Nollywood actress Ruth Kadiri woke up one morning this week, picked up her phone, and recorded what she called a sober moment and a rare public admission from someone who, by her own description, is not known for complaining. What was troubling her was food.
“Cost of tomatoes is so high. Somebody will use ₦5,000 to buy pepper and tomatoes. ₦5,000, while somebody else out there is probably earning ₦25,000, ₦40,000, ₦50,000,” she said in the video, which quickly circulated online and drew thousands of responses from Nigerians who said she had put into words exactly what they were living through.
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Her concern was not just about prices. It was about what prolonged financial pressure does to people. “Poverty, what poverty does to people’s minds is like cancer, it eats away,” she said. “A lot of people are just going to be angry for the sake of it. Angry at their wives, angry at their kids, angry at their husbands.”