Quick one on 7 November

On Freshly Pressed this morning, we talked about the cost of living. Daily Trust Online published a story that says that civil servants are resorting to menial jobs to make ends meet. You can read it here.

In it, they told the story of a chap in Kano, Abdulhadi Bako, who, with a family of seven, earns ₦33,800 and has now taken to riding a keke to put food on the table. He’s a hardworking father, and I wish him all the success he can get. After all, Jim Ovia once drove a taxi in Louisiana, so the possibilities are limitless with the right opportunities, although at 45, age is not really on his side, but I digress…

From my point of view, the real story is what he earns. Bako’s salary is ₦33,800, or in other words, $38, or the cost of a 1TB flash drive on Amazon.

Let’s put it this way: back in 2019, the average Nigerian spent 63% of his income on feeding alone. There is no doubt that this proportion has gone up significantly. According to the most recent SBM Jollof Index, the cost of feeding went up 7.6% in the last quarter alone.

For me, what is more harrowing is that the price of eggs, which over the last year have become the primary source of protein for most people, has gone up by between 50 & 80% since January.

Yet, despite all of this, the government is not doing anything tangible to alleviate the food crisis. At capacity, our national silos can feed us for four days max. The President has ordered grain release from the Strategic Grain Reserve three times in the last year — October 2021, April 2022 and September, yet food prices keep rising.

Now consider this: at ₦33,800, Mr Bako is solidly part of the middle class in a country where the national median income is ₦11,450 per month. If our middle class is being shunted into poverty at such a pace, then all this squeezing of people can have only one possible outcome.

What is scary is that as the storming of the warehouses following the Lekki Massacre in 2020 showed, we are getting close to that situation where more people will not ride a motorcycle taxi like Mr Bako but opt to eat those that they consider to be rich. Many of you reading this would be very lovely sticks of suya…