Here we are in the smack middle, or as we hope, nearing the end of this pandemic and we have been spoiled in terms of resources. Not only have we run out of money, we have run out of ideas to make more, and the needs have only multiplied.
But it really shouldn’t have been this way.
Where are we? Buhari is practically auctioning Nigeria, as he yet again is planning to amass another debt of over $5bn in foreign loans. The staggering reality is that we are being ravaged, government, public sectors, private sectors, families, individuals
What are the people saying? Let’s hear them;
…I am scared of running out of money, and it’s terribly frightening.
It’s interesting how vendors have decided to exploit this situation. I mean we hear of disaster capitalization happening in Europe and Northern America, what with the rich practically getting richer off this crisis, but to see our people be that out of touch with the struggles of each other…it’s painful to watch. Delivery prices have gone up nonsensically and we are out here, unsure if our next paycheck will come through as we yet continue this journey of remote work. I feed and cater for myself, by myself, so I am scared of running out of money, and it’s terribly frightening.
Tj Aremu
“…We are not coping oga…na die we dey”
Prices have been jacked up as I have never seen before. I’m having to take more side jobs than I can even cope with, to stay on top of things financially. How are we coping? We are not coping oga, na die we dey! What’s more, we don’t even have the luxury of looking to our government for any aid, like other developed countries. They are also at their wits end.
David M
My brother and I play this new thing called Hunger Games. We try to see how long we can go on with our daily activities in the day without eating anything before we have no choice but to go eat. We sometimes last till late in the afternoon. My record is 3pm or so. It is not a game. We have run out of food.
Dimeji B
“I got defrauded over the weekend.”
I got defrauded by an online vendor over the weekend. I also read a news article where an online food vendor sold spoiled food that became poison in the insides of a pregnant woman, she has lost her child and is struggling to stay alive. The cheek of it is that in both instances, mine and the sad story I read, the vendors simply disappeared with practically no digital footprint whatsoever. I believe the government needs to do something in the form of, perhaps ensuring these online retail and delivery companies are well registered. It’s scary what people are doing now that they are hard up and have been pushed to the edge.
Funmi O
“I really just hope that when we fully come out of this…we channel our resources to important things like medicine and food and agriculture and not nonsense…”
This is in fact quite sad, the response to this situation; because these are really not unprecedented times. We’ve been here before. What is all the computer intelligence and data analytics for, if we couldn’t learn from it to anticipate, guide against and better handle this sort of global crisis? We should have had better anticipation. It’s just a colossal disappointment that all it took was one pandemic to floor us all – the whole world I mean. World finances? Crippled to a screeching halt. ‘Home economics’? Well ain’t nothing to economize anymore, infact. I really just hope that when we fully come out of this, should we ever fully come out of this, we channel our resources to important things like medicine and food and agriculture and not nonsense like nuclear weapons and the likes.
Victor P
As this seemingly unending plague continues, we have to find a way to live in and live through it. We must continually strive to unravel new techniques and strategies as to how we can cope with the financial pressure in these challenging times.