine them.
Beans (100kg bag):
- 2022: ₦35,000–₦45,000
- 2024–2025: ₦120,000–₦180,000, depending on location, more premium ,cleaned or specific varieties like honey beans compared standard brown beans.
At retail level:
- The mudu has doubled or tripled
- Quantity has shrunk while prices climb
- Poor families now treat beans like weekend luxury, not daily sustenance
- Beans, once the poor man’s protein, are now measured with caution and guilt.
Yet we are told prices have come down. This is not optimism.It is economic mockery.
TOMATOES: FROM BASKETS TO PIECES.
Yes, tomatoes were mentioned, and yes, the reality is uglier than satire.
Basket of tomatoes:
- 2022: ₦300–₦500
- 2024 peak: ₦10,000–₦15,000
- 2025 “reduced” price: ₦4,000–₦6,000, depending on location
A fall from ₦15,000 to ₦5,000 does not restore affordability when the same basket once cost ₦500. That is not relief. That is a slower bleeding rate.
Today:
- Mothers buy two tomatoes
- Pepper is bought one by one
- Soup is planned like a military operation
Calling this “prices have come down” is an insult to lived experience.
GARRI: THE POOR MAN’S INSURANCE POLICY HAS BEEN CANCELLED.
Garri, the last defence of the hungry, has not been spared.
50kg bag of garri:
- 2022: ₦8,000–₦10,000
- 2024 peak: ₦35,000–₦50,000
- 2025 “after reductions”: ₦20,000–₦30,000
Today:
- Garri is sold in half-cups
- Families dilute it with water and hope
- “Soaked garri” has become strategic nutrition
If this is a victory, then poverty has been rebranded as policy success.
INFLATION RATE: THE STATISTICAL TRAP.
We must dismantle the phrase “the inflation rate is down.”
Inflation coming down from catastrophic heights does not mean prices are coming down. It only means prices are rising more slowly.
Nigerians are suffering from price-level shock, not inflation speed.Food inflation remains structurally high.Disinflation ≠ affordability.Slower robbery does not mean restitution.
A man whose rent rose from ₦300,000 to ₦800,000 does not celebrate because it now rises to ₦820,000 instead of ₦1 million. Only statistical cruelty demands such applause.
ELECTRICITY: THE “LOWEST TARIFF” DECEPTION.
The claim of “lowest electricity tariffs in West Africa” collapses under scrutiny.
What matters is not tariff per kilowatt on paper, but:
- Hours of supply
- Reliability
- Hidden energy costs
Nigerians pay:
- Official tariff
- Generator purchase
- Fuel or diesel
- Maintenance
- Noise, fumes, and darkness
Electricity that exists only on policy slides but not in sockets is priced at infinity.
WHERE WORDS DIE.
Go to the market. A woman who once cooked with ₦1,500 now debates ₦7,000, #10,000 and #15,000 for a soup that would last beyond three days. Traders sell micro-portions. Families practise nutritional mathematics:
- Breakfast: imagination
- Lunch: postponement
- Dinner: prayer
Cars sit idle like abandoned monuments. Movement has become luxury; stillness is enforced by price. And somewhere, a tweet declares, “prices have gone down.”
APC’S GOVERNANCE MODEL: SHOCK WITHOUT RELIEF.
This economy runs on pain without protection, reforms without compassion, sacrifice without salvation. It punishes first, promises later, and forgets entirely. It treats citizens as shock absorbers for policy failure.
So again, the unavoidable question to APC celebrants:
What exactly should Nigerians celebrate?
- Hunger with hashtags?
- Poverty with propaganda?
- Salaries that die before payday?
- Meat becoming myth?
- Mobility becoming privilege?
If this is success, then failure has lost all meaning.
Reno, stop mocking the poor with fallacies. Nigerians are not ungrateful; they are hungry. Hunger does not clap for charts. It demands relief, not rhetoric; truth, not triumphalism. Stop injuring the ears of the masses with this mockery.
History will not remember praise-songs.It will remember empty kitchens, exhausted workers, abandoned dreams, and mocked intelligence.
Aare Amerijoye (DOT.B)
Director General,
The Narrative Force
