Activist Deji Adeyanju was one of the guests on Talk To Al Jazeera today and he deployed a poignant analogy about the reality facing Nigeria, as the majority become increasingly mired in desperate poverty. He said the country was like the Titanic, sinking as the people in the lower decks were “choking” from the pressure, while those in the upper decks remained clueless about the dire straits confronting the ship.
He likened the Nigerian ruling elite to those in the upper decks of the Titanic, who are unlikely to appreciate the gravity of the situation until the crisis engulfs them.
Presenter Ahmed Idris said Nigeria faces a “battle for survival” and is “pushed to the brink”, following 10 days of protests over soaring prices that saw more than 30 people killed. While none of the demands of the protesters, including reinstating the fuel subsidy, were met by the government, and there has been a lull in the unrest, Adeyanju claimed the country was “heading for the rocks”, adding that “something had to give” because desperate poverty meant that “people can’t survive”.
One small businessman interviewed laid the country’s problems squarely at the feet of politicians, stressing “they have killed us”, blaming them for “bad governance, deceiving us” and bad “management”.
