Opinion: Who’s hoarding our unity?

by Samuel Akinnuga

 

I can’t describe exactly the feeling with which I write this but I can at least share the reason for writing: to share an experience I believe many Nigerians can relate to.

Let me start with this sad truth: The best way Nigerians respond to harsh and unfriendly situations in the country is by adapting rather than protesting and uniting in one voice to demand rights to the injustices we have endured over the years. This makes it very easy to determine what our foreign peers mean when they sing the ‘praises’ of Nigeria as a country with people who can adapt to any situation, however harsh or conducive. This feat, in my candid opinion, has only been achieved with stupendous efforts by the political leaders who with other things they promised the masses of the people endow us with the gift of long-suffering in abundance. In my sincere assessment, this seems to be the only unwritten campaign promise that they give freely to masses the people.

How these people even get to these positions of authority, I am not sure again. They say people vote but it seems to me that people put themselves there by some kind of electoral magic. In other places, I have observed that their leaders get into political positions, only to look much older than their age at the expiration of their tenure. In Nigeria, it is amazing how our politicians get into office and at the end of their tenure look very much younger. Scientists may be interested in further studying this new phenomenon that uniquely applies to Nigeria and a few other places and it would be no surprise to me if it gets to a point that doctors begin to advise that the most effective way to look younger is to become a politician only that you would have to fight your way to that desired position.

The disparity in the incomes of these men and the people they claim to serve is overwhelming outrageous that one is tempted to ask what these men or women (in very rare cases) even do. I meant in no way at all to write about politicians but at the same time, I hope it is a small way of adding my voice to the call that Nigerians deserve far much better than they are receiving.

Now to the crux of this essay. In my sheer observation, I have noticed that frustration is on the increase. The frustration of people not being able to fulfil their multifarious financial obligations from paying school fees to even paying for transportation around. Due to present economic realities, the masses have had to make a strong decision between what is needed and what can be afforded per time. What is the fate of those who are not as privileged?

Let’s call a spade what it really is: our N5, N10 and N20 notes can buy almost nothing in the country at the moment. The N50 note has now attained the position of the new N5 note. I can advise the Central Bank of Nigeria for free that the Naira should start with and from N50 because the minting of notes below N50 is a complete waste of time and resources when in the end you can buy almost nothing with it.

The N50 for me is a very special note because it is more than a paper for value exchange. It captures the essence of our Nigerianity, at least to some extent. The unity of the various ethnic identities that makes it is the message the images of the people representing the ethnic identities communicates to and resonates within me. Unity!

There is so much strength in unity. Change only happens when people unite in one voice to demand it. I remember when a quote that reads (if may paraphrase), that ‘change comes when the people are activated. When their voices are heard, they can’t be stopped’.

There is no limit to what we can achieve if we are united. This unity is what some ill-minded people are fighting against and sadly many of them are Nigerians in high places have done nothing but suck the resources of this nation slim. We are not there yet and to speak the truth, we are far but we can get there.

We need to get to the stage when the term Nigerian is not just used to separate those who live in Nigeria from those who don’t. We can get there. We will get there! But at the moment when the N50 note seems to the scarcest resource, I wouldn’t be wrong to ask the big question: who’s hoarding our Unity?


Op–ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija

Samuel Akinnuga writes from Lagos.

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