Fwd: The Price of Citizenship

[John Onyeukwu]

The Price of Citizenship

 Why Passport Fees, Wages, and Tariffs Defy Nigeria’s Constitution

 John Onyeukwu

(Published on the Backpage of Business am Newspaper of Thursday September 04, 2025). Attached 

Nigeria’s Constitution is more than a legal document, it is a promise. Section 16 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) obligates the state to harness the economy for the maximum welfare, freedom, and happiness of every citizen. It directs government to ensure balanced development, affordable access to services, and a “reasonable national minimum living wage.” Section 4 places the legislative duty squarely on the National Assembly and state assemblies to enact laws that turn these ideals into reality.

Yet, for many citizens, these provisions read like lofty aspirations rather than enforceable guarantees. Inflation soars, government services are priced as luxuries, and minimum wage negotiations are treated as political bargaining chips rather than constitutional obligations. The consequence is that the very cost of being Nigerian, whether to obtain a passport, pay electricity tariffs, afford education, or simply survive on minimum wage, has become punishingly high. In truth, the price of citizenship itself is rising, as access to rights and entitlements increasingly depends not on constitutional guarantees but on one’s ability to pay.

As of July 2025, Nigeria’s headline inflation stands at 21.88%, with food inflation hitting a painful 22.74% year-on-year. The effect is felt most sharply at the kitchen table. According to the Jollof Index, a pot of jollof rice now costs ₦27,528, representing a staggering 150% increase since 2023. For many families, this is no longer a celebratory meal but a luxury. With the current national minimum wage fixed at ₦70,000, one pot of rice consumes nearly 40% of monthly income, leaving little for rent, healthcare, transport, or education. What this means is that millions of Nigerians are locked into a cycle where survival itself is a daily negotiation. Inflation has transformed food, the most basic of human needs, into a measure of inequality. The Constitution envisions welfare, dignity, and social justice; the reality for many households is hunger, frustration, and economic precarity that erode both citizenship and hope.

The Nigerian passport has become emblematic of how state services are priced without regard for constitutional obligations. With the 64-page booklet now costing ₦200,000, obtaining this basic document of identity is beyond the reach of many. For a family of five, securing passports could wipe out more than half a year’s income at minimum wage. In effect, citizenship rights are being sold at a premium, contrary to Section 16’s guarantee of equal access to public goods.

Contrast this with Ghana, where passport fees are periodically reviewed downward and pegged to affordability, recognizing mobility as a right rather than a privilege. In South Africa, courts have affirmed that economic and social rights, such as housing, education, and welfare, must be progressively realized by the state. Nigeria has no such corrective mechanisms. Instead, pricing is left to revenue-hungry agencies without legislative guardrails, creating a marketplace of exclusion that undermines both equality and belonging.

The July 2024 raise of Nigeria’s minimum wage from ₦30,000 to ₦70,000 was hailed as progress. Yet, at roughly US $44 per month, it remains one of the lowest in the world, ranking behind countries with far smaller economies. Organized labor’s demand for ₦250,000 reflects not excess but the yawning gulf between government benchmarks and actual living costs. A family of four needs about ₦137,000 monthly to meet only the basics, rent, food, transportation, and utilities. The new wage therefore sustains poverty rather than alleviates it.

The Constitution does not frame minimum wage as charity. Section 16(2)(d) is categorical: Nigerians are entitled to a “reasonable national minimum living wage.” Under Section 4, the National Assembly is empowered, and indeed duty-bound, to legislate this into enforceable law. To delay or dilute this obligation is to betray constitutional fidelity. Minimum wage is not a bargaining chip; it is a constitutional guarantee of dignity.

The pattern is clear: Nigerians are being priced out of their rights, whether through arbitrary service fees or starvation-level wages. What should be the dividends of citizenship, affordable access to documentation, utilities, education, healthcare, and a fair wage, are instead rationed out at a cost structure that excludes the very citizens they are meant to serve. This is not simply an economic problem; it is a constitutional failure. The corrective lies not in executive pronouncements or ad-hoc relief packages, but in deliberate legislation that aligns public policy with constitutional obligations.

The National and subnational legislature must act on three fronts.

First, pass laws ensuring that essential government services, passports, electricity, education, and even hospital charges, are priced with citizens’ income realities in mind. Fees for identity documents or utilities should not be left to the discretion of agencies operating like revenue-generating corporations. A legal framework can set ceilings tied to average wages and inflation indices, reviewed annually. For instance, if the minimum wage is ₦70,000, no essential service fee should consume more than 5% of that. Such pegging will force agencies to streamline inefficiencies instead of offloading costs onto citizens.

Second, Nigeria must move beyond episodic, politicized minimum wage reviews. Wages should be indexed to inflation and food costs, reviewed annually by law, as South Africa does. In practice, this means that when the cost of living spikes, as with food inflation hitting 22.74% in July 2025, workers’ wages are automatically adjusted. This is not only fair but also stabilizing: workers with purchasing power stimulate the economy, while stagnant wages depress demand. Organized labor’s ₦250,000 benchmark may sound high to government, but it reflects actual subsistence realities for families. The Constitution, in Section 16(2) (d), demands nothing less than a “reasonable national minimum living wage.” Lawmakers must translate this into enforceable statute, with penalties for non-compliance by states or employers.

Thirdly, every major economic reform, whether subsidy removal, tariff adjustments, or tax hikes, should undergo a constitutional compliance review against Section 16’s welfare mandate. This would institutionalize a question too often ignored: does this policy advance or undermine citizens’ welfare? Ghana and South Africa offer useful contrasts, where judicial oversight ensures socio-economic rights remain enforceable guardrails. Nigeria should establish a Legislative Welfare Impact Office, mandated to review bills and executive orders through a welfare lens, ensuring that citizens are not sacrificed for fiscal expediency.

Until this legislative courage emerges, citizenship in Nigeria will remain costly, not just in fees and tariffs, but in dignity and survival. Every time a Nigerian queues for a passport they cannot afford, pays an electricity bill that exceeds their salary, or survives on wages that do not cover basic food, the Constitution is being betrayed.

The path forward is already drawn in the Constitution. What remains is the political will to walk it. The Legislature must rediscover its role, not as an appendage to the executive, but as the custodian of citizens’ economic rights. Anything less entrenches the dangerous precedent that rights in Nigeria are for sale.

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John Onyeukwu
http://www.policy.hu/onyeukwu/

 http://about.me/onyeukwu
“Let us move forward to fight poverty, to establish equity, and assure peace for the next generation.”
-- James D. Wolfensohn
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