By BASHIR ADEFAKA
“…economy of every other part of the country is dependent on the economy of Lagos and, therefore, no matter how many hundreds of thousands metric tonnes of rice, beans, wheat, maize, and so on and so forth the Federal Government, especially under President Buhari, injects into the market for its people to get food at affordable prices, it will not be felt because, those who have formed themselves into several associations such association of pepper sellers, association of bread sellers, association of rice sellers, and so on and so forth, will never allow the people to benefit.”
Trying periods are synonymous with human nature. Allah makes it clear that it is not possible that a man will exist and will not be tested. “Surely we shall put you to trial only then we will know who among you truly has faith”.
Test or trial is the process for promotion. Fail, remain in it or pass, move forward to greater height. This is the simple truth about the life of this world and it is the reality that is steering every country in the face currently, globally.
But because, in Nigeria, people decided to kick against this inevitable reality and so have made their issues complex to look like never happened before, they see solution and throw it away by their own hands.
Or how do we explain a country of ‘three regions’ like Nigeria’s North, West and East, where two ‘agree’ and have it stuck in their skulls that the other one is the only enemy and problem they ever had in their life? Any sincere look into history of the world and human existence would return and tell the truth that there is no society, where people live with this level of mischief against one another that life is ever better for them? That for Nigeria.
On the global scene, United States of America has played the same role causing inter-regional, inter-continental conflicts by destroying lives that should not be destroyed and doing it based on unpardonable hypocrisy and still gives huge amount of its dollars to citizens of those countries, mainly in Africa, to cause destability and unrest in their respective countries apart from which they have no other.
In the end, there is global crisis and cries of unemployment, lack of shelter, retarded education standard, lack of good and quality healthcare delivery system, hunger and insecurity rent the airspace, everywhere in the world. It goes beyond Nigeria. That is what definitely happens to such society and so the world is bearing the brunt all together now. The ‘divine’ calamity of Coronavirus pandemic that has befallen the world for two years now is the major evidence lately.
The pandemic has led to many uneasy developments namely closedown of many workplaces, job losses, hunger and so on and so forth. It means that as the hard time is in Nigeria, so it is in the United Kingdom, Europe, United States of America and other parts of the world. So much that at a point, Saudi Arabia cut down on its welfare package for citizens and increased its VAT by 15 percentage. In America, UK, this has been the same situation happening to the extent that the only country that appears to be above some of these issues in terms of ability to surmount them is China, my opinion.
The only reason it appears like polity is not heated up in America and other western societies is because the situation is not politicized like in Nigeria. Whereas, Nigerians should have appreciated Allah in the type of leadership they currently have in President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, because he has been able to hold the country together against social and economic collapse that would have occurred, if no concrete effort was made on food security ahead of the unforeseen pandemic and in the face of realities that we all saw ad still see.
President Muhammadu Buhari’s Digital and Social Media Aide, Lauretta Onochie, who recently visited London – her base from where she was invited to serve – on the entourage of her boss and whose post I stumbled over, shared her experience:
“I have just returned from the UK. Major brand shops have closed down. Those open, have closed many branches. Some are now only online. I couldn’t find my desired mobile phone to buy.
“People have lost and are still losing their jobs. I know some who have lost their homes already. It’s a sad situation here as it is in the USA.”
You know the most interesting of the experience she shared?
“But they all rightly blame the Pandemic, not PM Boris Johnson nor Pres. Joe Biden,” she said.
“Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari”, let’s face the fact, “has managed and minimised the hardship occasioned by the pandemic. It could have been worse,” Lauretta Onochie said.
However, it must be mentioned here that there is quite a number of Nigerians, who do not want the country and fellow citizens to do and live well as they confuse the impact of pandemic with their own self made socio-economic hardships and still blame them on the government they claim is of Islamic, Fulani Presidency.
Hardships of this nature, much as corruption in the civil service/political class is hugely badly impactful also in the problem, are mainly in Lagos and spread to the rest of the country, particularly states of Southern Nigeria. Impact of the pandemic would not have been this negatively overbearing on Nigerians if the unpatriotic hijackers of Lagos economy did not unleash their evils along the line.
Although Peoples Democratic Party (PD) politicians had used ‘hunger-in-the-land’ as the only campaign instrument they could manufacture in 2019 to unseat President Muhammadu Buhari, there was no hunger visible between 2015 that the administration came to power and the March 2020 that the Coronavirus pandemic lockdown was inevitably imposed on the country, like in other countries of the world including Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, America and even worse in Europe. What happened the moment President Buhari took over was those who were venting their personal angers because of the heat they were suffering as a result of the anti-corruption war unleashed on the nation’s economic parasites by the new Sheriff in Town, who is still there.
Yes, there was no provision of welfare package called palliative fund from government to citizens like it was in western, asian and European societies, what could not be denied was the ability of Federal Government to successfully ensure food security for the lockdown period, when countries, whose foods Nigerians chose against their own locally produced ones, locked up their ports and borders as preventive and protective measures in the then war against the pandemic.
It would have been disastrous had the Buhari’s Administration not put in place the agriculture policy of Made-in-Nigeria.products that saw the country having food items enough for local consumption and exports. Nigerian rice became great product that Nigerians consumed. It was great, so was yam, wheat, beans, garri, and so on and so forth, and others including tomatoes, pepper, onions, all in abundance.
What was lacking that time was money and it was understandable. At lockdown, the whole of economic shutdown to the extent that the rich and poor found each other in the same class, economically. Even the Super Rich at that period felt like “waoh! is it the end of the world?” They were the only ones who had it good during the lockdown but, in the case of Southern Nigeria especially Lagos and entire South West, not even any super rich could boast that his money meant anything to him because of extreme insecurity that the hardships had caused and I can tell why.
In the South West, we have a kind of human character that is different from the rest of the country, especially in Lagos. Ask me why?
Whereas, in every Northern Nigerian city, for example Sokoto, Kano, Maiduguri, Kaduna, Minna and Ilorin, market prices mainly of food items remained sympathetically either the same or lower during and post-lockdown period, in Lagos and across South West, not only food prices skyrocketed to near sniffing the throats of people but also, the moment the lockdown was eased and movement restored, transport fares jumped up 500 percentage in Lagos and across South West. Where Keke Marwa charged N30 within Alagbado community in Lagos, for instance, before the lockdown, it became N100.
Transportation from from Sango/Toll Gate on Lagos-Abeokuta road to Oshodi, which was between N200 and N250 before lockdown, became N1,000 the moment lockdown was lifted. It did not matter whether the passenger would disembark at Ikeja Along or PWD/NAF Base. It was that wickedly bad the way those in charge of Lagos economy manipulated the lockdown to cause the hardships that we now have at hand. It took the FG’s rail operations relaunch, both inter-state (Lagos-Ibadan) and the municipality (Ijoko-Iddo) Sango/Toll Gate-Ikeja-Oshodi transport to drop, first and reluctantly too from N1,000 to N700 and currently N300. Even during raining time or at slight traffic issue on the road, these transporters, who claim to be working under directive of agbero, still charge N1,000 against their new N300. What a lifestyle!
Recall that these transport fare charges are being indiscriminately hiked this way knowing full well that the comuters’ means of living or earnings have not been upwardly improved in the last 22 years but what they spent the earning on has gone up more than 200 times under this Democratic experience.
It is because Lagos is not at ease that the rest of the country, particularly Southern Nigeria is finding life difficultly uneasy. So long the Federal Government continues to be indifferent to how Lagos economy is managed such that they allow touts and thugs to decide transportation and market affairs in the supposedly Centre of Excellence, to the detriment of the innocent citizens, Nigerians will not stop to complain.
This is because, economy of every other part of the country is dependent on the economy of Lagos and, therefore, no matter how many hundreds of thousands metric tonnes of rice, beans, wheat, maize, and so on and so forth the Federal Government, especially under President Buhari, injects into the market for its people to get food at affordable prices, it will not be felt because, those who have formed themselves into several associations such association of pepper sellers, association of bread sellers, association of rice sellers, and so on and so forth, will never allow the people to benefit.
*WAKE UP is opinion article column of Prince Bashir Adefaka, Media Practitioner and Consultant. Reach him via his email: omope72@yahoo.com
