Popular Nigerian author, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, has lamented the worsening economic situation citizens are experiencing in the country.
Specifically, Adichie, who was a guest on Channels Television, lamented how the ongoing hardship reduced middle-class Nigerians into beggars.
According to her, “Life has become so hard in Nigeria, and me 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 further stated that considering the level of suffering in the country, the biggest political judgement should be about the lives of ordinary Nigerians.
“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,” she said.
The renowned novelist, who described the situation as terrible, wondered how Nigerians earning minimum wage are managing to survive.
“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 said.
While not justifying illegal actions, Adichie warned that hardship could drive people to consider desperate measures they wouldn’t ordinarily think of.
“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,” the popular writer said.
