It was the late afrobeat megastar, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, who did an album years ago that he titled “Shuffering and shmiling.” In the expansive track released in 1978, he took on the issue of religion. He denounced the idea of suffering on earth in order to enjoy in heaven. Although it has come to light, as it was not at that time, that that was not the intension of the Chrisian faith, Fela, whose prodigious talent is undeniable, was a social critic who used his art as a musician to speak truth to power and point to the place where the shoes pinch the people. He did not look away from the people if he thought that their ways did not conform to his avowed Africanism, wherein he propagated that Africans should stick to their indigenous ways rather than lean towards concepts from Europe, which he believed were inimical to progress on the continent.
He believed that the two dominant religions in the nation made their adherents passive to issues around them, believing that those religions’ leaders who propagated such beliefs lived in opulence but encouraged the masses to endure hardship. They were to endure hardship as a prelude to enjoying the perfect good life in heaven. But their leaders lived in opulence. The recent removal of fuel subsidy tended to remind me of that song, although Fela had no grasp of the matter as it concerned the Christian faith, given that the church does not eulogise hardship and poverty. But that is not the point to be made here. The removal of fuel subsidy seemed to have been inevitable, which was why when he was sworn into office as President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu announced that “subsidy is gone” as though he ought to have made the pronouncement even before he came into office.
Shortly after the unprecedented fuel price hike, the concomitance inflation kicked in as expected. Prices soared and movement became traumatic because any trip, no matter the distance, was bound to dig a deep hole in the pocket. People could hardly pay fares to work and their business places. The middle class virtually seemed to cease to exist, given that such people sent their cars on leave and engaged public transport, which they could barely afford. Transport costs soared with the declaration. The public wondered if it was the same person who shut down Lagos and parts of the South West, where he had political iron grip when former President Goodluck Jonathan dared what he has now done. The public must have wondered why hushed tones greeted the removal for which Lagos was shut down in the past.
But the Nigeria Labour Congress made a move through a nationwide protests to tell the President that he probably spoke before thinking on the matter, which manifested in hurriedly prepared palliatives being withdrawn in like manner. When labour gave an ultimatum before the protest, the President made a nationwide broadcast, wherein he admitted that there may have been no planning ahead of subsidy removal but there would be light at the end of the tunnel, if the people persevered and endured the pains of subsidy removal.
But such a promise would run against the grain of the democratic dispensation since 1999. The glaring fact is that no regime had ever outpaced its predecessor in bringing smiles on forlorn faces. The simplest index to measure this is the price of goods in the market. Let us even look away from petroleum products, since they are said to have been subsidized before now. If a bag of rice sold for N7,000 in 2015, but has climbed to N35,000 and above, the current regime would probably wave a magic wand to revert prices in an era that prices have climbed the rooftops with petrol. People who get sucked by such promises of a better future are setting themselves up for a non-existent Eldorado. At the risk of being tagged a prophet of doom, things are not about to get better. We must be ready to come to terms with the coming times. People would have to park their cars and use public transport; they would have to learn to eat twice or once a day. They would learn to send their children to schools they can afford. They would have to make do with their existing clothes, and generally adjust for survival.
But things would probably get better for those who would spend billions of naira to acquire bulletproof cars. They would get better for those whose office furniture would be auctioned to them because the items have depreciated after four years. Some of them would return to the same office, and get new furniture to continue the circle. Things would get batter for 48 ministers, an unprecedented figure in the annals of the nation, who would also get a retinue of aides. Things would get better for some of them who have been in government since 1999 and have remained there, given that they would mount the saddle as ministers. Things would get better for people with established corruption cases hanging around their necks, including those who were conduit pipes for stealing the nation blind. But these are the same class that prevails on the masses to endure the prevalent hardship for a better future. Politics is largely about perception. If the President, whose personal credentials are as mysterious as his wealth, finds such people appointable, then those who say birds of the same feather flock together may have a point. Such appointments make good the perception of those who think that the President may have little moral standing to tell people that they cannot appropriate the collective wealth of the people through various conduit pipes.
The President, according to snippets from his discussion with the Nigerian Labour Congress(NLC), told people to see his bloated cabinet as provision of jobs to people. But that list, though with snippets of innovation, weighed heavily on political settlement. Those who helped him swing the position are compensated. The public should tighten their belt but others would loosen theirs. The Nigerian people are suffering, but unlike Fela’s characters they are not smiling.