by Alexander O. Onukwue

The visit of the APC chieftains to President Buhari in Abuja House London has evoked mixed reactions from Nigerians.

A good number are happy and relieved to see the President captured, smiling and looking aware, with the anticipation that he would make a return to the country as soon as his doctors give the go-ahead. However, it has not been lost on some that the assortment on the table does not reflect their own personal realities in the country.

The picture of President Buhari’s visitors with him on a table includes a decoration of fruits, fruit juices, cans of Coca Cola, and water, in a scene that shows everyone looking like they were enjoying a good afternoon.

In a casual stroll past the newspaper stand at the University of Lagos gate this Monday morning, where most newspapers ran the picture on their front pages, comments could be heard from bystanders who seemed not much fussed that the President was finally being seen, but that ‘these people’ were enjoying while they were yet to recover from a biting two-year recession.

For better or worse, Buhari’s ascent to the Presidency in 2015 coincided with the plunge of the nation into its worst economic period in over a decade, leading to rapid rises in the prices of regular commodities and the close of companies. The Government has made moves to see to the reversal of the economic crunch, with the inflation rates dropping steadily.

However, it has not really transmitted to material change in prices for the woman on the street. Jollof rice is still expensive to cook, and the gram sizes of most brand products continue to be reduced while their prices are re-adjusted upwards. A bunch of banana, the size that was on that table, would go some way in providing a family meal.

Call it grasping at straws, or people not being objective enough to understand that the party atmosphere the table shows is neither stupendous nor extravagant. But a hungry man is an angry man, and many Nigerians who voted Buhari for Change in 2015, have become much hungrier.