By Casmir Igbokwe

President Bola Tinubu was in Lagos recently. For most Nigerians, the point for discussion was not the projects he came to commission, but the large convoy of exotic vehicles that moved around with him. People shared the video of the convoy and wondered why the President chose to display opulence in the face of utter misery and squalor that have imprisoned the vast majority of his citizens for long.

The other day, there was a report that President Tinubu, Vice-President Kashim Shettima and First Lady, Mrs Remi Tinubu, spent N8.64 billion on travel expenses between June 2023 and March 2024. According to a report in The Punch, this expenditure did not include estacodes of the President’s entourage. The President was also said to have got N650 million as honorarium. Within the same period, the government reportedly spent N12.59 billion on maintenance of the presidential fleet….

As the government continues to waste money, the majority of the citizens continue to groan under the weight of the hardship in the country. Even if N60,000 is paid as minimum wage, it will still not buy a bag of rice in Nigeria today. There is practically no essential commodity whose price has not quadrupled in the last one year. Many families can’t buy food items in bags anymore. Even buying in the one we call ‘painter’ is no longer feasible for many breadwinners. A ‘painter’ of garri is about N4,000. In December 2023, it was about N1,500. A ‘painter’ of beans is about N9,000. A few months ago, it was about N3,000. A ‘painter’ of rice is about N8,000. This is more than the price of a bag of 50kg of this commodity in 2015. Do we talk of tomatoes, pepper, and many other food items?