Sanwo-Olu decries Nigerians’ obsession with luxury dollar transactions while flaunting N360 million Patek Philippe wristwatch, Caribbean island soirée

Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu on Thursday lampooned Nigerians for what he deemed an “absurd” dependence on the United States dollar even while the value of their national currency endured a historic dip.

“We need to stop this dollarisation of every single thing that we have in our economy,” Mr Sanwo-Olu said at a media town hall Thursday morning. “Why is everything about dollars?”

The Nigerian naira closed at N1,900 against the dollar on Thursday, marking its lowest fall yet amid a blitz that began under Muhammadu Buhari and became even more aggravated by President Bola Tinubu’s float management policy. Together with the removal of subsidy on petrol, the decision has led directly to high inflation rates — 32 per cent last month — and fast-spreading hunger among the 200 million-strong population.

Several Nigerian cities, including Kano and Ibadan, convulsed in anger and demonstration after rice, bread and other basic food items became unaffordable to wage earners and labourers.

Federal authorities raided several bureau de change spots across the country and blocked forex trading platforms Binance and Coinbase as part of measures to reduce the pressure on the naira. The ruling All Progressives Congress tried to paint the protests as yet another plot by the opposition, which it said was still lashing out over the outcome of the 2023 presidential election.

Mr Sanwo-Olu admitted the starvation had reached flammable levels in recent weeks but added that his administration’s response would be easier if only the Nigerian elite could manage their appetite for luxury dollar transactions.

“Given the pressure on the currency that we’re talking about, and there’s a CBN rule that says that you cannot charge in foreign currency, why then should we have landlords asking their tenants to pay in foreign currency for a house that is built in Lagos, that you’re using Lagos road, you’re breathing Lagos air?

“I think it is absurd. Whatever is your rate, pay it in naira.

“I spoke with Mr Cardoso (CBN governor) yesterday that we need to start thinking out of the box: all these Chinese and Indian companies, what stops us from exchanging their transactions with them in their countries in Yuan? Why can’t we pay Indians rupees?” Mr Sanwo-Olu said.

But the Lagos governor’s indignation may carry little force before a population that has recently seen him in a Patek Philippe wristwatch, and his expensive trip last month to a Caribbean island birthday bash was still making headlines as of this week.

Mr Sanwo-Olu’s Chrono 24, reported in August 2023 by Peoples Gazette, was worth £136,189, or $172,443. The exchange rate at the time was N160 million, but now over N360 million barely seven months later, indicating the rapid downward trend of the Nigerian currency. The country imported about $35 billion in foreign goods in the first six months of 2023, out of which it was unable to settle over $7 billion immediately, the Central Bank of Nigeria said in a report published in the last quarter of 2023.

Between January 15 and 25, 2024, Mr Sanwo-Olu was spotted at a lavish birthday event in Grenada. Aisha Achimugu, an Abuja socialite, was said to have thrown the party, with the governor reportedly spending obscene amounts on private jets, hotels and women.

The governor did not outright deny attending a party on the Caribbean island. Instead, his office issued a statement that was confined to a meeting the governor held with the prime minister of Grenada, Dickon Mitchell.

Still, Mr Sanwo-Olu admitted his role, alongside other wealthy Nigerians, in undermining the value of the nation’s currency, saying it was time for them to work to curb their own excesses.

“We sometimes are our greatest enemy,” he said. “I am not going to absolve myself at the leadership level of some of the things that are not working.”