By Kayode Emola

Depending on who you ask, you may be told that Nigeria is either a rich or a poor country. However, by looking at it statistically or empirically, we should be able to ascertain which it is.

An oft-cited indicator of whether a country is rich or poor is GDP (gross domestic product). Whilst this is an acceptable international standard for measuring the growth in a country, it may not be the perfect tool to use in the case of Nigeria, as much of the nation’s production goes undocumented, which can skew the data collected.

Other factors we may consider are the earning capacity of the citizens and their respective spending compared to other countries of the world. In Nigeria today, the minimum wage of a worker is ₦70,000 (approx. $46) per month – roughly $1.50 a day for an average worker, from which they must pay electricity, water, accommodation, transportation and all their other supplementary expenses, as well.

The meagre sum of $46 a month is not a problem if it is adequate to meet the needs of the person earning it. However, a critical assessment of the expenses incurred by an ordinary person on the street gives us an indication of where Nigeria sits within the nations’ league tables.

An average commute from one’s home to their place of work would cost around ₦2,000 /day (equivalent to $1.30/day). For someone working 22 days each month, more than half of their wages are gone on transportation alone. When we then factor in subsistence, accommodation, electricity, water, and other sundry expenses, then the earning power of the average Nigerian relative to their expenses makes the country fall into the class of a poor nation.

If one looks solely at the wages being paid to workers, the derivative tax, and the purchasing power of the population, then there is no doubt that Nigeria should be classed as a poor nation. However, this does not necessarily tell the complete story: historical data shows that Nigeria was once a rich country, with the potential to be a global giant.

Consider, for instance, that in 1916 the average salary of a clerk in Nigeria was £25/month. Correcting for a century’s inflation using the Bank of England’s inflation calculator (https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/monetary-policy/inflation/inflation-calculator) we can see that £1 in 1916 is equivalent to £75.46 today.

This shows that if wages were being adjusted for inflation, the average wage of the Nigerian worker today should be £75.46 times the original £25: £1,886.50 (equivalent to ₦3,950,000) a month. The truth is that not even the high-income earners in Nigeria are getting such a monthly wage, let alone the middle-income earners.

Looking at where we are and where we have come from, it is clear that those who lived in 1916 Nigeria are by far better off than many of us living there in the 21st century. If a month’s take-home pay is not capable of covering even one aspect of the many basic needs of the ordinary man, then it is time to critically evaluate the existence of the country.

In this way, it is evident that anyone who is not earning sufficient money to cater for themselves and their immediate families, yet still believes that Nigeria can work, needs their brain seriously examined. The difference between the ₦70,000/month minimum wage being offered by the government today and the ₦3.95m/month the average worker ought to be earning had wages kept up with inflation is monumental.

Yet, a Senator in the government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria receives ₦29m each month for salary, plus allowances on top. How is it that the political office-holder’s salary has not only kept up with but surpassed inflation over the last 100 years, but the average worker’s pay has gone back by more than 200 years?

Therefore, there is a denial of the fact that any Yoruba person still supporting the political elite is doing a disservice to the Yoruba nation. The politicians we have in Nigeria will not stand up for the people to address this social injustice, as it doesn’t affect them personally.

This means that the only recourse left for the poor man to escape the poverty of Nigeria is to try and become part of the corrupt government structure. This is, unless every poor person blighted by poverty stands up for themselves and demands the right to self-determination of their ethnic nationality. Then, and only then, will we have a chance of building a nation that works for the good of all, not just the elite. Then, we can make our Yoruba nation the prosperous country it should always have been.

By Kayode Emola

Last week, I read an article about an innocent man who was killed by a mob for an offence he did not commit, and it reminded me of when I lived in Lagos. I don’t know if it is a Yoruba-wide phenomenon, but mob justice is very common in Lagos, where the crime rate is high. The following account of what happened is graphic and may be upsetting for some readers.

This innocent boy was killed just because he was accused of stealing a woman’s ₦20,000 which she was hoping to take to the market. When asked about the money, the boy whispered through trembling lips, “I didn’t do it,” begging for his life.

However, his plea went unheeded as the first blow landed, coming from behind, followed by a stick that cracked across his shoulder. Another hit followed, with stones flying at him from unseen hands. His blood splattered on the ground, and the taste of iron filled his mouth. He cried “Mama,” whimpering, barely audible, but his mother wasn’t there. Only the angry crowd whose eyes were glazed with bloodlust, whose voices fed and were in turn fed from each other’s hate.

Within moments, a tyre was brought from nowhere, then came gasoline and the strike of a match. The boy was in flames, and the smell of the fire made the mob scamper a little. The boy’s hand reached out weakly, but to no avail; he cried for help, but none came. His breath became shallow, and his heart slowed. Even as he wanted to run, a two-by-two stick was used to force him back to the blazing tyre until he was burnt to ashes.

A few minutes later, someone ran into the square with the shattering news: the boy was not the one who took it. The accuser’s daughter had seen the money on the counter and taken it when no one was around. That is when it dawned on the crowd that an innocent young man had been killed for an offence he did not commit. The mob stood frozen, staring at the burnt body they had just destroyed; the grey sky wept for an innocent child killed because of false accusations in a society where the justice system has failed everyone.

One could try to write this off as an isolated story of one innocent boy killed because of a false testimony, but this pattern frequently repeats itself, time and time again, with no one doing anything to address the ugly situation. We have seen so many innocent people killed on the streets because of false accusations, both in Lagos and elsewhere in Nigeria, on some occasions with even the police standing by, and doing nothing.

This is what happens when society is broken, when justice is served only if you have money to pay for it. If even just one sensible person had advocated for the innocent boy to be handed over to the police so that the proper judicial process could take its course, how different might the outcome have been? However, we all know that the justice system in Nigeria doesn’t work that way.

Many genuinely guilty parties need do nothing more than bribe the police and are released without any charges. This is the reason that many people resort to mob action to get the justice they long for, and, as a result, in Nigeria, and especially in Lagos, it has become the norm. Every person feels that street justice is the only way to get restitution for any perceived breach of their rights, rather than appealing to the formal judicial process.

The problem is, when the accuser becomes the judge overseeing their own case, you cannot expect to see real justice reign. That is why we have lost too many innocent people in our land to crimes they did not commit.

And yet, I witnessed a case around 2010 when I was doing my National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in Nasarawa. A young man who was serving in my local government, in the same Community Development Service (CDS) as I didn’t turn up for almost two months. I wondered what had happened to him, as he was always punctual for the weekly meeting.

A close mutual friend of ours informed me that he had experienced a trauma: he had driven into a pedestrian who lost his life. My first thought upon hearing that he had killed someone was, how can he still be alive, and not even in prison? Our friend explained to me that in Northern Nigeria, when such things occur, they term it as “kadara,” meaning destiny.

She explained that since it was destiny for the pedestrian to lose his life in that way, the jungle justice system cannot be applied to our friend who was driving. Instead, he was asked to make restitution to the family of the victim by means of covering the cost of the burial, and, having done so, he was let go.

I was amazed that this could happen in Nigeria. I told my friend that had this happened in Lagos, the driver would have fled the scene because, if caught, he would most definitely be lynched by an angry mob.

This story taught me a valuable lesson: that just because something has been normalised in our society, that doesn’t make it the proper practice. Some things can and should change, especially if it is costing the lives of innocents.

I cannot say that the extrajudicial killings going on in Lagos will stop overnight – or, indeed, will ever stop whilst the Yoruba remain in Nigeria. However, it is a menace that cannot be permitted within our society when we get our independent Yoruba nation.

However, the only way to prevent people from resorting to street justice is to strengthen our judicial process such that justice is guaranteed no matter who must be held accountable. If not, this may be only one of many problems of Nigeria that will become our nightmare when we declare our sovereign Yoruba nation.

By Kayode Emola

As the Iran-Israel conflict enters its second week, most commentators are analysing the implications for the region and the wider world. At first glance, the fighting may have been limited to just between Israel and Iran, but the way events are progressing, it seems that it may escalate to become a global affair.

With Hamas and Hezbollah, who previously appeared to pose the most immediate threat to their national security, now stricken, the Israeli government seems to believe there is no better time to attack Iran than now. Israel has adopted the “strike whilst the iron is hot” approach, and, so far, it seems to be paying off.

Whether Israel will be able to sustain the war in the long run is another question entirely. However, the level of precision with which the Israeli government has carried out its operations in the first few days of the conflict has given it an edge over the Iranians.

As the world watches on, it is worth noting that the calmness experienced over the past few days should not be mistaken for peace. The US has given Iran two weeks to negotiate, after which they warned they would join the Israelis in the conflict.

The US unexpected bombing of Iran’s nuclear facilities this morning brings a new twist to the conflict. If history has taught us anything, it is that war provides no resolution to the real problem on the ground, and that there are never any real winners.

Both sides will always come out worse off, having expended huge numbers of resources during the war’s execution. Whilst war may be inevitable in some circumstances, it is nonetheless difficult to predict the outcome from the onset.

Israel, no doubt, had hoped that it would be able to complete its operations in Iran within days. However, the fact that the Ayatollah is still standing gives the Israeli government something to worry about.

Whilst we Yoruba may learn from the Israeli government’s handling of the killing of innocent Jews on October 7, 2023, we should also be aware that the world faces the potential of World War 3 if the situation is not handled properly.

The Israeli government did not hesitate to make known that it will do everything within its power to protect every one of its citizens. It demanded that all the civilian hostages be released unconditionally, and failure to do so would lead to the elimination of Hamas leadership and the destruction of the activist group.

Likewise, those of us leading the Yoruba self-determination struggle now need to begin taking concrete decisions towards the actualisation of our independent Yoruba nation. As the world is arming itself for a potential war, we cannot stand idle for those weapons to be used to unleash fear and terror on us.

The time for wishing and hoping is over. The Israeli government didn’t dilly-dally around, hoping and praying that heaven would give them their people back. They took the action to the enemy’s camp to free their citizens held captive there.

We need to begin to view each other within our nation as family, and family means no one gets left behind. Nigeria does not hold this philosophy, as it is now openly embracing terrorists as respected citizens of the country. The time is ripe for us to treat our struggle with the seriousness it deserves, so that we may free our people from the shackles of slavery.