The economic crisis in Nigeria, fueled by unending political forces, has indeed, taken its toll on the survival of its people. The survivalist ability of the average Nigerian is being tested to the limit what with the lean resources and decline in his/her ability to afford the necessities of life.
Nigerians are wont to greet each other with such phrases like “Happy Weekend,” “Happy Sunday,” or whatever day of the week. A new phrase getting into our greeting parlance is “Happy Survival” – an obvious euphemism for the ability to remain afloat in the deluge of poverty threating to overcome the populace. – The survivalist streak in the psyche of today’s ‘hardship-beaten’ Nigerian, under excruciating economic throes, is a wonder to watch.
Nigeria is a nation in crisis. It is instructive that on the eve of the nation’s fifty-eight independence anniversary, the labour unions are out on strike on account of the demand for a new national minimum wage which has stagnated at N18, 000 a month for many years.
Life is tough for the average citizen. How do you fathom a mother just delivered a baby in less than a week leaving the new arrival on its bed to cry, as she plaits another woman’s hair (her customer) in order to earn some cash for that day’s food!
Ada’s mother’s business is hair-plaiting. The husband had been retrenched from his place of work. In their single room apartment, there are five mouths to feed: husband, children. The latest arrival complicates the problem of feeding. So, a hubby goes out in search of a living (his search always fruitless), mummy passes word round to her customers to visit her residence, to do their hair. And when she’s ‘on duty’ baby- cuddling vanishes, she comes back to the crying baby when the job is done, cash paid … hallelujah, the day’s food guaranteed! Rent? Who’s talking about the sick amidst the dead?
Take the case of another family of six: husband and wife are low-level government workers in one of the states where the monthly salaries are sporadic; the wife’s brother who is staying with them works at a place where they have not been paid for nine months. Yes, NINE months. There are four children – two in secondary and two others in primary schools. I leave it to your imagination to figure out how they are surviving.
Just before each planting season, menial jobs like bush clearing (hitherto done by farm hands and other unskilled labour) are taken up by civil servants and teachers to augment their dwindling income. They stay away from work and schools under spurious excuses to actualize this survivalist adventure. Some either go to work for two or three days in the week and make use of the rest of the days for trading or devise a few hours to office work, after which they head for the market or the farm. Each person is engaged in one side hustle or the other.
Among the high-brow professionals, the story is a little skewed. The lingering economic crisis has stalled the country’s construction industry. The people in this sector have to adjust their working schedule to suit emerging trends. Experts have now evolved various ways of survival, doing jobs not traditionally within their areas of practice. For example, building engineers have returned to the drawing board to execute design jobs; quantity surveyors, town planners and land surveyors are now active in the estate agency. Some civil engineering companies now lay off staff, and place some of their plants and equipment on lease, to survive.
Where people fall ill, they go to government hospitals because they dare not go to private clinics. However, the healthcare system has crumbled. It is a desperate situation in those hospitals. The appalling state of affairs in the healthcare delivery system is as a result of almost two decades of neglect by the relevant authorities in government at both the federal and state levels to the detriment of the public. The nation’s population has grown, requiring the increased expenditure in public healthcare; this has not been the case, with the result that all health-care amenities have more or less been destroyed. Basic things are lacking. There is no commensurate number of health facilities to cater for the teeming population. And as if that is not enough, there are incessant, often justified strikes by doctors, nurses and other health workers, which cripple service delivery. Poor attitude to work of health care workers is legendary. The doctors sometimes though seem to lose sight of the ethics of the profession that honours the sanctity of life. Instead, some doctors, nurses and other health workers often exhibit the worst form of cruelty to patients. The practice whereby doctors refer patients to their private hospitals where they are exploited without adequate treatment is well known. So the ordinary citizen more often than not only falls back to what the Mammy Wagon philosopher says – “God Dey” and resorts to going from one prayer house to other seeking solutions to his health problems.
Borrowing two another Mammy Wagon philosopher’s statements “Na Wah O!” – “Dem No Go Kill Us”
The desperation of our young men and women who are most affected by the economic woes of our nation is pitiable. The economic situation is driving them to seek greener pastures by any and all means by travelling to other countries. This is despite the daily reports of gory incidents involving those taking the war-torn Libya route to Europe on the high seas. Current reports suggest that many Nigerians are, in fact, not deterred by the tales of woe of Nigerians that are currently languishing in some jails in Libya and some parts of Europe, who had taken the illegal route, they are still lining up for their own dangerous expedition to Europe in their desperation to escape the country’s worsening economic situation.
The swapping of trades to beat economic distress is now the vogue. The ordinary citizen has artfully harnessed the instincts to get on with “whatever the hands find to do” to survive the harsh times. Although rough economic weather and harsh circumstances have taken their toll, his soul is solid crystal. The proverbial “down but not out”, applies, because the hope for a better future keeps him alive!
The cause of our economic woes notwithstanding, the average Nigerian takes the rough with the smooth. A past master in resilience, he believes, and sincerely too, that “E Go Better”, and life must go on. Hopefully, things might get better. We pray that it does get better for all our sakes.
Happy Independence Day and Happy Survival.
Article By Bright Umoh