The Supreme Council for Shari’ah in Nigeria has raised concerns over the rising cost of foodstuffs and other valuables across the country, saying suffering escalated under President Bola Tinubu.

The President of the Council, Sheikh AbdurRasheed Hadiyatullah, who stated this at the SCSN’s National Conference in Abuja on Tuesday, lamented that Nigerians are currently battling unemployment and an economic quagmire.

He spoke on the theme: “Matters Arising from the 2023 Election and Associated Socio-Economic Challenges”.

”The suffering of Nigerians has escalated since President Tinubu assumed office.

“What used to cost N200 is now being sold at N2,000. Nigeria’s current state is marked by cash scarcity, unemployment, and economic challenges,” he said.

Nigeria is facing its worst cost of living crisis, with year-on-year inflation refusing to slow down in 2023. While inflation didn’t hit 30 per cent as predicted by many experts, it has been blamed for rising poverty rates in the county.

Inflation closed 2023 at a 21-year high of 28.92 per cent, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

Major contributors to inflation were food and non-alcoholic beverages (14.98 per cent), housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuel (4.84 per cent), clothing and footwear (2.21 per cent), transport (1.88 per cent), furnishings and household equipment and maintenance (1.45 per cent), and education (1.14 per cent).

Food inflation continues to outperform general inflation. In December 2023, the food inflation rate was 33.93 per cent.

Between January and May 2023, inflation pushed an estimated four million people into poverty in the country, according to the World Bank.

In a November report, the Bretton Woods institution disclosed that the continued spike in inflation would push a further 2.8 million people into poverty by 2023’s end.

The removal of fuel subsidy and the foreign exchange rate unification policy have been blamed for the surge in the country’s inflation. In the December update of its Nigeria Development Update report, the global agency revealed that since May, petrol prices had increased by an average of 163 per cent and the naira had depreciated against the US dollar by 41 per cent in the official market and by 30 per cent in the parallel market.

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