He's just a yapper
Tinubu’s plan to reduce food prices in Nigeria just hit another roadblock
Good morning, Big Brains. Is this a safe space? I literally have nothing to say, I just wanted to use that line. I wouldn’t want to yap your ears off because your president is already doing a great job at that.
- Margaret
Word count: ~1000
Reading time ~ 3 mins
Let’s get into today’s edition:
Tinubu has ghosted hungry Nigerians again
7 national grid collapses, 1000 to go…
Egypt is free from the shackles of malaria
The Big Deal
Tinubu has ghosted hungry Nigerians again
Nigerians love to talk, so the universe sent us a president who enjoys yapping more than doing the actual work. In July, the Tinubu-led administration announced a temporary removal of food taxes for 150 days. The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari, even went as far as promising to “swiftly and diligently” make sure that the policy takes effect because President Tinubu doesn’t want Nigerians going to bed hungry. That promise didn’t age well because over 41.8 million Nigerians are now going to bed hungry. After months of all talk and no action, the policy seems to have hit its worst roadblock yet.
Lucky Amiwero, the President of the National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents (NCMDLCA), is claiming to be just as tired as we are about the mess surrounding the policy. According to him, the lack of coordination among government agencies is the main reason for the holdup.
Lucky said his organisation has tried following up to know when the policy would start, but the government has been ghosting. If you ask him, Lucky thinks it’s pointless to keep asking the government about a policy they don’t seem ready to implement.
Why is this a big deal?
The purchasing power of Nigerians is reducing faster than anyone can say jack these days and food prices are on the rise. Unfortunately, some Nigerians were genuinely looking forward to how this policy was going to reduce the price of food.
Experts at Afrinvest Research are not holding their breaths when it comes to this policy though. This is because they’re not convinced that it would have reduced food prices as promised. “What do they mean? - even if the import duties are removed, issues like rising exchange rates and poor farming infrastructure could still stop these prices from going down.
Inflation, which has been rising since President Bola Tinubu took office in May 2023, is also another blocker that could make the policy ineffective. Even though Nigeria recorded a small drop in inflation between July and August, food prices started rising again in September, showing that the solution to Nigeria’s food problem goes beyond taxes.
This isn’t what any Nigerian wants to hear but we’re back to ground zero when it comes to the possibility of food prices crashing. Unfortunately, nothing’s going to change till T-pain goes back to the drawing board or starts walking the talk.
7 national grid collapses, 1000 to go…
Sule Abdulaziz is a name you should probably keep in mind if you plan on calling someone out the next time the national grid collapses. Sule is the big boss at the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) and the go-to guy for everything electricity. Here’s his hot news for you – the national grid is just another bad day away from falling.
The TCN’s boss says he’s sorry for all you’ve had to go through due to the disruptions in the past couple of days but he also wants you to know this is a problem you might have to get used to for the next 5 years because the power equipments in Nigeria are older than Nigerian millennials and Gen Z.
In his words, “The transmission system needs a lot of investment and for so many years in this country that sector has been neglected, Most of the equipment we use is 50 years or 40 years [old]. So it is not possible for those infrastructures to work perfectly.”
The TCN has plans to improve transmission lines, but that’s on hold because the government “might not have enough money.” Currently, Nigeria’s power grid mostly relies on just one transmission line, which is why we've had 7 blackouts in a year. Now, TCN is on the hunt for private investors to fund more transmission lines. So, if you're fed up with blackouts, keep your fingers crossed that they’d find help soon.
But there’s a temporary solution…
Good grids come to those who wait — thanks to funding provided by the World Bank, the Nigerian government has started working on a backup system to prevent nationwide blackouts whenever the main grid collapses. The only con of this backup plan is that it’s about 70% done and won’t be ready until two years from now. Sule also mentioned that the project won’t completely eliminate grid disturbances, but will only reduce them. So even though this project isn’t going to be completed until the next two years, at least we can look forward to Nigeria with better power supply.
Egypt is free from the shackles of malaria
Malaria has become such a big part of the average Nigerian’s life that the possibility of an African country being declared malaria-free has probably never occurred to you.
Egyptians, on the other hand, can no longer relate to this problem because the country has officially been declared malaria-free by the World Health Organization (WHO). According to WHO chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, malaria has been part of Egypt’s history for about 100 years, but won’t be going with it to the future as long as the government of the country keeps policies in place to maintain its malaria-free status.
WHO gives this title to countries that have had zero malaria transmission for at least three years in a row. As far as Egypt is concerned, this stubborn disease, which still kills over 600,000 people yearly (mostly in Africa), is no longer a threat it has to worry about.
This is a big “God when” moment for Nigeria because we currently have the highest number of malaria cases in the world, making up about 27% of malaria cases recorded globally.
This Week’s Big Question
“What’s the first thing you’re buying on salary day?”
Bode’s response - “Salary that has finished. Don’t piss me off please”
You can also share your response here and if it’s as interesting as Bode’s response, we’ll feature it in the next edition.
The Big Picks
Daily petrol consumption crashes by 92% under Tinubu: Nigeria's daily use of petrol (PMS) has sharply reduced within one year of President Bola Tinubu taking office on May 29, 2023.
About Bobrisky’s Latest Arrest and Investigation Results A Federal Government panel set up to investigate bribery claims involving popular crossdresser Idris Okuneye, known as Bobrisky, revealed that while he served his six-month jail term, he was given special privileges.
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