The day I saw a man carry a whole bag of rice on his head at Bodija market

I was at Bodija market last week to buy small rice for the house. The price they told me, I just laughed. One bag of rice now is like ₦95,000. In my time in the civil service, that same bag was maybe ₦800. I stood there and remembered when I used to buy two bags at once for Christmas and still have change for the children's clothes.

Then I saw this young man, maybe 30 years old, carrying a whole bag on his head. He was sweating, his shirt soaked. He was not doing it for fun. He was doing it because that is the only work he could find that day. I asked him how much he was paid for that one trip. He said ₦500. Five hundred naira for carrying 50kg on your head in this sun. My son, I had to sit down on a bench.

What is happening today is not new. In the SAP years we saw this kind of thing. But then we had hope that tomorrow would be better. Now I am not so sure. The Yoruba say bi oba ti ri ni mo ti n ri. As the king sees it, so do I see it. But the king is not seeing what this young man is seeing. When did carrying a bag of rice on your head become a full time job for a grown man?