Nigeria's governance: Focusing on bus preachers while the nation collapses

The Nigerian government's tendency to mistake symptoms for the disease is highlighted through the controversy surrounding an amendment bill for the Federal Road Safety Corps. The bill's provision on preaching and hawking inside commercial vehicles has sparked debate, but the author argues this focus is a distraction from the nation's deeper issues. The real problem, the article contends, is not a preacher in a bus aisle but the government's capacity to invest significant energy in marginal concerns while the core of the nation collapses. This instinct, deeply ingrained in Nigeria, is illustrated by a vivid scene inside a commercial bus. A woman selling tomatoes, a vendor whose livelihood depends on every sale, sits beside passengers carrying their own burdens. An elderly man clutches hospital test results, a graduate rehearses interview answers for jobs that may never materialize, and a young mother worries about affording infant formula. These individuals, strangers to each other, are united by their private struggles, existing in a state of quiet endurance. The conductor's call for "one more" passenger, a perpetual fiction, underscores the constant hustle for survival. Hawkers navigate traffic, office workers rush to avoid penalties for lateness, and the bus itself joins a city perpetually bargaining with itself. The article suggests that understanding Nigeria requires spending a morning in such a bus, witnessing the daily negotiations of survival that define the lives of most citizens.