Arbitrary Rent | Hive Learners Weekly Prompt #w105e2

Life is not a bed of roses. Though the promise of a good life has been made to everyone at one point in time or the other, in reality, problems, and storms of life exist as long as there is life. As a wise man, one would have planned out his expenses and savings to be able to meet the demands of the period but many times, man proposes but God disposes. As of the year 2023, I have saved up all my rent for the coming year, which is this year, 2024 but now I am in a fix. Things have not been the same.

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Here is The Problem

My rent for the year was increased arbitrarily. Before 2013 when I got married, I moved to a two-bedroom apartment from a room and parlor self-contained apartment. It feels great to live in such an apartment because it is spacious and the ventilation is good.

You know, women like comfort. And the life of a bachelor is quite different from that of a couple in terms of space and whatnot.

Since 2013, I have had no issues paying rent and my landlord who doesn't live in the premises have been magnanimous enough. But suddenly, all that good-man-like attitude has gone with the wind. The wind of this harsh economy.

My landlord, through his lawyer, served every tenant a notice of increment in rent by 150%. When I first saw it, I hid it for a day so that I wouldn't develop hypertension. Before now, all my calculations were on our usual rent and I have saved that amount hoping to pay by the end of the month, 2024.

One of the clauses that was penned in the notice is that a complete payment for one year should be made by any tenant who wishes to continue staying in his/her apartment. I have thought it through and there seems to be no solution and I am not ready to get a new apartment.

The Nigerian method of tenancy would not allow me to consider getting another apartment now as the age fee and commission is going to equal what my landlord is already demanding for.

Problem Shared

This post is not meant to corporately beg but in case there is any way you as Nigerians or friends from across the world can help me, I will appreciate it so much.

Before now, the rent was about three hundred and sixty thousand naira, an equivalent of about three hundred and eight to four hundred dollars. But with the unholy increment, I am meant to pay seven hundred and twenty thousand naira, an equivalent of about seven hundred to eight hundred dollars.

Let me kindly use the opportunity to plead with all communities in the Hive blockchain to come to the rescue of a brother.

All this wahala started when the Central Bank of Nigeria, an institution which ought to make productive policies on behalf if the citizenry under our brother, Godwin Emefile, greedily killed our currency and to build on his dastardly act, the current government took over office and started to make killer economic policies without first making alternatives.

They have turned us into the most frustrated humans in the world. Just like the music Taliban, Fela Anikulapo Kuti sangin one of his sonorous tracks, Suffering and Smiling. Nigerians have had enough. Some of the people who have been defending the government over the years are now coming out to say that the government has failed us, even the unborn generation.