For decades, the elites have held Nigeria down and sabotaged every reform effort. It is to their credit that the poor in the country are going through the worst moment of their lives. Among the downtrodden, things have fallen apart and it has become increasingly difficult for the poor to earn a living. Every right-thinking Nigerian, including President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, agrees that it is time the poor breathed.
But then, when?
When President BAT says “he shares our pains” concerning the harsh economic experience yet he implemented the policy which removes the petrol subsidy. He proclaims “Let the poor breathe. Don’t suffocate them” but are yet to perceive the new administration’s foresightedness or its demonstration of ingenuity in sweeping the nation clean of pains, poverty, hunger, desolations, oppression and frustrations that ravage us in recent times.
No sooner had BAT begun his administration than he promptly transferred the more burden to the masses without first putting cushioning measures in place. Though many sympathisers had opined that he needs time to walk his talk. But then, should BAT not have prepared a way to allow the poor to breathe before these seemingly unpremeditated actions? Many critical and curious Nigerian minds cannot wait for the ‘how and when’ of the BAT’’s rescuing the lower class from this renewed suffocation.
For how long will suffocation choke us?
Most importantly, even the hair-brained idea of increasing the salaries of political officeholders by over 100 per cent if not shelved until a satisfactory new National Minimum Wage is agreed upon and implemented will yet re-echo Shakespeare’s words, “It is the unkindest cut of them all.” In other words, no breathing space for the poor. They want to sniff life out of him. Just a few weeks ago, Sheriffdeen Tella wrote in the Punch Newspaper that “the World Bank alerted the world that Nigeria is one of three countries with the highest level of poverty globally.” And there is no doubt that the negative impacts of the removal of fuel subsidies and realignment of the foreign exchange market still feast on the many poor masses who ceaselessly pant from all the effects of the horrible happenings of the first quarter of 2023.
Man suffocating man
Let us imagine how the small-scale printers, welders, the Okada riders and small-scale transporters with their passengers are still reeling in pains inflicted by the 120 per cent jump in petroleum pump prices. The poor now consume what they can afford, not what they desire. And when money fails, he looks for where shall come a breathing space. Yet he never ceases to adopt some survival strategies to avoid total strangulation from the current terrible economic policies.
More so, Nigerian workers are among the least paid globally while yet the salaries and allowances of the legislators perpetually drain funds for development. And it seems the poor man’s entitlement or gratuity is devoted to servicing humongous debts accumulated by the past governments. Maybe, the poor in one way or the other is made to cough out these misappropriated funds because their life is down on luck. And like a comedy of intrigue, a high level of productivity and patriotism is demanded from these lowly, suffocated and deceived ones.
When will the Poor Breathe?
Sunday Odeleke, in his piece “Letting the Poor”, published this month in the Nations Newspaper, highlighted certain policies the new administration should necessarily pay keen attention to if indeed it desires that the poor breathe: The poor will breathe when the loopholes through which the elite drain the country’s blood is plugged lest everyone is dragged down by its overwhelming weight; the poor will breathe when the new president hits the ground running, race against time and fix the problems before the ground crumbles from excessive upheavals; the poor shall breathe when the government demands restitution from those who had stolen the nation blind and necessarily channelling away from the oesophagus of the corrupt elite who enriched themselves, claiming subsidies on products they never supplied;
For the poor will breathe when the cost of governance is reduced to ensure a fair share of the Nation’s wealth; the poor will surely breathe when “ministers” that served for 4 to 8 years cease to impoverish the citizens whom they serve and dwarf the retirement benefits of those who worked for 40 years. For the poor shall breathe when President BAT make an immediate end to the multiple foreign exchange rates and shatters the mansion of those who have become cronies and billionaires at the expense of the poor and the nation; let BAT know that the poor will truly breathe when the nation’s power (electricity) becomes affordable and accessible to the commoners in the nooks and crannies of Nigeria by halting exorbitant tariffs that ever cause us asphyxiation; the poor will escape from suffocation when the “New Sheriff” indeed keeps running and ultimately SEE that Our Security, Education and Economic systems and others are resuscitated and re-engineered to serve all and sundry with no single sacred cow.
When the Lives of the Poor matter
Finally, let me borrow the very words of Barrack Obama when he speaks about A New Foundation being laid in America, ”Our economic greatness rests on a simple principle: when the middle class thrives and people can work hard to get into the middle class, America thrives. When it doesn’t, America doesn’t.” I can say a thousand times that the poor will not but breathe when they are allowed to thrive; when they can work hard and get to the middle class. When millions of Nigerians feel enough of the benefits of a nation where it matters – and that is in their lives. Or when they know, can see and feel that their lives matter. Then, they will indeed breathe! And even if they will not still allow the poor to breathe, then the one who owns the Breath of Life will deliver the lowly ones lest they are choked to death.
Adeleke Oluwaseyi James
jamesadelek2014@gmail.com
