The special adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, claimed that the inflation rate has slightly decreased on a month-to-month basis and that citizens will soon feel the positive impact of this reduction. Onanuga made this statement during an interview with Television Continental (TVC) on Monday.
He asserted that, contrary to reports from most news outlets, food prices have been relatively dropping and will continue to decline across the country. Onanuga emphasized that President Tinubu is actively implementing measures to mitigate the pain of the federal government’s reforms for citizens.
“I read a report recently saying inflation has moved to a staggering 33.69%. How is it staggering? Last month in April, inflation was 33.4 something. Then it moved by a mere 0.26%,” Onanuga said. “In fact, from March to April, inflation slowed down. So things are improving. People will soon begin to feel the impact of all these reductions.”
Onanuga also mentioned a personal anecdote about receiving a call from his town, where someone informed him that the price of garri was decreasing. He stated, “Inflation is on a reduction level. And it’ll continue to go down.”
Additionally, Onanuga noted that President Tinubu is not responsible for most of the economic challenges in the country, stating that the president inherited many of these issues before assuming office. According to him, inflation was already above 23% before Tinubu became president.
The special adviser highlighted one of the measures introduced by the president: a loan scheme for students to help finance their tuition fees for higher education. “This government, when it came in May last year, inflation was at 23.65%. The movement from there till now is about 10.4%,” Onanuga said. “We already had some problems before this government came into office. We didn’t create all the problems. We inherited many of them. And this government is making so much effort to reduce these problems.”
He added, “One of those things that the government is doing is the introduction of a student loan scheme. Millions of students will benefit from this. This will also help the parents at home.”