By Lekan Sote
After delivering a devastating report on the cost of healthy diet of the average Nigerian, the National Bureau of Statistics added that average Nigerians would be spending 54.9 per cent of their income on food in the next six months. They can’t even consider big budget items like automobiles, houses and home appliances.
Bismarck Rewane, Managing Director of Financial Derivatives Company Limited, notes that despite claims that Nigeria’s tax-to-Gross Domestic Product rose from four per cent to nine per cent, there are no noticeable improvements in the well-being of Nigerians, “well-being,” the state of comfort or improvement in the life of Nigerians.
If the NBS is correct in stating that CoHD, which measures physical and economic access to healthy diets, excluding costs of transportation, energy and all else necessary for cooking, is the least expensive combination of locally available food items that meet globally consistent food-based dietary guidelines, it means Nigerians “ti wo gau,” Nigerians are in serious trouble.
The NBS reported that the average daily cost of a healthy meal in Nigeria rose from N858 in January 2024, by roughly nearly 50 per cent, to N1,265 in July 2024; though the report added that general food inflation, which is about 50 per cent of headline inflation, dropped, by a grudging 1.34 per cent, from 40.87 per cent to 39.53 per cent. Headline inflation too dropped from 34.19 per cent in June to 33.40 per cent.
The report further indicated that when weighted by geopolitical zones, South-West Nigeria led the dismal pack with N1,581 average daily cost of healthy diet, followed by South-South Nigeria, with N1,487. North-West Nigeria had the lowest, N956.
The report went into the details of the daily average cost of food categories, stating that body-building animal proteins, accounted for 36 per cent of the costs, followed by fruits and vegetables that are highly recommended by nutritionists, accounting for seven per cent. Oil and fats accounted for six per cent, while fibres, made up of legumes, nuts and seeds, accounted for five per cent.
The reduction of access to foods through the recent price hikes also compromised the campaign by doctors who advocate that patients reduce or eliminate meat and dairy food, and concentrate on vegetables and high nutrient plants to achieve inexpensive reversal of diseases.
If you consider ‘affordability of essential medicines in Nigeria,” a report compiled by BMC Services Research, that states that more than 60 per cent of Nigerians have begun to opt for alternative medicine because they cannot afford essential medicines, you will get the idea of where things are going. Out-of-pocket expenses of the average family rose between 35 and 40 per cent.
The World Bank Report, “Healthcare Cost in Nigeria: Trends and Impact” did not also help matters. Its revelation that the cost of essential drugs rose by 50 per cent between 2020 and 2023, the COVID-19 pandemic years, will make you appreciate the level of danger that the average Nigerian has gotten into.
The price of antibiotics, like Amoxicillin, rose by 60 per cent, drugs for hypertension rose by as much as 70 per cent, insulin, used by diabetic patients, oscillated, like a seesaw gone out of control, by a range of 30 per cent to 80 per cent. Regular anti-malarial drugs rose by more than 50 per cent.
The problem caused by expensive drugs is compounded by inadequate, Ill-equipped and understaffed healthcare facilities that former military Head of State Muhammadu Buhari once derisively described as “mere consulting clinics.”
If Nigerians cannot feed on healthy meals per day and cannot afford to buy their drugs, one is justified to ask if Nigerians will not all become extinct very soon, even though population figures reveal that more than 70 per cent of Nigeria’s population is below age 30, the period considered by experts to be the healthiest years in the life of a human being.
But this below-30 demography will become the most vulnerable when it lacks, or has little access to, food and medication. When you think of the concept of “child poverty” and those kids, strewn all over Nigeria, without homes, assurances of nutritious meals and no thought of medicines, you get a good idea of the level of vulnerability of the youngest Nigerians.
No one is sure how Tunji Bello, Executive Vice Chairman of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, intends to remedy this pricing problem and compel traders to crash the prices of consumer goods and services. But if he is able to achieve that, it should improve the well-being of Nigerians.
At a meeting he held with stakeholders, whose nature of trades was not exactly disclosed, he read the riot act of sorts, that “under Section 155 (possibly of the Act setting up FCCPA)) violators, whether individuals or corporate entities, face severe penalties, including substantial fines and imprisonment, if found guilty… (of) such illicit activities.”
He cited the case of a brand of fruit blender that sells for roughly N140,000 in a shop in America’s state of Texas, but sells for N944,000, or nearly N1 million, at a supermarket in Victoria Island, Lagos. One would have thought he should be talking about foodstuffs and medicines that affect the well-being of all Nigerians, instead of a luxury item used by only the over-paid and underworked elite.
But some of the stakeholders at the engagement argue that the cost of transportation, caused by the government’s removal of fuel subsidy; insecurity, caused by the government’s failure to provide security; multiple taxation, also caused by the government that leaves its revenue cash-cow petroleum resources in the hands of “bunkers,” led to high prices of goods and services. They left out the policy that allows the naira to freefall in the name of finding its own level.
Director of Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprises, and a former Director General of Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Dr Muda Yusuf, has just reminded Tunji Bello that the FCCPC is not a price control agency, and that he should focus on the FCCPC mandate of protecting consumers’ rights.
He points Mr Bello back to the “fiscal and monetary authorities” (of the government that Bello serves) as being responsible for (the) macroeconomic policies (that are used to run the economy) and are better placed to deal with the challenge of high prices.”
So that Bello does not become a carpenter doing a plumber’s job, he needs to revisit the price control mechanism that monitored prices, and the National Supply Company that supplied “essential commodities,” basic processed foodstuffs and toiletries, to Nigerian citizens under the government of Buhari.
Poor feeding and inadequate medication caused by high prices will naturally lead to an unhealthy labour force that will be weighed down with a high rate of absenteeism, low productivity and even low-quality production at work.
In “Unsafe at Any Speed,’ a scathing critique of America’s automobile industry, Ralph Nader narrates how irresponsibly inebriated workers who have a problem concentrating on their jobs produce automobiles that are disasters waiting to happen when their ultimate buyers begin to drive them.
It is better left to your imagination the level of production danger that starving and sick workers can put themselves, their companies and the national economy into, as they fumble on the factory floors of Nigeria Inc.
