- How to Survive Tinubunomics
The Tinubu presidency is barely three months old and it is causing untold suffering, despair and angst everywhere in the land. To be sure, the blame lies not entirely with this administration but more with the one we just bade goodbye.
Nor does it matter. What is clear is that this government, to claw back the country, has taken drastic measures that have hurt literally everyone. What is worse is that the government does not know: 1. How its actions will pan out; 2. When Nigerians will begin to get the benefits of its steps.
Things are so unpredictable that the government is beginning to get confused about how to manage the economy. After its first federal executive council meeting last Monday, Wale Edun, the minister of finance and coordinating minister for the economy addressed State House correspondents on the outcome. He stated that the government had produced its economic plan. I read extensively the report to pin down what this plan is and I got nothing. It was just hot air.
Coincidentally, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) rebased (debase is a better word) the employment figures and, with a stroke of the pen, solved permanently the unemployment problem in the country. Now, governments need not worry again about unemployment, which before the NBS miracle was climbing toward 40 percent. Only that it’s now left for the unemployed to worry about. NBS should even go ahead and query them for staying unemployed when you can just run an errand for an uncle just for an hour a day and be tagged gainfully employed!
Money, the Naira that is, has failed many people. You may literally need a wheelbarrow load of cash to procure certain goods and services. The picture of what obtained in Zimbabwe in the dying days of Robert Mugabe regime may be far flung; but I have learned to know that in the largest economy in Africa, anything can happen.
Tinubu seems to be courting the West every step of the way as far as the economy is concerned, but he should not expect miracles. He needs not look far. Immediately his government, through the Central Bank and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited tried to buoy the Naira, JP Morgan, a key financial pillar of Western hegemony, pulled the rug from under their feet by announcing that the country’s net foreign reserves was a paltry if not beggarly $3.7B, kilometres apart from the $33.88B we had been fanning ourselves with. The Naira, upon hearing the news, flattened. By this morning, you need a whooping N918 to fetch just one United States’ dollar. Let me try to put this in perspective. Our minimum wage of N30,000 a month, which a few states are unwilling (I use the word UNWILLING deliberately because the governors of those states are still stealing billions of Naira from the state coffers) to pay is equivalent of $32.67, what an average hourly worker in the United State earns in three hours.
Inflation is smiling lovingly at 30 percent and may as well pass that threshold before Christmas. Petrol and diesel prices will go up, just as costs of transportation and foodstuff and other goods and services. And government is digging deep to tax us the more just as salaries and disposable incomes continue to dwindle.
Someone shared a joke posted on X (formerly twitter) by one Halal Abdul to the effect that elsewhere is the saying that “hard times wont last forever” but “the ones in Nigeria came with powerbank”. Be that as it may, individuals need to take drastic measures to stay afloat while the crisis lasts. For how long will the crisis last? I cannot tell, but it’s safer to have a long term view. So, here are some tips to help Nigerians stay afloat while the economy wobbles. The key phrase this season is: Hunker Down! Just Hunker Down!!!
Foods
For the poor and the slightly more fortunate Nigerians, foods cost a chunk of their disposable income. This is not the time to hunger for foreign foods. Go for locally produced foods. Healthy Nigerian grown foods are available all year round. Cut down on dinning out; it costs at least twice to eat out than home cooked foods. In the same vein, cut down on food wastages. There is always a penchant to waste food, it’s part of the indiscipline of a typical Nigerian. Discipline is a watchword this season and in all seasons. And if you have space in your compound, grow some vegetables and fruits. You would be saving a lot.
Education
Every self sustaining educational institution in Nigeria will have to increase school fees as schools resume this September. The reason is not far fetched: prices for all of their consumables are sky up. Any school that does not do so will compromise standards on all fronts and will be on the road to extinction. Conversely, outrageous fee increases will also be the biggest undoing of any school. I heard of a school in Lagos which has increased its fees from ~N300K to ~N800K. That’s well more than double and I expect that less than half of the students will be returning to that school.
Because sending our children to school is a must do, parents who cannot afford school fees of their wards in the schools where they were in the last session should move their children to schools where they can afford the fees. There’s always a school for every pocket. Don’t kill your self to send your child to a school you cannot afford simply because you want to impress someone. I have a personal story here: my immediate senior brother and I attended what was a very good boarding school at Ikot Ekpene in the 1970s and 1980s. I was in year two when my father died; and my mother, a primary school teacher with a salary somewhere around N100 a month (yes, ONE HUNDRED NAIRA ONLY) had the presence of mind to move us to the village to enable us attend the village day school. It turned out to be a very wise decision because even as day students, she always struggled to pay our school fees. Occasionally, we would be sent home for not paying our fees; sometimes she would go plead with the principal to give her more time to pay. Somehow, we and our younger ones managed to finish secondary school education.
For parents whose children are schooling abroad, you have my sympathy. Just two months ago, you were buying a dollar for N750. Now it goes for N918. It can cause panic attack, and anxiety and depression and any other related sickness. If your wards are close to completion of their academic studies, you’ve just got to find ingenious ways to get them complete their studies (plead with them to take up summer jobs, for instance). If they’re in year two and you truly cannot afford it, wisdom requires you find them space in any of the good private universities at home. If they have just gained admission and you can’t afford it, perish the thought; and get them attend universities in Nigeria. It will take a breaking of legs for the Naira to breathe normally. Will the Tinubu government have the political will to break those legs? I can’t say.
Celebrations
We are by nature or culture very celebratory people. And there is nothing wrong with that. This time requires that we tone down. You have a birthday? Celebrate with your immediate family only; and, thank goodness for technology, splash it on Facebook and other social media platforms free of charge. Is your child graduating from school? Just take your family out for lunch or dinner; and case closed. You’re planning your wedding? Make it simple; simplicity is still the ultimate sophistication. You have a child dedicated? Invite no one; just call your pastor and appear in church on Sunday with your baby. The blessing will still flow. You lost a loved one and you’re planning a burial? Let your eyes be on the ball: which is to lower the remains of the dead into the ground. Just know that there are no rewards for those who organize the best funerals!
Transportation
This is another area where a large portion of the income of the poor goes to. So, if where you work is three or so kilometres from your home, walk to and from work. It does not only help your pocket, it also helps your health. If you cannot walk, please, save money and buy a bicycle; and then bike. If your place of work has a staff bus but you have been driving, kindly hide your pride and join the staff bus. If you still drive to work and your car has an air conditioning system, don’t put it off and wind down to drive. I learned something last month from scientists; which is that a car does not consume more fuel when the AC is on provided you do not go beyond 80 kilometres per hour. Conversely, the effect of the wind when the windows are worn down, drags the car down and causes it to consume more fuel.
Also, if you can, use public transport to commute. If it’s unsafe for you, use a car hailing service. It might look expensive, but it is far cheaper to use car hailing services such as Uber, Bolt, Lagride and Moove than to own and maintain a car. We can do the maths: an average good fairly used car in Nigeria is somewhere around N11M. Add N2M for annual fueling and maintenance. That number goes up as the car gets older. Average spend on a return trip via the hailing service is N10,000. Assume 300 trips a year and you get N3M. And it’s not money that you brought out at once as when you’re buying a car. You could have invested the N11M and use the proceeds to fund your commutes!
Shopping
Avoid expensive shopping places. Every town has alternative shopping options that are cheap. Go there, even if you didn’t use to. It is your money, put shame aside and go there. I do; and will not stop! It hasn’t removed anything from me. I guess it rather adds! If you can, shop in bulk; it saves time and money. Unfortunately, the very poor shop literally every day because they don’t have steady monthly income. They end up spending more money on average than when they could have shopped in bulk.
Charity
If you have been into charitable giving, this is certainly not the time to stop. If you’re a person of faith, it’s the last thing I would advise you stop doing. Please, continue. View charity the same way a farmer sees his or her seeds. You are simply sowing. Whether it is convenient or not, continue to sow your seeds of charity. The Bible says you should continue in well doing as you do not know which of your seeds will give you the harvest you need. And as more Nigerians continue to slip into poverty, the pressure on your dwindling income will mount. Key words here: the strong have to continue to help the weak. It’s even African!
Additional Income
And by all means, look for other legitimate ways to add to your streams of income. In Nigeria of today, it is very dangerous to depend on one source of income. Excuses will not cut it because there are a thousand and one things you can do to increase your chances of making more money. You always will need more money any day.
Let me leave you with the advice of John D. Rockefeller paraphrased here: If you have found legitimate ways of making money, never stop making money no matter how much money you have.
Even if it is to give it away, keep making money. I personally jealous Bill Gates, not for his wealth nor his technological expertise but for the way he gives.
NB: Esiere is a former journalist
