By Kayode Emola
In May 2018, Nigeria overtook India to become the poverty capital of the world, in a finding projected by World Poverty Clock (WPC). It was estimated that over 87 million people were living below the poverty line of $2 per day in a country rich in human and natural resources. Fast forward to 2022, the number has risen to over 133 million people living below the poverty line and that number keeps increasing by the day.
I do not believe this is a particularly gracious record to be proud of considering our material wealth in the 1960s and 1970s after independence from Britain. I believe it is something to be ashamed of and urgent steps taken to address this ugly situation.
Nigerians themselves are known to endure the harshest of pain but a time will come when this pain can no longer be sustained and the people will have no other choice than to revolt. Such was the situation that faced the Rajapaksa’s family in Sri Lanka last year when they thought there were untouchable. Before their very eyes, their political fiefdom came crashing when Sri Lankans were pushed to the wall and they could no longer bear the pain.
I have a strong feeling that this is where Nigeria is heading in the not-too-distant future as the currency is now on a free fall with nothing able to stop it. With the ascension of Bola Tinubu as President of Nigeria, many Yoruba forgot that a sticking plaster will not save the deep wounds successive governments have inflicted on Nigeria.
Many Yoruba do not know that Nigeria died a long time ago and what we are nurturing as a country, is just a carcass waiting to be disposed of. When I hear statements like we need to build Nigeria, I ask, what are we going to build Nigeria. When a people forget their history, they have no hope of the present let alone the hope of a glorious future.
Nigeria, as it stands, was built on the back of the fortunes of the Yoruba people, this has been so since the twentieth century when we were being amalgamated and colonised by Britain. This wealthy Yoruba nation was rebuilt in the 1950s to become the fastest-growing economy in the world when Chief Obafemi Awolowo meticulously built several institutions in Yorubaland to ensure the fortunes of our people are sustained for many generations to come.
However, what we have today are a lot of our people struggling with poverty and hoping for a miracle from this current crop of politicians who put them in the current misery in the first place. For anyone hoping for a miracle in Nigeria, they can as well wait from now till eternity as I hate to be the bearer of doom, but Nigeria is irredeemable.
Not only are we permanently the poverty capital of the world, but we are also the most terrorised nation in Africa. A people that are supposed to be the shining light for the black race are now reduced to beggars in their own land. Yet, my people in their suffering do not see that this alone calls for action rather than seeking a means of escape by waiting for a miracle that is not coming and enduring the hardship being meted on them.
With the present collapse of the Nigerian naira right before our very eyes compared with other international currencies within a space of 2 months of President Tinubu’s tenure, I have no antidote than to warn our people that the worst is yet to come. I said it last year that as wicked as Buhari, when he leaves office this year, our people will beg to go and bring him back because the pain his successor will inflict will be 10 times worst than what we experienced under Buhari or the previous administrations.
This is not because our people didn’t suffer under Buhari and it has nothing to do with whoever succeeded Buhari. The simple truth is that this is how Nigeria has been designed right from when we had independence. It has nothing to do with external affairs, it has everything to do with my Yoruba people who failed to realise that Nigeria as a nation has expired and has nothing to offer us and our children.
Many of our people abroad now find solace in the fact that they have escaped the poverty that Nigeria oozes out on a daily basis. Nonetheless, it doesn’t matter how long we live abroad, if we don’t fix the problem of Nigeria by helping to dissolve this unworkable amalgam, then we risk handing over to our children the legacy of a failed parent.
Every week since the new president took over power on 29 May 2023, the naira has been on a steady decline, losing over ₦50 to the dollar. If this trend were to continue, or be left unabated, then the naira might be exchanging for around ₦2,000 to $1 by the end of this year.
The free fall of the naira against major currencies of the world, would reduce the purchasing power of Nigerians and further drive many more people into poverty. I would have loved to believe that this will spur my people into action in taking their destinies into their own hands, but as the late Fela Kuti sang, “My people love suffering and smiling”.
I hope my Yoruba people will come to the realisation that their beloved Nigeria died a long time ago. In fact, Nigeria died over 60 years ago, yet we continue to nurture the carcass of a nation we should have dumped in the dustbin of history. It is only our gullibility that is sustaining this unworkable union called Nigeria. The sooner we act to take our Yoruba country out of Nigeria, the better it will be for every one of us.
Until we come to this realisation, we will continue to hope that the next President will bring good fortune or perform a miracle to change the situation we now find ourselves in. The truth of the matter is that the solution does not lie in the hands of the politicians, the onus lies in our own hands and that is only if we decide to use the power in our hands.
We Yoruba have built civilisation that lasted millennia, and I believe this current predicament is only for a short time. However, it may become our nightmare for centuries to come if we don’t act quickly and in a decisive manner.
The earlier we start mobilising and working for the actualisation of an independent Yoruba nation, the earlier we would get out of this bondage and poverty. The successes of Chief Awolowo in the 1950s should give us a rekindled hope that we have done it before and we will do it again. I implore everyone’s hand to be on deck for the actualisation of the Yoruba nation as that is the only key to our survival, if not we may as well continue to enjoy the poverty meted out to us by Nigeria.
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