“EGGS AT TEN THOUSAND?” – ONANUGA BLAMES MIDDLEMEN, NOT TINUBU, FOR HUNGER WAVE

As anger boils over across Nigeria’s streets over rising food prices, Presidential Adviser Bayo Onanuga has offered a fresh explanation — and it’s not what many expected.

In a candid interview with Daily Trust, the Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy shifted the spotlight from the government to middlemen, retailers, and price speculators.

“One of the biggest reasons food is so expensive today is the chain of profiteers in the middle,” Onanuga said. “They buy at modest rates from farmers and then flip the prices outrageously in the cities.”

To drive his point home, he recalled a jarring experience during a recent trip to Lagos.

“I bought a crate of eggs without asking the price. When they said it was N10,000, I was shocked! My driver wasn’t even sure if that was normal. Later, I bought the same crate in Maitama, Abuja for just N6,000. That Lagos store fleeced me,” he fumed.

Onanuga didn’t stop there. He took aim at another villain in Nigeria’s inflation saga: the dollar — or more precisely, the opportunists using forex as a cover for price hikes.

“It’s become a trend — once the naira weakens, even locally made items with zero import links suddenly cost more.

Someone hears that the dollar is N1500 and immediately inflates their prices. It’s artificial inflation, and it’s hurting the poor.”

Despite the frustration, Onanuga insisted that the federal government is not idle. He pointed to recent data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) indicating a slight dip in food inflation over the past two months, which he described as a sign that relief measures may be starting to work.

“We are focusing on where it hurts the most — food and medicine. That’s where the intervention is.”

But for many Nigerians, the pain at the market stalls is still very real — and explanations, no matter how rational, may not be enough.