₦airaland Forum

Tope Fasua, an economist and special adviser to the president on economic affairs, has accused Nigerians of hiking prices of goods and services and causing inflation to make President Bola Tinubu’s government look bad.

In a Facebook post on Monday, Mr Fasua argued that Nigeria’s inflation orchestrated by citizens to portray the government in bad light.

“I’ve been hammering on this for the past three months because I know Nigerians. Inflation peaked at 34.8 per cent because everybody has hiked prices of everything,” Mr Fasua said.

He added, “I kept insisting back in the day that our inflation was driven by other forces different from orthodoxy…things that Adam Smith and the classical may not have imagined. Prices were increased based on whims. Sometimes increased because it will make the government look bad.”

Mr Fasua made this statement reacting to a social media post that an AP Petrol station at Maitama, Abuja, still pays its pump attendants N10,000 per month despite economic hardship.

Condemning entrepreneurs who have not reviewed their staff salaries despite minimum wage review, Mr Fasua said, “No so-called entrepreneur should be paying any staff at the same level as 2 years ago simply because they cannot protest or have no voice in social media. More of these situations should be pointed out wherever they exist please.”

In the past two years, Mr Tinubu’s dual policies of fuel subsidy removal and exchange rate unification have led to a significant increase in fuel prices, from N145 to over N1,000 and later to about N900, while the naira has collapsed from about N700 to a dollar to over N1,600 to a dollar.

Similarly, food prices, transportation, and living costs have risen astronomically due to Mr Tinubu’s economic policies.

With inflation at 24 per cent, a drop from 34 per cent after rebasing the economy under Mr Tinubu, Nigeria recorded the largest increase in acute food insecurity globally in 2024, according to the 2025 Global Report on Food Crises published by the Global Network Against Food Crises in collaboration with the Food Security Information Network and UNICEF.

The International Monetary Fund reported that poverty and food insecurity remained high under Mr Tinubu, while the World Bank’s Africa Pulse report of April 2025 also stated that Nigeria, under Mr Tinubu, has the highest number of extremely poor people globally, warning that more Nigerians will be plunged into poverty by 2027.

iwaeda:
Tope's first class degree needs questioning. He forget the law of supply and demand. Nobody is hiking price, but the man that took fuel from N156 to N850 in a day with subsidy is gone.

iwaeda:
Tope's first class degree needs questioning. He forget the law of supply and demand. Nobody is hiking price, but the man that took fuel from N156 to N850 in a day with subsidy is gone.

Babalegba:
Nigerias own case has nothing to do with supply and demand but price fixing, associations rules, wickedness blackmail and economic illiteracy.
Tinubu is a terrible leader but Nigerians dug a pit of despair for themselves with their greed and lack of empathy.

ElSudani:
Actually, the hiking has nothing to do with Tinubu. Nigerians will use any opportunity to hike prices. Returning to your base after Christmas becomes a problem because commercial drivers will increase fare.
War in Iraq and garri sellers will increase prices, this is just the way it works in Nigeria.
They didn't do it to make Tinubu look bad.

Brendaniel:

People just hated Tinubu after he was sworn in and started hiking price, just like how people just loved Yaradua and started lowering price after he was sworn in?

Continue deceiving yourself

ElSudani:
Right, and what about those periods when neither Tinubu nor Yar'Adua was president? Prices were never hiked?

Brendaniel:
Hiked and the leaders were blamed, so why should Tinubu be exempted ?

ElSudani:
Agreed and that is why I said it wasn't about Tinubu specifically.
This happens all the time whenever there's an opportunity to do so.

Brendaniel:
It is about Tinubu, because if prices go up and down according to the leadership that came on board then how is that the fault of the people?

Brendaniel:
So they just started having greed, lack of empathy and wickedness after Tinubu was sworn in abi then greed , lack of empathy and wickedness left them after Yaradua was sworn in 2007 abi ?

Keep deceiving yourself

Babalegba:
Tinubu gave them an excuse to bring out their worst character.
Tinubus so called reforms brought price shocks which the traders exploited not knowing that it would not benefit anybody in the long run

Brendaniel:
So no other president's has ever brought price shocks to Nigeria since 1960?

Babalegba:
I can't think of any Nigerian president incompetent enough to do something of this magnitude.
Many of the presidents had price control and marketing boards but tinubu is very inept and made no attempt to stabilize prices. He even lost when he removed the oil subsidy, oil is priced in dollars and was 700 when subsidy was removed. It then shot up to 1500 and he ended up owing nnpc trillions of naira.
The man is an unmitigated disaster but Nigerian traders exacerbated the problem.

surgical:
A very brilliant economist, graduated with 2:1 at the top of his class, became a chartered accountant on first attempt having graduated with a degree in economics, flew high as a banker,before venturing into private business
One is surprised at what he has turned to
Very disappointing

Brendaniel:
The value of the naira caused them to jack up prices like that, let me just give a brief explanation:

A trader used to sell live chicken at 3k, before his profit was say 1k which means everything that costed him to raise the chicken was 2k, now hyper inflation happened and everything that costs him to raise the same chicken is now 20k.

How much do you think he will add to get the same value of profit he was making before to match the purchasing power of other goods and the services in the same hyperinflated economy?

The answer is 10k, so you see why it is not entirely their fault, the purchasing power of the naira has dropped...

Babalegba:
Your explanation is a textbook one which is irrelevant and meaningless in the Nigerian context. Water leaf vegetable was sold at 20 naira per portion before subsidy removal,it's now 100 naira. Did God remove the subsidy on the rain or what.Before you say transportation,ask yourself if the transportation cost is for a tiny portion or for the whole merchandise. The same applies to many goods and services.
I was at justrite supermarket
and and saw a small tin of nescafe coffee made by Nestle in Nigeria for over 5k, beside it is a similar sized coffee tin made in India for 1250 naira despite the high exchange rate and freight costs. Is that not magic.
Nigerians are responsible for more than half of their problems

surgical:
Wao, Tope really fall hand
He knows the truth but because he still wants to be in the corridors of power, he has to talk nonsense, just like the opposition decamping to keep their position, every one is just trying to align and show loyalty
Even the government he is supporting has increased all prices of public goods, even recently effective June, the JTB has increased prices of drivers licence and vehicle licences
Why did government not leave its own prices at pre Tinubu level to show example
A government that increased school fees astronomically, Increased price of fuel beyond comprehension, increased electricity tariff to a level never seen before, port charges,taxes etc, is now saying people that have these goods as factors of production should not increase prices
What type of hypocrisy is that

FuglyGurl:
https://gazettengr.com/inflation-tinubus-aide-tope-fasua-blames-nigerians-for-hiking-prices-to-make-govt-look-bad/