President Bola Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Economic Affairs, Dr Tope Fasua, has addressed the controversy around the value of the naira and poverty in Nigeria, clarifying some of his earlier remarks.
PUNCH Online reported on Sunday that Fasua defended the value of the naira locally despite its weakness against the dollar, saying that $1, equivalent to over N1,500, can still buy a meal in Nigeria unlike in the United States.
In an interview on Arise TV on Tuesday, Fasua stated that he is not denying the existence of poverty in the country but emphasised that 1,500 Naira (around $1) can still feed a person in certain parts of Nigeria.
He said, “As against those that have been misquoting and sensationalizing, nobody is saying that there’s no poverty in Nigeria. In fact, luckily for me, I got people sending videos from Lagos to Maiduguri, showing that they actually ate for 1,500 yesterday.
“If you’re earning minimum wage and you’re struggling in life, you know, you have to make choices like that.”
He further shared his personal experience from a visit to a restaurant in Lekki, Lagos, where he found that N2,500 could buy a meal.
“I was somewhere in Lekki yesterday, precisely Black Bell. I saw that someone could eat for N2,500. N2,500, even in Lekki Face 1. I mean, I didn’t know where to go. Someone just took me there because I had another interview,” he said.
While acknowledging the reality many Nigerians face, Fasua noted that his comments were not intended to mock the challenges faced by those living in poverty.
He said, “So, yes, people can’t afford that, I agree. But I think that empirically speaking, my statement was correct. I said something, I said 1,500 is a lot of money to a lot of Nigerians.
“And that’s because I acknowledge the fact that a lot of people are down on their luck and poor. So, saying N1,500 is a lot of money is not a mockery of those who see that as a lot.
“If you are leaving this place now and you gave the security guy 1,000, he will appreciate you. He will have a meal on that. I’m saying that a lot of Nigerians are in that category.”
In his remarks, Fasua pointed to the issue of economic inequality in Nigeria, emphasising the need for both the private and public sectors to take action.
He also discussed the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, suggesting that the economic repercussions of the global health crisis may take decades to fully recover from.
“My reason for shooting on this is to say, that the private sector and even the government sector must be put under pressure to understand that this inequality is increasing as against what it was before.
“But we can’t rest on our oars. We know there’s a problem already because post-COVID and, you know, when something as cataclysmic as COVID happens, sometimes it takes 10, 20 years for you to come back to.
“We’re hoping that President Trump’s experimental governance this time around will not set us back even further.”
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