How much is the Nigerian Life worth?

By Joseph Edgar . . .

How much is the Nigerian life worth? Not much if you ask me. Very close to worthless and even those of us who think they are wealthy and are living the life are just a little bit better off than the rest of us especially if you look at internationally accepted indices of the good life.

Is it from the kinds of food that we eat? Our staple is mostly carbohydrates. The average Nigerian is happy it’s his starchy food laced with all kinds of unhealthy red meat washed down with ‘pure water’. No wonder the incidence of diabetes has quadrupled with most of us being cut down in our prime by this illness without even knowing.

We are so used to accepting mediocrity, conforming to sub human living standards and arrogate it all to an unseen hand that controls everything and which we cannot fight.

The hardships involved with the life of a Nigerian would break any normal citizen of the world, but we handle it with grace hence our nationally accepted grace in ‘managing’.

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After the hue and cry for fuel, the Minister gave his word that fuel will come at a particular time, it came for a day and went again and today we are still living the ‘life’. Buying fuel in kegs at prices decided by the lords of the black market.

A Nigerian life is brutish, labourious and short. Our life expectancy has dropped significantly that I hear it is now below the United Nations recommended limit. Today people are dying in their 40s from avoidable illnesses associated with stress and hardship and yet nobody is rebelling, we are all accepting.

In fact we have built a whole industry around early death, from the musicians who play at these funerals, event management firms, clothe hawkers and all.

I see no solution and would not dare to recommend any. It is our life, we will live with it.

 

 

 

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