During the French Revolution, Maria Antoinette, on being told that the poor were dying for lack of bread, was alleged to have said, “Qu’ils mangent de la brioche”. Let them eat brioche (which was more expensive than bread). Apparently, Marie Antoinette didn’t really say this, someone else might have, but it illustrates a detachment some elite have with the poor. Can’t buy bread? Eat cake!
At a time when more than one million Nigerians are affected by severe food crisis, per World Bank, the Senate president, Senator Godswill Akpabio, had the effrontery to suggest that the way out is for starving citizens to eat free food wherever they find it. In his words, “Times are difficult, and wherever you see free food please endeavour to avail yourself.” And his fellow senators, none looking like they were starving, guffawed as if he’d told them a particularly funny joke.
It is particularly sad because from a 2020 report by the African Development Bank (AfDB), Akpabio’s Akwa Ibom State’s “poverty rate remains high, with 47.8 per cent of the population living below the poverty line, indicating inadequate economic opportunities.” So this man must know that poverty isn’t a laughing matter.
This statement by Mr Akpabio reflects a disturbing but continuing disconnect between Nigeria’s political leadership and the harsh realities faced by millions of citizens struggling with everything including severe food insecurity. E no begin today. Our politicians are demi-gods living in their own world. Who remembers Senator Ben Bruce Murray’s push for electric cars in 2015? And his 2019 bill to phase out petrol cars by 2035. Green energy bla bla bla.
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Pushing for electric cars in a country where constant power supply is still a challenge shows that you’re either insulated from the problem or you just don’t care. Anyway, Akpabio’s flippant remark—encouraging people to “avail themselves” of free food, as if such opportunities are abundant or easily accessible — at a time like this, is also cruelly insensitive. Apparently, over 20 million people cannot afford to buy food. One of my friends who is the parish priest of a rural parish in Abia State told me of how last Christmas, he was gifted a bag of rice (50kg) by one of his friends. Families lined outside his door with polythene bags to beg for a cup or two. Maybe Akpabio and his fellow senators should provide the free food they want the starving to eat. They certainly have more than enough.
At a time when over a million Nigerians are impacted by an escalating food crisis, with prices skyrocketing and hunger levels increasing, this kind of conscienceless rhetoric trivialises the suffering of many. Citizens want to be able to afford a life, not to be dashed free food. And they certainly do not appreciate their sufferings being mocked by the people they’ve elected to run the country. The rich-people’s-laughter from Akpabio’s fellow senators only highlights a broader problem of Naija governance, where our political elite are insulated from the severe social and economic issues faced by the population.
The hasty removal of fuel subsidy, poor agricultural practices, inflation, climate change and conflict and insecurity in farming regions; over-dependence on imported food, all of these contribute to the food crisis. What this means is that there is a solution to this catastrophe. What’s needed is a commitment to strategic, long-term interventions, such as increased support for agriculture, assistance to farmers, and a firm resolve to address corruption. What won’t help are dismissive comments that lack empathy for the nation’s most vulnerable citizens.
Akpabio’s statement (and the reaction to it from his peers) raises serious questions about the level of accountability and responsibility these leaders hold themselves to. What Nigerians need is a comprehensive response to address the root causes of their suffering—not jokers at the top who have no sense of what it is to live in present day Nigeria, and who don’t care.
In other soro m-chia (Igbo for come laugh with me) news, Deputy Speaker Benjamin Kalu (and eight others) sponsored a bill to establish Bola Tinubu University, “for the promotion of the learning of Nigerian languages.” A chia m oooo. I laugh in Igbo. What a load of sycophantic jesters.
Nigerian leaders, please it’s way past joke o’clock. I beg you to be serious about governance. I take God beg una, abeg. Thank you.
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