Salah with tears

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ON May 29, Nigeria experienced peaceful transition of power from yet another administration to the other in the current Republic. The eight-year rule of President Muhammadu Buhari came to an end even as the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu officially kicked off. In the same vein, across the country, new governments were inaugurated at state level with copious promises of changes and reforms that would elevate Nigerians from their current pitiable position and give them a better quality of life. It may be too early in the day to assess the new administrations from federal to state levels, and that is not our focus. The fact, however, is that while awaiting the trumpeted magic that would take them out of the appalling and excruciating economic conditions in which they have been trapped for years, Nigerians are currently experiencing pains and agonies on multiple levels. That is the picture of life as they brave the odds to celebrate Eid-el-Kabir today without enjoying such basic things of life as potable water and reasonable power supply.

From all indications, the rhetoric by officialdom notwithstanding, millions of Nigerians are living in penury. They either have nothing to eat at all, or they are forced to eat meals that even prisoners would not be served in certain decent climes. Many have been literally crushed and silenced; they experience despair as a routine. Nigerians have become accustomed to deprivation while the political leadership literally gorges itself on the resources of the state. Indeed, to say that life has become miserable for most Nigerians is to put it very mildly; it is almost as if the existence of the long-suffering masses is being criminalised. Things are so difficult in the country right now. Indeed, just how are Nigerians supposed to demonstrate the spirit of the season, the spirit of giving, when they hardly have anything to eat? Officialdom may huff and puff, but there is palpable despair in the land. Nigerians do not eat well and do not have money. They fall sick and die entirely avoidable deaths. The auguries are dark and portentous.

Life and living for most Nigerians have become such a tedious and laborious undertaking. It is now almost impossible to meet anyone who is not in tears on account of the burden of existence imposed by the inclement environment arising from governmental policies and actions. With the national minimum wage still at the deplorable level of N30,000 a month, and with many state governments not even paying this miserable sum to their workers yet, the government has gone ahead to introduce almost 300 percent increase in petrol prices through the removal of subsidies, imposing a new regime of Value Added Tax (VAT) on diesel even while also effecting the merger of multiple foreign exchange rates, which effectively translates into a devaluation of the naira and an unprecedented increase in the exchange rate: almost N800 to the United States dollar. The overall effect of all these things has been a steep increase in the prices of goods and services, sometimes to unbearable levels.

And we wonder how the government wants Nigerians to survive within this burdensome context. Pray, is it that the government wants to effectively price all Nigerians at the level of the minimum wage out of existence as it is clearly impossible for such people to maintain a living under the present condition? Or how exactly does the government want such people to survive, in spite of all the price increases if not with tears? We hasten to let the government know that the despair in the land on account of its current policies is real and that citizens are only enduring the pain for now until life is eventually snuffed out of them by the present burden of existence. This cannot and should not be the intent of the government. It therefore has a duty to urgently address the fallouts of its current constricting policies to ensure that citizens are afforded some breathing space to make living possible.

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