Nigeria’s Voodoo Inflation Figures

I have noticed that in the last 16 months, inflation data released by the National Bureau of Statistics no longer gel with realities on ground. These figures are evidently being manipulated by some powerful forces to deceive Nigerians and score cheap political goals. It is so difficult to understand how and where the NBC obtained the data indicating that inflation for May in our traumatised country dropped to 11.61% from 12.48% recorded in April, “marking the 16thconsecutive decline and suggesting sustained traction of economic recovery”. Nigerians were also told that food inflation dropped to 13.45% as against 14.80% in April. Haba! This is absurd. Somebody somewhere is playing politics with figures. Just visit any market around you and you will understand what I am talking about. Nigerians are still struggling with unending increase in the prices of food and vital commodities in the country. Prices of main foods such as yam, rice, b, garri, semovita, wheat, palm oil and vegetable oil are still on the rise. For example, a 50 kilogramme bag of rice is now between N15,000 and N16,500 depending on the brand as against N14,500 few weeks back.

Market research by Realnews reveals further that the price of 50kg bag of garri (white) is N7,000 as against N6,500 in April, while yellow garri is sold for N7,500 as against N6,500. It also found out that a gallon of red oil 25 litres was N9,000 compared to N8,500 in April. So, who is fooling who? NBS beware.