What manner of depraved poverty did this writer paint here? I grew up in the 70s and 80s, in Esan and Benin City. I was not from a wealthy home. My father was a middle-level civil servant, and my mother was a businesswoman. Using rags as sanitary pads?
That might have been in the 50s. It never happened in my environment, and I was not living in the GRA. We trekked to school, yes, not because our parents had no cars to drop us off, but because there was no need.
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My businesswoman mother bought her first 404 deluxe, brand new, in 1973. My father, as a middle-cadre civil servant, had a Fiat and then a 404 in the 70s. These cars were upgraded in the 80s. In the 80s, we ran a family bakery.
Back in the 70s, we all fetched water every morning before piped water was connected to our house. I personally had no school shoes until secondary school, not because we couldn’t afford them, but because it was a village, and every child, except the Magistrate’s Omo-Agege kids, wore shoes to school. Our parents did not pay N2m because the missionaries provided quality and almost free education.
In the West, there was free education. Let’s not skew things. Most middle-class homes had television sets in the 80s. Yes, some hawked and did menial jobs to help their parents, and yes, money wasn’t being thrown around, but don’t forget the Naira was stronger.
$1 was about 70 kobo. My first salary in the early 80s as an HSC holder was N140…with that, I could buy a ticket to the UK and back. Yet, we had no need to visit the UK because we were happy and secure in our country; plus, I needed no visa to enter the UK.
All my life, I never lived in one room or a room and parlour; we never had neighbours in our face, and we were not rich. My mother never attended any school, yet she was an exceptional businesswoman who worked hard and learned many vocations and trades.
Most of the mothers I knew in Edo State were like my mother. What changed? What changed is having a succession of governments without vision. Converting missionary schools to government was the first mistake. Continued consumption of foreign goods was a huge mistake.
Everyone became an importer, and we developed tastes for everything foreign. Most of the fresh produce I ate as a child in Esanland is no longer in the market. Wild mushrooms and solid delicacies that could have been mass-produced aren’t available anymore because we became consumers rather than producers.
The demise of the good old Nigeria is more the government’s fault. Stop blaming the people. The rot began with the Gowon government. After the civil war and the oil boom, we started spending the Naira on worthless lifestyles. No clear government policy was forged to create a future legacy.
When Shagari took over, importation became a career for most. Our Naira grew weaker and weaker as we consumed everything non-Nigerian, with foreign superstores open everywhere to satisfy our collective stupidity. Then came the IMF and IBB’s SAP. That was when we “entered sample,” as they say in my Edo.
We devalued the Naira, and their dollar grew like a giant. At this point, we needed to trade in dollars because everything we consumed was sold in dollars: our cars, food items, clothing, etc. Our industries began to crumble, and no policies were in place to help them survive.
Textile mills and other industries vanished. What did our government learn? Nothing, zero, zilch. Till today, we are still doing the wrong thing.
We may need to study how Rawlings renewed Ghana’s economy. He first killed corruption and symbolically dug the graves of past leaders, killing them again and burning their corpses. That was harsh but symbolic and significant. He made Ghanaians value their own culture, traditions, and products. Starting with himself, he wore kente until he left office. He forged simple policies to grow the Cedi via production, etc.
He instilled nationalism, among other things. What are Nigerian leaders doing? I support the government of the day, but I will not support foolishness and outright madness. I will stop here before I offend some people. Nigerians have learned to live large.
Yes, it is true that even as a young lady, we had no need for sugar daddies because we had no desire for cars, designer bags, or the like. We were properly brought up, and we had the missions to guide us in our formative years. What is the church teaching today? Is it not what you see—materialism everywhere? Why does the government tolerate such debauchery? Why is everything so disgustingly hedonistic? Because the people and the leaders are one.
The leaders are selected from the people, and nothing will change until the people change. On this, I agree with you that the people have failed Nigeria, and I will add that Nigeria has failed democracy.
What’s my point?
It’s not about being pauperised or painting such a grim picture of poverty in the 70s and 80s, which isn’t entirely true. We can still have a thriving nation by applying the right policies and planning for the future. Forgive my rambling.
Freelanews is the editorial byline of Freelanews.com, used for staff reports, news updates, press releases, and collaborative stories produced by the Freelanews Editorial Team.
