Have you ever been poor? I mean really poor. Have you ever lived a life of constant lack, lack of the basic things that sustain life; food, shelter, clothing, water? Do you know what happens to a poor man when he gets a life changing job or life changing opportunity?

Imagine a young man living on the street, unable to feed regularly, sleeping under the bridge, praying that the next sunlight is his last sunlight. Imagine that this young man gets a job as a bus conductor, and through this job he can at least feed successfully daily, get himself a small room in a bungalow called 'face-me-I-face-you", can afford to sustain a peasant relationship with a girl, things appear to be going in the right direction. For such a young man, that job has changed things for him, he can begin to imagine a future, he can begin to imagine a life outside penury. He might not have the lofty dreams of being a millionaire, but he can atleast dream of having a family one day and to be able to feed that family comfortably. All this is possible because of the job he got. For such a person, he would cherish that job more than the life he has known since he was born. For many of such persons the risk to make money is more cherishable than the risk of living in abject poverty.

The case example given above is just a microscopic view of what is obtainable in Nigeria. A report by the World Poverty Clock in 2019 revealed that almost 87 million people live in extreme poverty in Nigeria. By extreme poverty we mean they live under $2 a day. The average income of a university graduate in Nigeria is N100,000 a month; at today's exchange rate of N400 to $1, that is $250 a month, which is also about $8.33 a day. Compare this to the statistics of employment, 50 million people are currently unemployed in Nigeria, including about 16 million graduates. Another 40 million people are underemployed, meaning they do not earn up to the required wage for their job. To compare, the country's minimum wage currently stands at $45 a month, I.e $1.50 a day, there are currently plans to increase this to $2.50 a day, with implementation of this plan haphazard at best. These statistics of poverty, unemployment, and personal income of educated Nigerians give a better perspective of the poverty situation in Nigeria. One might not fully understand it when expressed in Naira, hence, my extra effort to convert them to dollars.

Talking about hunger, the average cost of a healthy wholesome meal in Nigeria is about N300, which is about $0.75. Three of such meals will cost about $2.25. When you factor in the income of the average Nigerian graduate and do a little maths, you would discover that after you subtract the cost of feeding a day from $8.33, what is left for such a person is $6.08. We havent calculated shelter, clothing, and the numerous other family and friends that depend on this income. We haven't spoken about the millions of people who depend on the minimum daily wage of $1.50 or $2.50 for survival; and the million others who do not even earn up to this amount daily. When you look at all these numbers you would see that hunger is the biggest problem of the poor in Nigeria. For a case like the one given above of the conductor, anything that can put food on your table and give you the hope of another day would be cherished over everything else.

If you never understand these figures, if you have never lived the lives of these people, you will never understand why going about their daily jobs is more important to them than living their regular lives. Without the jobs or "hustle" that pulls them a level above the rock bottom they are accustomed to, they are nothing. Life is meaningless to them. What they do is what keeps them going. Many people have centerred the argument of not dropping the lockdown on the fact that it is better to be alive and make money later than to die in an attempt to make money now. What they do not know that for many people in this category, death might be a better option than the life they live; it is better they live while doing what gives them hope than to return to the life of total nothingness where they were before they got their job; if it means they lose their life in the process, then they dont mind. It is better for them to die trying to make money, whether by falling off the bus as a bus conductor when it is in motion or by COVID-19, than to die in scourging hunger obtainable from staying at home.

I have seen many people post several messages that people should not resume work even after the lockdown is dropped. I often wonder if the authors of such messages have ever considered the fact that the bosses of these people have asked them to resume, and failure to resume can result to the termination of their jobs. No one wants to join the million of unemployed and underemployed in Nigeria, even the underemployed do not want to become unemployed. There is a lot that goes through the mind of an individual before he makes a decision. What is obtainable for a bus conductor is not what is obtainable for others with blue collar and white collar jobs. One must be careful not to apply what is obtainable in his/her life to the life of every other person. No two situations are ever the same.

For many of the poor in Nigeria, when faced with the risk of COVID-19 and hunger, they would gladly choose COVID-19. Hunger is far too familiar a potent foe to battle with, and death is far too much an appealing prospect than the life they currently live. Nigeria's immediate enemy is COVID-19, but our biggest enemy is always HUNGER.



- Elvis Osho


REFERENCES


https://www.google.com/amp/s/qz.com/africa/1313380/nigerias-has-the-highest-rate-of-extreme-poverty-globally/amp/

https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/countingthecost/2019/02/young-unemployed-nigeria-190216073358024.html

https://tradingeconomics.com/nigeria/minimum-wages

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/pidgin/amp/tori-50093818

https://www.xe.com/currencyconverter/convert/?Amount=1&From=USD&To=NGN

https://tradingeconomics.com/nigeria/youth-unemployment-rate

It reminds me of when life was so bad that we had to relocate to the village, we were roasting cassava as breakfast, I had to follow my dad to pick left over cassava in people's farms just to survive
If you have never tasted poverty, don't wish it for anyone, it can make a responsible person turn to a thief. I thank God for my condition today and I hope for a better tomorrow

I am unruffled.

God bless this writer for me. I was arguing with some people regarding ds issue that is better govt ease the lockdown and let us follow guideline than to stay at home and turn innocent lives into committing crimes dey never wish for just because of hunger.
Some are critics of Mr President for calling off the lockdown but will still cry for help when their boss start to downsize the number of staffs or rather shutdown operation just as Access bank did. I refuse to die of hunger. GOD FORBID