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’.
