BY ANY reasonable measure, an economy that is growing while its people are becoming poorer is an economy that has failed to deliver justice. This is the contradiction staring Nigeria in the face today.
Government officials may point to improving growth figures, better macroeconomic indicators and signs of economic recovery. Economists may celebrate percentages, projections and quarterly data. But the Nigerian worker does not live inside a spreadsheet. He lives in a house where rent is due, children must eat, school fees must be paid, transport fares must be found and medical emergencies do not wait for inflation to fall.
Every level of government must therefore stop hiding behind party labels and begin to justify, in practical and measurable terms, the resources entrusted to it. The duty to reduce poverty, create opportunities and protect human dignity is a collective responsibility of all tiers of governments.
The central question is therefore not whether the economy is growing. The question is: who is benefiting from that growth? For millions of Nigerian workers, pensioners, artisans, traders and unemployed young people, the answer is painfully clear: not enough of them.
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A worker who leaves home before sunrise, spends hours commuting, works eight or more hours and returns home unable to afford a decent meal for his family cannot be persuaded by statistics that the economy is doing well. A pensioner whose monthly income cannot buy basic medication does not need a lecture on fiscal consolidation. A mother who now measures rice by the cup instead of the bag does not experience economic reform as theory; she experiences it as hardship. That is the reality we must confront.
Nigeria is gradually normalising a dangerous condition in which work no longer guarantees survival. That should trouble every government official, employer and citizen who believes in the dignity of labour.
The purpose of work is not merely to keep people occupied. Wages must enable workers to live with basic dignity. A salary that cannot provide food, shelter, transportation, healthcare and education is not a living wage. It is a survival allowance. For organised labour, this is not an abstract economic debate. It is a question of justice.
Workers are repeatedly told to make sacrifices for national development. They are asked to endure higher transport costs, electricity charges, food prices and other consequences of economic adjustment. Yet the same society often appears reluctant to demand comparable sacrifices from political office holders and the privileged elite.
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There is a limit to how much sacrifice can be extracted from people who have little left to give. A country cannot continue tightening the belt of the worker while leaving the belt of government untouched.
When citizens are told that public finances are under pressure, they naturally expect those who manage public resources to demonstrate prudence. They expect less wasteful expenditure, greater transparency, responsible procurement and a visible reduction in the cost of governance.
Leadership during hardship must begin with example. It is difficult to justify preaching austerity to citizens while public office continues to project extravagance.
At the same time, responsibility for the present hardship must not be reduced to partisan blame-trading. The Federal Government and the 36 state governments, irrespective of the political parties in control, share a constitutional and moral duty to protect the welfare of the people.
While the Federal Government bears enormous responsibility for macroeconomic policy, national security, infrastructure and the broad framework within which the economy operates, state governments must equally be held accountable for how they deploy federal allocations, internally generated revenue and other public resources to improve agriculture, transportation, healthcare, education, housing and social protection.
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Nigerians do not experience hunger as APC hunger, PDP hunger, Labour Party hunger or hunger belonging to any other political platform. Hunger has no party card. Poverty does not ask for a voter’s political affiliation before entering the home.
Every level of government must therefore stop hiding behind party labels and begin to justify, in practical and measurable terms, the resources entrusted to it. The duty to reduce poverty, create opportunities and protect human dignity is a collective responsibility of all tiers of governments.
The food crisis is particularly disturbing because food is the most basic measure of economic wellbeing. When families cannot afford adequate food, every other economic argument becomes secondary. The rising cost of staples is no longer simply a market issue. It is a national emergency.
Many families have reduced the number of meals they eat. Others are cutting nutritious foods from their diets. Parents increasingly deny themselves so that their children can eat.
This has long-term consequences. Hunger damages health, productivity, educational performance and social stability. A hungry population cannot be a productive population. Governments must therefore treat food security with the seriousness normally reserved for national security, because the two are increasingly connected.
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Farmers cannot produce enough food when they are afraid to go to their farms. Agricultural output will remain under pressure where rural communities face insecurity, poor roads, high transportation costs, limited access to credit, expensive inputs and inadequate storage facilities.
We cannot distribute a few bags of rice today and congratulate ourselves that the problem has been solved. Palliatives have their place, especially in emergencies, but palliatives are not economic policy.
What Nigerians need is an agricultural and social policy that makes food production cheaper, transportation easier and essential commodities more affordable. Governments must invest seriously in rural security, irrigation, storage, agricultural extension services, affordable inputs and efficient transport networks.
At the same time, workers’ wages must reflect economic reality. It is no longer sufficient to announce wage increases after inflation has already eroded their value.
Nigeria needs a more responsive system of wage determination. Collective bargaining must be respected. Where the cost of living rises dramatically, wages should not remain frozen as though workers buy goods in a different economy.
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Employers, both public and private, must understand a simple principle: workers cannot continue subsidising governments and business with poverty wages. A fair economy must reward labour fairly.
Nigerians cannot eat GDP figures. They need an economy that delivers food, jobs, decent wages, security, social protection and dignity.
The private sector also has responsibilities. Companies that record strong profits while their workers struggle with feeding and transportation costs should examine not only their balance sheets but also their social obligations.
Productivity cannot be sustained by exhausted and underpaid workers. Decent wages are not acts of charity. They are part of the cost of doing business responsibly.
Governments must also strengthen social protection. Every serious society accepts that some citizens will require support during periods of economic hardship. The unemployed, elderly, persons with disabilities, vulnerable children and very low-income households cannot simply be abandoned to the mercy of market forces.
Social protection must be treated as a responsibility of government, not as political patronage. Cash transfers, affordable public transportation, school feeding, basic healthcare and other targeted programmes should be transparent, properly funded and independently monitored.
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Nigerians must also demand something deeper: accountability for the human consequences of economic policy. Too often, economic reforms are judged by what they save government rather than what they cost citizens.
But policy cannot be considered successful if it balances the books while emptying the stomachs of the people. Government is not merely an accounting institution. Its primary responsibility is the security and welfare of the people.
Economic growth that does not reduce hardship is incomplete. Growth that does not create decent jobs is incomplete. Growth that does not improve purchasing power is incomplete. Growth that leaves pensioners hungry and workers indebted is incomplete. And growth that exists only in official reports is politically and socially dangerous.
The Nigerian worker is not asking for luxury. He is asking to be able to feed his family after a month of honest labour. She is asking to pay transport fare without borrowing. They are asking to send their children to school without choosing between tuition and food. These are not extravagant demands. They are the minimum expectations of a functioning society.
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Having spent decades within the labour movement and the legal profession, I am convinced that no economic policy can be sustainable if it leaves most citizens behind. Workers are not statistics, and Nigerians are not mere variables in an economic experiment. The ultimate purpose of governance and economic reform must be to improve human welfare.
Those who govern must therefore understand that economic recovery will not ultimately be judged by speeches or statistics. It will be judged by whether ordinary Nigerians can feel improvement in their daily lives.
The true measure of growth is not what governments announce. It is what the worker can afford. It is what the pensioner can buy. It is what the family can put on the table.
Until economic growth reaches the dining table of the ordinary Nigerian, celebrations of recovery will remain premature.
Nigerians cannot eat GDP figures. They need an economy that delivers food, jobs, decent wages, security, social protection and dignity.
Comrade Takor is a lawyer, trade unionist and human rights advocate. He is a former National President of the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU), former National Treasurer of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), and immediate past Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Epe Branch.
