Sometime ago I learnt from my friend, a veterinary doctor, that at a time there has to be deliberate darkness in the chicken pen, if not, they keep eating even when they are not hungry and because they have a timeframe for growth such continuous eating is wasteful and not profitable for the poultry farmer. One funny trend is that they become obese and cannot move with ease.
At their tender stage, though, they need constant light so that they don’t trample each other to death and to have strong bones through the heat generated by the light.
The onset of the Covid-19 pandemic with its effect on global oil price as it affects Nigeria, a major oil producer, got me thinking about the chicken pen again. The oil glut saw oil prices fall to a record low. If it had gotten worse over a couple of months, then ‘darkness’ would have come upon the leadership/government structure in Nigeria, as cost for running the government machinery from federal to local level will cause an exhaustion of its money and even reserves. The reason is simple, its overdependence on oil revenue.
Ironically though, at the onset of this darkness, it will not be favorable to the nation and its masses because of the readjustment period and demands, but it will be for the good of the politicians and other ‘lazy’ oil profiteers who have failed to hitherto savor life’s essence by being tossed here and there by the power-finance industrial air conditioning.
So should the darkness come and come well, so that when the light of readjustment comes, we SHOULD be better off in the long run?
The high monetization of politics, greed and the hyper escape from poverty has contributed in no small measure to the waste of meaningful revenue in the country. We see people amassing billions which they did not work for in anyway but wrote to themselves through official pens.
Nigerians generally have strong work ethics and so if the country is run properly, any hardworking Nigerian should be able to live comfortably including the elite kids. So you see, no need for embezzlement. Take a look at the huge economy of the entertainment industry.
Like I said, it will be demanding, but the darkness in the pen at the long run will be for the quantum progress of the nation.
