Inditing from the great state of Wisconsin in these first few hours of the new year, I bellow a shout-out to Nigerians; wishing all for the best a radically different year from the last, and hoping that this new year will be brimmed up with peace and prosperity for our beleaguered nation. I pray for a season with far less biting poverty, far less harsh environment brought about by insecurity, and a much more united Nigeria bound in freedom, peace, and unity. My friends, around the world, these following words are not rendered in hushed tones, but spoken loudly in great quarters. The resilient ruggedness of Nigerians is awestriking.
Their intestinal fortitude is incomparable. What has killed in many nations is an opportunity for elevation and breakthrough. What ought to silence regular homo-sapiens spikes up in Nigerians’ lives more abundantly. And an eviscerating affliction capable of cascading even superhumans into demise wakes up an incomparable jolting jump-start from inside of them. Don’t think it’s over for Nigerians when all indicates it should be over. They possess a rare ability to start life over even when struck by lightning and left for dead. They are not just indomitable; they are unconquerable and undefeatable. Were they created with a peculiar hormonal implant to cushion off long-suffering amidst afflictions? I think so. In the face of pounding pestilence, they trudge on with swagger. Many are hungry, yet they party. Many don’t have jobs, yet they build houses. Many of them may tell you what’s in their bank account is paltry, yet their children study overseas. I don’t know how they do it.
Opinions are out there that Nigeria is a complicated, intricate, and flummoxing organism where wrongs rule and doing right may seem impossible. Holders of this thought may be right about their sequitur. But ask around the world. Probe haters of Nigeria and drill despisers of Nigerians. Query those who have refused to agree that a scintilla of goodwill will one day come out of the country and you will still find even many voices quipping that Nigerians are a peculiar people with extraordinary bounce-back ability from oppression and hard times. My friends, Nigerians are tough cookies. Ask them how they keep keeping on; even the atheist among them will tell you: “It’s the Grace of God.” Indeed, the fashion with which Nigerians survive the biting venom of an ailing economy, hounding hunger, and a sorry state of metastasizing insecurity, must be the Grace of God!
When last year, President Bola Tinubu squashed the fuel subsidy shenanigan that enriched a few Nigerians, a few neighbouring countries, many thought an end had come. The bruising beast called had cost Nigeria billions of dollars over many years and pauperised the citizenry for eons. Tinubu’s bold move was applauded all over the world. Even his haters loved and lauded this president for the move. It was long overdue. Presidents who came before him had stealthily avoided the discussion. Tinubu knew this was a slippery area. The president also knew that baneful benefactors from the filthy pool of corruption in the crude oil business would come after him. They did. The toiling in the aftermath was much. But Nigerians kept on keeping on.
Weakened economic fundamentals led the country’s persistent inflation to reach a 17-year high of 25.8 per cent in August 2023, three months after Tinubu was sworn in. Combining that with sluggish growth, millions of Nigerians sank into the Gehenna of poverty. Worldwide gross domestic product in 2022 was at about $12,607 per capita. GDP in Nigeria, on the other hand, reached $2,184 per capita, or $477.39bn for the whole country. Nigeria is therefore currently ranked 31 among the major economies. Inflation in 2022 was around 18.85 per cent. As of November 2023, it was 28.9 per cent. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, Nigeria’s food inflation hit 30.64 per cent in September. The hit has pushed the affordability of staple foods for ordinary Nigerians beyond attainment.
Electricity tariffs leaped by 40 per cent and fuel now costs N700 per litre. Transport and other amenities are increasingly out of reach for Nigerians. If you knew anyone working with any government in Nigeria, ask them to break it all down. Then you will find out that there is no realistic forge-ahead any worker can make with an N33,000 minimum wage. What would that purchase in an economy that was ravaged by leadership benightedness before Tinubu came on board? Not much!
Tinubu just told us that he understands the intensity of the pain the people are suffering. In his new year address, he boldly told us that he would revamp the economy and make the country better. Can he pull us out of the woods? Tinubu has the men, means, and the mindset. Mr President also said the primary objective of the proposed N27.5tn budget for 2024 is to sustain the robust foundation for sustainable economic development. With men around him, this is doable. He also projected that the economy would grow by at least 3.76 per cent in the new year, and infrastructure and social welfare programmes would be among his government’s priorities to reduce hardship in the country of more than 210 million people.
The internationally accepted extreme poverty line level is $1.25. Between 1990 and 2000, the global poverty level fell from 43 per cent to 21 per cent- one billion people. Today, there are close to two billion people below the poverty level. Between 1981 and 2010, China pulled 680 million people out of misery and reduced the extreme poverty rate from 84 per cent in 1980 to 10 per cent now. If China could do it, Nigeria under Tinubu should be able to pull it off too. Taking a ragtag economy from the trash bin to the acme of affluence is Tinubu’s forte.
Nigerians have not forgotten his track records in Lagos State as governor for eight years. On these leadership antecedents, many Nigerians hang their hopes. That is all we have. Hope drives Nigerians. Hope keeps them sprinting to the finish line. Hope energises them in the face of brazen robbery, corruption, and cumshaw by coteries of cruel and corrupt leaders. Hope keeps them alive when government policies and implementations of the same should have entombed them in despair. Nigerians’ innate urge to keep going even when all is stagnant is nonpareil. Hope drives Nigerians. And it is why I voluntarily fuse and bind my hope with those who hope that in Nigeria and for Nigerians, these hard times shall pass.
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