Politically, Nigerians are between the rock and a hard place. Economically, they are between the devil and the deep blue sea. In both situations, there are two choices, even though they are bad. In the country today, the choice for a place of succour is far from the political leadership. The social confusion from these is like a festering fire. The populace is not happy, the people are not smiling. Do not be sucked-in by the façade posted by those o yes men and women who litter the social media with un-relatable achievements of this government. You should also not be fooled by the recent positive figures bandied by the new National Bureau of Statistics, which are at variance with the reality of the Nigerian economic situation. The confusion is everywhere.
The current economic realities seriously challenge our pots and sauce pans. A lot of these utensils are on forced holidays as we speak. And this is talking about the real struggling people. Brothers have been transformed to frightening monsters because of the economic situation. The wolf in many – male and female alike – are now manifest when certain responsibilities come to the table. People have been stretched thin, so thin that you could see through them in their stark economic realities and frailties. That is what is called “see finish” on the streets. People are “seen finish” when they have been stretched so thin that you could see the ‘Made in China’ in the plate of every aspect of their life. That is when they have been licked-up like the cow does salt.
In his hilarious autobiography entitled “Everything but Money”, Sam Levenson recorded one of the many incidences that recreate the thought of how thin Nigerians have been stretched. In their home in the early 20th century New York, Levenson brought a semblance of what today is seen as “see finish” on the Nigerian streets. Published by Pocket Books about 53 years ago, the scenario serves simply as a metaphor in the Nigerian situation. He wrote about how one of his mother’s delicacies “brought out the wolf” in him and his seven brothers and sister, Dora. One of his brothers named Michael (later Michael Lenson as nom de brush) worked most nights at the post office in their locality. Their mother would prepare chopped liver and leave Michael’s portion of the food on the table so that he can have something to eat when he returns from work.
Sam says: “This unprotected delicacy standing on the table for hours brought out the wolf in the rest of us. Each one would wait till no one was around, scoop out a little section of the liver, gulp it down and flatten out the remainder with the palm of his hand so it would cover the same area. By the time Mike sat down to eat he could see the design on the plate through the liver.” Nigeria is the chopped liver delicacy. Our political leaders in government are Michael’s brothers while the suffering, hapless and cheated Nigerians are Michael.
The current socio-economic and political position of Nigeria, especially in the last six years, makes this analogy more vivid. Nigeria is the unprotected chopped liver on the table. It is at the mercy of ravenous political, economic and, sometimes religious overlords masquerading as leaders. And they have nearly scooped life out of the debilitated country! All depraved Michael’s brothers in the affairs of the country have bared their foxy fangs while unfortunate Nigerian masses are left hungry and deprived. They have stolen the future of the country. Even what is left has been immersed in a labyrinth of annoying debts. Add the Federal Government’s plan to remove fuel subsidy to the entire melee and we are left with a nation of confused government and a confused citizenry. Remember that it has been difficult for even experts to keep track of the exact position of the government on its petroleum regime, because it had gone from ‘nothing like subsidy’ to 30 million litres of petrol consumed in Nigeria per day to 60 million litres and other confusing, fiddly fuel-related pronouncements.
However, in the midst of all of these, commercial cab drivers in Cross River State acted strangely recently. They wrote a formal notice to the Calabar and the entire Cross River State populace to tell them of their plan to increase transport fares in the state capital. The drivers, under the aegis of United Commercial Drivers of Cross River State said their decision to increase transport fare from N50 to N100 from November 22 was borne out of high cost of spare parts, fuel and other commodities in the market. The drivers listed prices of petrol, engine oil, “Belgium” tyre (used tyre which is commonly known as Tokunbo in the South West); Audi engine and timing belt “and so many other things we cease to mention.” According to them, engine oil was N2,500 in 2015 but now sells for N8,500 while timing belt which sold for N2,500 in 2015 now goes for N15,000.
The Cross River State government intervened by appealing to the drivers to reconsider their decision. The government, through its Ministry of Transport and Marine Services issued a statement to say that the drivers had agreed to rescind their decision. The government typically didn’t say anything about the cause of the drivers’ action. The government didn’t say anything about how to help the drivers who are also victims of the many (even unsaid) things they had been enduring before coming up with that difficult decision. The Cross River government acted the ostrich, characteristic of the government of the day: when you speak about the locust beans, they would speak about the tail.
But the government’s insensitivity is not abnormal. It is characteristic. The abnormal thing here is the civility of the drivers and their out of the world behaviour, going by what we know of commercial drivers in most parts of the country. If the government had called them to find ways of assuaging their problems with regards to the issues they raised, that would have been the misnomer. That is why it could be argued that while the country is still writhing in the pains inflicted by economic hardship, the Federal Government is plotting to further inflict more pains through its plot to increase petrol pump price.
Kudos must be given to the United Commercial Drivers of Cross River State. It is just awesome that commercial transport operators could post a notice of that nature! They have shown that even in the maze of irresponsible leadership and cacophony of unsound economic policies, they can point to their sanity and civility. Imagine getting that kind of public notice from the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) in Ibadan, or Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria (RTEAN) in Ado Ekiti.
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