Azuka Onwuka
The news that Nigeria was rated as the sixth most miserable country has been on the lips of many Nigerians since the weekend. As usual, politics was brought into it, as anybody who complains about the unflattering economic situation in Nigeria is tagged an enemy of the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari and his party, the All Progressives Congress.
ADVERTISING
The report was written by Steve Hanke, who is an economist at the John Hopkins University in Baltimore, United States, and was titled, Hanke’s Annual Misery Index 2018: The World’s Saddest (and Happiest) Countries.
Hanke gave an insight into the parameters used for the ranking thus:
“My modified Misery Index is the sum of the unemployment, inflation and bank lending rates, minus the percentage change in real GDP per capita. Higher readings on the first three elements are ‘bad’ and make people more miserable. These are offset by a “good” (GDP per capita growth), which is subtracted from the sum of the ‘bads.’ A higher Misery Index score reflects a higher level of ‘misery,’ and it’s a simple enough metric that a busy president, without time for extensive economic briefings, can understand at a glance.”
Hanke also noted, “The human condition inhabits a vast continuum between ‘miserable’ and ‘happy.’ In the sphere of economics, misery tends to flow from high inflation, steep borrowing costs and unemployment. The most surefire way to mitigate that misery is economic growth. All else equal, happiness tends to blossom when growth is strong, inflation and interest rates are low, and jobs are plentiful. Many countries measure and report these economic metrics on a regular basis. Comparing them, nation by nation, can tell us a lot about where in the world people are sad or happy.”
About 95 countries were ranked, with Thailand emerging the least miserable country in the world. Other countries on the top six are Hungary (second), Japan (third), Austria (fourth), China (fifth), and Switzerland (sixth).
Conversely, the top six most miserable countries are Venezuela, Argentina, Iran, Brazil, Turkey and Nigeria. While Thailand got 1.7 points on the Misery Index to emerge the least miserable, Nigeria got 43 points to be the sixth most miserable country, with unemployment being the most contributing factor to Nigeria’s status.
But do we need outsiders to tell us that something is happening in Nigeria that is affecting the people negatively? Since the middle of the 1980s, Nigerians have been ‘checking out’ in search of greener pastures. The military regime of General Ibrahim Babangida (retd.) had to create a TV campaign material featuring the actor, Enebeli Elebuwa, playing the role of Andrew. In that video, Andrew complained about the dearth of basic infrastructure and concluded with: “I’m checking out.” A voiceover told “Andrew” not to check out, but to stay in Nigeria and join in building the country.
That was when the exodus of Nigerians started in search of employment and better opportunities. Before then, Nigerians were travelling abroad for studies, with many of them returning to pursue their careers at home. Between 1993 — when the June 12 election was annulled (which also ignited a political crisis and the repression of opposition by the military) — and 1999, when the military relinquished power to a democratically elected government, many Nigerians left the country on political exile.
With the return of democratic rule in 1999, the political exiles returned to the country. But with the rebound experienced in the Nigerian economy under the presidency of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, some Nigerians returned home with the belief that the Nigerian economy had created more hope and opportunities for them to flourish. However, although they never stopped migrating to other countries, Nigerians were not consumed by the desire to emigrate by all means possible.
Today, the challenge is not that Nigerians emigrate; it is that there is a feeling of uncertainty about the fate of Nigerians living in Nigeria, especially the children. In the past, families that were financially stable and comfortable preferred to stay in Nigeria and occasionally travel overseas for holidays and business. That has recently changed. These days, people working in high-paying sectors of the economy (like oil and gas, telecommunications and multinationals) take their families to Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany and similar countries, abandoning their well-paying jobs in Nigeria. Some take their families out and remain here.
What is driving this is fear for the future of their children in Nigeria. Many people are not sure about the fate of Nigeria and they think it is wise to safeguard the future of their children in a country whose future is more predictable and where the well-being of the children — their education, health and safety — is guaranteed.
For Nigerians who are less financially fortunate, that desperation shows in the nature and depth of risk they take to leave Nigeria. That is why, in spite of the horrors experienced in crossing the Sahara Desert and the Mediterranean Sea into Europe, many Nigerians still continue to embark on that journey of death. Their argument is that having experienced the hopelessness of their present condition in Nigeria and extrapolated that into the future, it is better to risk death and embark on that journey, with the belief that if they succeed, their lives will have a new meaning in Europe.
That hopelessness or uncertainty about the fate of Nigeria is dangerous. Hope is what keeps people going. The economies of countries dip now and then. People seek greener pastures abroad. There are even countries which send their citizens to other countries to study and learn the technological secrets of those countries for the purpose of replicating those secrets at home. However, when some people sink into a state of hopelessness or uncertainty about their country and they are eager to escape to other countries with their families, it calls for concern.
This goes beyond the politics of parties or individuals. In the past four decades, there has been consistent deterioration in all the sectors of the economy. Sometimes there have been flashes in some sectors like the telecommunications, entertainment, etc. However, critical areas like education, health, electricity, transport, food production, manufacturing, road construction have been depreciating. Corruption has also been increasing, while belief in the country has been decreasing. Sadly, there is no sign that any concrete action is being taken to arrest this descent. On the contrary, many have argued that we have never been this divided — not even during and immediately after the Nigerian Civil War. It is this unchecked descent that has created uncertainty and fear in many Nigerians.
It shows that, in spite of the efforts made by our present and past leadership to turn Nigeria around, the wrong solutions have been used. It is like taking analgesic with the hope of curing malaria. Sometimes the fever may subside and give one temporary relief, but the malaria will continue raging in the patient, with the ultimate aim of killing him if the appropriate malaria drug is not administered.
Nigerians have been clamouring for a national discussion on how to live together in peace and progress. But many Nigerian leaders have snubbed that with the belief that they know what is Nigeria’s problem and how best to solve it. Even the leaders who attempted to hold a national conference have remotely controlled the discussion and tampered with the final decisions made at such conferences.
The need for the restructuring of the country and devolution of powers cannot be wished away, no matter how long Nigerian leaders avoid it. The economic and political uncertainty is making many Nigerians to lose hope in their country, while thinking of which country to take up its citizenship as insurance against the future. The earlier a genuine attempt to restructure Nigeria is made, the better for Nigeria.
— Twitter @BrandAzuka
END
Be the first to comment