By Vincent Nwanma

Nigerians are known for their resilience. This is evident everywhere and has provided the pillar of support to many in the current economic conditions. However, governments should not exploit this virtue. While Nigerians are renowned for their strength, it would be wrong to stretch that attribute beyond its limit.

You see resilience when a woman, with a baby strapped to her back, is hawking on the busy street in a typical town under the scorching sun. You see this when men and women undertake near-impossible jobs, just so they can put food on the table, as Nigerians say. Even now that the table is no longer available in some homes, they are not deterred, either by the sun or rainfall. You see this when elderly men and women rise early and trek to their farms, undeterred by the weather.

Most ordinary Nigerians are people of honour. Their determination to succeed is evident in the crowded marketplace, where everyone, despite all the odds against them, demonstrates uncommon resilience in achieving success. When last did you see a typical market woman display her resolve not to be pushed about because there is no money for food? Have you watched a female trader returning from the market sitting in a big lorry, sometimes atop her wares and those of others? Have you forgotten how she disembarks from the lorry without minding the height?

Have you taken time to observe load carriers at our bustling markets? Some carry heavy loads that terrify even bouncers. They do that to ensure that their children remain in school, despite the harsh realities. Many parents would rather starve than see their children driven away from school for not paying their fees or going to bed hungry.

It is this doggedness that has sustained most Nigerian households who find themselves on the lower rungs of society in the face of daunting economic challenges often induced by policy convolutions. It is this resilience that provides the first line of defence for most households from what would otherwise become devastating outcomes of policy shocks. Families’ incomes have been rendered inconsequential concerning needs. Yet, in such homes, both men and women have risen to the challenge. This is a manifestation of their dogged determination to survive even in the most impossible situations.

This inbuilt resilience in Nigerians has been the source of their staying power. Otherwise, many of them would have been driven to feed from the dustbins of the well-off in society, perhaps more than those who have done so. Many Nigerians would recall how a federal minister in the Second Republic allegedly said that Nigerians were not yet eating from dustbins. The minister was alleged to have remarked in response to complaints by Nigerians over the impact of the economic policies of the government of the time.

While that statement was attributed to a particular minister, it is unfortunately symptomatic of some government officials’ disconnect from the plight of people who should be the beneficiaries of reform policies. It is disheartening to see officials talk or behave in ways that tend to suggest that their lives are superior to those of ordinary citizens.

Interestingly, this type of scenario usually plays out during what governments call reforms. At such times, people’s economic realities are significantly altered by policies, but some federal officials, where such changes originate, miss the point. In the Second Republic case, for instance, the administration of President Shehu Shagari announced on April 18, 1982, a set of restrictive measures under what became known as Austerity Measures. The government said that the collapse of commodity prices had negatively impacted its finances, so it could not provide basic services to Nigerians. It was a package to cut public spending, and even end employment by government departments, among others.

That decision put the economy into a tailspin. Prices shot out of hand. Basic food commodities disappeared. Unemployment rose and stretched and got worse with the coming of General Muhammadu Buhari’s regime that overthrew President Shagari on December 31, 1983. For the first time in Nigeria, perhaps, people graduating from the universities began to experience unemployment from around 1982, as jobs dried up. Whereas in previous years, employers went to campuses to recruit students before their degree examinations, in the post-austerity years, graduates carried their certificates, chasing non-existent jobs. The economy was thin at the time, with just about 12 banks in existence, and only one telecom company – NITEL.

Surprisingly, some of the criticism and outcry against the harsh programmes did not receive the correct response. The alleged statement by the minister was made in response to these complaints. The minister was reported to have said that there was no evidence of suffering in the country then, as there was no report of Nigerians feeding from the dustbins, yet.

It may be wrong to claim that no Nigerians have been pushed to pick food from dustbins during harsh economic reforms starting from the Shagari era. Indeed, the common experience of ordinary people is that they have been pushed beyond their limits sometimes, both in the past and in the present dispensation.