Presidential spokesperson Bayo Onanuga has urged Nigerians to take matters into their own hands and start gardening to grow their own food, rather than complaining about food inflation under President Bola Tinubu’s administration.
In a post on his X account on Sunday, Mr Onanuga shared a photo of a man holding a small blue plastic basket containing potatoes to illustrate the harvest from his home garden.
“I harvested some potatoes today in the garden beside my house in Lekki-Ajah,” Mr Onanuga said. “Grow some food; your little effort can help reduce food costs. Do something, not just tweet criticism of the government.”
The tweet has received hundreds of retweets, with many Nigerians dismissing it as an impractical or overly simplistic solution to the country’s food crisis.
Mr Onanuga’s tweet echoes a similar message from First Lady Oluremi Tinubu, who recently posted a photo of herself planting vegetables in a garden, encouraging Nigerians to follow her example.
Since President Tinubu assumed office in May 2023, inflation has risen by more than 34 per cent, and multiple market surveys by the Peoples Gazette have shown that food prices have increased by over 100 per cent.
Amid soaring food prices, over 65 people were trampled to death due to stampedes in rice-sharing venues at Ibadan, Anambra and Abuja this December.
In August, Nigerians took to the streets in protests against the rising cost of living, which many attributed to the Tinubu-led administration’s fuel subsidy removal and the unification of the exchange rate.
These policies have led to fuel prices soaring from N145 to over N1,000 per litre, while the naira now trades at around N1,700 to the dollar.