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By Pius Mordi

Rich or poor, the average Nigerian took immense pride in his sense of independence. Hunger was an unknown deprivation. Even when he respects and honours his rich kinsman or leader, he had a red line that must never be crossed. He must never be insulted by the well-to-do neighbour, friend or leader.
“You don’t feed me. So, you cannot talk to me anyhow” is a regular refrain whenever the red line is crossed. He had self worth and immense pride in himself, a pride anchored on his ability to provide for and feed his family. It had nothing to do with wealth, legally or illegally acquired. There were lands to be cultivated. The produce will not necessarily be sold to sustain his family. The little realised from his subsistence farming was enough to get by. From his farms, he is guaranteed adequate supply of foods until the next farming season. His family never went hungry and he never had to beg anybody for food.
It seems like centuries ago that a man strenuously defended his pride and everyone around him knew the red line and respected it. Not even in the first stint of then Major General Muhammadu Buhari after overthrowing President Shehu Shagari and his ill-conceived idea of low profile living led to the scarcity of basic consumables did Nigerians lose their pride. In those days of ‘essential commodities’, people only had to queue patiently to buy what they wanted. Nobody asked for freebies in the name of palliatives for them to feed. They still had the resources to buy all they needed.
Not anymore.

From what started as a short-lived narrative of scarcity of consumables, fathers now queue with their wives and children to be given handouts by politicians in the name of palliatives. Most Nigerian men no longer have any qualms about waiting in long lines the whole day to get a morsel of food otherwise his family may go hungry. It is the new normal.
Public office holders take delight in flaunting the amount spent in providing “palliatives” to hungry people as a testament to their achievements.
I am not sure Ayo Fayose, former Governor of Ekiti State, knew he was well ahead of his time when he coined the expression “stomach infrastructure”. He may not have known that in just a few years, his recipe would become a national template for governance. He was mocked and derided at the time.
But here the country is. Palliative distribution has not only become a national barometer for measuring good governance but a very deadly one at that.

As the year wound down, the media space has been dominated with tales of stampede at places where kind hearted people assembled those in their neighbourhood to distribute items for Christmas. The final count is yet unknown, but from the various locations where palliative distribution turned deadly, nearly 100 lives may have been lost as a result of the throngs of families that turned up to benefit from the activities of kind-hearted individuals and organisations.
The self worth and pride men and even members of their families had in upholding the dictum that “You don’t feed me. So, you cannot talk to me anyhow” is gone. Fathers and mothers now join their wards to queue for food items. The infamous words of Senate President Godswill Akpabio that if you see free food, join in eating has been taken to heart. In African societies, the ability of a mam to provide for his family is at the heart of his being and the pillar that stabilises the family, hence the saying that “A man who provides for his family is a king.” If a man is unable to cater for his family, not because he is lazy or unwilling to earn a legitimate living, the centre can no longer hold in the family.

A fundamental effect of the prevailing hunger in families is that wives, young girls and, of course, younger men are left to the devices on how to provide for themselves. Unfortunately, this is lost on the political leadership and policy makers. Responding to the position of opposition figures that President Bola Tinubu’s policies have driven people to extreme hunger and pulverised the people, Aso Rock’s media handlers accused those who warned of the wider implications of the situation as politicising the the tragedy.

As if on cue, Tinubu, in his first media chat since becoming President, blamed the givers for the harvest of deaths for not providing security through the Police. It was the signal Kayode Egbotokun, Inspector General of Police, needed to reel out a set of draconian measures before kind-hearted people can extend goodwill to impoverished Nigerians.

It is now a heads they lose, tail government wins situation for the huge population that is multi-dimensionally poor as well as the extremely poor. And the family’s pride and sence of self worth is gone. Its going to be a tougher 2025. Nevertheless, merry Christmas.