Buying fuel these days is war. Hoping to have power is another war. Going to the market with a budget is a wrong decision these days. Trying to live a comfortable life, including hanging out on weekends, is now a bad decision. We could do a list of 100 reasons young Nigerians are emigrating in hundreds or planning to, and it will be non-exhaustive.
“Nigeria is hard” is not a joke, but we are all suffering and smiling, bantering on social media, tolerating all the irresponsibilities because we are good people.
No one has been held responsible for the bad fuel that was imported into the country; the same one that knocked car engines. GenCos, TCN, and DisCos, and the government continue to trade words over whose fault it is to ensure constant power. The Consumer Price Index rose to 15.7 per cent in February from 15.6 per cent in January.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics, “In February 2022, the CPI which measures inflation increased to 15.70 per cent on a year-on-year basis. This is 1.63 per cent points lower compared to the rate recorded in February 2021 (17.33) per cent. This means that the headline inflation rate slowed down in February when compared to the same month in the previous year.
“Increases were recorded in all classification of individual consumption by purpose divisions that yielded the headline index. On month-on-month basis, the headline index increased to 1.63 per cent in February 2022, this is 0.16 per cent rate higher than the rate recorded in January 2022 (1.47) per cent.”
But, the decrease from January 2022 to February 2022 is hardly relatable to the average citizen.
You could buy a bowl of tomatoes 1,000 naira on a hot Saturday afternoon, and on Sunday hear that it has increased to 1,800 naira. Do not be surprised, and if you come to be, welcome to Nigeria. Also, if you think the price will reduce after everything goes back to normal, again, welcome to Nigeria.
A Twitter user, A_blackwoman has seen all of this and probably more and has decided to help her spouse.
In her tweets, she says part of her salary, 20%, will go to her husband for his personal upkeep. An outreach that we all know is a rarity.
“The pressure on these men. I have finally come to a conclusion that 20% of my salary would go to my husband as my support to his personal upkeep and 30% to our family’s account… Because Omo!
“A couple of hours outside my house and I can’t help but notice the mechanic sweating his life out, the conductor shouting, there’s this man (looking early 50’s) hawking palm/vegetable oil under this wicked sun o, I’m just seeing a lot, I feel for them.
“Then these cement trucks, there is another man who folded himself and is struggling to maybe catch a minute or two of good sleep on top cement, under sun. My own man is blessed ahead, that man must not suffer o.”
Indeed, not everyone will have the means to do what @A_blackwoman plans to do, especially if you live in Lagos where transportation alone – car owner or not – will frustrate the small air you are breathing out of you. But, small steps do the job sometimes.
There are too many conversations on Nigeria’s economic situation, and if anyone wrote a book, it will take over 5,000 pages. With @A_blackwoman’s attempt to help, we can talk of respite.
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