Dele Giwa was partially right. It was either October or November 1983. A Nigeria Airways Fokker 27 jet had crashed at Emene, Enugu, killing about 25 people. Air crashes were rare in the country at the time, as was the scale of fatalities. Two or three days later, Dele Giwa’s column in National Concord screamed with the headline, “Nigerians are Unshockable!” The piece centred on how quickly people had returned to their usual routines following an incident of such proportion. Sometime in 1981, Governor of old Anambra State, Jim Nwobodo, when asked how he was coping with the attacks on his government by the rival National Party of Nigeria, responded, “I’m a shock absorber.” Can we say the same of Nigerians with regard to the present economic pain?
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The removal of fuel subsidies last year and attendant massive devaluation of the naira left Nigerians groaning. Only about one percent of Nigerians could be said not to have hurt deeply from the dislocations of these times. I guess nobody saw this level of hardship coming.
A few decades ago, we virtually swore it could not happen here. How could that be? How can people survive such hyperinflation? Terrible. God forbid. That was Nigerians shuddering at the Ghana of the 1980s. By the close of the 1990s, the hurricane crashed into Zimbabwe. Folks in the southern African country carried basketfuls of Zimbabwean dollars to buy just two loaves of bread. It was hard for Nigerians to comprehend.
Today, Nigerians are no longer pondering the nature of national currency collapse; they are learning to bear its crushing reality. They have gone through the initial rounds of alarm, sweating in cold weather, and suffering migraines from long hours of thinking. Operating family budgets with diminished income against ever-rising costs of goods was comparable to the futility of James Hadley Chase’s Make the Corpse Walk. Many lay awake for long hours at night moping at the ceiling. Someone said he observed queues at some pharmacies for sleeping tablets!
Now, Nigerians are beginning to assert themselves. The situation has turned from whining to braving the odds, approaching that calmness that late Dele Giwa characterised as unshockable. It’s a spirit that says no; we will not die before we die. When there wasn’t rice on these shores, our ancestors did not die of hunger. In the words of television dramatist Zebrudaya, we have seen ninety-nine; who are the hundred?
And suddenly, Nigerians behind the steering wheel, generally known for their speeding and impatience with slow-moving traffic, are turning out converts to cool and safe driving. The obsession with faster driving, endless overtaking, and the pleasure of being in motion seems to be on the decline. A change of attitude? Well, elementary physics teaches that speeding increases fuel consumption, but the catch phrase now is fuel economy. So, if you’re currently observing less screeching tires and more disciplined driving, it’s thanks to the outrageous pump price of gasoline. Commercial as well as private drivers are now remembering to turn off the ignition as they descend slopes on roads.
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When last were you bombarded with the roaring of generators at every neighbourhood, at every compound, in every flat? It must be a while. The numbers, regularity, and duration of power generators have drastically come down. The show of “I pass my neighbour” is about to disappear. Those miniature loudspeaker plants that used to dot one-room apartments have lost their usefulness and are now much of a liability to their once proud owners. With the cacophony and smoke from generators significantly reduced, there’s both good and bad news following. Reduced absence of noise and air pollution translates to a better environment and healthier living. But a plunge in the sale and maintenance of power generators means bad times for operators in the subsector! Talk of the coffin maker’s prayer for a good business season!
As if the unaffordable price of gasoline was not enough burden to bear, scandalous electricity tariffs add another dimension to daily struggles. To survive, families, businesses, and institutions are all introducing rationing to the use of electricity. At one of the orthodox churches, a young man had barely placed his fingers on the organ to give verve to the service when word got to him that the pastor in charge ordered a halt. The instrument would not be played because it gulps electrical current!
In some homes, ironing of clothes is now once a week. Gadgets, including essentials such as fridges, have to be switched off after some hours. Staircase bulbs have been taken out altogether in many places. Compulsory early bedtime is becoming the vogue to ensure that lights are switched off. However, early retirement is coming with implications. The unintended effect is increased activities in the other room (apologies to Buhari). It should not be amiss to project a rise in next population figures from this originally intended cost-saving measure.
Meanwhile, the younger generations are keeping away from marriage. In my parish in Awka, we used to have on average one church wedding every Saturday. In recent times, four months have gone by without any wedlock. Can we blame the youths for their indisposition? The current marriage drought means that those desperately looking for free food and drinks have fewer opportunities. To further complicate matters, young people daring enough to get married are devising other survivalist approaches. Just the other day, someone posted in our alumni WhatsApp an outstanding wedding invitation taking place in a church in Enugu. The invitation card clearly stated “No Reception”! Can you beat that?
That leaves funerals as about the only other respite from hunger. Mourners are easy to come by today. It does not matter if the dead was perceived as a villain while he or she lived. Good numbers are guaranteed to turn up. To ensure that the severe austerity times do not impinge negatively on their funeral celebration, some associations, societies, and clubs have started self-sponsored funeral policies. By this scheme, members deposit a given sum that will be used to give a deceased member befitting rites. This is considered an insurance against the inability or unwillingness of survivors to meet the group’s standards.
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The hard times have dealt hard blows to “night crawling.” Late-night husbands are now forced to get home much earlier. Long drinking sessions at pubs are on the decline. Beer parlours have lost their numbers, and with it, the animated discussions that earned them the tag, people’s parliament. And as the working class as well as the middle class beat their retreat from social relaxation spots, the business owners lament. For their part, the hitherto lonely wives at home are celebrating the return of marital companionship.
Was it for nothing that we were rated one of the happiest peoples on earth?
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