Nigerian leading author, Chimamanda Adichie, has lamented the hardship being experienced by Nigerians.
The writer said that she is most worried about the suffering of ordinary Nigerians, noting that hardship has reduced many middle-class citizens to the point of begging.
Adichie told Channels Television that a successful government is measured by how the citizens are faring.
“Life has become so hard in Nigeria, and I can see it. For example, people who were formerly kind of securely middle class, not that life was rosy for them, but they got by, are now people who beg and are in need. That worries me greatly,” Adichie said.
“The level of suffering, how expensive food has become… I think the biggest political judgment one can make is about the lives of ordinary people.
“People talk about the stock market. Personally, I don’t really care about those sorts of things. What I care about is: that person earning minimum wage, how is that person getting on in this economy? It’s the suffering that worries me the most. And it’s terrible,” she added.
Adichie noted that this could be very dangerous to society since people who would not want to get involved in certain things will now willingly do those things for survival.
“It’s not to excuse crime, but I think when life gets very hard, even people who before would not have considered certain things suddenly are willing to, and that’s dangerous to society,” she said.
