Professor Oka Martins Obono of the department of Sociology, University of Ibadan suggests a community-driven palliative food programme to cushion the effects of the removal of fuel subsidy on Nigerians. In his recent social media post titled “That we all may breadth” Professor Obono advocates a new subsidy regime that is anchored on and driven by social and moral values such as empathy and compassion.
When the privileged begin to see themselves as the shade or “subsidy” of the less privileged, Nigeria could be made to open a new vista of economic opportunities that culminates in social happiness. According to the Professor of Sociology and Ethnodemography, we are currently embroiled in moral crisis. Perhaps if we redeemed our personalities, our policies will change.
Professor Obono’s words are below:
“Recently, the Chairman of a Local Government in the Southwest of Nigeria is alleged to have distributed foodstuff at the stock price of a thousand naira to all his constituents as a palliative measure in the post-Subsidy era. In a video going viral, his constituents can be seen buying up yams, onions, tomatoes, potatoes, garri, palm oil, and so on, in a fairly orderly fashion. There was none of the rancour you saw in the warehouses of the post-COVID palliatives.
“We need to seize this moment to recognize that there is more to be done.
“If only each could be Someone else’s subsidy, There could be peace. There could be blush. And, for sure, There could be bliss.
“The logic is that you and I (upper middle class, or solid middle class Nigerians) would not rush for the all-you-can-buy-for- one-thousand-naira palliative that a local government chairman was providing. That is meant for the poor or near-poor among his constituents. The delivery smacked of welfarism shorn of any pretense of bureaucracy.
“What the rest of us should do in response is provide our less privileged neighbours a sum of money, no matter how small or big, and then watch their households and pantries swell with foodstuff under this kind of community-driven palliative food programme. Nothing would be too big or small.
“That would be mass compassion in action. We must not re-exploit those who already hunger and thirst through a more original system of exploitation. We must, and can do, better than that.
“We must adopt a new mode of being for this season, endorse a new code of interaction in the country.
“Pay the cobbler more than he has charged you, not less. You are helping him breathe. Pay the poor more for less. We are rebalancing the scales.
“The Government can still provide its 8k (we need all we can get) but the Government has to ensure the cash goes further than it does under the current circumstances.
“We all need to grab hold and heave to help one another out of this thick financial quagmire.
“Buy a litre or two of petrol for the young barber down the street. This would normalise his heartbeat. Do not withdraw your hand from its random acts of kindness.
“Pay someone’s child’s school fees. She would breathe better in the classroom than on the streets. Do this, even if it means through sacrifice. Buy a meal or two for anybody. They would absorb more of the moral philosophy you so yearn to teach them then.
“Bring out those expensive clothes you are no longer using. Now is the time to give them away. You don’t need twenty pairs of shoes when you have only ten toes! They would be given away anyway, when you are gone. A flood or fire can take them away, or your death can do so. Why would you not authorise who gets your things now, when you still can?
“Commit to providing at least one meal a day to a hungry family you know. Derive your smile from theirs. Watch them finally sleep peacefully. They hustle so hard.
“Perhaps if we redeemed ourselves through our personalities, our policies will improve. We are embroiled in a moral war, shapen in the iniquity of a lawless mores. It is through humane action that we can merit our nation.
“It is only through this mass compassion that we can see one another through to the other side. One is not quite a human being if one is not being human. To be a human being is to be a humane being.
“There is simply no joy to be had from the joyless expressions carved by detached policy sculptors on people’s faces these days.
“We, the people, can replace these expressions with increased hope and superordinate belief in ourselves. It is not for the Government to bequeath us with the legacies of our fathers. That privilege is perilous and it is personal. Like Jason, we must seek out our golden fleece on our own. We must do this, even while avuncular usurpers feast for a short while on their mediocrity, pending our return.
“When you lose the concept of paradise, and the knowledge of heaven fades from memory and retreats even from imagination, then regaining it must be the collective responsibility of all. In particular, only those who can remember what paradise looked like should lead in reclaiming it.
“We each must turn into the subsidy that was removed. We must each embody the hope denied. We must become the incarnation of honour once found in Fajuyi. One for all. All for one.
“Let each one tell one. We have found our new meaning in our oldest message. We must recognise the reason for our existence in the continued prosperity of other citizens. We must be less chary, and more charitable. We must each be the subsidy of somebody’s existence.
“The peace I seek resides in the peace I provide. The love I need nestles in the love I give. I am because you are. You are because I am. Hatred is therefore not only evil, but ignorant.
“We must become what we seek everyday — the lost comfort that is ours by right, that retreating happiness.
“Nigeria!
“We must each lend voice to someone’s voicelessness, be the defence for the widow’s defencelessness, balm for their aching wounds. We must forgive the foolishness of the virgins, and lend them some of our oil, that they may light up their lanterns and that they may see also.
“We must lend somebody some of our own oxygen, that we all may breathe. Please.”
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