NOA DG urges Nigerians to develop survival strategies amid hardship

The Director-General of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Lanre Issa-Onilu, has advised Nigerians to devise means of coping with the economic challenges resulting from the removal of the petrol subsidy by the President Bola Tinubu administration.

Issa-Onilu made this call during his interview on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily breakfast show on Wednesday.

Issa-Onilu, a former spokesman for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), warned that reinstating the subsidy would worsen poverty, contradicting the #EndBadGovernance protesters’ demands.

“Anybody who is making a demand that subsidy removal should be brought back is making an emotional demand, not an economic demand, because you have to also prove that if it is brought back, it will solve the issue of poverty; it will not, it will aggravate it,” Issa-Onilu said.

He added that there is a need for Nigerians to focus on survival strategies rather than seeking a return to the subsidy regime, saying, “So, what we should be doing is: How do we survive in spite of the removal? We need to promote all the efforts of this government to ensure that we survive without that subsidy.”

Issa-Onilu also admitted the trust deficit between leaders and citizens due to past unfulfilled promises, and he stressed the importance of proving the current government’s commitment to keeping its promises.

He said, “It is difficult to talk to people who have for several years been let down. Nigerians feel let down.

The first question they ask you is: ‘Is this another promise that will not be kept?’ So, we must prove to Nigerians that this government is keeping to its promises.”

In June 2024, the headline inflation rate increased to 34.19% relative to the May 2024 headline inflation rate, which was 33.95%.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the June 2024 headline inflation rate showed an increase of 0.24 percentage points when compared to the May 2024 headline inflation rate.

On a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 11.40 percentage points higher compared to the rate recorded in June 2023, which was 22.79%. This shows that the headline inflation rate (on a year-on-year basis) increased in the month of June 2024 when compared to the same month in the preceding year (i.e., June 2023).

Furthermore, on a month-on-month basis, the headline inflation rate in June 2024 was 2.31%, which was 0.17 percentage points higher than the rate recorded in May 2024 (2.14%). This means that in the month of June 2024, the rate of increase in the average price level is higher than the rate of increase in the average price level in May 2024.

Since last week, thousands of people have protested against government policies and high living costs.

In a televised address, Tinubu urged the demonstrators “to suspend any further protest and create room for dialogue,” his first public comments on the rallies since they started on Thursday.

He defended his administration’s controversial decision to remove fuel subsidies and overhaul the foreign exchange system, decisions that have led to a hike in food prices and widespread hunger.

Tinubu has argued that the reforms will improve the economy in the long term; however, Nigerians on August 1 began a protest across Africa’s most populous country to show their anger over worsening conditions of living and rising hunger.