Nigerians struggle with cost of living as election draws near

Lagos, Nigeria (AFP):

Like millions of fellow Nigerians, Rotimi Bankole says he wants to use Saturday’s presidential elections to push for a better life in his oil-rich but crisis-ridden country.

Double-digit inflation, weak economic growth and mounting insecurity are major issues for voters on February 25 when they choose a successor to incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari, due to step down after two terms allowed by law.

“Nigeria has been so difficult to cope and live in,” Bankole said. “Survival has been tough.”

For years, the 54-year-old struggled to take care of his family of five while doing two jobs.

Recently, he took on a third job — driving a taxi — but still that could only make an extra 5,000 naira ($11) — hardly enough in a country where cost of living has spiralled to record levels.

Africa’s largest economy and the continent’s top oil producer, Nigeria has resources and wealth, but the global pandemic and the economic fallout from the Ukraine war hit the country hard in Buhari’s last term.

Inflation is at 21.8 percent, the naira currency has weakened and the World Bank says more Nigerians are now living below the poverty line.

Moreover, the country has been hit with fuel shortages and also a scarcity of cash after the central bank began to swap old naira notes for new bills.

The shortage of cash has created lines outside banks and triggered protests in some cities, even as the central bank says the policy is needed to curb the amount of cash outside the banking system.

Bankole started driving a taxi two months ago, but the fuel and cash scarcity has compounded his misery.

He spends long hours on queues at petrol stations, paying as much as 330 naira for a litre as against 165 previously.

Even running his school has been tough as parents struggle to pay fees while his printing business is struggling.

“We cannot continue like this as a people,” he said.

Falling oil revenues, growing insecurity from criminal gangs, heavy flooding that hit farming land and impact of Ukraine war have combined to make things worse.

Nigeria’s unemployment rate is about 33 percent while the number of Nigerians living in poverty rose to 133 million or 63 percent of the population in 2022, according to the national statistics bureau.

Youth unemployment now stands at 43 percent, compared to 10 percent prior to Buhari’s first administration in 2015.

The naira currency has fallen from an average of 200 naira to a dollar in 2015, to around 750 on the parallel market.

Recently, Nigerian manufacturers warned they faced a production shortfall of 25 percent if petrol and cash shortages were not resolved soon.