By Otunba (Dr) Abdulfalil Abayomi Odunowo
Nigeria’s unending nightmare of hardship is often pinned on the usual suspects: bungled government policies, runaway inflation, wild foreign exchange swings, and brutal fuel price shocks. These factors are real and devastating, carving deep wounds into the lives of millions.
But in 2026, as we stagger forward, these explanations ring hollow. They mask a darker, more gut-wrenching reality one that forces us to stare into the mirror and confront the betrayal within our own ranks.
The uncomfortable, soul-crushing truth is this: the daily agonies tearing families apart, pushing parents to skip meals so their children can eat, and driving the young into despair or desperation, are increasingly inflicted not just by distant policymakers in Abuja, but by Nigerians themselves neighbors, traders, landlords, and transporters who seize every flicker of relief as an opportunity to tighten the noose around their fellow citizens’ necks.
Picture this: In December 2025, Dangote Refinery slashed petrol prices to ₦699 per liter, a desperate bid to ease the festive burden and flood the market with supply. Yet, across Lagos, Abuja, and beyond, transport fares didn’t budge. Commuters from Mile 2 to CMS still forked out ₦800 to ₦1,000, a 60% surge from pre-festive levels, even as fuel costs plummeted. In Kaduna, fares to markets like Sheikh Gumi stayed locked at ₦150, ignoring the fuel drop entirely. And interstate routes? From Odo Ere to Lokoja, costs had ballooned from ₦8,000 to ₦15,000 when fuel hit ₦1,300 earlier, but the price cut brought no mercy no rollback, no relief. This isn’t economics; it’s exploitation. It’s the raw greed of transporters who, hardened by their own struggles, now feast on the vulnerability of others, turning a brief respite into prolonged suffering.
History screams this asymmetry in our faces. When fuel prices spiked marginally in 2024-2025, markets erupted overnight food staples like rice and beans jumping 200% or more without a shred of justification. Yet, as fuel stabilized in late 2025, dropping to an average of ₦790 per liter by early January 2026, and the naira held steady around ₦1,400-₦1,500 per dollar, food prices barely flinched downward. November 2025 saw food inflation ease to 11.08%, a drop from 13.12% in October, thanks to better harvests and forex calm. Staples like garri fell 2.88% month-on-month, but traders clung to elevated prices, pocketing the difference while families rationed meals. This isn’t market forces; it’s a calculated refusal to share relief, amplifying pain for profit.
The betrayal cuts deeper in the skies and on the streets. Domestic air travel, once a symbol of progress, now mocks the average Nigerian’s plight. A one-way flight from Abuja to Lagos costs ₦400,000 to ₦650,000 often more than international hops to neighboring countries. During the 2025 Yuletide, fares on South-South and South-East routes surged 150%, hitting ₦300,000 or more, pricing out families desperate to reunite. Airlines cite high fuel and maintenance costs, but with fuel stable and dropping, why the unrelenting hikes? It’s opportunism, pure and simple, turning holiday joy into heartbreak.
And housing? The roof over our heads has become a weapon of eviction. In Lagos, rents for one-bedroom apartments soared to ₦20.9 million annually in premium areas by 2025, with average hikes of 105.6% citywide—far outpacing the national inflation rate of 14.45% in November. In Abuja, increases averaged 81.1%, forcing families into slums or the streets. Landlords, unscathed by improvements in infrastructure or services, jack up rents amid stable fuel and forex, citing “market demand.” But what demand? The demand of the desperate, the displaced, who have nowhere else to turn. This is no longer about survival; it’s about suffocating the next person to breathe a little easier yourself.
What’s most heartbreaking is that the traditional villains fuel volatility and forex chaos have quieted. The naira, after wild swings, stabilized in 2025, appreciating 6.9% year-on-year to close around ₦1,436 per dollar, bolstered by reserves climbing to $45.45 billion. Fuel, too, held relative calm post-subsidy removal, with projections for ₦950 per liter in 2026. Headline inflation cooled to 14.45% by November 2025, on track for 12.94% in 2026, driven by easing food and energy costs. Yet, prices climb relentlessly.
This isn’t classic inflation it’s a behavioral plague, a collective hardening of hearts where years of economic trauma have bred a survivalism that devours community. We’ve become our own tormentors. The trader who inflates prices on a whim, the landlord who evicts without remorse, the driver who charges double while fuel tanks cheapen they aren’t villains in a vacuum. They’re us, fractured by systemic failures, now fracturing each other. Hardship isn’t just endured; it’s multiplied, passed like a curse from one weary hand to another. How many more families must shatter, how many dreams must die, before we see the blood on our own hands?
Government must act with ironclad policies, rigorous enforcement, and robust social nets. But no decree from Aso Rock can mend a society where citizens sabotage one another for scraps. Relief is ignored, pain amplified for personal gain. Even if petrol plunges further or the naira surges, costs will stay sky-high without a seismic shift in our souls. This is the sobering, stomach-churning conclusion: Nigeria’s war isn’t solely against the state anymore. It’s a civil war among ourselves, where brother betrays brother in the marketplace of misery. Recovery demands more than policy; it demands awakening to our shared doom and choosing restraint, fairness, and collective mercy.
Until we do, we’ll languish not just in bad economics, but in the moral rot of our choices toward one another choices that condemn us all to endless night.
Otunba (Dr) Abdulfalil Abayomi Odunowo
National Chairman, Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu Support Group (AATSG)