The festive season in Nigeria, a time once filled with laughter, joy, and communal sharing, has turned into a bleak reminder of the country’s economic collapse. Prices are rising quickly, taxes are too high, and bad government decisions are making life very hard for most people. The government’s plans, like the 2025 budget, sound more like unrealistic dreams—big and fancy, but not helpful or real.
Inflation has quietly become a major problem in Nigeria, making it hard for people to achieve their dreams. The cost of essential items has risen so much that most people can’t afford them. A bag of rice now costs more than the minimum wage, making survival an unattainable luxury for many. Families are forced to choose between food and shelter, medicine and education. The government’s decision to raise taxes on goods makes things even worse, as every purchase feels like a punishment for being alive.
Economic methods designed to create stability have been used as tools to harm people. Decisions are made in quiet meeting rooms by wealthy experts who don’t know or care about the everyday lives of Nigerians. Subsidies are taken away without offering anything else, exchange rates are left in disorder, and high interest rates hurt both businesses and regular people. These tools, which were meant to help the country grow, now cause only sadness and hardship.
The 2025 budget, presented with fanfare and lofty promises, is a cruel joke on the masses. It’s nothing but a list of fantasies better suited for a bedtime story. The 2025 budget, announced with a lot of excitement and big promises, is actually a mean joke on regular people. It’s just a collection of unrealistic ideas that would be better in a fairy tale. The promises about building better roads, creating jobs, and poverty alleviation are repeated like a broken record, with no substance or strategy to back them. It’s like a wish list for a perfect world that doesn’t exist. In truth, it’s just another plan that will end up forgotten, like many others before it.
Nothing highlights the government’s failure more starkly than the tragic deaths of Nigerians in stampedes for a bag of rice. This isn’t just about hunger; it’s about a system that ignores people’s needs and doesn’t value their lives. Men, women, and children, pushed to desperation, are crushed by others just to get a small chance at survival. These deaths are not accidents; they are casualties of an economic war waged against the poor.
What will happen to Nigeria in the future? At the moment, it seems uncertain. Many young people, who once had hope and dreams, are leaving the country in large numbers. They are looking for better opportunities in other places where their hard work is appreciated and their rights are respected. The older generation, worn out and disappointed, can only watch as the nation they worked to build falls apart.
The government keeps saying, “Brighter days are coming,” but this promise feels empty now. How can people have hope when the systems that are supposed to help and support them are actually working against them?
This festive period is not festive for the majority of Nigerians. It’s a time of mourning—for lives lost in stampedes, for dreams crushed by inflation, for families torn apart by economic migration.