There different types of Class in any Economy , We have Upper Class, Middle Class & Lower Class. In the Nigeria of today there is only a tiny thread separating the middle class and lower class.
With double digits inflation rate of 22.04% a middle class Nigerian; i . e Professionals , Civil Servants , Corporate Employees , Small Business Owners , Educators , White-Collar Workers and several others can barely keep up .
There is a new slogan on the street that ” The People that used to do better , are now doing good , the people that used to do good , are now doing bad ” this means there is no upward mobility in the life of an everyday Nigerian . In fact citizens are getting poorer daily with multiple government policies creating incessant instability in the nation.
An example of this is the Naira Design announced in Oct 2022, Dumebi Oluwole of Stears in an Article titled ” Ripple effects: The impact of the naira redesign on Nigeria’s GDP ” quoted
” poor implementation occurred as the CBN significantly reduced the supply of old notes, while new ones were scarce, fueling a black market for the naira. This worsened inflation, contradicting the policy’s intended solution (albeit minimally) “
The naira redesign policy harmed the economy because many sectors are cash-dependent in Nigeria. According to Dr Yemi Kale, former Statistician-General of Nigeria, 90% of Nigeria’s informal sector and 30% of the formal sector activities are cash-based. The CBN (equipped with this knowledge) should have done a better job mopping up the said liquidity.
While the Middle Class and Lower Class tried to bounce back from this economic stretch, Subsidy Removal announced May 29th by the President Tinubu in his inauguration speech declared ” subsidy is gone ” which lead to immediate change fuel pump price in the nation. NNPC somedays after released new fuel prices varying from state to state , The Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Mele Kyari was quoted on several media stations saying “ no going back on the removal of fuel subsidy ” .
Well we have all seen the aftermath of subsidy removal on an ordinary Nigerian , Today people trek every single chance they get not willing but out of necessity to cut the cost of transportation from their income. Citizens standard of living has reduced drastically in the last 2 month in fact hunger seems to be lurking on the street of the nation.
The present administration have promised palliatives after their declaration , On Jul 13th , 2023 In less than 24 hours after President Bola Ahmed Tinubu made a request for N500 billion to provide palliatives against fuel subsidy removal, the House of Representatives approved the request.
The 819billion naira supplementary budget will now be used for the following purposes.
“500 billion for Fuel subsidy Palliative , 185.2bn naira for the Ministry of Works, 19.2 billion is now earmarked for Ministry of Agriculture, 100m for the Ministry of water resources , 35 billion for the National Judicial Council , FCTA to get N10bn and N70bn earmarked for the national Assembly Infrastructure”
₦8,000 monthly palliative package for 12 million vulnerable households in Nigeria, for six months. Some days after it was said the presidency had rescinded from the cash palliative to distribution of grains & fertilizers to farmers.
The whole country is left in high level of anguish and disparity with the new administration policies that seem to keep coming in with lack of proper execution plans & implementation.
An ordinary Nigerian cant even HOPE which is quite ironic as the slogan of the President Tinubu manifesto was titled ” RENEWED HOPE ” that is fast becoming been described as ” RENEWED SHEGE ” as this just seems to be a continuation of the Buhari administration that brought a lot peril to the nation.
Forecast shows if nothing is done about fuel prices a lot of Nigerians would go hungrier i.e. From eating 1 or 2ce daily to zero meal a day as a basket of tomatoes becomes more endearing by the day.
“A recent survey by the Africa Polling Institute revealed that 69 per cent of Nigerians would relocate if given the opportunity. A 2023 report by Phillips Consulting disclosed that over 52 per cent of professionals in Nigeria are contemplating leaving their current jobs for opportunities overseas within the next year”
Families are getting separated by distance, Marriages are under turmoil due to emigration paperwork’s especially in the UK. With more countries closing borders on Nigerians this only tells us our country’s diplomacy is weaken with premium speed.
Internally, we have challenges like getting an international passport almost impossible with the number of hours to be spent at the immigration office and the months you need to wait for it to be ready.
With all these societal and economic problems the question is Can Anyone Dream In The Nigeria Of Today ?
Written By Omobosola Karimat Alaka
Political Scientist & Adult Educator