About Garba Shehu’s comment: Dear Presidency, we work, but are still hungry! By Buchi Obichie (Opinion)
The writer, Buchi Obichie, takes the president’s special adviser, Garba Shehu, to task, for saying hungry Nigerians should go and work. She points out that most Nigerians toil at jobs each day, but still can’t afford to live well.
Editors’ note: The writer, Buchi Obichie, takes the president’s special adviser, Garba Shehu, to task, for saying hungry Nigerians should go and work. She points out that most Nigerians toil at jobs each day, but still can’t afford to live well. She notes that while wages are static, the prices of basic goods and services are continually on the rise. She advises the government to refrain from insulting Nigerians, if it cannot help them.
Sometimes, public officials make statements that make you wonder if they really think through the words that come out of their mouth, or the impact it would have. It seems that once people are placed in positions of power, they throw caution to the wind and assume that their new-found status confers on them the leeway to make all manner of derogatory and insulting statements without punishment or repercussion.
We as a people have gotten accustomed to public officials making demeaning statements, that we really don’t put too much emotion into these occurrences. But every now and then, someone says something so outrageous, that you have no choice but to respond.
Recently, the senior special assistant to the president on media and publicity, Garba Shehu, was informed during an interview on Ben TV that people were complaining of hunger in the country; and he gave a very insensitive reply. He stated: “Everyone complaining of hunger should go and work!”
Just like that, he blurted the words out. And since then, there has been no remorse shown whatsoever!
Does Mr Shehu think that the people complaining of hunger are all idling about and looking for freebies? Does he think they are all waiting for manna to fall from heaven or for someone to leave them a huge chunk of his wealth? Whatever gives him the impression that the millions of people who go to bed hungry every night have no jobs?
Nigerians are by nature, hardworking people. All around, people are hustling on a daily basis, just to keep body and soul together. Everywhere you look, the young and old are working tirelessly. Old men and women who should be spending their final days resting are out there doing all manner of jobs under the sun. Young people are doing same…educated and uneducated, they are trying to make ends meet.
Sadly, even little children who should be in school have found themselves hawking on the streets of every state in the federation; their childhoods deprived. Too many of these children have lost their lives in the process of hustling - ritualists and kidnappers have made our young children an endangered species, right before our eyes!
Now, I know that there are some bad eggs that would rather leach off other people instead of working with their own hands. Some have even taken to a life of crime; dispossessing others of their hard earned resources. However, for the most part, majority of Nigerians are doing hard, honest work, in a bid to survive. Yet, this is not always enough.
Before Mr Shehu opened his mouth to make that statement, he should have asked himself: “How much is the minimum wage?” Well, incase Shehu has forgotten, let me remind him. It is just N18,000.
Now, how far can N18,000 go in a month, for an average individual and his/her family? For a man who has, say 3 children, a wife, siblings, parents, what can that minimum wage really do? A Derica of rice is N300 and a bucket of garri is N900. A sachet of salt is between N80 and N150, and a tuber of yam can sell as high as N800. 5 litres of palm oil goes for around N2,200 and even a carton of noodles ranges around N1,800 and N2,000, depending on the flavor.
Now, add these basic foodstuffs to clothing, transport fare, school fees, money to take care of other family members, etc; and what would you have left? In this instance, with the price of daily living continually rising, and the monthly wage remaining static, how can one afford to feed properly? We haven’t even factored in the cost of house rent.
It is not that people are lazying around; however, even the jobs they have cannot cover the cost of living, most of the time.
I know honest, hardworking people who labour under the sun all day, and still cannot afford two square meals a day; not to talk of three. They are so consumed with feeding their families that they end up with crumbs or nothing at all. As such, it is an insult to hear someone from the presidency say: “they should go and work!” They already have jobs Mister…jobs that don’t do enough to cater to their needs!
Instead of throwing such distasteful jabs at hardworking citizens, what Shehu and his people should be doing is thinking of ways to make their lives better.
After making the comment, Mr Shehu then went further to hype the administration’s efforts in infrastructural development; pointing out that the president had ordered that not less than 30 percent of annual appropriation be devoted to infrastructural development.
Now, isn’t it a marker of how poorly the government is doing, that one of the richest men in the world, Bill Gates, who was recently in the country, chided the Buhari-administration for not doing enough for its citizens? It took an outsider to tell the presidency, to its face, that instead of devoting all its resources to infrastructure, it should do more for its citizens…their health, their education, their lives!
The marker of a great nation is not its skyscrapers or bridges, even though these are necessary for development. However, the true marker of a nation’s greatness is the quality of life of its citizens; and a government that cannot take care of its citizens, cannot demand their loyalty.
So, Mr Shehu, your government should focus on its people…people who are struggling to survive…who have jobs which cannot see them through the end of the month.
We are not beggars – at least not all of us – we are hardworking citizens, doing our very best. But we cannot do it all by ourselves; we need help. Some of us are blessed with good jobs, but so many others are not…by no fault of their own. Do not insult them further with such awful remarks; help them.
Raise the minimum wage. Ensure that workers are paid when due and that they are not owed for months on end. Do something about the price of foodstuffs to ensure that people don’t pay through their noses for a plate of food.
Stop insulting our sensibilities.
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And then, they keep talking about this N5,000 to the poorest Nigerians. However, the modalities of how exactly this is being carried out is still unclear.
Dear people in the presidency, we understand that most of you cannot really be bothered with what concerns us; not when you are devoting your energies to keep yourselves in power for another four years. We know that you are too detached to even understand what we go through on a daily basis. We know that most of you do not really care about us. However, please, do not insult us any further. If you won’t help us, at least don’t denigrate us!
This opinion piece was written by Buchi Obichie.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the editorial policy of NAIJ.com.
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Source: Naija.ng