I was born and brought up in Lagos. Growing up, I moved and lived in many part of Lagos, a decision that was made for me by my parents. I never truly I understood their reasons for choosing to leave some places we already called home for a less convenient and underdeveloped area. We lived in a place called ketu for a long period of time before we finally moved to our newly built home in a new site in ikorodu. Our former neighbourhood was kind of cool, I mean it is more city like to where we moved to. But then with every city comes its own challenges, this I wasn't aware of till grew older.
This is a common decision made by most average Nigerians, to reduce the cost of living. Living in the city is kind of cool and fun, you will have access to lot of social amenities, better infrastructure, more job opportunities and also more bills to pay. This was still occuring in the era when things were still a lot available compared to these days, when the prices of goods and services has tripled.
It is no longer a news to any Nigeria, when it comes to the current situation of our economy. We have ranted and complained about it for as long as I can remember but it seems the only way known by our economy is only to get worse. Looking at how the situation of things are going, it would be ignorant of anyone to wait around to be saved because frankly speaking, no one is coming to our rescue. Our government have made this clear through their consistent insensitivity to the hardships plaguing our country.
As difficult has it is currently, changing location from an urban area to a semi-urban or rural won't really have much effect anymore. It can only reduce the amount you have to spend on groceries because majority of rural settlement still have access to farm produce. This kind of makes feeding a lot easier for those that live in rural area and the cost of renting an apartment is a lot cheaper compared to the city. Considering these variables, it is enough to make a person consider changing location, in order to increase their chances of survival. Like I said earlier, this won't still change much. Lets Play out these scenarios.
Speaking of the amount I spend day to day on feeding. I recently changed my location again and it was not by choice. I know what you must be thinking, this guy is avoiding taking blames for his own actions, definitely not. Few days ago I was still living in a rural settlement, A community I was posted for by NYSC to carry out my mandatory assignments. When I called this community a rural settlement, it was just euphemism. This community is an isolated village in the middle of nowhere in Oyo State, people in this community are still living like they are still in the 50's. They are so far back in civilisation in so many areas that I lost count.
Living in such a community is quite problematic, I mean they lack electricity, good water, infrastructure, health centres, good roads e.t.c but compared to the city we spend less on feeding in this community because there is surplus farm produce. The primary occupation of people in this community is farming and they are very generous people. They consistently give out farm produce to one another especially to foreigners such as corp members.
You can also purchase farm produce in their market but it is cheap, I remember buying 3 huge tubers of yam for $1.6. So if I'm being honest, I spend at least $40 per month on feeding only and more than half of this amount goes for purchasing of sachet water, like I said there is no good drinkable water in the community. Looking at the rate at which things are expensive currently, I would say this amount is quite reasonable. But where the issue lies is with transportation. For me to travel from this community to the nearest city which is Ibadan, it will cost me at least $5. So while I'm happy I'm spending less on feeding, I'm tormented by the cost of transportation.
Do I think things will get better if I changed location? Well from my analysis you would realise I have done this already, changing location is like trading one problem for another. If there is any way to escape the current situation of things, it is not by changing locations. Well it also depends on what each individual is willing to give up in the process, e.g trading comfortable living for affordable living. What would make things easier for me? I'm currently back in Lagos and the only thought that occupied my mind was getting out of this country because at this point I believe I have had enough.
This write-up was inspired by weekly featured content titled "The cost of living" in hive learners community.
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Image 2 - The image is mine
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