The Nation and Its Peoples

The Nation and Its Peoples

Those of us who went to secondary school in the 1950s used a Geography book entitled. The World and Its People. I was always captivated by the title of that book authored by a man called Dudley Stamp. Because I liked the titled, I was always glad to read it! Today, I am reminded of that title as I am moved to say a few things about our nation and its peoples.

During the president's last press briefing, I noticed that for him the common man in the nation over which he presides is the civil servant who earns N7,000. a month. Mr. President is very proud of the fact that he has raised the minimum wage to N7,000 a month. Don't get me wrong, Mr. president deserves kudos for the new minimum wage, even though it created all kinds of problems for some states and led to labour unrest when those states could not pay the new wage. However, Mr. president must not consider that N7,000 a month is anything like a living wage even for people at that level.

Given present transportation costs, let us assume that a worker who earns N7,000 a month has four children in school. If those four children go to school by bus, they would spend a minimum of N40 a day, if one carries the other on his laps. That works out at N200 a week, N800 a month. The father of the children would himself spend a minimum of N40 a day going to and returning from work by bus. Another N800 would thus be spent on transportation. The children would need to eat something at school. They would be lucky to find something to eat for N10 per head. Food at school would thus cost N40 a month. Let us assume that the house rent for a room-and-parlour apartment is N500 monthly. That man's family would spend a minimum of N2,500 on the items listed. The sum available for the family's other expenses during the month would thus be N4, 500. What level of life can N4,500 sustain? Little wonder that the quality of life for even Mr. president's common man is on the decline, given the cost of food and other requirements of life.

We congratulate Mr. president on the new minimum wage. But he must not deceive himself into thinking that that minimum wage means that his common man is now living comfortably. He is not. We need to bring down food prices; we need to provide infrastructure that will enable that man to move about more cheaply, and to engage in some farming or other activity which would enable him augment his earnings; we need public utilities that work so he can get water, electricity, etc, at reasonable cost.

The great surprise of that press briefing was that Mr. president thinks that the Nigerian civil servant who earns N7,000 is typical of Nigeria's common man! What percentage of Nigerians are in the nation's civil services? What does the president make of all the house helps in the homes of his senior civil servants? What does he make of the drivers that work for private individuals? What does he make of the unlettered Nigerian woman who labour from sunrise to sundown for a pittance? What does he make of the millions without job? Do not these ones concern Mr. president? Is he aware that the market woman who now has to pay so much more for the goods she buys and has to transport at higher costs to her shed in the market is now making less money because fewer customers are able to buy at the new prices she is forced to put on her wares? Is Mr. president aware that many more children of school age are out of school because their parents cannot raise the money needed to buy books, provide transport, pay examination fees, etc? Mr. president is the head of our nation. He cannot afford to speak as if he does not know the reality of the state of the majority of our people. To increase fuel prices on the ground that car owners can afford the new prices is to ignore the large majority of the people of this nation who have been forced to pay more for transportation because of the increase in fuel prices. This large majority is a part of the "common man" in Nigeria. Mr. president cannot, I repeat, cannot speak as if he does not know that this large majority exists. I am sure that he knows that they exist. I am sure that he knows their plight. He must address that plight. That's what I mean by "The Nation and Its Peoples."

Last week, I had cause to travel to Delta State by public transport. I discovered that in Edo and Delta states, saloon cars take six passengers, two in front and four at the back. That was my first experience. On other and earlier occasions when I had travelled by taxi, it was two in front and three at the back. There was a time when it was one in front and three at the back.

One explanation for the gradual increase in the number of passengers that these saloon taxicabs carry is the many tolls they have to pay to the police as they ply their routes. If they are to remain in business and make some profit, they have to carry more passengers. Today, there is no talk of over-loading !! Taxis and buses can carry whatever numbers they like. All they have to do is pay the appropriate toll. The police get what they want. The transporters make their profit. But the commuter suffers greater and greater inconveniences. That does not matter to the nation. The nation is not interested in the suffering of its people. If the traveller does not want to travel as one of four passengers at the back of a saloon car, he can opt out!! Is that all his nation owes him?

On that same trip, I also experienced, for the first time, three passengers sitting in front with the driver!!! Who cares? Nigerians have to travel. So they travel under all kinds of conditions -just so long as they travel. Does not the nation owe its people the duty to ensure that existing regulations are enforced? Can a corrupt, toll-collecting police force enforce these regulations? So what is going to happen to our people? Can the nation afford to abandon its people to a rapacious Police Force and rapacious transporters?

Once upon a time, it was forbidden for two-door cars to operate as taxis in this country. I believe that there was good reasons for that regulation. Taxis in most towns in Nigeria (the exception is Lagos!) carry not one but a full load of passengers who come off the taxi at different points. To use a two-door car causes the passengers in front to come down each time a passenger from the back has to disembark. This is clearly inconvenient, and it was for this reason, I believe, that two-door cars were not allowed to be used as taxi. First, it was Ogun State that threw that regulation out, when it allowed the two-door Volkswagen car to be licensed as taxi in that state. Today there are hundreds of taxis and Kabukabus that are two-door cars. The great inconvenience this means to commuters is not the concern of the authorities. After all, the commuter is not forced to use any particular car. If he doesn't like a two-door car, he can wait for a four-door car. But there is a rub in that argument. At taxi parks, there is a queue. The car in front loads first, and then the next and so on. So if I as a commuter discovers that the first car is two-door and refuse to get into it, I must wait for the next and may be for the next! In seeking to travel a bit more comfortably and safely, I have to spend more time before boarding a taxi. Is this not another area where the nation can take some more interest in the welfare of its peoples by enacting the appropriate regulation at state or local government level?

I have limited myself to a very few examples in this piece. And I know there are many Nigerians in and out of government who will disagree with me. Yet I am not ashamed to raise these issues. The welfare of our people must concern those who govern us. That is why they are there. The nation must be concerned about its people in a multiplicity of ways. The burden of this piece is to remind my nation of some ways in which it is ignoring the welfare and even safety of its people.