Nigeria's forever economic recession
November 8 2016 By Abiodun Giwa
President Muhammed Buhari
One major song in most Nigerian traditional Churches is that suffering is not soup and Almighty let me not know suffering.
Despite this song and the fact that many Nigerians are Christians who attend Church service than people in other climes, the tendency for the country's successive governments to impose suffering on the people knows no limitation.
Imagine a government announcing the employment of about 200,000 university graduates on N30,000, equivalent of $84 a month.
Before the news from the Federal Government, the government in Lagos had announced its intention to employ certain number of university graduates as bus conductors.
Observers have noted in various discussions that $84 a month is not up to a quarter of weekly wages for car wash workers in the United States. At least by now, a car worker will be taking home a minimum wage of about $9.00 an hour, and when this is multiplied by 40 hours, it amounts to $360.00 a week.
Can you see the reason why people are careless about the danger of traveling across the Mediterranean in search of the greener pasture in Europe? Can you see the 50 Cents statement that it is better to die trying to make it than remain in penury? Yes, penury is the definition of the lifestyle that successive governments in Nigeria and the people in the upper class have forced on poor Nigerians.Many struggling Nigerians believe that both the corrupt government officials and their counterparts in the upper class don't think poor people deserves decent living.
Every Nigerian know that when the even in the days of economic boom, it has always been the government top officers and their rich wealthy counterparts that corner the wealth. The poor have always been like cannon fodders in the hands of the rich and their top government functionaries.
Buhari's government is blaming the scuttling of its program for the poor on the poor oil income. What has any government in Nigeria done for the poor aside from the free education in the Western Region during the Obafemi Awolowo's government in the early sixties? Was the politics in Nigeria from early sixties though to 1979 how to keep Awolowo away from power and the military interregnums? When Buhari had an opportunity in 1983, was his preoccupation not how to catch thieves as a way to beginning of a new government punish political foes and protect his own friends?
Whether oil income is good or bad, Nigerians expect that whoever will be engaged in term of reducing unemployment in the country ought to be engaged on a living wage. Many people are saying that $84 a month does not represent a living wage and that employing university graduates as bis conductors without consideration for whether or not they can be drivers is inhuman.
Nigerians voted change - for better life. But their current economic experience in the country is the opposite of a better life. The government is saying is blaming oil price slump as responsible for the country's economic predicament. Many people are saying there was no oil price slump before Buhari's emergence and that the emergence of oil slump at the beginning of Buhari's government signifies a negative development. A curse.
Nigerians have not stopped their prayers and away with suffering song and many people think that one day God will answer their prayers and put a new song in their mouths.
Despite this song and the fact that many Nigerians are Christians who attend Church service than people in other climes, the tendency for the country's successive governments to impose suffering on the people knows no limitation.
Imagine a government announcing the employment of about 200,000 university graduates on N30,000, equivalent of $84 a month.
Before the news from the Federal Government, the government in Lagos had announced its intention to employ certain number of university graduates as bus conductors.
Observers have noted in various discussions that $84 a month is not up to a quarter of weekly wages for car wash workers in the United States. At least by now, a car worker will be taking home a minimum wage of about $9.00 an hour, and when this is multiplied by 40 hours, it amounts to $360.00 a week.
Can you see the reason why people are careless about the danger of traveling across the Mediterranean in search of the greener pasture in Europe? Can you see the 50 Cents statement that it is better to die trying to make it than remain in penury? Yes, penury is the definition of the lifestyle that successive governments in Nigeria and the people in the upper class have forced on poor Nigerians.Many struggling Nigerians believe that both the corrupt government officials and their counterparts in the upper class don't think poor people deserves decent living.
Every Nigerian know that when the even in the days of economic boom, it has always been the government top officers and their rich wealthy counterparts that corner the wealth. The poor have always been like cannon fodders in the hands of the rich and their top government functionaries.
Buhari's government is blaming the scuttling of its program for the poor on the poor oil income. What has any government in Nigeria done for the poor aside from the free education in the Western Region during the Obafemi Awolowo's government in the early sixties? Was the politics in Nigeria from early sixties though to 1979 how to keep Awolowo away from power and the military interregnums? When Buhari had an opportunity in 1983, was his preoccupation not how to catch thieves as a way to beginning of a new government punish political foes and protect his own friends?
Whether oil income is good or bad, Nigerians expect that whoever will be engaged in term of reducing unemployment in the country ought to be engaged on a living wage. Many people are saying that $84 a month does not represent a living wage and that employing university graduates as bis conductors without consideration for whether or not they can be drivers is inhuman.
Nigerians voted change - for better life. But their current economic experience in the country is the opposite of a better life. The government is saying is blaming oil price slump as responsible for the country's economic predicament. Many people are saying there was no oil price slump before Buhari's emergence and that the emergence of oil slump at the beginning of Buhari's government signifies a negative development. A curse.
Nigerians have not stopped their prayers and away with suffering song and many people think that one day God will answer their prayers and put a new song in their mouths.
