- The writer pointed out that when life becomes excruciatingly tough, it is not uncommon for people to resort to actions they wouldn’t ordinarily contemplate.
Iconic Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has bemoaned the widespread economic hardship in Nigeria, saying the suffering of Nigerians makes her sick at heart.
The prolific and award-winning writer said the hardship occasioned by runaway inflation and the cost of living crisis is worrisome.
She aired her views on the troubling state of the nation in an interview on Channels Television’s Amazing Africans.
Chimamanda asserted that the ongoing crippling hardship has turned many middle-class Nigerians, who were previously managing to get by, into beggars.
She noted that the best way to assess the performance of a government is through how ordinary citizens are faring, noting that things like the stock market are not the best yardstick to measure the well-being of everyday people.
“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.”
While not justifying crime, the writer pointed out that when life becomes excruciatingly tough, it is not uncommon for people to resort to actions they wouldn’t ordinarily contemplate.
“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.