Voice of Emancipation: Tackling Poverty in Yorubaland

By Kayode Emola

There is a proverb that says “You cannot continue to do the same thing and expect a different result.” Last year, I told friends and colleagues on the Yoruba nation campaign that they will cry for Buhari to come back after he has left office. The reason is not because Buhari’s government or Buhari himself is a good person or a saint, it is because Nigeria as a country was not designed for progress.

How is it that a country like Nigeria will pay its workers a minimum wage of ₦30,000 (equi $65 in 2018) per month and expect the citizens to survive in a country where even ₦300,000 (equi $650 in 2018) per month is not enough for a household to survive. Yet, Nigerians are happily accepting this degradation from their politicians who pay themselves exorbitant salaries and allowances at the expense of the populace. For instance, the Senators and House of Reps members pay themselves to the tune of ₦13,500,000 (equi $37,500) per month https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-43516825 as per a 2018 revelation by Senator Shehu Sani.

Such disparity in take-home pay between the politicians and the populace is the reason for such levels of poverty in the country. I cannot believe that over 220 million people living in Nigeria will allow themselves to be subjected to this worst level of abuse by the people that claim to represent their best interest at the highest level of office in the land.

Indeed, the people living in Nigeria have been taken for a fool for far too long and unless a revolution takes place, every successive regime will inflict more pain on poor living in Nigeria. That is the long and short story of tackling poverty in that land.

Or how is it that someone in a medical or teaching profession in Nigeria will take home ₦100,000 (equi to $100 in 2023) monthly and immediately relocate to work in the UK, Canada, Australia, etc can earn more than 10 times that salary in a month. Why has living in Nigeria become a living hell for my people who do not see a future for themselves in that country?

The truth is that the Presidency of Bola Tinubu will be far worse than any of his predecessors and coupled with the fact that he is a Yoruba man, it will make the injury too hard to bear because his kinsmen have no option but to suck it up. The simple reason is that the major ethnic nationality that drives change through campaigns and rally are the Yoruba and mid-westerners in Nigeria. Hence, one of their own is president, the elite in these two ethnic nationalities will be silent for the 4 or 8 years of President Bola Tinubu, therefore those living in Nigeria should prepare for a long night except something drastic happens.

Firstly, it is not rocket science to see that the minimum wage in Nigeria is a living hell for an average worker. It would have been better if the requirement for minimum wage is removed so that market forces can prevail. The farce of minimum wage has eroded real wages for an average worker in a high inflationary country like Nigeria where interest rates are around 18% and inflation sits at around 22%. No population in their right senses will accept this.

However, what do we expect in a country of over 220 million people and the president is voted in by a mere paltry 8.7 million people less than 5% of the entire population. It shows that this is not a country where processes work and people will do anything to get to positions of power just as a means of tackling their own personal poverty rather than helping the populace escape poverty.

For my Yoruba people who are still egoistic about how proud they are to be Nigerians, all I can say is that the day the scales from our eyes will fall off, that is when our eyes will be open to the pains Nigeria is inflicting on so many of our people. No one is supposed to go home with less than what is sufficient to get by for a month as their wages. Yet, my people have accepted the curse of a Nigeria minimum wage as they are good managers of resources rather than standing up for what is right.

The reason our people have accepted this fate is because many of us have relations abroad who send stipends back home for upkeep. This phenomenon has aggravated the situation back home that many Yoruba and indeed other ethnic nationalities in Nigeria do not believe they need to work to survive. Many of my folks now believe that their relatives abroad should be the ones furnishing their lifestyle with returns from their work.

The question is if every country was like this, would those people abroad be able to send anything back home. Of course not, and rather than for my people to sit down and come up with a workable solution, we accept the brainwashing of the government that they are actively working to make things better.

The bitter truth is that by the time one President has finished his tenure, the people are left more impoverished than he met them at the start of his tenure. In a country where 73.5% of Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) goes to servicing local and international debt according to the Debt Management Office, little wonder how Nigeria still exists as a country.

Those still expecting a miracle that Nigeria will work are on a long holiday and would be disappointed to know that there is no light at the end of this tunnel except darkness. Yoruba and indeed other ethnic nationalities in Nigeria continue to hope that the Nigerian government officials want to change their fortunes for the better, but alas, the situation continues to get worst by the day.

I will implore my people and the President of Nigeria to know that his palliative of N8,000 (equi $10) monthly in today’s money per household is a big slap on the faces of millions of Nigerians. It would be better if this degrading policy is not implemented rather than allowed to go ahead. However, as many people are already living below the poverty line, ₦8,000 is a lot of money for so many people.

There is therefore an urgent need for every Yoruba person to know that our future does not belong in Nigeria. We would be better off as an independent Yoruba nation outside of Nigeria rather than within Nigeria. We should seek a permanent solution to this problem ravaging Nigeria, rather than allow ourselves to be the laughingstock of the world. A word is enough for the wise.