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The Price Of Bread And The Anatomy Of Nigerian Vulnerability By Prince Charles Dickson Jos, Plateau Nigeria Democracy is when the indigent, and not the men of property, are the rulers. Aristotle In a democracy the poor will have more power than the rich, because there are more of them, and the will of the majority is supreme. Aristotle I love Nigeria and it is a fact I never cease to highlight every-time that I can, though it is sad that most times Nigeria does not love me, or better put the forces that make up Nigeria for reasons of greed, lack of direction, and sense of it, all combine to frustrate that relationship of love for nation. There are times one tires of writing, commenting, suggesting and discussing matters that are Nigeria and Nigerian, but I and many will not fail, if not for us but for the future, we shall not give up. I know a sizable number of Nigerians that do not read, talk, see nor smell Nigeria, they have since consigned their beloved nation to the confines of a nation of lost hope. For me and many I believe that we can only keep giving the best that we can, and watch, before we pray that par-adventure a miracle is on the horizon. That perhaps, the indigent would rule, or have a say, and that possibly, the poor will afford bread on their table because they are deserving. The price of Bread is the essence of this essay, ordinarily one would ask what has the price of bread got to do with Nigeria, in the light of other serious national issues that require discuss and solution to, one is talking of bread. The political firmament is hot with intrigues, betrayal, and many more and one chooses to discus bread. Pardon me until we are done with this piece. I have decided to write on bread for as many reasons that we can find for the failure of the Nigerian State. The price of bread in Nigeria helps us to understand the anatomy of vulnerability in Nigerians. Few weeks back in delivering Judgement, the presiding Judge that was in charge of the Reverend King saga in Nigeria made a comment in the over fifty pages Judgement that caught my attention and I have in the next few lines sought to use the term he used to chart with us. The term he used was "vulnerable elements"....I would not quote him for fear of being misquoted, and for fear of contradiction, but in not too many words he said that Nigerians were largely made up of vulnerable elements and that is why people like Reverend King thrive in their so-called spiritual business. It is in this light that I proceed. The price of bread in the last few weeks has been on the increase and Nigerians have kept mute, bread is a staple food, a meal that close to 90% of Nigerians take every other day, from Aso Rock to Ajegunle, the only difference is the type of bread, but be it, wheat bread, oat bread, cake bread, buttered bread or the popular Agege bread, all is bread a friend would say. The rising cost of this food item can be traced to many factors, and they include the rising cost of flour, the cost of production, in a system where the basics such as electricity, transportation are all but operating in a scatter-scatter fashion. Also at this point is the question of what has government done...nothing is the answer. On ground is the fact that sometime not far away in other to find a solution the government initiated the cassava flour project with research institutes like the Raw Materials Development Company and the Federal Institute of Raw Materials Research but after millions were expended, it all ended up as zero, all zero and because of the vulnerability of Nigerians nothing happened, no one was brought to book for failure. In Algiers the Algerian capital, sometime ago, same bread was increased and the citizenry took to the streets, the President of the nation had to officially go on air to announce a drop in price. And so the riots were quelled, mind me, I am not advocating a riot because of the increase of bread in Nigeria, but I ask for how long and how far will our vulnerability go? Lets leave bread alone as the Holy Books say that, "man shall not live by bread alone..." Sadly the price of bread has skyrocketed, the price of salt, rice, beans, maize, water, fuel, everything on the price index has recorded increases in percentages most times over 200-300%. But Nigerians move on doggedly, no one has though it fit to do anything. In a few weeks we are expecting the launch of redesigned Naira notes and it is coming on the heels of the usual economics garb that mean nothing to the ordinary man. Banks have merged, the cost of funding for small businesses has not dropped, all the promises associated with the consolidation and merger are still a mirage and vulnerable elements of the society bear the malfunction that our society has turned to. Only last night I sat up late to really get to the bottom root of the mathematics of increased salaries and I nodded my head at how vulnerable we are as a people. If the government has increased wages and salaries by 15% of what benefit is it if the lowest paid civil servant on the Federal pay is 7500, that increase is barely 1000, and then all his allowances, and leave grant are consolidated, meaning that it is now included in the monthly take home pay rather than paid in bulk, what is the benefit when prices go up by 100, 200, 300% in the market, of what significance is it that transportation is up by more percentage, how does it translate to regular power supply when indeed supply has dropped and tariff has increased. In the market, market people have increased goods, so also services, as the activities of middlemen go into play, no one acts as a stop gap or regulatory body, so every body is seen as a federal worker whose salaries has been increased. The fuel situation is not about easing but sadly in our vulnerability Nigerians are not mourning the unthinkable price at which the commodity is being sold but we are requesting that the product be available and one wonders our line of reasoning. The increased price of bread is a reflection of our national life, a national life where the basics of life is taken for granted and no one shows concern. When the price of bread increase incessantly and we keep quiet, it shows our state of amnesia as a people. Prominent persons are murdered and the story ends happy thereafter, and millions of ordinary men die and in Shakespeare's words not even the star notices their demise to accidental discharge of Police bullets, bullets of assailants called robbers, and not forgetting those that end up on the other side of life due to the insensitivity of leadership that is supposed to fight their cause. The Chima Ubani of these world died on the altar of fighting a fuel increase, today we do not even see the fuel. Bola Ige died and till today it is still politics as to who was responsible, and as vulnerable as we are, its business as usual. It is all like the increase of price for bread, it just comes and slips by us, we hardly notice, we are mute, deaf and blind to these events and consciously and unconsciously they go along way to moulding the shape of our society. Our vulnerability has given rise to the likes of Reverend King that promise all sorts of paradise in guise when it is only obvious that hell beckons, many Kings are out there exploring single girls desperate for a husband, and many a husband and wife in dare want of babies, we cannot throw away the vulnerable millions who beseech the mosque, church and all manner of places just to hear a somebody shout hallelujah by the grace of Almighty and pass the offering plate one more time. In analyzing the anatomy of our vulnerability, the same reason why Obj was good for the nation is the same that makes Buhari good, and mind me no offense meant and no judgement either, but let us not forget that we were warned of the implications of electing Obj in 1999, those that overlooked were reminded in 2003, but as we remained vulnerable we are gifted the punishment of watching the transformation of Gabriel into a Judas, for all that General Obasanjo stood for that was good, where is it today. Our vulnerability almost saw the emergence of an IBB. Our vulnerability would have given us the likes of crooked Odili, their own vulnerability saw Mr. President make a Big Xmas goat of them too by giving that ticket to a Yaradua whose foremost desire was going back to ABU as lecturer. Our vulnerability as a people see us prescribe Andrews Liver Salt for Headaches, and Panadol brand of Paracetamol for stomach disorder, we get it all wrong, a man without attending a law school practices because in Nigeria it is about being smart and he gets away, a mad man wears white apron and officially kills because he is allowed a scissor in the nations General Hospital. Only months back the body of a top state government functionary was declared missing in the morgue in the National Hospital...In Jos Plateau, the Deputy Vice Chancellor of a Federal University has been missing without trace for over three months now, do wonders end, no they do not, especially when citizenry remain in a state of paranoiac vulnerability, so anything can go. Bread is common, so common that on the 1st of January while traveling my car gave me problems in a village kilometers after Pambeguwa on the Kaduna-Jos road, all I could get was locally baked bread, it was obvious not made of flour, I guess maybe wheat, because it would be easily accessible in the village. The point I make here is that for N40 it was a sweet experience, and I topped with a bottle of Pepsi-cola drink, the mallam selling told me that the bread used to be sold for N20 and that the price was just increased, the villagers had no option, no one questioned the why of the increase. These days, the sight of several loaves of bread as a sign of safe journey is gradually fading as people manage to travel with the high cost of transportation, so the money for bread is just a frivolity not worth the pain. So we come back to kids at home with stories rather the Onithsa Queens Bread, nor the Kaduna Saba Bread of the past. The sing-song "Buy Agege Bread, Bread Agege re" that woke many Lagosians in the morning may be a thing of the past just like the good old days, when the news vendor, with his horn, is now becoming extinct as people cannot afford the paper and rather would rent to read. In concluding I only recently decided to read all of Obasanjo's New Year, Independence and budget Speeches and I asked where is the Nigeria in those speeches, holding my jaws, I said how vulnerable can a nation be? And I can bet as he bids farewell, in our vulnerability as long as he did not break the nation, and as long as he leaves come May 2007, we care less, some are even suggesting we give him a nobel, just like Anini, and Adelusi the great armed robbers of the past deserve post humous merit awards. After all, we give thieves chieftaincy, and honorary degrees in our vulnerability, if the price of bread is good. So we are confined to Buhari, Yaradua, and co. and without our consent again. We cannot say that what we get we deserve neither can we say that we do not deserve we shall get. The price of bread has increased for the wrong reasons, nothing that goes up price wise in Nigeria comes down and that is the physics of Nigeria. The words of Abraham Lincoln is most deserving of my end-line "I care not much for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it". Of What benefit is a reform that cannot accomodate the price of bread. May the Almighty Allah be our provider and make us firm as a people to fight our cause.
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