Atiku Says Nigerians Can Barely Afford to Live and Are Not Safe Either: Tinubu Says “Prosperity”, Egg Says “N261”

There are two types of people in Nigeria today. Those who say the economy is improving, and those who have recently bought an egg.

Atiku Abubakar, the ADC candidate, has once again taken on President Tinubu over the cost of living and insecurity. In his Independence Day statement, he asked: “Bola, where is this prosperity?” Directly. By first name. The man has gone to the Villa gate and shouted, “Open the door, I know you are inside.”

And he came with numbers, which is dangerous in Nigeria because numbers do not take sides. He says that in April 2023 a ₦30,000 minimum wage bought about 118 litres of petrol, and today a ₦70,000 wage buys about 50 litres. In other words, the salary more than doubled, and the petrol still got away. That is like going to the market with more money and returning with less shopping, and your wife asking, “Where is the rest?”

Then he went to the kitchen. An egg, he says, was about ₦88 in April 2023 and about ₦261 by May 2026. Bread: a sliced loaf of ₦500 is now a smaller loaf costing around ₦2,000. A smaller loaf! Even bread has gone on a diet and charged us for the gym. When your breakfast needs a budget meeting, something has gone wrong.

My favourite part was the description of families skipping meals, delaying treatment and borrowing to survive until payday. Payday in Nigeria is now a public holiday that lasts about two hours. Salary comes in at 9 a.m., and by 9:15 it has been shared among the landlord, the bank, the generator and the pastor.

On insecurity, Atiku said families dread the phone call asking for ransom for someone they love. That is the truth, my friend. In this country, an unknown number calling at night is no longer a wrong number. It is an emergency. Farmers fear for their fields, and parents fear for their children in school. A government that cannot make life affordable and cannot protect life, he says, has failed. A strong line. The sort you use when you are angry and well prepared.

Now let us be fair. This is a man who has run for president eight times, and Shettima has already reminded us that he is no Abraham Lincoln. So when Atiku says “where is the prosperity?”, the APC will ask “where was it when you were Vice President?” Everyone will have a very beautiful argument, and the egg will still cost ₦261.

His solution is a capped production subsidy for locally refined fuel, with audits. We will wait for the details, the way we wait for everything.

The real winner is the man selling eggs. He has never been more respected. Nobody argues with him. They just pay, and quietly.