Broken Plates By Gem King

When a 12 year old girl in junior secondary school blurts out “Oh God!! I’m broke”, with a clear indication of frustration; you know the economy is out for blood and everyone is on her hit list. Whether you’re young, old, male, female, well to do or barely surviving, you’re a likely target.. as this economic crisis lurks dangerously around everyone’s finances. Even babies are protesting, their slogan; “We Don’t Want To Grow Up Just Yet”.

Why? Why are we all crying out, why is every one suddenly broke? Is it the ever increasing banking charges, or the increased taxes or maybe it’s the fact that our own God-given crude oil transformed to fuel(petrol) eludes us like two children playing ‘hide and seek’. Then again, maybe it’s the dollar exchange rate to the Naira which has been fluctuating like it’s competing with PHCN(NEPA); because we sure know those people supply us electiricity(light) only as rarely as a football team scores an ‘own goal’.

These days I’m broker than broken plates, as it would seem my pockets have taken a massive fall and shattered helplessly all over the floor as would fine China dropping to the ground from a height, say about two story buildings.. But guess what, unfortunately it’s happening to you too.

They say when something affects everybody, when it becomes an epidemic that cuts across status, position and all other strata of the economy, then it is serious enough by all standards.
We can see the effect of this sudden hardship in many instances, for example;

° We now see car owners who usually roll up, comfy and swagged out, chilling with their air conditions puffing cool air on their soft skin do the exact opposite. Car windows down, sweating  profusely, looking nothing like comfy with a lost-in-thought expression on their faces.

° On the other hand, Nigerians who cannot afford the luxury of owning a car (yes, it is considered luxurious to own anything on four wheels in this country) have overnight, become very fierce. They don’t mess with their change (balance) when boarding buses, or taxi cabs. Any conductor(or driver) who tries to scheme away as little as N10 worth of change, would get a verbal assault so serious it could be compared to a lethal move in the video game, ‘mortal Kombat’; times are hard.

° Have you noticed the big poppers at the club recently? They’ve been pretty mellow this period haven’t they. Who wants to pop champagne and drown in alcoholic spirits, when their cars are hungry and starving looking for who would pop some litres of fuel into them.

° Before making a decision it’s good to think about the repercussions. Nigerians currently understand this, with immense clarity. These decisions range from important to not so important matters. Before we put on this generator are we really that hot? Before we drive to see our friend Bankole, do we miss him that much? I ate biscuit yesterday, is there any need to buy one today? Nigerians are playing 21 questions with themselves, this is serious enough.

We need help, the Christians say “my help comes from above” so you can bet a lot of prayer points from Nigeria hitting heavens prayer department are requests for God to cease this untold hardship and ofcourse prayer to go abroad. That has never stopped being the dream of a staggering percentage of the country’s population and now, even more so.
We’ve shattered all over the floor like broken plates, someone, anyone, please help pick us up and piece us back together.

Written By – Gem King