Naija no dey carry last!

As Nigeria no gree carry first. ????

This October, Nigeria marked its independence anniversary with 63 hopeful cheers. But these were not loud, open-mouthed cheers.

The Naira cries overwhelmed the Naija carry-go spirit. ????

The Naira was one of the early signs of Nigeria’s independence from Britain’s colonial rule in 1960. The country dumped the pound sterling and adopted the Naira as its national currency 11 years later.

Coined from the word “Nigeria” by Obafemi Awolowo, the “Naira” gave the people a sense of national identity different from the colonial pound sterling.

In essence, the name or value you give what you hold matters to you (more) than the intrinsic value of that object or person.

Indeed, a currency, as a former presidential aspirant of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, put it, is a measure of the faith that a people have in their country (compared with another country).

That is, beyond what the people choose to see, the currency notes are mere coloured pieces of paper. They have no intrinsic value in themselves.

If Mr Obi is right, the Naira shows that the people of Nigeria have lost faith in their country.

It follows, then, that Nigeria has lost its measure of value in the comity of nations.

How true is this?

How low are our cries for a Naira that daily fails? How loud are our cheers to Nigeria at 63? How little are our teardrops living in this African limbo?

Naira Cries

While the Naija life could be the best life, the Naira life robs many of their livelihood and living wage, and reduces the subdued ones to the ways of a lowlife.

With a high local inflation rate and adverse international exchange rate, holding the Naira alone is now resembling a waltz into weightlessness.

But it was not so before Nigeria ditched the English Crown in 1963. Neither was it so till it ditched the British pound sterling in 1973.

Source:  Babatunde S. Omotosho, ResearchGate

It is ironic now that the countries Nigerians now troop into for refuge from the Naira are those that still bow to the British Crown.

In essence, the Crown they rejected in 1963, they are now seeking to embrace by buying the Canadian, Australian, New Zealand and UK Passports at all (reasonable and unreasonable) cost.

Naija Cheers

Despite the odds with the Naira, the Naija spirit still rallies the Nigerian to rejoice on this 63rd independence anniversary in that, at least, I pass my neighbour.

Nigerians have informally called their country “Naija” for a long time, but the exact origin of the term cannot be precisely traced.

It’s a term, like the Naira, that is coined from the word Nigeria. It reflects a sense of camaraderie and identity among the people of Nigeria.

The people often express frustration about Nigeria but not about Naija. Naija symbolises resolve despite the odds.

While there is a lot in the Nigerian contraption that divides and depresses the people, Naija encompasses the people’s shared aspirations despite the asphyxiations that choke their collective faith.

Simply put, Naija is all the things that bind the multiethnic, multicultural, and multi-faith people of Nigeria together. Naija is the reason why Nigeria still is and is all that will be left whenever Nigeria is gone.

Nigeria gained independence from British colonial rule on October 1, 1960, but it still functioned as a constitutional monarchy within the British Commonwealth.

At this time, Nigeria adopted a parliamentary system with an elected prime minister and a ceremonial head of state, who was Queen Elizabeth II, represented by a Governor-General.

In 1963, Nigeria transitioned from a constitutional monarchy to a republic, becoming fully independent and non-monarchical.

The change was enacted through the 1963 constitution, which abolished the role of the British monarch as the ceremonial head of state. The 1963 constitution marked Nigeria’s shift to a republican form of government, free from any monarchical ties.

Nigeria established its own presidency, with Nnamdi Azikiwe as the country’s first President. He became the ceremonial head of state.

For a Naija at heart, all has not been about the Naira’s woes and Nigeria’s waltz into weightlessness.

In 1999, after a catalogue of coup d’état that began in 1966 and a civil war in 1967, Nigeria returned to a period of uninterrupted civilian rule after decades of military dictatorship.

In 2000, the debt relief programme helped reduce Nigeria’s external debt.

In 2006, Nigeria became the first African country to repay its debt to the Paris Club fully.

In 2014, Nigeria’s economy became the largest in Africa, after its Gross Domestic Product was rebased.

Top of it, since 1999, there has been a constitutional transfer of power from civilian to civilian administration at the federal and state levels, except for some brief military spells in Ekiti and Plateau States to enforce a state of emergency declared by the federal civilian government.

This is despite the corruption that plagues civilian administrations, just like in the military dictatorships in the past, despite the recycling of questionable politicians through flawed elections.

It is despite the flagrant abuse of the rule of law and the role of law enforcement officers by civilian governments, just like the military dictatorships used to do, and despite the hue and cry for military intervention in some quarters.

This is what those who’d lived in the traumatic past treasure about the trying present.

Niagara of Crisis

The Naija cheers are in spite of a Niagara of Crisis. Besides the financial crisis bordering the Naira, there is the imploding food crisis.

Nigerians are dying, unhappy and hungry. And their lot hardly fares better year on year, and as of the 63rd year of their country’s self-(mis)rule.

Compared with other countries with low and moderate hunger levels, the hunger situation in Nigeria is regarded as ‘serious’, tending more towards alarming and extremely alarming levels as the years go by.

Hunger is the lack of needed food, especially because they are unavailable. And the population and prevalence of hungry Nigerians are getting worse by the day.

Hungry Nigerians represent the “population living below minimum level of dietary energy consumption (also referred to as prevalence of undernourishment)”. Those whose “food intake is insufficient to meet dietary energy requirements continuously.”

“The World Food Programme revealed that in 2021, 7 out of 10 Nigerians did not have food to eat, which reflects the growing food insecurity that has been prevalent in Africa’s biggest economy,” Dataphyte reported.

The report further attributed Nigeria’s food insecurity to “the growing insecurity, rising prices of foods, the Russia- Ukraine war which has affected the importation of food items across the globe, and climate change occasioned by heavy rainfall leading to floods in some parts of the country.

“The growing rate of terrorism, banditry and kidnapping have forced farmers to flee the farms.”

From firms to farms, people either flee from the financial crisis besetting the Naira or flee from the protracted human crisis in all parts of the country.

As a results of the Naira and Nigerian crisis, 199.5 million or 94 percent of Nigerians cannot afford healthy diets, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) data.

With or without healthy diets, Naija no go carry last. It’s up to the government of Nigeria to attend to the niagara of crises that asphyxiates the people’s common aspirations.

It matters to the survival of the Nigerian state beyond its 63rd anniversary.

Thanks for reading this Data Dive. See you next week on the brighter side of Nigeria.