I read a topic on the nairaland frontpage titled "Segun Ajibola: Average Nigerian Can Feed With ₦500, Naira Still Strong" and I just couldn't get out the words "Dem don come again oh!" out of my head. So I started to muse on it. I thought to myself, what could be fueling these kind of strange articles or statements from people who are supposed to be intellectuals?

Is it greed? Is it some mental challenge? Is it just pure unbridled sycophancy? Or is it a combination of all three and more?

To understand what the real issue is, I decided to play the devil's advocate for a moment and see where they are coming from and possibly, where they are going to. These are my thoughts.

Let's play dumb for a minute. He stated two simple claims. First was that Nigerians can now eat with ₦500. Second was that the Naira is strong. Are any of these true? Let's see.

What can ₦500 get you in an average Nigerian city. Hmmm? That will be a plate of eba or amala or fufu with a piece of meat at some local restaurant, and maybe, extra Eba or fufu. But what is the quantity of this ₦500 food. A wrap of eba or fufu that is about the size of an average wrist. The present size is like a third of the size 6 years ago. Yes! Just six years ago here. I am not even going to go back 20 or more years because that will not even be a fair or serious comparison. The difference will be too astronomical! This ₦500 quantity can barely satisfy an average adult. If you are not a heavy eater, maybe the extra eba or fufu will do. But then comes the first problem...

Does the statement by Segun Ajibola assume that we are all single men or women in Nigeria? Maybe Segun he didn't think this through, but an average family in Nigeria is at least, four people or more. So by his own logic, the average family will need ₦2000 to have a single meal in NIgeria. ₦2000 in a country where minimum wage (more like average wage) is ₦30,000 a month. Some people still earn ₦10,000 a month but let me not even go there yet! It will be too sad!

So a worker earning ₦30,000 a month with a family of four, will be able to have 30000 / 2000 = 15 meals a month. 15 meals a month at two meals a day (a.k.a 101), is 7 days. Yes! Even at Segun Ajibola's glorious prosperity-gospel-like calculation, the average family will be able to feed for only 7 days at two meals a day! Wow! Glory! To borrow the words of the blabber grammarian Rep, Patrick Obahiagbon from Edo state, this is a Harakirius Pekelemes of gangantuan propensity!

Segun must be living in some Marvel or DC alternate universe or in reverse Flash crossover mode for him to think that an economy that only provides enough income for a man to feed his family for only 7 days in a month, is a great economy with a strong currency!

I saw somewhere that he is a chattered Accountant? I wouldn't even employ this guy to man a cashiers desk, let alone do serious accounting. But then, he might just be the usual government sycophant who sings halleluiah, hosannah, to help government deflect the people from reality. These generation of government whitewashers continue to try to blur the lines between reality and fantasy just because of the pecks they receive at their various priviledged stations.

They think they can make the suffering go away with continous propaganda and whitewashing but they are simply postposting the day of reckoning. Instead of them to come down to reality, do a serious self and societal appraisal and get down to the business of serious leaderhip, governance and societal transformation, they are trying to create their own Wanda Vision story lines and Video game society where they cannot see evil even when it is right at their feet.

But what they don't realise is that, ultimately, if the clock refuses to tell the time, the time will eventually tell the clock.

A word is enough for the wise

Useless people, u dey mind dem

They just want to make reality go away and for people to live only in the matrix