“You know I am not very happy with Nigeria. I have made that very clear on many occasions. Yes, Nigeria stood by us more than any nation, but you let yourselves down, and Africa and the black race very badly. Your leaders have no respect for their people. They believe that their personal interests are the interests of the people. They take people’s resources and turn it into personal wealth. There is a level of poverty in Nigeria that should be unacceptable. — Nelson Mandela (1918-2013)

NOT a few Nigerians have read the quote above, credited to late Nelson Mandela, icon of the anti-Apartheid struggle and former president of South Africa. The quote was part of a conversation he had with Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, a retired civil servant that is now Special Adviser to the President on Political Matters. Mandela, also fondly called Madiba nailed it when he said that our leaders have no respect for us, and the present administration exemplifies that more than any other government in our history.

What is respect? According to the online resource portal, Wikipedia, “Respect, also called esteem, is a positive feeling or deferential action shown towards someone or something considered important or held in high esteem or regard. It conveys a sense of admiration for good or valuable qualities. It is also the process of honoring someone by exhibiting care, concern, or consideration for their needs or feelings.”

Take note of the last sentence above. I particularly hang on to the phrase that describes respect as “the process of honoring someone by exhibiting care, concern, or consideration for their needs or feelings.” Let’s go back to May 29, 2023. That was the day we inaugurated a new president, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, who took over from the gangling Katsina general, Muhammadu Buhari. In his inaugural address, the president announced immediate withdrawal of subsidy on petrol, and our lives, as some Penterascal pastors like to say, “have never been the same again.”

The marketplace took a vicious cue from this proclamation and prices of everything, including satchet water, hit the rooftops, burst out into the sky and headed for outer space. Since then, it has become, and remains a herculean task to put food on the table for the vast majority of Nigerians. Is that an act of respect? Is it also an act that shows care? Further, is it possible to say that was an act that shows concern or exhibits consideration for our needs or our feelings? You, reader, can answer better.

On the heels of the petrol subsidy removal came flotation of the Naira, which saw the exchange rate of the Naira to the US Dollar taking off from ground zero at N457 to the stratosphere where it now exchanges for N1,700. In an import-dependent economy like ours, it was, to me an act of self-immolation as the rump of the manufacturing sector, badly buffeted by the economic miasma of the Buhari years got overwhelmed by a tsunami of economic forces against which they were neither prepared nor equipped to defend against. Unsold inventories, factory closures and workforce lay-offs have since been the lot of the real sector. Is than an act of respect for people who invested their hard-earned resources in productive ventures?

Then there followed hikes in electricity tariffs. It will be recalled that the removal of subsidy on petrol impacted other fuel energy products, including cooking gas. Apart from the hike in electricity tariffs, which made electricity less available, the electricity market was differentiated (or segregated) along income and affluence lines into bands. This makes it possible for some people to get 22 hours of electricity daily while others struggle to get just six hours. In the part of Lagos I live, we get electricity mostly at night, from 12.30am to 6.30am. We have since learnt to fit our needs for electricity into this supply time-frame. With cooking gas not affordable any more, charcoal is now king of the kitchens when it comes to cooking fuel. You judge: is that an act of respect or consideration for the people that voted you  into power?

And now, the latest hike. The Nigerian Communications Commission, regulator of the telecommunications industry earlier in the week approved an upward review in tariffs charged by service providers by as much as 50 per cent. Translation: We will now pay more to say hello to each other. I pity myself and other parents with children in higher institutions of learning as we will have to spend at least double what we used to spend on data for our children and wards. Many classes and instructional materials are now delivered to students by e-mail or WhatsApp.

Meanwhile, as we are forced to pay more for everything, nobody is looking in the direction of how we can earn more. In other words, we are all just working to feed, pay the DISCOs, buy petrol, buy airtime and data and others with nothing left to plan our future with. We are at the nadir of disrespect from our leaders. Meanwhile, they are busy stuffing their pockets with resources from our commonwealth. How can things get so bad for us? Ponder! TGIF.