The opposition party says easing headline inflation masks the growing pressure Nigerians face from higher food prices

The African Democratic Congress has criticised President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration over rising food prices, saying the government’s emphasis on easing headline inflation does not reflect the difficult economic reality facing millions of Nigerian households.

Also read: Nigeria’s inflation drops, yet the food crisis deepens

The opposition party made the criticism on Tuesday, August 18, 2026, after the National Bureau of Statistics reported that Nigeria’s headline inflation rate fell from 15.91 per cent in June to 15.43 per cent in July, while food inflation accelerated.

In a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, the ADC said the contrasting figures showed that Nigerians continued to face intense pressure when buying basic food items despite the moderation in overall inflation.

The party noted that food inflation rose to 20.31 per cent year-on-year in July, while month-on-month food inflation increased sharply from 3.75 per cent in June to 5.56 per cent in July.

“The government continues to stubbornly focus on this statistical indicator, while ignoring the more serious indicator, which confirms that staple foods are still beyond the reach of ordinary citizens,” the ADC said.

The ADC food inflation criticism centres on the argument that headline inflation, while important for measuring the broader movement of prices, does not necessarily capture the immediate pressure households experience when purchasing essential commodities.

The party said the divergence between headline and food inflation had widened the gap between official economic statistics and the lived experience of Nigerians struggling to meet basic needs.

It argued that the Tinubu administration should reassess its economic strategy rather than rely on declining headline inflation as evidence that conditions are improving.

“At some point, a responsible government must be willing to admit that it has reached the limits of its capacity and even its best approach has not yielded the desired results,” the party said.

The ADC added that it believed the government had “done its best within the limits of its chosen approach”, but accused the administration of failing to deliver sufficient relief to ordinary Nigerians.

It called for an honest assessment of the economic reforms and their impact on household purchasing power.

“Hunger cannot be wished away by numbers on paper,” the party said, urging the Federal Government to make food affordability a central measure of the success or failure of its economic policies.

The opposition party also linked the rising cost of food to wider concerns over food insecurity and malnutrition.

It cited an earlier Food and Agriculture Organisation report which it said indicated that about 35 million Nigerians were facing acute food insecurity.

The ADC questioned how the government could continue to claim economic progress while many households were struggling to afford basic staples.

“The Tinubu administration must answer a very simple question: If the government’s economic reforms are working, why are Nigerians still finding it increasingly difficult to afford food?” it asked.

The criticism comes as the Federal Government continues to defend the broader direction of its economic reforms, which have included changes to fuel subsidies, foreign exchange management and taxation.

While the reforms have been accompanied by significant economic adjustments and periods of elevated living costs, government officials have repeatedly pointed to improvements in macroeconomic indicators as evidence that the economy is gradually stabilising.

The latest NBS figures provide a mixed picture. Headline inflation slowed in July, while core inflation also moderated.

However, the acceleration in month-on-month food inflation suggests that the improvement in the overall inflation rate has not translated uniformly across household expenses.

The ADC used the figures to outline its proposed alternative approach to food security, saying it would treat access to affordable food as a national security issue.

Abdullahi said the party would seek to replace what it described as fragmented agricultural interventions with an integrated national food production and distribution strategy focused on the staples most widely consumed by Nigerians.

The proposed approach would also target the cost of agricultural production.

The party said farmers should receive targeted support to reduce the burden of fertiliser, seeds, machinery, diesel, transportation and financing, arguing that high production costs ultimately feed into the prices consumers pay.

“Farmers cannot produce affordable food when the cost of fertiliser, seeds, machinery, diesel, transportation and finance keeps rising,” the ADC said.

The party said reducing production costs would be preferable to relying predominantly on broad programmes whose benefits might not reach farmers directly.

Security, it added, would form another major component of its proposed food policy.

“There is little point providing farmers with inputs if insecurity prevents them from reaching their farms, harvesting their crops or transporting them to market,” the party said.

The position reflects a broader challenge confronting Nigeria’s agricultural sector, where insecurity in some farming communities has disrupted cultivation, restricted access to farmland and affected the movement of agricultural produce.

For the ADC, the latest inflation figures therefore present a powerful reminder that economic recovery cannot be judged solely by headline statistics.

The party said the ultimate test should be whether households can afford sufficient food and whether farmers can produce and move agricultural commodities at sustainable costs.

Also read: Nigeria inflation eases, food prices surge in July

Its criticism is likely to feed into the wider political debate ahead of the 2027 general elections, when the cost of living, food security and the impact of the Tinubu administration’s economic reforms are expected to remain major campaign issues.