By Frank Tietie
Be good Nigerians….
If it is expensive, don’t buy….
Trader or Consumer do not buy anything if the prices are inflated
And you can’t even get a bottle of soft drink.
Meen! I am Checking Out!
Andrew! Nigeria is our Country
So let’s stay here and salvage it together*
Listening yesterday to Bayo Onanuga on Arise News Prime Time, I caught a clear vision of Nigeria’s present socioeconomic cycle. I concluded that we may be doing worse than when it first hit us, starting in 1984. But we can surely do better now and become better for it if we improve on how we performed in the last cycles of economic crises.
Since I encountered the phenomenon of life’s cycles, I have striven to make the best possible choices in every situation. That’s why I have come to fancy the study of history since it provides a foreknowledge of sociopolitical or economic conditions.
From the economic bubble of 1979, after the general elections, I recall that then-President Shehu Sagari’s government allowed the importation of almost anything, including big fish from Argentina and coloured bread from the United Kingdom. In less than two years of profligacy, Nigerians faced unprecedented economic hardships. The military took over political power, and many educated Nigerians, especially health workers, began to ‘check out’ of the country in droves, searching for greener pastures abroad as food shortages were recorded nationwide. Does that appear familiar today?
The Nigerian military leadership from 1984 gradually steered us out of those years of economic doldrums through the era of the Gulf War Oil windfall of Military President Ibrahim Babangida, the uncertain years of General Sani Abacha, and ultimately, to the stable years of President Obasanjo’s democratic rule.
How did Nigeria overcome those years of hardships and uncertainties? The answer lies in the attitudinal collective of the Nigerian population at that time. I recall that necessity became the mother of invention as Nigerians by government-controlled media, notably Radio Nigeria and the Nigerian Television Authority, constantly bombarded the population with positive messaging which forged hope for the people at that time. Nigerians quickly adjusted to austerity measures by finding alternatives to the little luxuries they once had. It was a matter of time; by 2000, living standards had relatively improved.
The situation may be different with a cacophony of independent voices powered by the social media revolution and an intractable combination of banditry, kidnapping and terrorism. Still, the challenges are just the same as the moments of national crisis, as summarised above.
Nothing can shake or defeat a country united in purpose with focused action. That’s what the mass media achieved for Nigeria’s military leaders in times of national crises of the past. They understood from their knowledge of propaganda in warfare, and they got some of Nigeria’s best names in broadcasting and entertainment to create positive messages that dwarfed the opposing views of Western media about Nigeria at that time.
Can Nigeria’s present leaders adopt the same strategies in tackling the growing cynicism among Nigerians that is severely impacting the country’s political economy at the moment? The answer is yes!
As Nigerian nurses are busy protesting their prevention from immigrating abroad, someone should play to them Veno Marighae’s ‘Nigeria Go Survive.’
* Recalled from government-sponsored ads on NTA from 1984
● Frank Tietie, Nigerian Lawyer, writes from Asokoro, Abuja