THE RIGHT AND WRONG OF ONE DOLLAR MEALS

JOSHUA J. OMOJUWA argues that earning one dollar a day is a state of poverty anywhere in the world

Politics, whilst different from quantum physics, shares some similarities. The difference between them couldn’t be clearer; most things in politics are subjective, when in quantum physics, if it is not subject to measurement, it cannot even be a thing. They both befuddle the mind, but in different ways. With quantum physics, when you ask, “how is this even possible?” It is because some phenomena have just stretched your mind yet another limit. Quantum physics leaves even the greatest of physicists dazed. When such a question is asked on a political matter, it is because someone has done some unfortunate thing you never imagined a human being, let alone a leader, capable. I find their intersections worthy of note. Looking at both from a distant, they should never meet. Like everything else we know, there are always intersections, you just need to find them.

A scientific phenomenon that’d fit right well into politics is the famed Schrödinger’s Cat. In simple terms, the cat exists as the combination of two waves. In one form, the cat is alive, in the other, it is dead. The cat is both dead and alive. You cannot find out the state of the cat until you observe it. In essence, the state of the cat is determined by the conscious action of observation. This fits into my understanding of what $1 can do in the United States versus what it can do in Nigeria. Dr Tope Fasua, a brilliant economist, former presidential candidate of the ANRP and now special adviser to the president on economic affairs, recently opened this box.

You can look at this in two ways. There is the objective path and the subjective one. They end up with different answers, but they are both right. Tope Fasua is both right and wrong, it just depends on how you look at it. In saying he is both right and wrong, one could easily assume that that’d depend on whether one is pro or anti-government. Whilst that is true, it is not the point. Were that to be the point, it’d fit in with virtually every burning topic these days where logic is out the door, common sense is dead, balance is a crime and only the thick and tainted glasses of partisan politics is around for us to see the country with. The tragedy here is that, through that lens, it is impossible to see even the simplest of things the same way.

We cannot all fall into that trap. That is why, irrespective of our biases, and I have mine in droves, we must acknowledge them whilst doing our best to see things with a sense of balance and logic.

I will start with where Tope Fasua is wrong. The best stories are better told through personal experience. The two viral videos I watched of Fasua speaking on the purchasing power of the naira in Nigeria versus the dollar in the U.S., he mentioned that there are people that sell boli and fish for N1500 in Gwarinpa in Abuja, which is about $1, but he never mentioned that he spends that sum to feed himself per day. He later doubled down later by making a Lagos variation of the same position. No one, let alone a senior government official, should look to defend a position that appears to make it look like it is okay for people to live on $1/day just because the purchasing power of its Nigerian equivalent is higher.

That you can buy a complete meal with $1 in Nigeria is true. Dr Fasua is right on this. I’d go a step further by saying, the sum you’d pay for a buffet at the Hilton in Abuja will most likely not afford you same in a Hilton in New York or say even Montana. I find it shocking that people cannot hold two truths in their heads. In this case, that yes, you can buy a meal with a converted $1 in Nigeria and that no, that is not an excuse for anyone to pretend that earning less than $1/day isn’t a state of poverty anywhere in the world. It is.

I agree with the government’s positions preferring the markets to largely determine the prices of petrol and the value of the naira. I think that prices, in a free market, always come to reflect the true position and value of things. And that the Nigerian government deciding to control these things over the decades has come to a huge cost to the government and the people. These reforms were necessary, and they were indeed urgent. They needed to be done. That said, we cannot insist on denying the impact of their immediate outcomes even when we advance their long-term benefits.

People bear the pains now, so if you are going to let them know the pain is worth it, the least you can do is first be seen to accept their current state is unacceptable for the government. To do that, you must let them feel seen. A government official implying that $1 can buy me a meal, so things aren’t that bad, is in my opinion taunting me, even though I know that wasn’t the intention of Tope Fasua here.

Now, because of some politicians’ desperation, we are permanently in election mode. That comes with a lot of tension and misunderstanding. It leaves people like Fasua with a tough job of portraying the government’s position. They are left defending the government when they should instead be advancing its position. That is where the opposition wants you, defending the government. That is a position you leave for those who agree and support the government’s reforms. For a senior adviser, your job is to let the citizen, irrespective of who they voted for, feel seen, offer a picture of the future the people are paying for and make them understand each policy like they do their ABCs. It’s hard, but quantum physics is harder, yet people flew to the moon in 1969.

 Omojuwa is chief strategist, Alpha Reach/BGX Publishing