The Concourse
My Man of the Year!
In fewer than 14 days from now, the year 2024 will roll by. By then, it would become history only to be remembered for what its rememberers experienced while it lasted. For some, the year has been one wherein so many untoward things took place. To others, it is a year that saw them advancing towards or actually achieving their goals. Yet for some others, it will be a year that offered them neither good nor evil. Anyways, what a year it has been!
Regardless of whatever one has experienced in the year, for the generality of Nigerians, it will go into history as one year they wish never existed. But let’s be clear: their quarrel is not really with the year, but with those, especially their politicians, who made the year a miserable one for them. According to Nigeria’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the country’s food inflation rate stood at 32.84% in November , 2023, but about a year later, in October 2024, it rose to 39.16%. This was just a splinter drop from the country’s highest food inflation rate of 40.87% recorded in June 2024!
Without attempting to explain these figures, one thing is quite clear: most Nigerians have become hungrier and more desperate in the last 18 months. They blame this on government’s economic policies, which place little emphasis on productivity as they constrict the production space through poverty-enabling taxes, poor energy delivery, high official profligacy and absorption with self protection, preservation and extension. While the political elite lives in luxury in an entirely different economic planet, the masses of their compatriots barely breathe, live with little hope, and appear to be waiting for the ultimate end.
It’s amazing how the ordinary Nigerian survives these starvation times. In spite of the failure of the national currency to be a store of value; in spite of his being excluded from the political and economic benefits of his fatherland, and in spite of being compelled to hope against hope, the common man trudges on with equanimity and stoicism. He is bowed, but not broken; he is down, but not out; he is trampled, but not trashed; he doesn’t know what the future holds for him, but he holds on, hoping and praying to see better days ahead.
Also, the Nigerian common woman is a survivor. She is strong-willed. She complains about the death of the economy, but she doesn’t give up. She knew long before Davido rightly said that the economy is in shambles, but she thinks more of her children and her home. And she reasons: this is not when to give up. Their sirens of opulence at my expense is indeed annoying, but I won’t allow that distract me.
Yes, she is way-worn, weary and gasping for breath, but she trudges on; she is unyielding, hoping and praying for better days ahead. Her faith is strong though buffeted from different angles. And take it or trash it, she is winning. She will outlive her troubles.
Dear concoursites, let’s thank God for bringing us this far. Let’s remember those who have passed on and help their families as much as we can.
As 2025 beckons, this column will be away on break from this Wednesday until 6th January, 2025, God Almighty willing. Until then, join me in celebrating my Man of the Year 2024. He is the Nigerian common man! She is the Nigerian common woman! Happy survival and compliments of the season!
One before next turn
“I grew up in Nigeria and I saw first-hand what happens when politicians are in it for themselves, when they use public money as their private piggy banks, when they promise the earth and pollute not just the air but the whole political atmosphere with their failure to serve others.”
– Nigerian-born Kemi Badenoch (nee Olukemi Adegoke), during her failed attempt to lead the British Tory Party in 2022.
Has anything changed since then?
