Citizen Tawakalitu Adeyeye as a metaphor

Apoignant picture of the widespread poverty and despair in the country was painted penultimate week by the sad story of a 36-year-old woman, Mrs. Tawakalitu Adeyeye, who was rescued by the police after she collapsed at the Ikolaba area of Ibadan, Oyo State. Many a passer-by had been reluctant to help the mother of three out of fear, but a good Samaritan eventually summoned courage and tried to resuscitate her by pouring cold water on her, to no avail. Then, an  eyewitness reportedly put a call through to the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) of the state command, Mr. Adekunle Ajisebutu, who immediately raced to the scene and also alerted the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of the Ikolaba Division.

But a shocker awaited the police. On regaining consciousness, Tawakalitu stated that there was nothing wrong with her medically: she collapsed because she had not eaten anything in two days!  She said in a feeble voice:  “I am a labourer. I have regularly gone to the Wema area in Iwo Road where labourers normally converge daily for menial work, but for the past one month, I have not got any work. On the day I collapsed, I was returning home to Ijokodo in Sango area. I was trekking like I did in the morning when I went in search of a job. I didn’t eat the previous day because I had nothing, and I prayed I would get a job that day, but it wasn’t to be. I became weak around Ikolaba area and fell to the ground.”

Her husband, a cab driver, had abandoned her and her three children, she said. And as noted by Dr. Rashidi Salaudeen, the director of the hospital where she was rushed to, she could have died if help had not come her way when it did. Moved by her plight, the Police PRO donated food items and an undisclosed sum of money to her, while beseeching God to help her get a more decent and rewarding job. If Tawakalitu is now back home, it would be because the police or some other persons chose to pay her hospital bill, or perhaps the hospital chose to write it off. Such is the fate of the downtrodden in today’s Nigeria.

To be sure, the case of Mrs. Adeyeye is only emblematic of the plight of the vast majority of Nigerians, particularly since the economy went into recession. Going by the August 2016 report of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), no fewer than 112 million Nigerians, representing 67.1 per cent of the population, now live below the poverty line.  Happily, those in the corridors of power are, at least verbally, aware of the abject poverty in the land. Speaking at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, in February, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Honourable Yakubu Dogara, acknowledged that Nigerians could no longer cater for their needs in the face of the prevailing economic situation.

Dogara said: “Going by the report of the National Bureau of Statistics, economic recession is already with us. The double quarters of negative growth, high level of inflation, worsening purchasing power of the naira and the increasing levels of unemployment are all strong indicators that all is not well. Today, some of our people can no longer afford to feed. Some children are dropping out of school due to the inability of parents to pay school fees. There is general anguish on the faces of Nigerians due to poverty and hunger. We cannot continue to lament. The problems are well known. At this point in time, it is the solutions that matters more and that is what should engage our attention. As a parliament, we are committed to ensuring that the sufferings being experienced by ordinary Nigerians are alleviated.”

Indeed, alarmed by the widespread poverty in the land, Nigerians from all walks of life had, in February, trooped out in major cities in the country to protest against the poor governance and the economic policies of the Federal Government. Addressing the protesters in Abuja, the then acting President Yemi Osinbajo had averred that the Federal Government was aware of the suffering of Nigerians, and that the administration under Buhari was determined to make a change. It is indeed time for the government to abandon rhetoric and tackle poverty in concrete terms.

Although President Muhammadu Buhari promised to tackle the country’s economic problems like he did Boko Haram, Nigerians will not attach any importance to such promises until there is demonstrable change in their fortunes. It is certainly saddening that poverty, which was at a very manageable rate under colonialism, has continued to exacerbate under successive governments. The excuse that the population has increased significantly since then is no justification for ineptitude.  In our view, governments at all levels must redouble their efforts to drastically reduce the poverty in the land. In particular, the state governors must release their stranglehold on the local government councils which are supposed to be the closest government to the people. They should stop toying with local government funds and should allow democratically-elected chairmen to preside over the councils’ affairs.

In the case of Citizen Tawakalitu, we urge the Oyo State government to come to her aid in whatever way it deems fit. We salute the Oyo State police command and its spokesman for the timely response to the alert on her condition and the moral and financial assistance given to her. We urge the command to ensure that this kind of response defines its operations. However, there are millions of people in Tawakalitu’s shoes across the country, and their plight has to be addressed if the nation hopes to move forward. That is why the government needs to act fast. Failure to do so will have disastrous consequences on the nation.