RECESSION DIARY 7

RECESSION DIARY 7
LESSON :SURVIVAL OF THE SMARTEST.
"Shine your eye oh this is Lasgidi"
This is the moniker ascribed to the 3 statuesque statues that greet one once you drive into Lagos at the site of the former tollgate.

Indeed their proclamation translates that one must be smart to survive the wiles and commotion of Lagos.
Hence as Nigerians are sinking neck deep in a cruel recession one must realise that it is now survival of the smartest and not the fittest as commonly acclaimed.

If one has not noticed that the number of people looking for loans and money to borrow has trebled over nigbt then one is most likely unemployed as well looking for handouts to survive.
Also the number of con men called 419 have multiplied overnight as schemes such as washing money, submit your BVN or ATM PIN have become a daily nuisance.

Meanwhile kidnapping has become a national phenomenon as all geopolitical zones have now embraced this practice. Gone are the days when it was restricted to the kidnapping of foreign expartriates working in the oil industry in the Niger Delta.
Now anyone and everyone is a potential kidnap target as stories of bus loads of passengers heralded into the bush for a mere ransom of 50k per head abound. Both the high and low have kidnap value thus none is exempted from the cruel hand of the greedy kidnapper.

This is the fruits of the desperation and delinquency many are pushed to as the Government of the day fails to cushion the effects of a sharp economic decline.
Everyday Nigerians in the private sector are sacked as companies have declared mass redundancies just to survive. Even the hospital I do Private Practice has had to let some staff go as patient numbers dwindle into oblivion and profitability declines as just staying afloat is now the ultimate goal.

How a Government could deconstruct an economy in less than one year is legendary and what is even more appalling is the lack of light at the end of the tunnel.
However one must survive the era of recession and Buharinomics and being smart is the key to surival.
Learn to help those you can but don't go out a limb if it will jeopardise one's ability to cope. Learn to say no. Not all requests for help are dire. Prioritise your benevolence.
Determine needs over wants. Needs can be satisfied but wants are insatiable.

If your financial capacity has dwindled it makes absolutely no sense buying a new bag or shoe when an old one is stìll in a good conditio  and useable. Settle for cheaper local materials than the over priced foreign ones. Not every asoebi for every occassion one must buy. Recycle the old one for we are now in a Recession.

And food carries priority over other needs for of what use is a new wristwatch when hunger beckons the next day.
Families should endevour to buy foodstuff from the outskirts of town where there are much cheaper. Determine the market days in the outlying villages and source food from them at a cheaper rate.

Those who have abandoned pieces of land in their ancestral homes should start to till the soil to augment income and food.
I for one have cassava, plantain and oil palm plantations which in no small way have helped to keep body and soul together as Buharinomics and The Recession has seen my meagre Government salary disappear right before my eyes.

To say Nigerians are suffering is an understatement. I hear tales of married women begging to exchange sex for just a puttance to feed their unemployed husband and her children.
Tales of Mothers abandoning their suckling babies by the roadside like the proverbial Moses hoping that some rich Pharoah's daughter will take pity upon the hapless child upon finding the baby thus adopting the child into a life of opulence.
Tales of how common rice has become uncommon in the sight of many as some are ready to kill, steal and destroy fof the scarce overpriced commodity.

If this is change then it is a change for the worse.
And it is pure balderdash for a Government whose draconian economic policies have led us into this recession to turn round and blame Nigerians for their folly.
Nigerians wills survive no matter what the draculas in power say. But we must be smart to overcome.
Lesson : Survival of the Smartest.