'If someone like me can feel it' — Ruth Kadiri reacts to rising food prices

• Ruth Kadiri says rising food prices have left her worried about how average Nigerians are coping.

• The actress noted that some families now spend as much as ₦5,000 on basic ingredients like pepper and tomatoes.

• Recent inflation and food security data suggest her concerns reflect a wider national struggle.

Nollywood actress Ruth Kadiri woke up one morning this week, picked up her phone, and recorded what she called a sober moment and a rare public admission from someone who, by her own description, is not known for complaining. What was troubling her was food.

"Cost of tomatoes is so high. Somebody will use ₦5,000 to buy pepper and tomatoes. ₦5,000, while somebody else out there is probably earning ₦25,000, ₦40,000, ₦50,000," she said in the video, which quickly circulated online and drew thousands of responses from Nigerians who said she had put into words exactly what they were living through.

Her concern was not just about prices. It was about what prolonged financial pressure does to people. "Poverty, what poverty does to people's minds is like cancer, it eats away," she said. "A lot of people are just going to be angry for the sake of it. Angry at their wives, angry at their kids, angry at their husbands."

The comment section largely agreed with her sentiments.

Ruth Kadiri's observation is not anecdotal. It is borne out by data that paints an increasingly grim picture of food affordability in Nigeria.

Nigeria's inflation rate climbed from 15.69 per cent to 16.06 per cent in April 2026, the highest since November 2025, with food prices accelerating for the third consecutive month.

Key staples, including pepper, beef, yam flour, millet, ginger, garri and tubers, all recorded price increases during the period.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics Cost of Healthy Diet indicator, an adult in Nigeria now needs at least ₦1,513 per day to maintain a nutritious diet, a 12.4 per cent increase year-on-year. That figure has risen from ₦1,458 per adult per day recorded as recently as January 2026.

For households surviving on the ₦70,000 national minimum wage, the numbers leave almost nothing for rent, transport, school fees or medical costs after food is accounted for. In states like Ekiti, Imo and Abia, a healthy monthly diet consumes more than 87 per cent of the minimum wage entirely.

Behind the price data is a food security picture that development organisations describe as catastrophic. The United Nations projects that 35 million Nigerians will face severe food insecurity during the peak 2026 lean season.

An estimated 6.4 million children across the North-East and North-West are projected to suffer from acute malnutrition during the same period.

Ruth Kadiri statements and projected statistics are describing the same reality that is no longer abstract for anyone, regardless of income level.

"If somebody like me can start to feel the brunt of the heaviness of being a human being," she said, "I wonder what other people are going through."

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