In today’s Nigeria, the stark reality is that you give so much and get so little in return. A friend once described it as “hustling backward.”

You watch your peers, who “JAPA” (a colloquial term for emigrating) to other countries just two years ago, and see them doing a lot better than you. It makes you question what exactly you are doing here.

Your dreams seem increasingly unattainable with each passing day. The money in your account depreciates by the second; it’s like chasing a goose.

You constantly compare the cost of things now to last year and the years before, and it breaks your heart.

Today’s Nigeria is structured to make it almost impossible for you, as an individual, to keep up if you’re a salary earner.

Your life five years ago was better than the present, regardless of whether you are earning more or got a promotion.

As an entrepreneur, you ask yourself how to survive in an unstable economy when the business you have spent years building is dying right before your eyes.

Nigeria today is molded to frustrate its citizens. Expensive fuel is scarce, and you spend close to two-thirds of your day in traffic caused by a lack of basic infrastructure.

As your standard of living continues to deteriorate, you realize you can’t even afford things that used to be within reach.

You can barely feed yourself properly. Meanwhile, you read about ex-ministers who carted away billions of naira and haven’t been held accountable.

Worse, you hear about a sitting minister spending 1.5 million naira on fueling cars!

Nigeria today feels hopeless. In one year, the naira has depreciated by over 51% and is rapidly losing value.

The current administration seems indifferent to the state of affairs; the only significant thing they talk about is sharing rice.

The sad truth is that Nigeria today is a failed state, exhibiting many of the characteristics of one:

lack of rule of law, lack of separation of powers among the branches of government, and rampant insecurity, among others.

Written By Omobosola Karimat Alaka