{"id":4288,"date":"2026-10-30T15:02:45","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T15:02:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/30\/sowunmi-challenges-utomi-over-claim-obi-will-strengthen-naira-to-n500-1\/"},"modified":"2026-10-30T15:02:45","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T15:02:45","slug":"sowunmi-challenges-utomi-over-claim-obi-will-strengthen-naira-to-n500-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/30\/sowunmi-challenges-utomi-over-claim-obi-will-strengthen-naira-to-n500-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Sowunmi challenges Utomi over claim Obi will strengthen naira to N500\/$1"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Sowunmi<\/p>\n

By Adegboyega Adeleye<\/p>\n

\n

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\u2019s claim that Peter Obi could strengthen the naira to \u20a6500 per dollar if elected president.<\/p>\n

In a post on X on Friday, Sowunmi described the proposal as \u201ca textbook example of confusing political aspiration with economic feasibility\u201d and questioned how the exchange-rate target and promised price cuts would be achieved.<\/p>\n

Utomi, a political economist and chieftain of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), had said the target would feature in Obi\u2019s manifesto.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are convinced that targeting a strategic appreciation of the exchange rate by reasonably strengthening it from \u20a61,350\/$ to \u20a6500\/$ as part of our manifesto is a winning strategy,\u201d he wrote on X on Thursday.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Reacting, Sowunmi asked how the government would secure enough foreign exchange to sustain the proposed rate. \u201cWhere is the additional foreign exchange coming from? What will finance the proposed intervention?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n

He said exchange rates are shaped by \u201cforeign-exchange supply and demand, productivity, export earnings, capital flows, monetary conditions and confidence in the economy\u201d. He added that the listed commodities had \u201cfundamentally different cost structures\u201d and that a stronger naira \u201ccannot automatically halve the cost of domestically produced commodities\u201d.<\/p>\n

Sowunmi also disputed Utomi\u2019s cement projection, saying a $10 bag would cost \u20a65,000 at \u20a6500 to the dollar, not \u20a62,000. \u201cTo arrive at \u20a62,000, the authors have additionally assumed a 60% reduction in the dollar-denominated price. Where is the economic justification for that assumption?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe naira should become stronger because the Nigerian economy has become stronger, not because somebody has decided that \u20a6500 to the dollar would make an attractive manifesto headline,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The post Sowunmi challenges Utomi over claim Obi will strengthen naira to N500\/$1<\/a> appeared first on Vanguard News<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Source: <\/p>\n

Vanguard News<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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\u2019s claim that… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4289,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4288\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}