What You Do To The Naira, You Wouldn’t Do To The Pound Wound You?
Is there a way to teach or educate you on how to respect and handle the Naira? As we navigate through the many rivers of life, one of the questions we should seek answers to is “would we have reacted differently given that situations were different from what they are at the moment?
It’s sheer madness to work so hard to make money only to subject the colours of the currency to massive degradation. True, the Naira is inanimate. True, the Naira is a cruel master. True, the Naira is a faithful servant. True, the Naira is a symbol of national pride. True! True!! True!!!
Now it is also true that the Naira has lost its value in terms of what it can buy in the market; but is that not a problem for the CBN? Why am I bothering you with all these? Just where exactly am I heading to with this article?
We have all seen or come in contact with the British pounds one way or another; but am sure we have never come across the British Pound suffer in the hands of the English the way the Naira suffers. The British Pounds is a symbol of pride for the English; they treasure it, they value it, and they hold it in high esteem.
You wonder why a woman would tuck our Naira note in her bra. You wonder why the oil hawker would wipe her brow with our Naira note. You wonder why the rich trample upon our symbol of unity and pride in parties. You wonder why the bus conductor would squeeze, and deface the Naira the way he does everyday. Wonder! Wonder!! Wonder!!!
The other day on Twitter I came across a picture that got the English talking; it was a picture of a Tottenham Hotspurs player making a mess of the Pound Sterling in the toilet. The English were enraged; and rightly too considering the fact that theirs is a normal society where the national currency is held in high esteem. To deface the Pound is to slap the English on the face; and they were not going to have any of that.
We are who we are because our country never learns from errors of the past. People work their asses out to make some money, but end up blowing it all up in an “owambe” party. From the smaller denominations of the Naira to the bigger ones; we spray celebrants without holding back.
We subject the Naira to so much degradation that it becomes badly mutilated, dejected, and unnoticeable by the time it has gone its full circle. From the minty fresh fragrance of the Naira’s first few days in existence to the time when it starts to stink because of the ‘torture’ we have made it go through; it’s a sad story.
What you do to the Naira, you wouldn’t do to the Pound would you? Of course, you wouldn’t; and that is why I am puzzled. Beside my laptop is a One Thousand Naira note; and guess what comes to mind as I look intently at it? I wonder whether I would still be able to recognise that same note in a week’s time after it had gone through the bra of that busy trader, and the fingers of that oil hawker.
It is about time we started treating our national currency with some respect. It is time the Naira is held in high dignity.
What you do to the Naira, you wouldn’t do to the Pound would you?
