By Bola Bolawole
Christmas is here, but there is no “feferity” that usually heralds its coming. New Year itself is around the corner but there are no signs amongst the people. From 2023, only the super rich celebrate here. The middle class has all but been wiped off, such that it is either you are rich or you are poor. I used to be a proud member of the upper middle class, but now I am counted among the poor, barely managing to keep my head about water.
We the poor have to do something about the rich sooner than later. We have to make up our mind what to do and how to do it. It is no longer a case of if but when; and not of whether but how. And the earlier the better! If anyone counts this as an incitement, so be it! The time has come when we the poor must incite ourselves! If you are poor and no one incites you to action, incite yourself! Such is the time that we are in, in Nigeria of today.
Christmas is here, but no shopping is going on! Can anyone shop with empty pockets? No buying of new clothes. No purchasing of new shoes. No stocking of the home with essential commodities. No plan for holidays or travels. Insecurity apart, transportation costs, prohibitive these days, will balloon still. Need we mention the skyrocketing cost of foodstuffs?
New Year is knocking on the door, pushing Christmas to quickly make its exit for 2026 to pop in. No chicken is tied down somewhere. In the good old days, children would be busy feeding cockerels being fattened for slaughter. Boys would be leading the “meee” to green fields to keep it robust for the D-Day. Even frozen fish is king these days. Depending on its size, an egg costs between N200 and N300, which not many households can again afford. These days, a balanced diet is the luxury of the rich. The poor eat whatever they find – where at all they find it. Many go without food for days.
Yet the super rich live life to the hilt – and before our very eyes! It is not as if we are lazy and they are hard-working. It is simply a function of their station and status in life. Charged with the responsibility of ministering to the needs of the people, they minister only to themselves to the neglect of their basic responsibility – we, the people!
Our leaders behave like the proverbial Yoruba “a-nikan-j’opon”. Not only do they take their fill, they take it all, without giving a hoot if everyone else goes to bed with an empty stomach. The Yoruba have a proverb for such leaders; they are called “Bamu-bamu ni mo yo; mi o mo boya ebi n pa omo enikankan!” Once they are okay, that is all that matters to them. They take what they need and what they do not need – even if they and their generations live for a thousand years.
A sadder aspect is that much of what these gluttons and selfish elements hoard, denying the needy the use of it, they eventually waste. How many stories of cash, even in foreign currencies, that end up being eaten by termites, have we not heard? Only a few days ago, I heard one of such stories of a two-time military-cum-civilian governor in one of the South-west states who buried dollars underground and termites invaded and ate up everything!
Money that should have gone into development purposes are tied down by senseless leaders who abuse the confidence entrusted in them by the people. And the late South African reggae musician, Lucky Dube, comes to mind here. In “The hand that giveth”, Dube asked the following pertinent questions: “Are you feeling happy/When you see another man with no food/Does it make you feel great/Maybe to see another man without a thing/ You read about it in the Bible/But didn’t understand it/Blessed is the hand that giveth/Than the one that taketh”
Yes, our leaders read it in the Bible, and even in the Quran! They understand it, but do not give a hoot. Even those who preach it, who live by the word they preach in the Bible and Quran, also do not give a hoot. Many are who steal in the name of God these days, like Max Romeo crooned.
Romeo lampoons them this way: “Stealing, stealing, stealing, stealing, stealing/Stealing in the name of the Lord/My father’s house of worship/Has become a den of thieves/Stealing in the name of the Lord/They fed our mothers with sour grapes/And set our teeth on edge/Stealing in the name of the Lord/Strike the hammer of justice/And set my people free/Strike the hammer of justice/Or let my people be/They tell us of a heaven/Where milk and honey flows/Stealing in the name of the Lord
“They say this place called heaven/No rich man can go/Stealing in the name of the Lord/Yet the reverend drives out fancy car/Buys everything tax-free/The people have to sacrifice/To give in charity/My father’s house of worship/Has become a den of thieves/Stealing in the name of the Lord/Stealing, stealing, stealing/Stealing, stealing/Stealing in the name of the Lord/Stealing, stealing, stealing/Stealing, oh stealing/Stealing in the name of the Lord/Oh stealing, stealing/Stealing in the name of the Lord”
Why there is grinding and multidimensional poverty in the land is because of the mindless corruption and stealing that has ravaged, and still ravages, the land. It is not only politicians who steal, even those who profess to preach the word of God and lead/feed His flock are not spared. So-called prophets who stalk politicians! Birds of a feather! Prophecies for sale! Visions for the highest bidder! Worse than those days when the Catholic Church commercialised salvation by selling indulgences to those who would make heaven! But we must have a rethink.!
Decades of pillaging of the national coffers have left a gaping hole that will take more decades to fill. Yet, rather than for the task of national redemption to have started in earnest, the rot continues undetered. Government policies and measures continue to deepen the misery of the people. The rich get richer while the poor get poorer. Money saved from subsidy removal and turned over to the three tiers of government have not percolated to the grassroots. We hear, and read, of the quantum of money shared by the three tiers of government on a monthly basis; yet, we cannot see or say where it goeth.
Government’s subsidy alleviation alleviates nothing. The “improvements” in the parlous state of the economy inherited from the ruinous Muhammadu Buhari administration are more of government statistics that do not reflect substantially in the poor’s living conditions. But things cannot continue this way! If I cannot speak for anyone else, I can speak for myself: My patience with the government is running thin.
We must remake this country! And we must start to do so in earnest. Jimmy Cliff’s “Remake the world” spoke to the urgency of the need to quickly remake Nigeria: “Too many people are suffering/Too many people are sad/Too little people got everything/While too many people got nothing/Remake the world/With love and happiness/Remake the world/Put your conscience in the test/Remake the world/North, south, east and west/Remake the world/Gotta prove that (you) are the best, yeah”
“Too many people are suffering/Too many people are sad/Too little people got everything/While too many people got nothing/Remake the world/Come (put) on human dignity/Remake the world/Wipe (out) strife and poverty/Remake the world/Get racism from your sight/Remake the world/Be you black, be you white, yeah/Too many people are suffering/Too many people are sad/Too little people got everything/While too many people got nothing/Remake the world/With love and happiness/Remake the world/People, put your conscience to the test/Remake the world…”
The task is more urgent now than ever before. Time is running out. The political elite must understand that they have everything to lose if they allow the poor themselves to seize the initiative. And I see that happening sooner than later. Our leaders cannot continue to ask us to tighten our belts while they loosen theirs. They cannot demand more sacrifice from us when we see them live life to the hilt.
Christmas is here – what do our leaders do for the poor? Are the rich the only ones – and their families – that must celebrate? We the poor also have a right to celebrate in our own little corners. New Year beckons and it is not only the privileged few that must enter it with singing and dancing. We the poor also want to enter the new year with rejoicing and some “feferity.” They deny us this at their collective peril!
Says Jean Jacques Rousseau (in “The Social Contract”): “The strongest is never strong enough to always be the master unless he transforms strength into right, and obedience into duty.” If anyone thinks the suffering poor will be held down forever, they make a mistake! We the poor shall soon stir, and when we do, we shall smatch our chains! And like Karl Marx posits (in “The Communist Manifesto”), the poor have nothing to lose but their chains!