Fuel Subsidy - The Aftermath / Onuoma's Blog

An intricate look inward?

I’ve been thinking and you all know what occurs when I do.

Welcome to my new relationship series – “Fuel Subsidy – the Aftermath”.

You may want to know the reason behind my new series? Let’s just say I had a lengthy discussion with an old friend. After discussing non-stop for over an hour, it led to this creative category.

Now I won’t be reflecting once more on the events that heralded the fuel subsidy removal. You could read that up in my previous post – The Nigerian Spirit. What I want to talk about today, is the aftermath.

The major effect of the fuel subsidy removal in Nigeria is that it cut down tremendously the purchasing power of the citizens.

Nigeria is one society where its citizens are known for one very special trait.

Bold elaborate lifestyles as I would term it.

We vacation at other societies and spend our hard-earned money at high-end shops; we dine at tasteful restaurants; we throw parties and ceremonies with no holds barred; we send our children to choice schools abroad, we buy expensive cars despite them being fuel guzzlers; we live in choice estates and the list goes on.

However, this is no longer the case for at least seventy percent of the citizens today. Why? because the removal of the subsidy collapsed the living classes leaving society with just three classes; the poor, the low-income, and the high-income earners.

A middle-class earner wakes up to the reality that his ability to keep up with his lifestyle takes twice as much effort as before. If such an individual happens to have a top-of-the-range V6 engine SUV, this suddenly becomes his ordeal. In addition, if he has children schooling abroad; and lives in an expensive serviced estate then his nightmare may start to become his reality. His standard of living will slowly start to drop as he makes frantic efforts to adjust and accommodate his excesses.

Let me state it in plain terms. 500 USD nowadays is equivalent to 500,000 Naira. You get the picture?

What about the low-income earner? For some, the cost of fueling their cars causes a big dip in their finances. Many have to make drastic decisions of either parking their cars or carpooling with others. Some in this class of living suddenly realize that they can no longer afford certain basic necessities. and in so doing they move over to being in the poor class.

Whilst for a select few, adjusting to the prevailing economic reality is not far-fetched because they were already used to being low-income earners. They know what it means to lack and what it means to have. They had already accepted their lifestyle at the onset. This set remain as low-income earners.

Of course, the drastic change in the classes of living also has a ripple effect on every sphere of society. The small and medium enterprises, the large organizations, the family structure, the feeding patterns, you just name it.

I intend to discuss a few of these areas, in subsequent posts.

Right now, the one question, I have in mind is this. Is it really worth the stress sometimes, the cause of our excesses? Are there ways we can cut back? Must we continue to express bold elaborate lifestyles at the expense of our peace, health, and well-being?

That ceremony can be structured in line with our finances. Must we go out of our way to obtain financing to have it? This is just a trigger to keep us asking the necessary questions.

Many times those we think we are trying to impress are too overwhelmed by their issues to notice.

Talk to you all soon.

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