Sowunmi challenges Utomi over claim Obi will strengthen naira to N500/$1

By Adegboyega Adeleye A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council, Segun Sowunmi, has faulted Pat Utomi’s claim that Peter Obi could strengthen the naira to ₦500 per dollar if elected president. In a post on X on Friday, Sowunmi described the proposal as “a textbook example of confusing political aspiration with economic feasibility” and questioned how the exchange-rate target and promised price cuts would be achieved.

Utomi, a political economist and chieftain of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), had said the target would feature in Obi’s manifesto. “We are convinced that targeting a strategic appreciation of the exchange rate by reasonably strengthening it from ₦1,350/$ to ₦500/$ as part of our manifesto is a winning strategy,” he wrote on X on Thursday. He said the proposal would help curb inflation, reduce poverty and lower the cost of living.

With investments in security, electricity and roads, alongside market reforms, Utomi projected that prices of staples including bread, rice, yam, maize, plantain, chicken, eggs and garri could fall by about half. Reacting, Sowunmi asked how the government would secure enough foreign exchange to sustain the proposed rate. “Where is the additional foreign exchange coming from?

What will finance the proposed intervention?” he asked. He said exchange rates are shaped by “foreign-exchange supply and demand, productivity, export earnings, capital flows, monetary conditions and confidence in the economy”. He added that the listed commodities had “fundamentally different cost structures” and that a stronger naira “cannot automatically halve the cost of domestically produced commodities”.

Sowunmi also disputed Utomi’s cement projection, saying a $10 bag would cost ₦5,000 at ₦500 to the dollar, not ₦2,000. “To arrive at ₦2,000, the authors have additionally assumed a 60% reduction in the dollar-denominated price. Where is the economic justification for that assumption?” he said. He warned that currency appreciation without productivity gains could make imports more attractive and weaken local manufacturers.

A serious manifesto, he said, must explain how its policies would work, including their assumptions, costs, timelines and measurable targets. Sowunmi said reducing living costs and poverty was a legitimate ambition, but required productivity growth, stronger agriculture and industry, reliable electricity, infrastructure, security, job creation and sound economic management.

“The naira should become stronger because the Nigerian economy has become stronger, not because somebody has decided that ₦500 to the dollar would make an attractive manifesto headline,” he added.