• Main News
  • About Us
  • Contact
Premium Times Opinion
Sunday, March 7, 2021
  • Home
  • Democracy and Governance
    • Bámidélé Upfront
    • Jibrin Ibrahim
    • Okey Ndibe
  • Economy
    • Ifeanyi Uddin
  • Issues of the Day
    • Adeolu Ademoyo
    • Aribisala on Tuesday
    • Dele Agekameh
    • Pius Adesanmi
  • Politics
    • Ebeneezer Obadare
    • Femi Fani-Kayode
    • Garba Shehu
    • Hannatu Musawa
    • Zainab Suleiman Okino
  • Guest Columns
  • Faith
    • Article of Faith
    • Sunday Ogidigbo
    • Friday Sermon
    • Elevated Sight
  • Home
  • Democracy and Governance
    • Bámidélé Upfront
    • Jibrin Ibrahim
    • Okey Ndibe
  • Economy
    • Ifeanyi Uddin
  • Issues of the Day
    • Adeolu Ademoyo
    • Aribisala on Tuesday
    • Dele Agekameh
    • Pius Adesanmi
  • Politics
    • Ebeneezer Obadare
    • Femi Fani-Kayode
    • Garba Shehu
    • Hannatu Musawa
    • Zainab Suleiman Okino
  • Guest Columns
  • Faith
    • Article of Faith
    • Sunday Ogidigbo
    • Friday Sermon
    • Elevated Sight
No Result
View All Result
Premium Times Opinion
Home Columns

Nigeria on the Road to Samaria, By Sunday Ogidigbo

by Premium Times
June 12, 2016
5 min read
0

Hunger in Nigeria

Nigeria should not wait until things degenerate to how they were in that ancient city before we act. We can learn from Samaria how they came out of the siege. The political and economic gatekeepers of our nation must connect to the thought and intelligence that will cause them to start taking ground-breaking steps that will not only reverse the current economic trend, but will lead to a never-ending season of economic boom and prosperity. Things can get better.


This past Sunday I received a WhatsApp broadcast from one of my contacts that got me really thinking. It read: “Some days ago in Ilesa, a mother of six exchanged one of her children, the most senior for a basket of garri in the most tragic manner. She traveled a long distance from her home to another part of the town to buy garri, and after turning the product into her bucket, she pretended she left the money at home. She pleaded with the garri seller to allow her rush home to bring the money. She left with the garri and left her daughter behind as collateral. Long waiting turned into frustration for the seller”. Long story short, the Police were informed, the girl led the seller and the police to their house, they met her mother and five siblings feeding on the garri. Without question, her excuse was that they had not eaten anything for days and since she couldn’t watch her children die of hunger, she had to trick the seller to get the garri, since she knew the daughter left behind would eventually lead them to her home when prodded in only a matter of time. She even pleaded with the officers to allow the daughter who brought them home to join in the meal because she had not eaten for days. The police officer and the garri seller left the place weeping without any arrest or even asking for payment for the garri.

This story might be true or fictitious, but one fact that cannot be contested is that people are hungry in Nigeria. Before now, the unemployment rate was very high and it is even getting worse. Today the employed are getting sacked en masse and the ones who are lucky to have a job are not getting paid. The prices of goods and services are skyrocketing. The costs of food and drinks are becoming astronomical. These are days of real hunger for the everyday Nigerian. The cost of doing business for the everyday self-employed Nigerian is on the increase daily. Barbers, taxi drivers, vulcanisers and bricklayers depend on petrol for their businesses. With the price of petrol doubling, their costs have doubled in many instances. We all know that the average worker spends more than 25 percent of her income on transportation; this too is headed north as the quality of living heads south.

Small and medium scale enterprises are closing shops. Traders are complaining of low patronage… The economic crunch is setting in gradually, people are living off their savings, some are at the mercy of family and friends, while others are willing to exchange anything for any meal to keep body and soul together. The crime rate is on the rise.


The situation we are in is what an economist friend of mine called stagflation. We are at that point in our economy where we have persistent high inflation combined with very high unemployment and stagnant, if not declining, demand for goods and services. Demand is stagnant because majority of the people are not earning and government is not spending. This administration took off on a very funny economic note. The militant implementation of the Treasury Single Account policy left most commercial banks without much liquidity. We know that the economy was bleeding because of corruption, instead of stopping the bleeding, by blocking leakages, government instead started draining the economy of blood for safe-keeping in a blood bank; who does not know that money is the life blood of the economy? The fact that this was counterproductive was manifested by the recent sack of about 2,500 bankers by three of these banks. The banks are not finding things easy. Government cannot withdraw all the monies of all ministries, agencies and parastatals from the banks and expect the banks and the economy not to feel the impact. The bottomline in all of these is that various economic policies of this government in the immediate are impacting negatively on the rich and poor, but more on the poor.

Small and medium scale enterprises are closing shops. Traders are complaining of low patronage. Airlines are seeing fewer passengers. The economic crunch is setting in gradually, people are living off their savings, some are at the mercy of family and friends, while others are willing to exchange anything for any meal to keep body and soul together. The crime rate is on the rise. Food, we all know, is the number one human need. Hunger, they say, makes a thief of a man. Hunger makes man angry and ultimately “hangry”. Hanger is when lack of food causes a negative change in a person’s emotional state. Hunger can negatively impact on a person’s capacity to process issues and take decisions.

The government should take the hunger issue very seriously. It is our prayers that the hungry have food to eat; else soon they will have nothing to eat but the rich. For the way things are, we are on turbo speed on the road to Samaria.


The woman in Ilesha, who ‘traded’ her child for garri brings to mind the story of two women in Samaria in the days of Elisha, when the Syrians launched a siege on the city that brought on a terrible famine. The famine was so bad that food prices soared astronomically and the head of a donkey sold for eighty pieces of silver (bearing in mind that Judas sold Jesus for thirty pieces of silver hundreds of years later). Food was no longer affordable. The story of the women of Samaria was more pathetic than what happened in Ilesa, because in the latter the woman did not eat up any of her children, unlike what happened to the women in the former. According to the biblical account, one day the King was walking along the city wall, and a woman of the city cried out to him for help and told him the story of how another woman came to her and said “Give your son, that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow”. So they boiled her son, and did eat him, and she said unto her on the next day, “Give your son that we may eat him, and she hath hid her son”. The hunger was so terrible that the people turned cannibals. This was the event that spurred the king to action.

Nigeria should not wait until things degenerate to how they were in that ancient city before we act. We can learn from Samaria how they came out of the siege. The political and economic gatekeepers of our nation must connect to the thought and intelligence that will cause them to start taking ground-breaking steps that will not only reverse the current economic trend, but will lead to a never-ending season of economic boom and prosperity. Things can get better. Bread can become affordable. Government must do everything to check hunger. Hunger does not discriminate. Hunger does not know tribe, tongue, creed or race. No matter how much food a man eats today, tomorrow he will be hungry. The government should take the hunger issue very seriously. It is our prayers that the hungry have food to eat; else soon they will have nothing to eat but the rich. For the way things are, we are on turbo speed on the road to Samaria.

Sunday Ogidigbo is the Pastor of Holyhill Church, Abuja. You can connect with him on Twitter @SOgidigbo, visit www.sogidigbo.com or send him an e-mail at psun@holyhillchurch.org.

Share this:

  • Tweet
  • Print
  • More
  • Pocket
  • Share on Tumblr

Related

Previous Post

Is the Lord Your Pastor?, By Femi Aribisala

Next Post

The Persistent Memory of June 12: Who Is Afraid of a United Nigeria?, By Hafsat Abiola-Costello

Related Posts

Trust and Confidence Building As Conditions of Good Governance, By Uddin Ifeanyi
Columns

The Policy Implications of 2021’s Low Growth Projections, By Uddin Ifeanyi

February 1, 2021
Akinwunmi Adesina: Africa’s Spotless Son, By Wole Olaoye
Columns

Iron Woman of Berlin, By Wole Olaoye

January 31, 2021
Rethinking Heroism and the Nigerian Civil Service, By Festus Adedayo
Columns

Aliko Dangote’s Costly Mess of the Libido, By Festus Adedayo

January 31, 2021
Why Lai Mohammed Must Be Fired Immediately, By Femi Aribisala
Article of Faith

Is God Invisible?, By Femi Aribisala

January 31, 2021
Religion As Africa’s Trojan Horse, By Osmund Agbo
Columns

South-East Governors: Preparing For a Post-oil and Restructured Nigeria, By Osmund Agbo

January 30, 2021
People Deserve The Coach They Hire, By Owei Lakemfa
Columns

Again, Entombed Humans Triumph Over Death, By Owei Lakemfa

January 30, 2021
Next Post
At Last, Farewell to Poverty, By Hafsat Abiola-Costello

The Persistent Memory of June 12: Who Is Afraid of a United Nigeria?, By Hafsat Abiola-Costello

Our Priority is to Rescue the Girls, By Reuben Abati

Remembering MKO And June 12, By Reuben Abati

Editorial

  • EDITORIAL: The Urgency of Tackling Nigeria’s Second Wave of COVID-19

    EDITORIAL: The Urgency of Tackling Nigeria’s Second Wave of COVID-19

  • EDITORIAL: Unearthing the Cogent Lessons In the NESG-CBN Economic Policy Imbroglio

    EDITORIAL: Unearthing the Cogent Lessons In the NESG-CBN Economic Policy Imbroglio

  • EDITORIAL: COVID-19: Calling On Nigeria’s Billionaires and Religious Leaders To Step Up

    EDITORIAL: COVID-19: Calling On Nigeria’s Billionaires and Religious Leaders To Step Up

  • EDITORIAL: Bichi Must Go; Buhari Must Halt Slide Into Despotism

    EDITORIAL: Bichi Must Go; Buhari Must Halt Slide Into Despotism

  • EDITORIAL: The Flaws In Governor Emefiele’s Five-Year Plan For Central Bank of Nigeria

    EDITORIAL: The Flaws In Governor Emefiele’s Five-Year Plan For Central Bank of Nigeria

Subscribe to our Opinion articles via email

Enter your email address to get notifications of new opinion articles as they are published.

Join 526,525 other subscribers

Most Popular

  • Nnamdi Kanu and Buhari’s Purported Death: The Facts and Fiction (2), By Nonso Robert Attoh
    Nnamdi Kanu and Buhari’s Purported Death: The Facts and Fiction (2), By Nonso Robert Attoh
  • What is the Nigerian Dream?, By Taiwo Odukoya
    What is the Nigerian Dream?, By Taiwo Odukoya
  • The Bad Consequences and Dangers of Adultery and Fornication (Zina) In Islam, By Murtadha Gusau
    The Bad Consequences and Dangers of Adultery and Fornication (Zina) In Islam, By Murtadha Gusau
  • Islam Doesn't Allow A Husband To Beat Or Slap His Wife, By Murtadha Gusau
    Islam Doesn't Allow A Husband To Beat Or Slap His Wife, By Murtadha Gusau
  • The Qualities of a Good Leader In Islam, By Murtadha Gusau
    The Qualities of a Good Leader In Islam, By Murtadha Gusau
  • Gov. Abiodun’s Largess Amidst Miserable Rewards For Best Students, By Olabisi Deji-Folutile
    Gov. Abiodun’s Largess Amidst Miserable Rewards For Best Students, By Olabisi Deji-Folutile
  • Belu Belu and Bone-Setting: Traditional Medicine to the Rescue, By Bunmi Fatoye-Matory
    Belu Belu and Bone-Setting: Traditional Medicine to the Rescue, By Bunmi Fatoye-Matory

Like us on Facebook

Like us on Facebook

Podcasts

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

  • Main News
  • About Us
  • Contact

© 2021 JNews - Premium WordPress news & magazine theme by Jegtheme.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Democracy and Governance
    • Bámidélé Upfront
    • Jibrin Ibrahim
    • Okey Ndibe
  • Economy
    • Ifeanyi Uddin
  • Issues of the Day
    • Adeolu Ademoyo
    • Aribisala on Tuesday
    • Dele Agekameh
    • Pius Adesanmi
  • Politics
    • Ebeneezer Obadare
    • Femi Fani-Kayode
    • Garba Shehu
    • Hannatu Musawa
    • Zainab Suleiman Okino
  • Guest Columns
  • Faith
    • Article of Faith
    • Sunday Ogidigbo
    • Friday Sermon
    • Elevated Sight

© 2021 JNews - Premium WordPress news & magazine theme by Jegtheme.

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.