The candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the 2023 presidential election, Adewole Adebayo, yesterday told the Federal Government that methodological rebasing of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) won’t bring down inflation in the country.

He dismissed the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics (NBS)’s idea that methodological rebasing of the CPI would magically bring down inflation by 10 points or have any effect on how inflation is felt in the real economy.

In a post on his official X account, @Pres_Adebayo argued that the only thing that would bring inflation down in Nigeria is to increase productivity, employment, social services and basic infrastructure.

He said: “The real way to bring inflation down and have a realistic Consumer Price Index is to increase employment; productivity, especially in agro-allied and mining sectors; social services and basic infrastructure. “Costs of production must first come before the costs of consumption can have a realistic chance of following suit.

“That’s how to extract a credible, functional and realistic CPI for macroeconomic planning. Enough of the faux economics of masking and masquerading poverty and insecurity by the APC who fancies that economics, like elections, is fair game for rigging.”

Adebayo advised the government to wake up to the reality of macroeconomic meltdown and stagnant productivity. The party chief said: “The government had better wake up and smell the burning coffee of macroeconomic meltdown and stagnant productivity.

“Let us watch how the infallibility of inflationary pressures in the wake of a disjointed fiscal and monetary policy misalignment inherent in the overloaded 2025 budget would show that this nominal facade of cooking numbers has legs on the ground. The people of Nigeria should not be deceived by this lazy trick.”