By Odesola JF., PhD
Every morning across Nigeria, millions of people wake up before sunrise with one simple goal – to survive another day.
The market woman arranges her tomatoes, praying customers will come. The welder opens his workshop, hoping there will be electricity long enough to complete a job. The commercial driver checks his fuel gauge with anxiety. The teacher wonders how to pay the next school fees for her children. The pensioner silently counts the little money left after buying a few essential drugs.
These are not lazy people. They are hardworking Nigerians doing everything possible to earn an honest living. Yet, despite working harder than ever, life keeps slipping further out of reach.
Whenever the economy becomes difficult, one of the first solutions often suggested is an increase in workers’ salaries. At first glance, it sounds reasonable. Everyone wants to earn more. But the painful truth is that increasing salaries without fixing the system is like pouring water into a basket – it offers temporary relief but solves very little.
What is the value of a higher salary when almost everything else becomes more expensive?
Today, renting a modest two-bedroom apartment in many parts of Nigeria can cost well over one million naira a year. A young civil servant or artisan may spend months worrying about rent alone. Once salaries go up, landlords often increase rents. The worker earns more on paper but is no better off in reality.
Parents feel this pain perhaps more than anyone else. Many who once proudly paid their children’s school fees now find themselves borrowing money or withdrawing their children from school because education has become increasingly expensive. Some institutions have increased fees several times over in recent years. Every parent wants to give their child a better future, yet that dream is becoming more difficult for ordinary families.
Transportation tells the same story. The commercial driver pays more for fuel and vehicle maintenance. The trader travelling to buy goods spends far more than before. Naturally, those additional costs are added to the prices of food and household items. Before long, everyone is paying more simply to survive.
Then comes healthcare.
Many Nigerians no longer visit hospitals when they fall sick – not because they do not need medical attention, but because they simply cannot afford it. Instead, they buy a few tablets from a roadside pharmacy, hoping the illness will disappear. Sadly, many only get to the hospital when their condition has become life-threatening.
Food has become another daily struggle. The average family now thinks twice before buying basic staples that were once taken for granted. A visit to the market has become an exercise in painful calculations.
“Can we afford rice this week?”
“Should we buy less meat?”
“Can we manage without cooking gas for a few more days?”
These are conversations taking place in countless homes across the country.
The irony is heartbreaking.
Nigeria is blessed with fertile land, hardworking people, abundant natural resources, and intelligent citizens. Yet millions are finding it increasingly difficult to afford the necessities of life.
Many older Nigerians often remember a different era.
There was a time when a worker earning just one thousand naira a month could gradually build a house, buy a car, train children in school, and even save for the future. The salary was small by today’s standards, but the cost of living was manageable. Money had value because the system worked better.
Today, earning ten or even twenty times more does not necessarily guarantee a decent standard of living because the purchasing power of the naira has been severely weakened.
This is why the real conversation should not simply be about increasing salaries.
The conversation should be about fixing the system.
Imagine a Nigeria where electricity is stable. Small businesses would spend less on generators and diesel. Production costs would fall, and goods would become more affordable.
Imagine good roads connecting farms to cities. Farmers would transport their produce more cheaply, food waste would reduce, and market prices would naturally come down.
Imagine affordable healthcare where no parent has to choose between buying medicine and feeding the family.
Imagine quality public schools where children receive excellent education without parents living under constant financial pressure.
Imagine a government that fights corruption relentlessly, spends public funds transparently, and ensures that every tax collected translates into visible improvements in people’s lives.
That is the Nigeria many citizens long for.
No nation becomes prosperous simply because salaries increase. Nations prosper because their systems work.
When electricity is reliable, transportation is efficient, agriculture is productive, education is affordable, healthcare is accessible, and corruption is reduced, even a modest salary can provide a decent standard of living.
Sadly, the people who suffer the most whenever policies fail are not those living comfortably. It is the market woman selling vegetables, the roadside mechanic, the bricklayer, the barber, the tailor, the commercial motorcyclist, the security guard, the cleaner, and the young graduate searching endlessly for employment.
These are the people who quietly carry the weight of every economic shock.
Yet they rarely have a voice where major decisions are made.
Economic reforms are sometimes necessary. Governments often face difficult choices. However, every reform should ask one important question:
How will this affect the ordinary Nigerian?
If the answer is that millions of vulnerable citizens will bear a heavier burden without adequate protection, then such policies deserve careful review and thoughtful adjustment.
The true measure of any government is not found only in economic reports or revenue figures. It is seen in the smile of a family that can afford three meals a day, in children who remain in school, in patients who receive timely medical care, and in young entrepreneurs who can build businesses without being crushed by the cost of doing business.
The strength of any nation is measured not by how comfortably the rich live but by how securely the poor can survive.
Nigeria can still become the nation its people dream about. But that future will not be built merely by increasing salaries. It will come through honest leadership, prudent management of public resources, investment in infrastructure, quality education, accessible healthcare, affordable housing, food security, and an economy that rewards hard work.
When we build a system that works for the weakest among us, it works for everyone.
Because a nation truly succeeds when the vulnerable no longer have to pay the highest price.
