‘Let’s keep deceiving ourselves’ – Rufai Oseni disputes NBS 15.43 percent inflation

Arise Television anchor, Rufai Oseni, has questioned the credibility of Nigeria’s latest inflation figures, disputing the 15.43 percent headline inflation rate recorded in July 2026.

Oseni made the remarks on The Morning Show on Tuesday while reacting to the latest inflation figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The NBS, in its Consumer Price Index and inflation report released on Monday, said Nigeria’s headline inflation fell to 15.43 percent in July from 15.91 percent recorded in June.

However, Oseni expressed doubts about the accuracy of the data, arguing that the figures did not reflect the realities faced by Nigerians in the markets.

“I was reading an article this morning. It was posted in the DAILY POST newspaper, and it’s in relation to these inflation figures they are always giving us.

“I don’t believe a lot of the data that comes out of this administration.

“We know what was done. The base year was changed to a base year that Nigeria had the highest inflation.

“It took the IMF or World Bank to tell us that N8.8 trillion was spent on extra-budgetary spending.

“Till today, we are still asking the Minister of Finance to give us a line-by-line breakdown of how that eight-point-something trillion was spent. We have not seen it. I’ve been talking about these things for weeks now.

“We’re in a country where we don’t have accountability. We’ll never move forward, and that’s why, in a newspaper article in November 2024, President Tinubu was congratulating NNPC that the refineries were working. In 2026, he’s talking about reviving the refineries that he congratulated NNPC for in 2024.

“These were the refineries that they said were all smoking. So, there’s a large lack of accountability, and the country is so funny. 

“And we look at these things that we just pass as if they’re not happening.

“You don’t have coherent data. We don’t have data. You know, we are saying the inflation rate is 15.4-something. Have prices gone back in the market to the prices you used to have before?

“Okay, let’s keep deceiving ourselves. You see this charade of deceit, this dance of deceit. One day, we will come to the market square and clap for ourselves. Let the deceit continue,” he said.

Oseni’s comments come amid the continued debate over the impact of Nigeria’s falling inflation rate on the cost of goods and services.

While the NBS reported a decline in the headline inflation rate, prices of many essential commodities remain significantly higher than their previous levels.