2022: The triumph of resilience

Perhaps only those in government who avail themselves of the “dividends of democracy” at public expense would claim that 2022 has been a good year for Nigerians. Data released by the United Nations Development Bank (UNDP) and African Development Bank (ADB) supports the assertion that hyperinflation, rampant corruption, burgeoning insecurity, increased unemployment, and massively depreciating currency are the only “dividends of democracy” which Nigerians experienced in 2022.  Ongoing maladministration resulted in the oil sector continuing to haemorrhage and bleed away the nation’s sovereign wealth, while reckless government borrowing means debts have spiralled out of control. Approximately 80 per cent of revenues is now committed to debt servicing!

 The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reported that an additional 133 million Nigerians fell below the poverty line, meaning that the majority of Nigerians now live in economic misery.  The World Bank reported that in Nigerian inflation has reduced the value of the minimum wage by 55 per cent , while unemployment hovers around 33 per cent. Despite the self-praise contained in President Buhari’s Christmas day message in which he commended himself for making “advances” on the “economic front” and “food security”  all opinion polls indicate that the majority of citizens believe things have never been so bad. The few who managed to prosper outside politics, government contracts or outright fraud should be commended for succeeding to improve their lives against the odds of bleak economic outlook, menacing insecurity and general failure of governance. Added to all man-made problems, Nigerians had to withstand unprecedented catastrophic flooding nationwide. 

2022 proved beyond a doubt that Nigerians are resilient people. Resilience is the ability to be happy after something difficult or bad has happened. It’s the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties, face problems or challenges, overcome them and carry on with life. People lacking resilience get easily overwhelmed. In difficult times such as those the nation is going through, it’s hard for people to stay positive without the psychological strength needed to cope with stress and hardships. Author Elizabeth Edwards said “Resilience is accepting your new reality, even if it is less good than the one you had before!” In 2022 Nigerians demonstrated the resilience to accept President Buhari’s new reality which is worse than any previous one! It has been suggested that Nigerians political leaders take the public for granted, because their failures will be mitigated by the people’s resilience. Truly Nigerians understand the serial failure in governance, feel the hurt, and suffer the consequences but choose to keep going. It is trite as Thomas Edison said that man’s greatest weakness lies in giving up, and the most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time. However, two groups of Nigerians had their resilience broken, and gave up on either the nation, or on life itself. The first group comprises those who decided that their solution to their problems was to get as far away from Nigeria as possible. Tragically for national development this group comprised mainly professionals such as medical doctors and other health workers, information technology experts, and academicians who flew out of the country. As for the non-professionals who didn’t qualify for immigration visas, many of them lost their lives in the process of trying their luck on the arduous journey across the Sahara Desert and Mediterranean Sea. The second group gave up and ended their life without hope by committing suicide. In 2022 jumping off bridges into the Lagos lagoon became an increasingly common occurrence, while suicide by hanging or swallowing poison trended in other parts of the nation. 

Resilience theory, based upon the study of adversity, argues that it isn’t the nature of adversity that is important, but how people deal with it. Despite the maladministration in the last eight years, Nigerians have been able to cope with the failure of governance. Hope is supposedly on the horizon because 2023 shall usher in a new government and perhaps some sort of improvement in our lives. However, caution needs to be exercised. Nigerians have been routinely disappointed in their hope that a new president will bring about positive changes, compassionate governance and better lives. Regrettably, since 1999 with the exception of Yar’Adua’s truncated tenure, each government has been markedly worse than its predecessor. 

The biggest failure of during this period has not been in the Presidency, but rather in the National Assembly (NASS) who are vested with the feedback and control mechanisms within the Constitution.  NASS has been irresponsible, corrupt and a hindrance to progress by accepting financial inducement to routinely assent to dubious “cut and paste” budgets which are not based on any real assessment of needs or priorities; routinely approve unjustifiable loans; and habitually fail in oversight functions. Cynics believe that things cannot get worse in 2023 simply because the present administration has taken the nation to rock bottom! The current all-time low scenario is the foundation on which any incoming government must start to build a new, more prosperous, more equitable and more just nation.  American Author Jodi Piccout, said that the human capacity for burden is like bamboo and far more flexible than anyone would ever believe, but even bamboo has its breaking point! In 2023 things must not be allowed to become worse than they were in 2022. The incoming President cannot continue to misgovern in the belief that patriotism and the resilience of Nigerians will prevent the nation from boiling over.