OKPA!!!!

This is the cake that makes everyday feel like your birthday. The joy of the morning, your best friend at night. Soaked garri’s favourite companion…

Okay, chill. This post is not really about okpa.

One morning, I went to buy the thing, and this woman was the only one selling. The balls were small, and I mean extremely small. When I confronted her about it, guess what she said; something about Buhari.

I was a bit confused. Okpa was generally small, that may have been Buhari’s fault. But hers was significantly smaller than others’ and unless Buhari had separate constitutions governing just her home/business, I didn’t see how it was still his fault.

This is what actually happened. She learned that her colleagues weren’t coming that morning, so she decided to exercise monopoly. And yes, she sold out. But that, my friend, is how Nigerians self-destruct.

We set prices, not based on value, but based on what people ‘can pay’. The popular phrase is: “if you can’t afford it, I have people begging me to sell to them.”

That is why, in countries with developed economies, you don’t need to be rich to afford the basic needs.

That is why naira, which was, at some point more valuable than USD, now stands no chance and is still plummeting.

That is why it’s less probable for Nigerians to get rich than it is in developed countries. The threshold keeps changing.

If somehow, all Nigerians were given 50M naira each, do you think people would still take time to process garri and still sell at affordable rates?

I don’t think so.

“Don’t you have 50M? You can’t spare 10,00 for one cup of garri. Hunger will finish you na. Many people are begging to pay 20,000 sef. Mtcheew.“

I’ve seen in developed countries where landlords are sued for forcing outrageous rents on tenants. And it’s funny. Come see Naija na. My landlady flat-out said to me, “people are paying 200k, 300k for flats and we’re still here collecting this change.” It wasn’t a question of worth or value…

Is there a solution to this? I don’t know. I do know that, if there is, it’s not an easy one. We’re deep into the mess as it is.