It's no longer a secret that the standard of living in my part of the world is very poor. We may not be the ones with the highest poverty level, but poverty is a big deal here and it is eating deep into many households.
This makes me wonder how people manage to put on a smile in places ranked as the poorest countries of the world. Dealing with the consequences of being poor as an individual is one thing. Living in a poor country is another thing altogether.
Now, I'm not saying any of these based on stats. Numbers don't lie, but after checking a list of the richest countries in Africa, Nigeria happens to be in a fairly decent position. So, we are still counted as the 'giant' of Africa, but I'm not buying that. Not today please, not today!
How on Earth do you rate a country as a rich country when nothing is going well internally?
I've already spent a whole week without any sign of electricity. That's not something to be proud of. It's not a joyous experience, but guess what's even worse?
Mine is a fair experience compared to some other people in some part of Nigeria where there have not been a sigh of power supply for a couple of months. Some people are already aware that they won't be getting any electricity within the first 3 quarters of this year.
I'm gutted by the mere thought of how we all have to wake up every day knowing that things are a mess. Suffering is biting us hard and getting into our marrows. Yet, the macroscopic view of the economy of the country still highlights us as a rich country.
What about the microscopic view?
How can you justify paying someone an average of $52 monthly as a pension? These are people who sacrificed 35 years of their youthful age to serve as civil servants. It's disgusting, yet happy are those who receive the measly $52 every month. Some don't even get theirs.
It's high time we start enjoying the most basic infrastructures and amenities.
Things like electricity should at the very least be consistent in a place like Nigeria, for crying out loud!
Nope, I'm not just saying this because of its effect on my online activities. When we talk about electricity in this part of the world, it goes beyond the desire to have our gadgets powered on.
Do you know that without electricity, almost all households would not have water?
I will take my house as an example. We use tap water and there is a need for electricity so that we can pump water from the well to the overhead tanks. Whenever we lack electricity for 48 hours, people would be forced to manually draw water from the well. It may not be the worst case scenario, but it sucks!
Aside from the household usage of this electricity, businesses also need that to be able to cut down costs. A barber won't mind starting his standby generator so that he can render a good service to his customer, but when they use that instead of the normal power supply, it leads to incurring extra cost on their part. Of course, they will indirectly transfer the cost to the customer and that's how the ripple effect will be passed on.
The same thing applies to another type of business.
I have said this a lot and I will say it again. We have made 'suffering and smiling' to be one of the most important survival tips in my part of the world. That's the least we can do to help ourselves.
In case you don't get to read about any of these in the conventional media houses, let it be known that I highlighted it times without number on this Blockchain.
To be fair, we actually pay a fortune for these amenities but we don't get value for our money. And we still pay every month because if we don't pay the bills, who will?
Our pain is their pleasure.
Any idea who 'they' might be?
Thanks For Not Missing Any Full-stop Or Comma
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