THE CRY OF THE FORGOTTEN: WHEN SOCIETY LEAVES ITS OWN BEHIND
By Shae Bebeyi @ Curiously Yours Arena
A society is not truly measured by how high its tallest towers rise, but by how far it refuses to let its weakest fall.
As Nigeria marks 66 years of independence, we must ask a difficult question: are we merely surviving as a nation, or deliberately building the Nigeria we owe the next generation?
Nigeria has made remarkable progress, but beneath the celebration is another reality—a nation where millions struggle with food, rent, transportation, healthcare, education and shrinking purchasing power.
These are the forgotten: the unemployed graduate, struggling farmer, petty trader, artisan, widow, displaced family and young person with ambition but little opportunity.
At the macro level, government may speak of reforms, stabilisation and economic growth. But the ordinary citizen asks a simpler question: what does all this mean for my kitchen table?
Economic policy must ultimately reach the household.
A family cannot eat GDP. A small business cannot survive on policy announcements. A farmer cannot pay for fertiliser with economic projections. The real test of reform is whether it improves productivity, purchasing power and human dignity.
Nigeria’s limited social protection makes this even more important. Where public transportation is inadequate, healthcare is expensive, infrastructure remains weak and unemployment protection is limited, economic shocks fall heavily on households.
This does not mean reforms should be avoided. It means reforms must be intelligent and compassionate.
If a subsidy is considered unsustainable, what replaces its protective function? If energy costs rise, how are vulnerable households and productive businesses cushioned? Every necessary adverse policy should have a compensatory measure. Reforms should not be designed to kill; they should be designed to heal.
This also requires competence.
Fear of God should remain at the core of public leadership, but character must be accompanied by competence. Economic policy cannot be driven by ideology, assumptions or subjective thinking. It must be data-driven, evidence-based and subjected to a 360-degree assessment of consequences.
Take monetary policy. Raising the Monetary Policy Rate may help address inflation, but if high rates encourage banks to prefer relatively safe government securities over lending to businesses, the real sector may remain starved of affordable credit. And when rates are reduced without a meaningful reduction in borrowing costs, the policy may still fail to reach the businesses and households it is meant to influence.
The measure of policy is therefore not the announcement. It is the transmission into real life.
Education should produce thinkers, not merely certificate holders. Leadership should produce solutions, not slogans. Expertise must connect the classroom with the marketplace and policy documents with the realities of the street.
The Nigerian economy is not an abstraction. It is the woman selling by the roadside, the farmer in the village, the mechanic in the workshop, the manufacturer battling energy costs and the graduate searching for work.
They are the economy.
As we celebrate 66 years of independence, we must therefore move beyond the celebration of survival to the construction of prosperity.
We must acknowledge our progress, confront our failures and change what is not working.
The Nigeria we owe the next generation cannot be built on survival alone. It must be built on competence, productivity, opportunity, justice, accountability and hope.
Political independence must eventually produce economic dignity.
And perhaps the question for our 66th Independence Anniversary is simply this:
Are we merely surviving Nigeria—or are we finally building the Nigeria we owe?
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DemocracyNewslineNewspaper October 4th, 2026
