MONEY…INFLATION...AND WHATEVER IS IN BETWEEN

There is only one thing anyone in Nigeria is really concerned about right now, and that is the rising cost of everything, everywhere, all at once.

MONEY…INFLATION…EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN

There is only one thing anyone in Nigeria really cares about right now, and that is the rising cost of everything, everywhere, all at once. It is really bad, honestly. It is so bad that I went to the market to buy pepper and it irritated me enought to return to this newsletter. Also, my apologies, really, I have just been fighting for my life through an inflation.

The silver lining for me is that I get to write a blog post like this without having to first define terms like “inflation”, seeing as we are all actively living through it.

Instead let us look to Twitter…sorry…X…to understand inflation. That way we get a good laugh out of this sad period in Nigeria. Here is one brilliant view of inflation:

@_theladymo Things cost die. I for buy everything wey I need for 2008

I like it because it is quite succinct. “Things cost die” is poetry Shakespeare aspires to, wherever he is. This next one is more elaborate, it helps put the technical effect of inflation in perspective, you become poorer:

@bolu_ay Quadrupled your income over 4 years , problem is inflation has gone up by 500% in the same time, so in reality you’re poorer

This one packs a gut punch:

@zia_tiffah all of us, in our 20s, hunched over our laptops, opening slack and complaining about mtn. this is the life. the roaring 20s.

Okay the last category is funny, but also, like not funny. The category is Nigerians cooking like we are experiencing war. Look at this. What is snake tomatoes? And what next? Snake eggs? Snake meat? If you already eat any of those, I really do not want to know.

@Boss_Bee_ Heard this is tomato, where is it found and have you used it to cook??

Okay, I am impressed with this next one, straight up impressed. Firstly, if you eat cucumbers, as a fruit or vegetable, you belong in jail. I guess if you can make it into stew, your innovation buys you a “Get Out Of Jail Free” card. No one should make you suffer incarceration in addition to cucumber stew.

@chude__Nigerians now substitute Tomato with Cucumber?

I have digressed a lot to suck you into this series because it might get a little tenuous from here. Macroeconomics deals with economic matters on a large (macro) scale, hence the term macro-economics. It is a little hard to explain something so serious to a five year old, it is not exactly meant for five year olds. I actually have no idea why I have decided to write about this, honestly. I studied law at the University of Lagos, I guess I am inherently attracted to suffering.

I will stick to my aim which is to explain to you like you are five year old, however I must stress that this series is overly simplified and it is aimed at giving you a base framework that can allow you participate in conversations about what is happening in Nigeria. I will link to scholarly articles at the end of the series.

See you in the next post in this series where we discuss what causes inflation!