Minister of Works and Housing Tunde Fashola on Friday said that the rising cost of living and economic hardship are not peculiar to Nigeria. Mr Fashola says the raging crisis in Nigeria can be likened to situations in other countries like the United States and the United Kingdom.

During an appearance on Channels TV’s ‘Politics Today’, the minister was confronted with a chart of economic indices showing a 220 percent increase in fertiliser prices between 2020 and 2022, the depreciation of the naira by 59.45 per cent and the rise in the price of cooking gas by 129 per cent within the same period, Mr Fashola says the statistics should not be published in isolation.

“I think it is perhaps not helpful to publish that spreadsheet in isolation. What you should do is to compare it with the rest of the world. Tell me anywhere in the world where the cost of living is not rising, whether it is UK, US,” Mr Fashola told the political magazine programme.

“Just three days ago, CNN was showing a footage of Americans stealing fuel and they would not be stealing fuel and they would not be stealing if it was cheap; these are very challenging times globally. So this is not an isolated occurrence that affects Nigeria only,” he added.

The minister’s comments come as Nigerians are witnessing increased hardship in several areas, especially fuel shortages and inflation. President Muhammadu Buhari rode to power in 2015 promising to tackle these issues, but analysts said little evidence exists to suggest anything could turn for the better in the remaining one year of the regime’s two terms.

Still, Mr Fashola said the administration is responding to the economic challenges inflicted by the global pandemic and the results are becoming visible.

“When Covid happened, we responded and put up an economic sustainability committee, and we cushioned the impact of the difficult times on Nigeria through a suite of measures. And the impact and result are now there for us to see,” the former Lagos governor said.