MAY NOT BE PERFECT, BUT THE GRASS WOULD ALL BE GREEN

A friend, Blessing-Obi on his facebook page posted:

"When l look back to my birth country, l see people struggling, women sad, men kicked out of jobs, sisters travelling to Abuja and Lagos to start a career in prostitution popularly known as "runs", running inflation besets the economy, innocent children roam the streets, people blaming Govt. Insecurity everywhere even with the kidnappings of commoners and monarchs. And in the midst of these social ills and despair l still see HOPE, HOPE and BELIEF. Let corrupt politicians who live in luxurious houses and drive expensive cars wallow in stolen wealth, the sweat of the Nigerian, still l see HOPE, l still BELIEVE in HOPE. A day is come and it is no longer far, we sit with fellas, we are planning, the days are near, when political criminals will gnash their teeth and common Nigerians smile, children would have clothes on their backs, although not a perfect world where the grass is all green, but at least a world fair enough".

After reading the post above, you would agree with all sense of being unbiased that this is ‘hard truth’ and a clear picture of what is really going on in Nigeria at the moment and to say the least, it scares me.

Yes, it should scare you because the way things are at the moment tells that except God intervenes, it may get worse and if it does, the rhetorical question is, “who will be spared” or “which class or category of persons in the country will not feel the brunt”?

The kidnappers are no longer after just the high, rich and wealthy but are also after people who can barely pay their rents. So also robbers are not just after the rich neither are the ‘runs’ girls after just the rich as they go round every Emeka, Shola, Dahiru, Akpan, Tom, Dick and Harry to hustle even if it means getting a token or recharge cards from a couple of these Toms, Dicks and Harrys, at the end of the day, to them, every ‘collection’ add up for something.

Children hang around people even strangers to see if they can get freebies because many of them hardly get to eat enough at home anymore.

Well dressed and healthy looking people now stop you on a daily basis begging for food. The list and scenarios are endless.

  

One TV soap that was widely watched and followed by many back in the 90s ‘the rich also cry’ comes to mind even as reality of the economic situation sets in on a daily basis.

Ironically, many of the ‘rich’ who are now also crying, are making the poor who have cried nearly every day of their lives, cry even more than always because many of these supposedly ‘rich’ are unrepentantly owing a larger number of these ‘poor’ without any hope of paying up even in the nearest future.

These ‘owed’ poor are faced with the dilemmas of dud cheques which have ‘bounced’ severally or tales of “sorry my mummy, daddy, uncle, aunty or even friend (as the case may be) is not home” even when the person is quietly hidden in the house and children or wards are made to tell lies.

It should scare you even more because as at this morning the Governor of the Nigerian Central bank was reported to have told Senators during a closed door meeting that the country is in what he termed ‘stagflation’, trapped between a ‘stagnant’ economy and a high level of ‘inflation’ even as the IMF has also officially asserted that the country is going through an economic recession.

What scares me the most is the hanging ‘if’ which the CBN Governor was said to have left in the air. That is, the part where government may not be able to pay salaries by October this year, 2016 if things remain or get worse than this. This should really scare you.

The question now is “what is the way forward”.

Like my friend Obi reeled out in the post as seen at the beginning of this write up. So many people have been sacked, women sad, children roaming the streets, ‘runs’ increasing as more ladies are joining the trade traveling not only between Abuja and Lagos with the social media making it a lot more easier. Sad but true and even more.

Ironically, men are not giving without ‘taking’ as everything given must be paid for in ‘kind’ even for as little as lunch, a drink, recharge cards, phone and more; not to mention when you ask for a huge sum, rent, car the list goes on. Shameful! That tells you how tough it is out there.

Nevertheless, there is hope, hope in the fact that you can choose to either sit back, fold your hands, until you eventually die as a result of hunger or find something honourable to do while we await a way forward from the government. Learn a trade and avoid depravities, spend wisely as that’s the way to go for now because even the ‘mugu’ is getting wiser as we speak or as you read. *winks*

Enough of the ‘blame game’ about this Politician or that Politician did this or that. However know that there is hope but for now, “Let corrupt politicians who live in luxurious houses and drive expensive cars wallow in stolen wealth, the sweat of the Nigerian, still l see HOPE, l still BELIEVE in HOPE. A day is come and it is no longer far, we sit with fellas, we are planning, the days are near, when political criminals will gnash their teeth and common Nigerians smile, children would have clothes on their backs, although not a perfect world where the grass is all green, but at least a world fair enough”.

   

Hopefully, the question on ‘the way forward’ would be near ‘answered’.  

YOURS MAY BE BETTER IN MANY WAYS, BE GRATEFUL

I woke up this morning and for some reason beyond any form of explanation or description, I just found myself smiling. Yes, smiling.

Despite the economic situation and whatever circumstance I find myself, I have learnt to continue giving thanks to God for his many little blessings while standing strong in the hope that with time he will do the mighty unspeakable miracles that will shut the mouths of the enemies completely never to reopen again.

Did I hear someone say “sounds like you are preaching today girl” *laughs*. Yeah! You can say that again.

I smile because no matter how bad you view your situation, go out there, see things and hear things, then you would agree with me that you have a lot to be thankful for after seeing worse situations of other people even though there would still be many others whose situations are far better than yours. Anyhow the case, I bet, you would still bless God for your life.

I don’t know about you but I still hold the belief that God indeed makes all things beautiful in His time. So with that at the very conscious point in my heart, I strive daily knowing that someday “I go hammer” like we say in our local parlance. 

 

As much as many of us may think that we are toughing it out given the present situation in the country, it is now very official that many people are already dying of hunger; hence for some of these lot, they would do whatever it takes to get food including stealing and ‘high level’ begging, a situation where supposed respected individuals in the society start seeking help from those who called them ‘boss’ in the past in order to get food on the tables for their now hungry families.

High level begging is no news as it has always been in existence. Many people call it ‘corporate begging’ but ‘high level’ begging is like two steps ahead.  Nevertheless, it has become very rampant, irrespective of what you call it.

Recall that I wrote about a well-dressed man who was begging to be bought some melon what we call “egusi” in order to cook soup many weeks ago. Right? That encounter left me wondering about the level of hunger ravaging the economy.

Now, that encounter of begging went sour in my mouth yesterday when I got robbed of my packs of ‘macaroni’ pasta at a superstore last night. Gosh! People are really hungry!!

Last night while on my way back from my ‘power walk’ routine, I stopped at a superstore to get a few items.

Before then, I had earlier bought two packs of macaroni from a smaller shop and then decided to stop at the superstore on my way since it was still opened to customers at the time.

Yours sincerely got to the superstore and was asked by the security to drop the bag of macaroni, which was very transparent in one of the opened lockers which I did.

Long story cut short.

After paying for my items, I decided to go pick my bag from the locker, then lo and behold! The bag and everything in it was GONE!

After much  talk by those in charge of affairs at the superstore. I decided to leave because they seemed as though they were heading nowhere near resolving the issue and besides it was getting very late already, so I left in anger.

However, this morning I work up smiling with the thought that even though whoever took that bag was very wrong in taking it, perhaps I saved a lot of people in his/her family from going to bed hungry last night because for anyone to risk getting caught in such a place for stealing two packs of ‘macaroni’ was a high risk taken. But then, it shows how hungry the situation. And so I forgive him or her knowing that my situation is not so bad after all.

Even at this very moment, I’m still smiling and thanking God for his faithfulness knowing I cannot be stranded.

You can do same by just smiling and thanking him in your heart as well, even as we pray for things to get better in the country.

Cheers!