ECHOES OF SCARCITY:
Tidings that touch the soul
By Tarnum A. A.
There is no doubt that almost every continent suffers the disaster called poverty at a certain level.
Africa is considered the poorest continent on Earth. This is evident in the fact that almost every second, someone in the States of Sub-Saharan Africa lives below the poverty line. Particularly affected by poverty in Africa are the weakest members of society, including the elderly, children and women.
Scarcity happens to be one among many of the factors that contribute immensely to the heightened level of poverty on the continent and Nigeria to be specific.
According to the Webster Dictionary, Scarcity is defined as the quality or state of being scarce especially want of provisions for the support of life. It could also be seen as the shortage in the accessibility of a given commodity of interest that is used for the exchange of goods and services.
When human demands for products, services, and resources overwhelm available resources, scarcity occurs.
The two causes of scarcity are a rapid increase in demand and a rapid decrease in supply. These two causes are both natural and man-made. The natural aspects could be envisaged in natural phenomena such as drought, earthquake, and storms whereas the man made sources stemmed from over demand and under supply of products as evident in the under supply of new naira notes by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, which had thrown many families in the dungeon of poverty and suffering.
In the past years, people experienced hardship but it was not as bad as what is now obtainable, which stares in our faces with utmost boldness.
I see it as a calculated effort clowning around by the current dispensation to send many lives to their early graves.
People no longer get a sound sleep as a result of trying to either be early at filling stations to get Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, or bank premises to get cash to settle family needs and other things.
In the history of Nigeria from pre-post Independence, we have not experienced this kind of hardship that is targeted at the poor masses who constitutes a greater portion of the population.
This is indeed a thing to be frowned at. It is not a time for us to fold our arms and watch the bad policy send us to our early graves.
A pathetic story is told of an old man who came to get cash at a particular bank in Makurdi who upon failure to get cash from the said bank to solve the issues that mandated him coming to make withdrawal collapsed and died at the spot.
What about my bitter experience? I woke up one fateful day with just a thousand naira in my account, thinking I could access my money in the bank. On reaching there, I could not withdraw due to scarcity of cash at the bank. Nevertheless, I then proceeded to the nearest POS shop but was told the same story – no cash. With a determined spirit I did not give up, I tried my fortune with almost nine POS shops but to no avail. It was the tenth shop that I got some cash charging three hundred naira for a thousand naira! I was left with no choice but to withdraw since I was already famished.
Many of such stories have been turned as headlines of various media houses.
These drumbeats of two major scarcities that are deliberately permitted to destroy the poor masses at the end of the current regime is inhumane, barbaric and ungodly.
More worrisome is the fact that there are no indications or solutions in the pipeline by the Administration to put an end to the predicament of average Nigerians as seen in the deaf ears of the apex bank to the Supreme Court Ruling, which directed it to allow the old notes in circulation alongside the new notes till 31st December, 2023.
Many who were even vehement in their argument backing the advent of the policy asserting that it was designed to end vote buying in the Country are now having their own fair share that the naira scarcity is biting them hard.
The bourgeoisies had outsmarted the policy and found their way in the commercial banks to exchange their old notes and even get the new ones stashed in their houses.
The policy has now added myriad of issues ranging from financial extortion to bribery and corruption, the cancer worm that had already eaten deep into the fabric of the nation.
It has created an avenue for bankers and POS agents to feed fat on the little cash of the poor masses thereby increasing the toll of poverty on hapless citizens.
We must not shy away from condemning this killer policy with unanimous voices.
Let us come out en masse to vote credible leaders who can savage us from the shackles of poverty, which is roaring like a wounded lion looking for whom to devour.
A stitch in time saves nine.
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