It has actually been a while since I last posted about my garden. It’s not that I haven’t been working in the garden, but I just shifted my focus away from writing about it. Today seems different because I had to work in the backyard.
!
I planted some potatoes back in March this year before the heavy rains started. I felt like they should have matured enough for harvest by now. It has been a long time since we ate anything related to tubers, such as yam or even potatoes. I remember when my husband was doing his master’s degree and used to travel, he would often buy tubers of yam. But now, it has been ages since we had a bite of yam.
Where we live, you don’t even dare talk about buying yam because it’s so expensive. Imagine buying a small piece of yam at the rate of three thousand naira!
The economy is nothing to write home about, but should we just keep complaining? Where did we get it all wrong as a nation? Imagine, two million naira in 2023 has become practically useless in today’s economy. For instance, a UK-used Toyota Corolla that used to sell for 1.9 to 2.4 million naira is now being sold for 9.4 million naira.
Everybody understands that there is always inflation from year to year, but what do we call this? Even since our new president emerged, it seems everything has turned upside down. What else do we call it? Economic experts keep saying we are on the right track, that our president is working, and that the economy has improved compared to the last administration. Personally, I don’t know whether to believe that or not.
One thing I can say for sure is that we have all learned our lesson: one source of income is no longer enough. Everyone needs to think about having multiple streams of income. Unless, maybe, you work in an oil company, those are the only people who seem to earn a huge amount of money.
The most painful part of it all is that our president has widened the tax net. We were already paying taxes before, but now it seems we’ll be paying more and more. The real problem isn’t even the tax itself, but the fact that there are no benefits attached to it. No pipe-borne water, bad roads everywhere, and the electricity situation is even worse. So, what should we do? Meanwhile, the government keeps borrowing and borrowing from the World Bank. What do we call that?
It’s not that I really like farming, but a person must survive. My 9-5 job alone can’t sustain me if I don’t do something extra to support it.
So, back to the backyard where those potatoes were planted. I did some manual labour and also got help with harvesting them. You wouldn’t believe it, the potatoes were bigger than I had ever imagined! I was completely wowed; I didn’t know I could harvest something so impressive from my own garden.