Until we understand money

This week, I am concerned about a lighter issue.  It occurred to me to write about this when Alhaji Yayale Ahmed, – former Secretary to the Government/Head of Service etc – retired and a party was held for him.  At that party, Malam Yayale recalled with euphoria, how easy things were for young graduates in Nigeria several decades ago.  Once he graduated, he said, a job was already waiting for him – complete with an official car.  Six months later, he was able to save money and buy his own car.  From then on, he lived happily ever after, reaching the zenith of Nigeria’s civil service.  Great story.

No one should begrudge Malam Yayale for his good fortune, but there is an interesting angle to explore here.  On one hand is the gross mismanagement of Nigeria’s resources by succeeding governments over the decades, to the extent that today, majority of our graduates can only resort to high crime in order to enjoy those things that were taken absolutely for granted in those days.  Many proceed to obtain Masters degrees these days, only to end up as Okada/Achaba riders, just to make ends meet.  Many Phd holders are jobless, living on alms.  Every hue of government that we have had in Nigeria has shifted the blame to someone else.  The Federal blames the State and Local Government.  Those ones in turn heap it all on the Federal Government.  The Military Governments often gets the flak from most ‘intellectuals’, but it is now obvious that waste, fraud, corruption at monumental levels, directionless-ness, may really be more associated with civilian regimes than Military!

As someone trained to look where others overlook, I am more concerned about the fact that there are times a people think they can afford things that they can ill-afford.  I am saying that if we were good planners, right from independence in 1960, we could have projected into the future to know what we can SUSTAIN and what we cannot sustain.  Affordance is not about the present availability of resources, but about the SUSTAINABILITY of a habit or practice into the distant future.  Albert Einstein said, ‘remembering the past is not as important as IMAGINING THE FUTURE’.  We are a people who lack the ability to imagine (to create, to envision) the future.  So we are often stuck in a vicious cycle of regretting the past.  We also seem not to understand money – modern money – at a personal, group or national level.

If we were good at imagining the future, we could have agreed not to give away all that largesse (like free car for every graduate) at the early period of our nationhood.  We could have factored the growth rate of our population (and the illiteracy and parlous health situation of the majority), we could have provided for children yet unborn, we could have spread our resources rather than lavish them.  We could have reduced our penchant for the ‘feel good factor’, whereby we are given to ‘celebration’ of our ‘achievements’, when in fact, we achieve very little.  Just as we are on personal levels, so the country has become at large.  It is largely cultural.  The tragedy is that as much as we complain today, and regret the past, there are habits that we have formed today, that will end up depriving our children tomorrow such that they will look at today as ‘the good old days’.

We live in a modern world of budgeting.  The Englishman bequeathed that system to us.  What Westerners do is to plan their resources down to the last cent.  As individuals plan, so does the nation.  But we Black Africans are bad at planning and budgeting.  Our traditions do not help.  If it was that we used our monies to assist family members alone, it would have been okay.  But what about those expensive traditional ceremonies that come up unannounced – relatives getting married, or dying – at which our traditions saddle us with unbudgeted expenditure?  In my part of Nigeria, parents of a newborn are expected to throw a party on the 7th day of a child’s birth, despite the fact that parents of a child will usually be broke immediately after having a new child, what with huge hospital bills and all.  So, most will borrow money from friends to throw that party!  How will someone involved in such spending ever balance financially?

This loose habit with spending is what we see at the governmental level.  Government agencies easily dip their hands in government funds to place adverts for the birthday of a DG, Minister, his wife, relative or benefactor.  A certain agency budgeted N800million last year, for ‘birthdays and burials of staff members’.  To make our case worse, our belief system surrounding money is that ‘God gives and takes money’, ‘He will always provide when we need’ etc.  While not disputing that belief of God-given money, I would advise that it is safer to resist many of the societal factors that leave us broke and breathless, for God will almost always assist those who assist themselves.  The belief system really puts a lot of us in trouble, as many of us believe that money can be conjured by magic.  Some societies believe it is possible to kidnap and kill a child for money rituals, but I dispute such possibilities.  No juju can conjure up modern money.  This is oyibo money, complete with dynamic security features that our traditional juju can never understand!

Until those who run our government develop this radical understanding of the concept of modern money, until they are able to reeducate we the followers, until our big men understand that it is sheer folly to corner the commonwealth for building huge, wasteful edifices home and abroad, which are only meant to pump up their egos, until we become less given to ceremonies, until we resist aspects of our culture that binds us to wasteful spending (even though I believe we should keep those aspects that encourage us to share), until we stop seeing opportunities to serve in government as ‘It Is Our Turn To Eat’ (in truth how much food can anyone eat?  And do people really eat money?), until we learn as a people, to imagine and create a great future, and deemphasize the kicks we get from the maximization of our enjoyment in the present, until such a day comes, we are likely to wallow in a position where majority of our people will be poor and angry, and the few rich amongst us will be endangered species.  But will that change ever come?

Modern money is finite.  If you spend it, it is gone.  It does not grow itself like a tree stump.  It cannot be dropped under your pillow by any fairy.  It cannot be conjured.  Yes, it can be stolen, but it is better to work for it! And live within your means… It is therefore better to spend it wisely, at best on spiritually-lifting charity, and for the creation of goodwill among men.  Monies spent on ego, on foolish pride, is money wasted!