Despite the marginal drop in the prices of some food items as being reported across the country, coupled with the various policies of the Federal Government which are intended to reduce hunger in the land, the reality on ground remains that millions of families are still having less food to eat due to lack of money and low purchasing power
By Lukmon Ojerinde
Mr and Mrs Warigbaku (not real names) live in Port Harcourt with their two children. Early this month, the couple had conspired to play a fast one on a Port Harcourt-based new generation clergyman, Apostle Chinyere Chibuzor. The firebrand Apostle is the Founder and General Overseer of the Omega Power Ministry (OPM), a popular Pentecostal church based in the Garden City.
The OPM Founder is also known for his philanthropic gestures to the members of the public which manifest in his giving succour to widows, rehabilitation of miscreants, award of scholarships to indigent students, as well as helping poor families to feed their children.
The Warigbakus have no guaranteed source of livelihood, so they plotted to compel Apostle Chinyere to add their two children to the list of over 500 children from poor families whom the OPM Founder is catering for their needs. To make good their intention, having been turned down previously by Apostle Chinyere, the couple chose to dump their children at the gate of the clergy with the hope that he would pick the children whenever he sighted them. It was said that the two parents were unable to feed themselves and the kids, and fearing that they might starve to death, they dumped their children for the Apostle.
However, instead of taking custody of the dumped children, Apostle Chinyere reported the matter to the police who identified the father of the children and brought him to the police station to take care of the kids.
In a post on the social media, Apostle Chinyere said, ”The father of the two children abandoned at my gate has appeared in the police station to claim his children”.
There are millions of such families as the Warigbakus presently in the country who do not have the purchasing power to buy food items to feed. These families wallow in hunger and malnutrition day in day out without any good Samaritan coming to their rescue, according to Tentacle’s investigation. This is despite the fact that in recent times the prices of many food items have reportedly dropped marginally.
Since early September, there has been a little drop in the prices of food items such as rice, beans, garri, onion, tomato, corn, yam among others. However, as the prices dropped, the low purchasing power of over 130 million citizens cannot allow them enjoy those food items.
Consequently, many of these families have no better alternative to the major staples than the Indomie Noodles which they now eat every now and then. But nutritionists have warned poor households to be careful about making Indomie Noodles their regular meal because it lacks the basic nutrients required for balanced meals.
According to Prof. Wasiu Afolabi, a nutritionist and former President of the Nutrition Society of Nigeria (NSN), what noodles provide for the body is mere instant energy because they are made from cereals. Prof. Afolabi said noodles are not recommended as an alternative to a good and balanced diet. Reliance on such foods, experts insist, can damage body cells and result in sicknesses especially in children.
Millions of Nigeria’s poor masses are plagued by lack of jobs, very low paying jobs, exorbitant electricity cost to run their petty businesses, as well as insecurity and high cost of transportation. These economic factors have made it impossible for the families to notice that the prices of many staples have dropped
Earlier in the month, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had given a directive to a Federal Executive Council Committee to crash further the prices of many food items in the country as a means to reduce the biting hunger in the land. It was the Minister of State (MoS) for Agriculture and Food Security, Sabi Abdullahi, who dropped the hint in Abuja last week when he presented a paper at a one-day capacity building workshop for journalists covering the Nigerian Senate. Abdullahi added that the presidential order would be enforced to further crash the prices of food items by ensuring the safe passage of the items through various routes across the country.
According to Abdullahi, “I can say it on good authority to you that the President has given a matching order to a Federal Executive Council Committee already handling it. On how we are going to promote the safe passage of agricultural foods and commodities across our various routes in the country, we are aware, and I’m sure, as media you are also aware there are routes through which commodities are taken before they are delivered. If you know the amount of money that is spent, you can now understand why those commodities have to be expensive at the point of delivery.
“So, we are working very hard and we are doing quite a lot. But I have just given you a snippet because I’m here, and I felt we should look at that”.
Again, the presidency has further assured Nigerians that the Federal Government was working towards making sure that the inflation rate would be reduced to a single digit which would translate to better living conditions for the citizens. The Special Adviser to President Tinubu on Economic Matters, Tope Fasua disclosed this on Tuesday, September 16, 2025 during an interview on Channels Television’s “The Morning Brief”. Fasua stressed that the recent drop in the inflation rate has already begun to impact positively on the prices of many food items as the prices have begun to drop.
The presidential aide’s assurance came on the heels of the headline inflation data released recently by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) which said that the inflation rate had eased to 20.12 percent in August 2025 when compared with the July 2025 inflation rate of 21.88 percent.
Amid the Federal Government measures to reduce inflation, as well as the presidency’s statistics, the reality on ground is that the poorest of the poor in the streets of the country are not getting the positive impacts, most poor citizens cannot afford to buy food items for their families. The situation has attracted vicious criticism for the government from across the country. For example, on the issue of inflation rate to be reduced to a single digit, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has pooh poohed on the claim, labelling it a deceitful claim to hoodwink the already impoverished masses.
The Deputy National Youth Leader of the main opposition party, Timothy Osadolor, said the claim was deceitful, misleading and unrealistic given the dire economic situation in the land. According to him, for an economy to grow government must address fundamental issues of unreliable power supply, mass unemployment and volatile exchange rate.
”Common sense tells us that for an economy to grow there must be production. Common sense tells us that for an economy to grow, there must be power to power the industries. Common sense tells us that for an economy to grow, for inflation rate to go down, there must be job creation. Common sense tells us that for an economy to grow, there must be job security and there must be net stability”, Osadolor said.
For Eze Onyekpere, the Executive Director of the Centre for Social Justice, reducing the inflation rate to a single digit under the prevailing economic situation will only amount to deliberate manipulation of statistical figures.
The National President of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Kabir Ibrahim, argued that even though prices of some commodities have dropped, the purchasing power of families and individuals was still low that they are unable to afford the food items. ”Things have come down, some prices are reducing, but the purchasing power of individuals is still very low. So, we’re still in severe pain of affording these food items. We’re still between the devil and the deep blue sea, incomes are stagnant. Whatever government is doing, let them do it but make sure that they prioritize food. Citizens are not gainfully employed, they are working out their ass to barely survive”.
Experts have called on the Federal Government to deemphasize its statistics on poverty reduction which are not adding value to the lives of the poor masses. Instead, they have advised the government to focus more on job creation and safety nets that can put money in the pockets of individuals. Otherwise, these experts won, the government will continue to face the backlash against its economic policies which positive results are not felt by the average citizen.
