WHEN MY STOMACH IS FULL I KNOW, THEREFORE TELL ME NO LIES – By Oludayo Tade
The Oasis Reporters
September 5, 2017
“My Stomach is with me. When I am full I know” – 9ce!
There is a big error of fact in what President Muhammadu Buhari was quoted to have said after meeting with some of his Ministers who briefed him on the state of the economy after he returned from the UK. After listening to them, the President expressed happiness on the improvement of the state of the economy. I wonder if it is the same economy that I live in that they spoke about because from the shoe wearers’ perspective, the economy of Nigeria has made people mad, created boredom, has made the previously powerful powerless, the respected to lose respect and the cheerful very angry and deadly.
Nigeria’s economy has brought out the beast in many people. In this piece, I employ interpretive analysis of the Abolore Adigun’s (9ce) recently released song titled ‘Economy’ to underscore how popular culture contributes to the present understanding and debate on the true state of Nigeria’s economy. Through this we can appreciate how far Mr President is from reality.
Music is a mirror through which we can feel, view and understand human society and has remained an important interpretive tool relating to environment, relational context and human agitations. It’s predictive ability makes musicians wear the gown of philosophers and seers. A few of them have engaged in musical activism when displeased with happenings in their environment.
They portray the situation of things by embedding stories which reflect the mood of the majority.
Popular music has huge followership in Nigeria and Abolore Adigun popularly called 9ce (Adigun Alapomeji) is no beginner in the business. In what appears as his understanding of the socio-economic quagmire being experienced by Nigerians, 9ce contributes to the discourse of how excruciating Nigeria’s economy has undermined many aspirations, dampened their spirit and made them worthless.
9ce avers that the lack of social amenities such as water and light, costly fuel, and lack of money have jointly exacerbated bearable condition and has driven people crazy in Nigeria.
In order to escape these excruciating conditions, 9ce prescribes listening and dancing to music and keeping hope alive. But central to his song are the consequences of bad economic conditions on the life chances of Nigerians.
He listed these as heart attack, high blood pressure, and high level of human insanity.
The Chief Medical Director of the University College Hospital, Ibadan, Professor Temitope Longe had stated that 35 percent of people in Oyo State are hypertensive. This increases with the state of the economy as more people find it difficult to fulfil their responsibilities. It is no longer news of rising cases of suicide, baby dumping and other crime types.
In 2016, according to National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), a total number of 45,554 crime against persons were reported (rape, manslaughter, murder, physical abuse); 65, 397 cases of crime against properties (stealing, burglary, robbery, receiving stolen properties and house breaking) and 2,695 represented crime against local act.
The data of NBS as at June, 2017 on selected food prices shows a general increment. Today we buy Beans in Ibadan for N800 per Kongo yet the economy is said to be improving.
It was beautiful Nubia who had stated in one of his songs that the masses are not asking for too much: they want food, good health, good road, potable water and power.
How much has the economy improved without all these, qualitatively manifesting in the lives of Nigerians?
9ce says “Economy bad, tomatoes na gold, my people dey worry o”.
In the recent data on corruption released by NBS Nigerians stressed that after high cost of living and unemployment, corruption is third most important problem facing the country. This is why 9ce asserts that “Nothing dey work for Naija anymore. Light no dey I for dey watch football. Ai rowo eran lo je kin je ponmo.”
What is working in Nigeria? No good roads, hospitals are bad and the president is still going abroad for this reason, Education is comatose and ASUU is still on strike fighting for the ruling class to release money for public education and not their pockets alone!
So what is working?
Families are facing terrible moments as many breadwinners cannot get bread for themselves let alone for their families. Organisations are laying off workers. Over 29 million Nigerians are unemployed increasing the rate of the jobless to about 14.2 percent.
All thanks to the President’s improving economy.
But things are working well for political office holders. They still have all they need and still manipulate the minds of the masses to actualise their goals. These political masquerades have started singing the song of 2019 in the ears of the president who hesitates to show qualitative effects of an improving economy on the lives of Nigerians. To use another street term Mr President, ‘Enu ose’! (Words of mouth achieve nothing without purposeful action).
We all know the centrality of power in the economy of a nation. It is the lifewire of informal and formal economies. Power generation was around 2,841 megawatts as at July this year. Even in the University, the noise of Generators would almost confuse you of your present location as one is likely to think you are in one market center (No funding from government to do research that can deliver alternative power sources).
From Aso rock down to the Local government, we operate generator economy with implications for the fuel consumption and high cost of production. As a result, companies fold up. We all know how soccer unites Nigerians and their loyalty to watching foreign clubs. Even in the midst of economic misfortunes, soccer provides temporary relief but how will you watch when there is no electric power? You need electricity for relaxation but you can’t find it!
In the midst of unfulfilled promised, politicians have started drumming 2019 and strategising on how they will narcotize Nigerians. Understanding their antics, 9ce articulates that promise and fail are essential characteristics of Nigeria politicians whom he described as political masquerades.
Remember their promises about fuel that they said had no subsidy on it?
Remember PMB’s promise to amend constitution to devolve powers, duties and responsibilities to states to entrench true federalism?
What about the one on amending the constitution to remove immunity from prosecution of elected public officials in criminal cases?
Did PMB not promise to amend the constitution to allow for local and state policing system?
9ce supplied the answer thus ‘Promise and fail. So so Charade, If I see your lies, political masquerade.’!
Frustrated Nigerians seek hope in religious settings while others pour holy water to find their square roots. In order words, many Nigerians have lost their livelihoods and struggling to get by. Doing prognostic analysis, 9ce believes that in order to escape the harsh socio-economic conditions, music can serve as a way out of the woods. This is true as Paul Cardal noted that “One reason music is better than antidepressants is that if you listen close enough you might feel God telling you everything is going to be ok”.
Furthermore, Hoda Hotb avers that “I love Music. For me, music is morning coffee. It’s mood medicine. Its pure magic. A good song is like a good meal. I just want to inhale it and then share a bite with someone else” and because listening to good music relieves us of pain and tyranny of conscious thoughts, 9ce music on the economy represents music that paints the true economic situation in Nigeria which the Federal Executive Council should listen to.
The permanent way to get out of the problem is for the president to admit that the economy is not improving yet as only such recognition can make him take result oriented actions. He needs to be true to his promises by instituting problem solving structures.
Aso rock and the National Assembly must not allocate any money to buy diesel in the 2018 budget if they are serious about their promise of fixing power which already creates a pauperised economy. Only Nigerians, not Aso rock can say when the economy is improving.
Written by Dr Oludayo Tade.
dotad2003@yahoo.com.
