If you’re living with someone who takes care of your bills, or you’re still one of those who get regular allowances and funding from your parents or guardians, then I have to say this, you really have no idea how good things are for you. At this point, I’m beginning to wish I could go back to the time when all I had to do was place a call to my parents and they’d send me a stipend for the month. It was usually small and required me to manage it judiciously. But it wasn’t money I worked for, so it was always easy to spend.
However, I was one of those who carried independence on my head. Right from a young age, I’ve always wanted a lot of things, and chief of them is financial independence. I wanted to make my own money and pay my own bills. I worked hard towards it, and I’m proud to say that for the past couple of years, I’ve been doing just that.
Sadly, it was during my time to be financially independent that the country and the economy chose to go bonkers! Because why on earth are things so expensive? I wanted to cook today and I tried to buy fresh tomatoes, however to my shock I found out that all the shops in my area don’t have them. It was like there was a scarcity of it or something.
I asked one of the traders why that was so and she told me that it was now too expensive even for them. The prices they were selling fresh tomatoes now, even at wholesale, when they wanted to sell it off at retail, the least could only from somewhere around N1000. Yeah, that’s what she told me! Not a lot of people will buy it at such an exorbitant amount, so they just opt not to buy it at all, hence the scarcity.
Where exactly are we going? The cost of everything is on the increase, on Friday I bought a liter of fuel for N850, and I returned on Saturday and found it to be N870. I wonder what I’ll find again when I return this evening. Another increment?
When I think about it, it’s as if this administration took power simply to make us suffer. Because that has been the only thing we’ve been doing since they took over last year. That’s apart from the extra taxes on the workers, the hike in tariff on power consumption, and the most recent tax on transfers. Now, it seems like everyone and everything is out to take your money from you, and if you’re not careful, you’ll be robbed blind without even your knowledge. All you’ll know is that you had a million with you, and suddenly, you have it no more. Yet, you can’t pinpoint how exactly the money was spent.
We’re really going through a lot these days, and if you see anybody chesting these outrageous bills and pushing on, just give them a hug. Nothing about any of this is easy. You’ll all come out, make jokes, and smile for everyone. But when you go inside, your head will want to explode due to the weight of the responsibilities and the never-ending bills.
We just need to stay strong. That’s all I can say. I wish I could promise that things will get better in due course, but it only looks like these guys are just getting started. I guess it’s up to us to simply fortify ourselves in preparation for the darker days ahead.
It’s said that the darkest hour is just before the dawn. I really hope this is the case. I really hope that these dark times will pass, and we’ll be ushered into better and more prosperous times.
I guess only time will tell.
