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Considering the data released by the National Bureau Of
statistics recently indicated the first sign that Nigerian economy is in
recession, which was not only made lucid during the week by Minister of
Finance, Kemi Adeosun but also contradict what the minister and the Central
Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor said over the month.
Expect upsurge in bank robberies, kidnappings, internet fraud
However, experts from different fields in the country have been
reacting to this new development. For instance, Dr. Ona Ekhomu, a
management and security consultant, described the situation as very
unfortunate.
Ekhomu said that it is a situation which many countries do not pray
for because when there is recession, there are job losses, there is
inflation or hyperinflation. He feared that disposable income will be
limited in the circumstance, which has the tendency to raise the bar in
both crimes and criminality. “We have a peculiar situation here in
Nigeria right now where we are fighting two high intensity wars and low
intensity wars.
The Boko Haram sect in the North-East and the Niger-Delta militants,
are high intensity conflicts going on right now with the military
battling to curtail them. “The herdsmen and kidnappers causing havoc
everywhere could be regarded as low intensity conflicts because they are
sporadic and isolated.
When you add insufficient disposable income from people, you have a
very toxic situation, because even when things were good, we had a lot
of criminalities, a lot of insecurity in the land. You can imagine what
it would be now that the country’s economy is officially in recession.”
Ekhomu who is Nigeria’s first chartered security professional and
president of the Association of Industrial Security and Safety Operators
of Nigeria (AISSON), advised Nigerians to be more security alert, more
security aware and do more to protect their assets.
He believes with the present situation, not only kidnappers, armed
robbers and terrorists that would be raving the land now. “There are
also the fraudsters. There will be an increase of people trying to dupe
others through BVN, cybercrime and so on. I see a situation where banks
would be targeted because that is where the money is. Although, it has
been a trend for a while now but I think it is going to increase,” he
said.
Increase in mental illness
Also speaking on the issue, a formerly national commissioner with the
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), senior lecturer and
formerly head of department of sociology at the University of Lagos,
Prof Lai Olurode, expressed similar fears. He said that the effects of
the sociological implication are in dimensions.
The first, according to him, is on the impact on human welfare. “How
is it going to affect, knowing already we have over 50 per cent or more
of Nigerians actually living below one dollar a day. “So, the bottom
line is what you need to exist as a decent human being would become very
difficult for you to navigate to action. The basic thing you need to
have like water, soap, ingredient, brush your teeth… the prices will go
up. So, what option do you have?
You will then begin to look for alternative which are not easy to
come by. “We have little money in our pocket; the purchasing power will
be very low and that will now create a kind of psychology imbalance and
disorder.
This invariably will send many people to mental homes for therapy and
care. “Also, social outing will be reduced like birthdays; parties will
go down. And people in terms of the commitment to immediate and
extended families and social obligations may also be watered down; they
may become difficult to maintain. Also, immediate and extended family
may become difficult to maintain.”
More marriages will break up
Gbemisola Omoniyi, a consultant female child psychiatrist at the
Federal Psychiatric Hospital, Yaba, appears to corroborate this
assertion when she stated that from the psychologist point of view, the
recession will trigger loads of frustration, people’s apprehension and
anxiety.
Omoniyi said that this will also cause people to become unduly
hostile because of the nature of the things happening around the
economy. “By the time you go to the market, everything is inflated. It
appears that people are having a very difficult time.
So eventually, they are hostile; people are frustrated. “It reduces
their motivation to achieve other things. Once you cannot achieve the
basic need of life: clothing, food, shelter and other simple things,
people are no longer motivated.
They become easily depressed. As such, the rate of having mental
disorders increases in the community. People can’t send their children
to schools they would want to send them to. Some even have to withdraw
their children from school.
Eventually, on the family, there is a lot of anger, a lot of anxiety,
people become unduly irritable. “The direct relationship is the fact
that things are a bit more difficult and far above the means of the
reach of the common man.
Even the rich are complaining. Once you cannot achieve the things you
hope you would have achieved, you become frustrated, you become easily
angry. There are the issues individuals begin to experience as a whole.
“Within the family, there is a lot of dissensions, a lot of fights
occur; things you would not have argued about makes you argue. It
affects people; people begin to worry a lot. They are apprehensive. It
eventually begins to affect their sleep. It affects motivation; leads to
depression and all that and may eventually lead many to mental homes.
Those are the consequences it would have on the individuals.”
Communicable, non-communicable diseases will rise
Also, Dr. Osahon Enabulele, former National President, Nigerian
Medical Association (NMA), and consultant family physician at the
University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH), toed the same line of
argument. He said Nigerians don’t need to consult any oracle to know
that the current economic challenges will have a very tremendous impact
on the lives and wellbeing of the people.
Enabulele said that what is happening now will gradually expose
Nigerians to some shocking sensations, especially as to the fact that,
because of the economic hardship, the purchasing power of Nigerians has
been greatly undermined.
The government, according to him, needs to come out with a clear,
consistent, possible direction and enlightenment of Nigerians in order
to get them to understand what is really going on. “Health wise, for
instance, even before now, we were battling with Nigerians indulging in
what one can describe as catastrophic expenditure in terms of pocket
spending.
Now, with the economy this way, you can imagine what it would look
like. It’s going to be worse off. They can’t even now afford to purchase
those medications prescribed by their physician. You’re going to have
more Nigerians unable to take care of themselves.
“If we are not proactive enough, we may find a situation whereby more
families and household records many more ailments and of course, that
would increase the burden of disease, both (communicable and
none-communicable) and consequently, that will affect the life
expectancy which is about an average of 53 to 54 years now. That
certainly is not going to be a good trend for Nigeria.
More people may contemplate suicide
For Dr. Alex Igundunse, a socio-psychologist at the University of
Lagos, “it will create a lot of anxiety. This is because that will get a
lot of people thinking. “Apart from that, it can lead some people right
into depression because if the economy is depressed, also trying to
translate their thinking can lead to the psychological depression of
some people because it gives them hopes in terms of how they can quickly
loose it and all that kind of thing. At the extreme, more people may
contemplate suicide as a way of their problems.”
Announcement of renewed poverty
And Dr. Adeyeye Arigbabuwo, current chairman of the Association of
the General Medical Practitioners, Lagos State and a national executive
member of the Executive Council of Health Care Providers Union of
Nigeria, is no different in his views. He said that the summary of what
has been declared is an announcement of renewed poverty. It is like
telling the nation, “we are a very poor nation,” Arigbabuwo stated. “And
what does that mean? It means we should be conscious of things
happening around us and therefore, we should begin to adopt new methods
of living. And begin to structure the way we even live as a family.”
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