We move!
They dream, they work, they pray, what they lack is hope.
23% of Nigeria’s population is middle class according to the African development bank. 61% of Nigerians are poor people, this means only 16% of Nigerians are “rich”. Nigeria has been in relative decline since 1981. In 1992, 34.1% of Nigerians were below the poverty line, it is almost double that amount today. In contrast, the standard of living of the few privileged has increased tremendously. Luxury estates are now everywhere in Nigeria. Some Nigerians will visit some parts of Lagos and Port Harcourt and doubt they were not in New York City or San Francisco.
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The value of the minimum wage in Nigeria remains one of the lowest in the world, it has even declined. In 1980, the minimum wage was $3.10 per hour astonishingly, the minimum wage today is $0.52 per hour. Outrageous! There is more to the situation of Nigeria than meet the eye.
A very large proportion of our young population is not even conscious of these atrocious realities, they go about living lives harder than 19th century Europeans, they call it “hustle”. Everywhere they turn to they are reminded of how unlucky they were to be Nigerians. Many of these young people are part of the 61% poor people, they do everything from legitimate work to dirty hustle to join the 23% middle class. They all want to live the la Vida Loca life with the 16% rich class. They dream, they work, they pray, what they lack is hope.
“We are struggling more than we should be, we do so proudly and call it “hustle” making it seem like we do not have the power to make things easier for ourselves. — Oyekunle Sobowale.
Before I sat down to put this together, my first thought was to pass the message that it was impossible for the vulnerable youths in Nigeria to join the 16% but then, I remembered what Noam Chomsky said about optimism being a strategy for making a better future. Noam Chomsky said unless we believe that the future can be better, we are unlikely to step up and take responsibility for making it so. If I had not thought of this, I might have seemed pessimistic, I always try to avoid this as much as possible. In this case, however, being pessimistic is just being realistic.
How can the hapless youths in Nigeria make it when it is harder than ever to do business in Nigeria and about 57% of Nigerians with post-secondary education are not employed? Awkwardly, we have made ourselves so blase to these realities and we are creating pseudo-possibilities for ourselves. As I said earlier, I do not want to seem pessimistic, but how do you see these things when the actual probability that you will have a secure future is less than 0.4, how?
Nigeria is bad and its young population is complacent. they seem undisturbed. It is very funny when I reflect on these things at times. The whole game presents itself as the survival of the fittest. “Put your eyes on the bag,” we tell ourselves, the non-existent bag. Are we jinxed? Maybe we are just cursed as I heard from a Pastor on TV. What do we do? I think the first thing I wrote. To where? I ask.
