The opposition party questioned the government’s economic claims, asking why Nigerians continued to struggle to afford basic food items if its reforms were yielding the desired results.

“At some point, a responsible government must be willing to admit that it has reached the limits of its capacity and even its best approach has not yielded the desired results,” ADC said.

The party added that the ADC believed food security should be treated as a national security priority.

The party outlined a five-point approach it said would form part of its strategy to tackle food insecurity if elected into government.

First, it said it would replace scattered agricultural interventions with an integrated national food production and distribution strategy focused on the staple foods most consumed by Nigerians.

Second, the party said it would reduce the cost of agricultural production by addressing the rising prices of fertiliser, seeds, machinery, diesel, transportation and agricultural finance through targeted interventions.

Third, it said the safety of farmers and farm settlements would be prioritised, arguing that farmers could not increase food production if insecurity prevented them from accessing their farms, harvesting crops or transporting produce to markets.

Fourth, the ADC said it would tackle the high cost of transporting food from farms to consumers by addressing poor roads, insecurity, transportation costs and multiple levies.

Fifth, it proposed the establishment of a transparent national food reserve and strategic buffer system that could release essential commodities into the market during periods of sharp price increases while purchasing from farmers when prices collapse.

The party said such a mechanism would protect both consumers and farmers from extreme price fluctuations.

“The Tinubu administration may point to falling headline inflation as evidence that its reforms are working. But Nigerians are entitled to look at a different number: the price of food.

“The responsibility of government is not to explain that contradiction away. It is to fix it,” ADC said.

The party declared that reducing the cost of living and ensuring that Nigerians could afford basic food remained among its priorities.

The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has criticised the Federal Government over the continued rise in food prices, accusing the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of failing to address the worsening cost-of-living crisis.

The party said the latest inflation figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed that while headline inflation moderated marginally, food inflation continued to rise, placing greater pressure on ordinary Nigerians.

ADC, in a statement on Tuesday in Abuja by its National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, said the government’s focus on headline inflation failed to reflect the economic realities confronting millions of households.

The party said headline inflation fell from 15.91 per cent in June to 15.43 per cent in July, but food inflation increased from 17.52 per cent to 20.31 per cent year-on-year over the same period.

It added that month-on-month food inflation also rose from 3.75 per cent in June to 5.56 per cent in July.

According to the ADC, the figures demonstrate that staple foods remain increasingly unaffordable despite the government’s claims of economic progress.

“The Tinubu government has run out of ideas,” the party declared, arguing that the administration should acknowledge that its current approach had not produced the desired relief for Nigerians.

The ADC also linked the situation to an earlier report by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), which it said indicated that millions of Nigerians were facing acute food insecurity and that many children were at risk of malnutrition.