OPINION: Any Hope For Nigerians, Now?

It is a cliché that desperate times call for desperate measures and this fact cannot apply more than in the current situation of Nigeria which has over the last one year degenerated into a hellish quandary. Nigerians are known to be dogged and able to adapt to even the harshest conditions of living, but the prevailing economic crisis in Nigeria is threatening to push the once “happiest people on earth” into an abyss of hopelessness and anguish. The hardship being faced by Nigerians is unprecedented and seems to have defied all known solutions.

Every day, citizens of the most-populous Black nation in the world wake up to new dimensions of hardship. Hunger sleeps and wakes with the bulk of the masses. The cost of food is at an all-time highest and the larger chunk of the population can no longer afford decent meals. It is very clear that the average Nigerian now strives and toils only to be able to put food in his stomach as there is hardly anything else he can do after spending all his money on food. He has other bills to pay, yet there is barely enough for him to feed with. His wage or salary has remained unreviewed. The salary he was earning when transport fare from Kubwa to Wuse was 200 naira is the same salary he earns even now that the transport fare has tripled. His utility bills have increased because of the corresponding increment in value added tax (VAT), and the government that pays him a minimum wage of 30,000 naira has not deemed it fit to upwardly review his remuneration. The costs of drugs are no longer within reach, so, the ordinary Nigerians have resorted to praying for good health to avert any situation that would warrant their seeking medical aid.

The current inflation which has destabilized the entire market system has continued unabated, and even the economists and financial experts on whom the government has relied for effective solutions seem to be bereft of the sort of ideas that are needed to nip the economic hazard in the bud. What is even most disturbing is that the dollar rate keeps soaring, to the detriment of the naira and its purchasing power.
As Nigeria is largely import-dependent, it will continue to groan under the weight of the dollar. Importers who go through hell to source their foreign exchange will not think twice before heaping all the import-accruing costs on the prices of commodities. While some of the price increments are legitimate, others are merely top-ups placed on goods by opportunistic and greedy traders. How do you explain a 100% increment on the price of a commodity just 24 hours after it was purchased from the manufacturer or wholesaler? How does the dollar rate affect the costs of simple commodities that are largely produced in Nigeria? Yes, we can consider the costs of consumables and other factors of production needed for the manufacturing of certain home-produced goods, but should that be enough reason to double or triple the costs of goods whose major raw materials are sourced from within Nigeria? The price of cement, for instance, recently increased by almost 100%, yet its major raw material, limestone, is being sourced from Okpella and Obajana in Edo State and Kogi State respectively. How can anyone explain such an outrageous doubling of the price of cement? In Nigeria, cement is sold at almost five times the price it is sold in Ghana, yet it is manufactured by Nigerians, in Nigeria, and from limestone extracted in Nigeria. How does that make any sense?

Nigerians will continue to wallow in multi-dimensional poverty except something urgent and drastic is done to improve their living conditions. Service providers and business owners are daily lamenting the constant power outage which has grounded their businesses. Welders, hairdressers, cold drink sellers, tailors, barbers, and many other small business owners and service providers who daily depend on electricity for their operations are distressed by the lack of power occasioned by the incessant collapse of the national power grid. They are forced to spend a large chunk of their income on fuel for generators, and return home with almost nothing at the end of their daily hustle. To recoup the large sums of money spent on fuel, they charge their customers higher fees, and the customers, weighing the impact of such fees on their pocket, would walk away rather than spend their scarce resources. In the long run, it is only the few who can spare some extra cash for such “dispensable” luxuries that eventually get to patronize these service providers and business owners.

And at the home front, people are no longer able to cook food in large quantities and store up in their refrigerators because of constant power failure. They now have to resort to cooking gas to cook and warm their food daily, and this means that the use of cooking gas is doubled. It is very worrisome that the price of cooking gas skyrocketed by over 100% in about 4 months without any reasonable explanations offered by the government for such an awful development. Many of the peasants who were managing to buy cooking gas when it was sold at 600 naira per kilogram have now switched to charcoal and firewood following the inordinate increase in the price of gas to 1,200 naira per kilogram. This was one sad development that further heralded hopelessness and a bleak future for Nigerians.

As a way of coping better in these times of hardship, Nigerians have learnt to overlook so many of the superfluities that hitherto comprised their regular expenses. From exotic foods to posh cosmetic products and to designer fashion wares, Nigerians have learnt to keep a straight face when walking through the places where these tempting luxuries are sold. It is only those who have had enough to eat that worry about luxuries, and that’s why in many developed countries, hungry people can walk into a restaurant and eat free food which does not include meat. Meat is not food, it is luxury, and it is reserved for only those who can afford it. So, if a hungry person walks into a food spot and orders food with meat, he is presumed to be buoyant enough to pay for it, and if he fails to pay, he is penalized strictly.

So, there is no gainsaying that Nigerians have grappled with a lot of economic stress lately, and it is in the light of this fact that Shayo Animashaun, a once-bubbly domestic wares trader said: “I’ve never lived my life the way I’m living it now. I can no longer spend my money freely on the things I enjoy because each time I want to, I remember all the bills that are lurking around. My children’s feeding is something I can’t joke with, and I will give them the best meals no matter what it takes. I can cut down on some other extras but never on feeding, and this feeding is what gulps all my money. When I have stocked my house with food, I forget about all the other expenses.”

Shayo’s case is the same as those of many other Nigerians who have learnt to ignore what they would rather call extras and focus on the most important issues. It is only natural that people cut down costs when faced with daunting economic challenges. There is literally no commodity in today’s Nigeria that can be considered as affordable including the much-talked-about ‘garri.’ Garri used to be the cheapest foodstuff in the market back in the day. It was mostly consumed by the poor people who couldn’t afford rice and other ‘expensive’ food items. But now, the price of garri competes with that of rice and other staples. Beans was also considered ‘a poor man’s food’ in the past, but its price now has risen so high that it can only be afforded by serious people. So where lies the relief for ordinary Nigerians?

So many opinion holders have claimed that food is the most affordable thing in developed countries and that in such countries, it is very rare for people to starve. But real stories from overseas have revealed that people starve even in countries like America and England, despite their economic robustness, and that the economic crisis that is bedeviling Nigeria is also being experienced by many other countries in the world. Perhaps the only difference in their own case is that their economic challenges do not include sickening inflations and loss of currency value. Many Nigerian traders and business owners have hinged the current economic downturn on consistent inflation and an unstable market. The current market instability is unforeseen and portends even more economic danger if not managed with tact. Prices of goods keep changing at regular intervals, and the government does not seem to be able to control these vagaries. When asked the reason for the incessant increase in prices, traders will claim it is caused by the increase in dollar rate, yet whenever there is a decline in dollar rate, the prices of goods are never reduced. And the government, on the other hand, has offered a plethora of explanations as to why things are the way they are, yet none of the explanations has answered the questions being asked by worried Nigerians on the state of the economy. It is in the light of these uncertainties that Nigerians have continued to express deep fear and worries.

Perhaps, someday, things will just improve on their own and once again substantiate that ancient saying that says, “You can’t control everything. Sometimes, you just need to relax and have faith that things will work out. Let go a little and just let life happen.” Will the above saying apply in the case of Nigeria or should the government take a cue from the wise counsel of the great Albert Einstein which says; “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when creating them.” We shall see how this will all pan out!

Nwachukwu , a journalist and media consultant writes from Abuja. He can be reached at [email protected]
Disclaimer: This article is entirely the opinion of the writer and does not represent the views of The Whistler.