A former Special Adviser to ex-president Muhammadu Buhari on agriculture, Dolapo Bright, has said that President Bola Tinubu was misled by his advisers that the suspension of duties, tariffs, and taxes on the importation of food staples through land and sea borders would reduce inflation.

Bright made this statement on Sunday’s edition of Inside Sources with Laolu Akande, a socio-political programme aired on Channels Television.

The ex-aide said the surge in the cost of diesel and petrol which are essential to the transportation of food items, have grossly affected the prices of commodities.

A former Special Adviser to ex-president Muhammadu Buhari on agriculture, Dolapo Bright, has said that President Bola Tinubu was misled by his advisers that the suspension of duties, tariffs, and taxes on the importation of food staples through land and sea borders would reduce inflation.

Bright made this statement on Sunday’s edition of Inside Sources with Laolu Akande, a socio-political programme aired on Channels Television.

The ex-aide said the surge in the cost of diesel and petrol which are essential to the transportation of food items, have grossly affected the prices of commodities.

“I don’t think it happened. The person who advised the government to do that, the person is clueless, if you understand what is happening, you won’t give such advice.

“The person is misleading the president. Do you know why? Let’s assume that you are going to import. Importation is going to be into Lagos. Are you not going to transport the thing to other states? It doesn’t make sense because that is going to make our agriculture stagnant,” he said

Ekwutosblog reports that food and commodity inflation have skyrocketed as Nigerians battle what can pass for the worst cost of living crisis since the country’s independence over six decades ago.

Recall that when President Tinubu was sworn in as president in May 2023, Nigeria’s inflation rate was 22.41%, according to official numbers by the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS.

The inflation rate increased astronomically to 34.6% in November 2024, more than 12% higher, a development that economic wizards have attributed to Tinubu’s twin policies of petrol subsidy removal and unification of the forex rates.

Significantly, the food inflation rate in November 2024 was 39.93% on a year-on-year basis, from 32.84% recorded in November 2023.

The surge in food inflation has increased the average prices of fish, rice, yam flour, millet whole grain, corn flour, egg, milk, milk, frozen chicken, among others.

To stem food inflation, the Tinubu administration in July 2024 announced the suspension of customs duties on imported food items but the policy has reportedly not seen the light of the day due to bureaucratic bottlenecks.

According to Bright, who was Buhari’s aide on agriculture from 2015 to 2023, the government has been partly responsible for inflation because the administration is trying to sit on the driver’s side of agriculture instead of allowing the private sector to do so.

He further stated that farmers won’t necessarily need the government’s intervention if the right environment is set for them to make a decent profit.

“A lot of farmers are not producing the capacity they were producing before because of high input costs,” he said.

Recall that on December 23, 2024, during the president’s first chat, he said he has “lover 2,000 tractors coming into this country for mechanised farming to make farming easier.

However, Bright said tractors only won’t solve the food shortage problem in Nigeria.

He argued that using local labour would ensure job creation for locals and that over 80% of farmers in Nigeria are into subsistence farming.

The federal government has commenced the deployment of locally assembled Lanre Shittu Motors’ brand of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) buses for airport shuttle.

The first batch of the CNG-powered buses has been received at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos by officials of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), led by its Managing Director, Mrs Olubunmi Oluwaseun Kuku.

Oil marketers and other petroleum industry experts have forecast a reduction in petrol prices in 2025 to as much as N500/litre The resumption of operations of the Port Harcourt and Warri refineries will drive this anticipated crash in price They highlighted that a steady supply of petroleum products would encourage competition, leading to further price reductions

Petroleum product marketers and other stakeholders in Nigeria have projected a significant reduction in petrol prices by 2025. They highlighted that petrol, currently priced between N900 and N950 per litre at many filling stations, could drop to as low as N500 per litre during the year.

According to industry experts, this anticipated decline is attributed to the strengthening of the downstream sector, driven by the federal government’s deregulation policy.

Other factors contributing to the expected price reduction include a stable foreign exchange rate, increased price competition, the Naira-for-crude initiative, and the expected operations of the Port Harcourt, Warri, and Dangote refineries.

Stakeholders also noted that if these refineries supply the domestic market and accept payments in naira, it would further drive down petrol prices. Marketers share why fuel prices may reduce further The national publicity secretary of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Ukadike Chinedu, described the upcoming operations of the Port Harcourt and Warri refineries as transformative for the downstream sector.
In an interview with Saturday Sun, he emphasised that these refineries would foster healthy price competition, a trend already becoming evident. He noted that both the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd (NNPC) and Dangote have reduced petrol prices in recent weeks, highlighting the benefits of having multiple production sources rather than a monopoly. Ukadike expressed optimism that this development could drive petrol prices below N500 per litre by 2025 as more players enhance refining capacity. He also identified the federal government’s naira-for-crude policy as a critical factor in shaping petrol prices, predicting that it would curb inflation and ease pressure on foreign exchange.

The president of the Petroleum Products Retail Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN), Billy Gillis-Harry, expressed agreement with Ukadike’s views. He assured that the operational launch of the Port Harcourt and Warri refineries would result in more affordable fuel options for Nigerians.

Gillis-Harry emphasised that achieving lower petrol prices for consumers is a realistic prospect in 2025. Gillis-Harry said: ‘’As you can see, NNPC has reduced its ex-depot price from N1,045 per litre to N899 per litre for marketers, translating to N925 per litre at the pumps for the end users. This, I must say, is very commendable. These are not small drops, but massive drops from N1,045 to N899 ex- depot is a lot of drop.” He highlighted that a steady supply of petroleum products would encourage competition, leading to further price reductions in the coming year.

On his part, the publicity secretary of the Crude Oil Refiners Association of Nigeria (CORAN), Iche Idoko, stated that Nigerians would soon start experiencing the benefits of a deregulated market.

Idoko said: “Price drop is one of the characteristics of deregulation we had highlighted. As the industry settles in to the regime of full deregulation, we are bound to see competitions amongst players, which ultimately will benefit the consumers.”

He explained that competition would emerge in pricing, product quality, and credit facilities offered to bulk purchasers.

Marketers import 2.3bn litres of petrol In related news, Legit.ng reported that oil marketers have continued to import petrol into the country despite earlier agreements to patronise local refineries. Documents obtained from the Nigerian Ports Authority revealed that marketers have persisted in petrol importation. The data collected showed that imported petrol was docked at the Apapa Port, Tin Can Port and the Calabar Port.