Palliatives: Death in quest for survival

Growing up years back, one prayer point I know that was very close to the lips of every Igbo person was “dika anyi n’ebili n’ubochi taa, Chineke kwee ka anyi hu nke anyi g’eri. Ekwekwala nke g’eri anyi bia”, which means “as we step out today, may we find that which we will eat, may that which will consume us not come our way.” It still freshly resonates till date. 

Recent developments in the country have really left several minds to worry if there is even a place for citizens to go in search for their daily bread. How many people wake up daily with a clear direction on where to go and fend for themselves and their dependants? It’s either the business has collapsed under the heavyweight of hostile economic environment or relocated to another part of the world as we see several companies leaving the country in droves. 

This has also worsened the already complex and deeply saturated labour market. Farmers cannot freely go to their farms over security scare. The cost of involving in any legitimate business at all has hit the rooftop. Transportation is unaffordable even among the working class. A joke says the cost of transportation to look for daily bread is now higher than the bread itself. Should we then settle for puff-puff? Food insecurity is biting harder. Where available, it’s not affordable. Elementary economics teaches that availability without affordability is unavailability. 

Naira value is shrinking. Inflation is skyrocketing. The people’s hope is dwindling. Fear and uncertainty is beclouding the minds while confusion and despondency has enveloped the air. The recent story of a 22-year-old Grace Eseneowo from Akwa Ibom state who, for lack of food, feeds her children with animal feeds, made in form of pap says it all. 

Little wonder the corpses of our patriots litter the streets of Abuja, Okija, and Ibadan in what could pass as a record harvest of deaths from palliative sharing in one week. Their vulnerability has pushed them to the brinks. They were only out to pick seeds of grains for now-survival but they were tragically dispatched to their creator in most painful manner for what is neither their fault nor the charity organisers’. 

While 27 persons reportedly lost their lives in the Okija, Anambra state palliative sharing, 10 deaths were recorded in Abuja, while Ibadan turned in staggering 35, mostly children. This brings to a total 72 persons that lost their lives in just one week struggling to pick crumbs for survival. 

Revealingly, these are not just numbers. A popular saying has it that when another person’s corpse is being conveyed to the grave, it appears like a log of wood. The people that lost their lives in these avoidable incidents are someone’s mother, father, sister, brother, uncle, aunt, son and daughter. I was moved to emotion to learn that a former neighbour, a young mother who ran a patent medicine shop was among those who died at the Holy Trinity Catholic Church, Maitama. Again, this tells the extent our mothers can go to ensure there is food on the table for the family. 

These developments communicate one thing — a chronic hunger in the land and those in authority, especially state governors, must not feign ignorance of this glaring fact. The hunger protest in August drummed it to the ear of everyone that cared to listen that millions of Nigerian homes are starving. It was the central message of the protest that held the nation to a standstill. 

The report from UN which projects that more than 33.1 million Nigerians could be food insecure by August next year is disturbing. It does not portray hope as it is even an increase from 24.8 million projected by end of this year. Nothing can be more convincing that we happily hit this target and probably surpassed it than the recent events. 

Also, the 2024 Global Hunger Index (GHI) assigns Nigeria a score of 28.8, categorising the country’s hunger situation as “serious.” This is also not one of those reports to be dismissed as western manipulation, rather as citizens, we feel it, we see it and we come in direct contact with it. 

The hardship is sweeping and recognises no political party flag, nor religion and tribe. The recent report that even the so-called working class spend over 65 percent of their salaries on food and transportation alone, as against 5-6 acceptable rate is alarming and really calls for concern. 

If the impact is this much on those who are working, how much more our agile, creative and energetic patriots who have no means of livelihood? You my dear reader can attest how many times strange people have accosted you at a public place, requesting for one financial assistance or the other. These are people in need, people who are all victims of the current economic realities and they are the people that died in Abuja, Okija and Ibadan. 

Even President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is not unaware of what is happening, unlike his predecessor who was not aware of many things around him. A viral video showing over 1,000 persons laying siege to his Bourdillon home Lagos, waiting for Christmas palliative is worrisome. Again, it shows the number of persons who are either hungry or without a job or both. 

To say that we are sitting on a keg of gunpowder is under-stating the situation. If proactive measures are not taken, we may end up with the usual short-lived optimism that the new year will miraculously force down prices of food, give naira a new stamina and mysteriously dot the streets with jobs. 

 It is cheering that Dangote and Port Harcourt refineries have become operational. That is not however to say that Nigerians by any stretch of imagination have started feeling the impact as cost of fuel is still galloping. The patronising five and ten kobo downward adjustments is not what we want now.

Provided farmers pay through their nose to buy fertilisers, pesticides and other things needed to improve yields exorbitant costs, it will be a dashed hope to keep waiting for the miraculous reduction in food cost. It doesn’t matter if it is dry or wet season farming.

Whatever plan the government is making in 2025, reduction of food inflation and cost-of-living should be top priority. It does not have to wait till the whole country sinks scavenging for palliative before taking actions that speak to the problems at hand. 

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