Kafilat Yusuf
In recent years, there is a certain tiredness that has taken hold of Nigerian homes. It is not about physical exhaustion, but it is about numbers and arithmetic.
They pay the same amount of money each month and each month, they are able to purchase a little less quantity of foodstuffs and other household items.
Two years ago, a Keffi civil servant had a stable income sufficient for him and his five-member family, but today he struggles to afford half the same amount of groceries.
This is not an inconvenience that will have to pass. It is the economic reality of ordinary Nigerians now and it is a shame it now generates noise only occasionally.
The statistics are sobering but it is the reality behind the statistics that should concern us most.
The power of the foreign currency has been diminished by inflation at a rate that simply has not been matched by wages, especially in public sector jobs.
The withdrawal of the petroleum subsidy, the depreciation of the naira and the ripple effects of this on the cost of transportation, food and energy, have all led to a cost of living crisis which affects virtually all Nigerians, from the Lagos market trader to the lecturer in Nasarawa.
Economics has changed since salaries were reviewed years ago, and so have the costs of living–but not the salaries.
The symmetry which makes this crisis so cruel is that something wrong is going on on one side while everything right is going on on the other.
The vulnerable people face the greatest burden when a shock occurs.
If a senior civil servant has some savings and maybe a side business, they can cope with higher expenses with some discomfort.
The Nigerians for whom a naira rise in garri or rice prices is not a dream but a reality are the junior officer, the contract staff, the teacher at the rural schools, the young national serviceman and so on.
The divide between nominal income and real income has grown to a chasm and the lower middle class and working poor are in it.
When the government has responded, it has been palliative, not real and strategic structural economic adjustments.
As welcome as minimum wage negotiations are, they tend to follow the damage and are often outstripped by inflation before they are even in effect.
If the naira keeps dropping and the prices keep climbing, any pick up in salary you negotiate in the boardroom in Abuja can be wiped out within months.
This is the dilemma Nigerian workers are faced with; they run after a target that keeps getting faster as they approach it.
Obviously, this crisis has no single villain and no single solution – that would be intellectually dishonest.
The pressures on the Nigerian economy are structural, and longstanding: dependence on oil, inadequate investment in local production and manufacturing, a weak real sector and decades of infrastructural failures, which increase the cost of virtually anything done.
There simply cannot be a shift to a higher salary without some consequences, and if wages are increased, in the absence of productivity increases, then we are more likely to be in the middle of a vicious circle of inflation.
This is the real policy question being presented and it should not be a matter of slogans from the left or right.
However, it is not enough to recognize the challenge – you need to take action instead of inaction. Within these limits there are steps that can help relieve the burden.
A more regular and fair system for wage review based on a comparable inflation index and avoiding the politics and lengthy talks of extended negotiations would restore a certain dignity and planning ability to workers.
Proactive and judicious subsidies on transportation and staple foods can help to alleviate symptoms of hardship far sooner than large-scale wage hikes that have to be realized over a period of years.
Just as important, too, is the need to directly attack the cost side of the equation: investments in local agricultural production to decrease reliance on imported food; investments in power supply to help lower the cost of production in other sectors; and serious efforts at combating corruption and inefficiencies that drive up the cost of public goods and services.
The crisis also has a communication and governance aspect, which is rarely considered.
Nigerians are not simply demanding more money, they are demanding to be told the truth about the economy and to see proof the politicians and government officials are sharing the sacrifice being imposed on their own citizens.
Cynicism undermines trust and therefore makes it more difficult to implement even good policy when austerity is declared by public officials who have insulated privileges.
It is important to communicate economic policy in an honest manner, and not as propaganda, because the success of the difficult choices required by genuine reform will depend on citizens’ response.
The private sector must also play its part, and that role cannot be legislated away.
When employers can afford to review wages periodically, but say that they are not doing so due to business uncertainty while at the same time posting a nice profit, they are part of the problem that will stifle consumer demand and ultimately hurt them.
An Economy that works needs people who have sufficient purchasing power to support the markets on which businesses rely.
If nothing else, enlightened self-interest should compel employers to be more humane in their wage practices.
This is not just about the cost of living in people’s homes.
If wages do not rise in tandem with the cost of living on a consistent basis, so too does the social contract become unravelled.
But, young and capable Nigerians continue to look overseas for opportunities – a trend that is now a major brain drain – because it just does not pay to stay.
The ability to work declines when workers are working several jobs to make a living, because they do not have as much energy or concentration to do their jobs as they are meant to do.
This trust in institutions diminishes year by year with the failure to keep wages current with prices.
Nigeria has been through economic storms in the past and its people are more than capable of enduring.
However, resilience should not be confused with an unlimited resource, and should not be used as a replacement for policy.
The income-earning gap between Nigerians and what they need to earn to sustain their lifestyles has widened beyond endurance.
Driven by concerted and coordinated efforts of both government and industry, it will be necessary to take deliberate and honest steps to close it.
Until then, the ordinary arithmetic of life is the condition of millions of Nigerians who spend their lives working for meager wages, and seeing the worth of their efforts eroded by month-on-month inflation.
For a better society
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