Honor Little People That Shoulder Nigeria’s Survival

By

Farouk Martins Aresa

faroukomartins@aim.com

 

 

We need a national honorable list to bestow deserved accolades on the Little People of Nigeria. Too many of them just struggle and work hard throughout their lives and they die with no remembrance or citation to embolden and excite the younger generation of how to live a well deserved and exemplary future. This is the type of discipline we want imbued in our National Youth Corps. Unfortunately majority of Nigeria national honors go to crooks and looters that have no net gain or accomplishment, wrecking the Country.

 

There is no amount of praises and accolades that can compensate for the contributions of Little Nigerians that are unknown struggling day and night only to die poor in the same Country flowing with potentials and regrets untapped. No matter what they have to face daily, they get up and prepare the families for school, work and distance journey. Those that are brutally honest hardly make it rich unless they join ruling political party or fall on contracts. They are teachers, transportation drivers, farmers and inventors.

 

When the breakup of Nigeria is predicted by some intelligence agencies and some of the leaders wondered out loud why the Country still stands despite their massive corruption, they forget to take into account the indefatigable resolve of the Little People that live free without government subsidies for fear of perishing by the wayside. Other Africans have always wondered; with so much billions stolen all the time, how many billions remain. It is not billions that glue us, it is the priorities of Ordinary Nigerians to survive.

 

Nigerians that can only boast of how much money they pay back as odious loans from penalties and interest while sticking to their masters’ voice on economic theories that has never benefited Africa are rewarded with international honors. As soon as these monies are facilitated out of Africa, international rating agencies give AAAA ratings and awards. Some Nigerians even donate big money to foreign universities while those at home suffer from lack of funding. Just to get National and International Award.

 

One would think Little People could make one of the honors’ list bestowed by the Government yearly. No, those are for connected vagabonds in politics. Sure they mix them with a few good men and women that should be afraid they make the list with those that can soil their high reputations. The Emir, Chief, Obi are traditional leaders open to the highest bidders. You can name your own title if you pay accordingly. We must also make haste to add that no amount of money will buy some traditional titles.

 

The point here is that little people oil and greased the economy and the unity of Nigeria with their sweat at desperate risk with very little in return in terms of infrastructure or benefits to make a decent living. Their contribution is turned into fat profit by fat cows. Everything done in Nigeria is in the name and sake of little folks but they are the last to see the fruits. In each election, politicians dance to their tunes and play with hungry bellies. How long does a bag of rice last compare to how long politicians stay in office?

 

If hard work and education pays, the children of the little people pay their dues but they are the last to find well paying or government jobs. Indeed, cushy jobs are so hard to find these days even for those connected, that have shot themselves in the foot with selfish and bad management of our resources. So they care less about those relegated to the back. This is why little folks create their own jobs by starting small business. They are hunted for taxes as they earned but the benefit of their taxes goes to the big boys.

 

Many are small and medium business people investing money borrowed from relatives and friends, esusu or money made outside the dear Country. Believe it or not, there are many more of those but their capital and profit are so frugally spent, you never hear their names from praise singers. Their priorities are focused on improving their business struggling to pay salaries and their children school fees. Unfortunately, they seldom take vacation outside the Country since foreign exchange and plane fare are too expensive.

 

There are petty traders selling from dawn to dusk and yes some send their underage children to sell as well. More depressing are underage children sold to sell on the street with little to gain while missing school. In some of our cities all over the Country, these helps troop in on a daily basis trying to make money to send back to the villages or to whoever sold them into the trade. So you find little kids running after cars and buses trying to force a sale. There are daily paid hostels in some big cities where some of the petty traders are boarded.

 

Please when you hear some ethnic group is going to break Nigeria up, it means some people are so mad that they are not getting a fair share of the national cake. As soon as they are compromised with positions and leadership, we hear whisper and the only grunting left is from the choke of money passing through their throats. Alright, there may be inter or inside quarrels of how to divide the loot by killing one another. 

 

In case you are wondering how these Little Nigerians can be recognized, emulated and encouraged to further the moral and ethics for the next generation of Africans, we have to begin at the grassroots level demanding change as we are sick of vagabonds honoring themselves. Little people have so much to care about, they do not have enough time left for what they consider luxury of demands and protests when some of them have already done that and came out short, bruised and many killed.

 

One may wonder why they have not fought back like the Arabs or Occupiers in the western countries. Actually, they have. Protest and vigorous press are not strange to Nigerians. There were students, workers and pensioner that protest to no avail. They can count their losses in lives and those that were hunted until they cross the borders. You will find Nigerians fighting deportations from poor and not as rich African countries we used to be their benefactor until those honoring themselves wrecked the economy.