Shantari Paribu: Oro(Masquerade) Iro (lies) and the myth of the invisible hand

I overheard Modupeola greeting Mum. Mum then asked her, "Kini won ko yin school Loni?" ( what did they teach you in school today?) Modupe started recounting maths, social studies, integrated science, etc. Mum asked further, Se won ko eyin na ni shatari paribu?(You were not taught Shantari Paribu) I imagine my sister smiling and internally questioning what Mum was asking. Only Modupe smiles even when Mum is serious. Mum said, "You don't know Shatari Paribu." Modupe said no but would find out from her teacher the following day. Mum started the usual prayer that most mothers do when exasperated: "Olorun oni jeki owo ojona. Abi? Lala mi ori gbogbo yin ko ni ja si asan o" (God will not let my money and my labor on you be fruitless). My sister came to the room where I was and asked, "Do you know what mum is talking about? What sin have you committed this time?" I gave her that look that most of my siblings understand. The look of "don't start". I remember this and many, many events that I write about here because, over a decade ago, I read a book titled "Self Matters: Creating Your Life from the Inside Out." In it, the author, among many other things, asks us to think about 10 life-defining events and moments. This was one of the more than ten I have written over time. This event taught me many things too personal to write, but for the purpose of this post, it led me to question theories.

Mum was asking my late younger sister this question because earlier that day, I sat with my father in front of our house, telling him what my economics teacher said about Adam Smith's invisible hand. I told my dad that the teacher said the forces of demand and supply can create an equilibrium as long as ceteris paribus( what my mother called "shantari paribus"). My father was explaining back to me what he seemed to understand by what I was saying. My mother sat on her own, knitting, one of her favorite pastimes, and listening to us without showing interest. My mother, without formal education, was slightly worried it seemed, in retrospect, that my father was not challenging my ideas as I shared with him. Both my parents rotate the seat of who will be critical. Both are critical; none was cruel. Sometimes, Dad would be the one to say have you thought about it another way without suggesting what the other way was. He wants you to think yourself to clarity with his probing without necessarily saying it. But trust Maami; she is going to tell you what the other way on the current issue was while telling you, "ti aba ka iwe ama ka ogbon, mi o lo school but ori mi pe ni ago." (when you go to school, you should add wisdom and discretion to knowledge, she may not be formally educated but her brain is accurate more than clock)

Mum, in those few instances that I can count on one hand, confronted my dad in my presence. Mum intervened and said, "Kini eyin ati omo yin so lenu ti ko dun lenu (what is this nonsense you and your daughter are chewing on that is not sweet)? If a car cannot drive itself without someone directing it to a desired destination, how can the economy be expected to be rational? Further, she said, "enikan lo wa nidi oro ti oro fin je" ( there is someone behind the masquerade for it to be masquerade).

Many years later, through my reading and teaching of political economy, I learned and realized what my "uneducated" mother was pointing at without knowing was that the government has to come for the vulnerable poor because the market is promiscuous and irrational, more so for a corrupt economy like ours. What Mum was saying was that the invisible hand is a myth. Behind a masquerade are people, policies, and agendas. In Achebe's "Things Fall Apart," when the masquerade (egwugwu) came out, even though people were not supposed to know who was behind the masquerade, everyone suspected it was Okonkwo dressed as one of the spirits. Mum later got up and said, two of you keep saying shantari paribus ." Eyin ati omo yin ejoko ke ma tan ra yin" (You and your daughter sit there and deceive yourself.

I think about the deceits of neoliberal policies under whatever name guises they come "floating, structural adjustment program, privatization, and other variants. You have heard this saying in Nigeria. You are the sugar in my tea, lori iro; you are the cockroach in my cupboard (you know the refrain). Nigerians will never forget the famous video for how it places ideal vs reality, truth against deception, and theory vs practice. When are we going to stop deceiving ourselves about policies that further entrenched us in the global capitalist economy that brought us to where we are? How long will we keep thinking that somebody has the answer to all our economic crises? When will we stop deceiving ourselves that borrowing is a way to sustain our economy when we have a mono-economy dependent on oil? I said I would not comment on Nigeria, but seeing the exchange rate go this way, I have to break my own rule. Capitalism can be great when tempered with ethics, which, to my mind, is lacking; hence, it always runs amock. It is one of the reasons countries have social policies and ways of intervention.

Is Shantari Paribu helping us as a nation?

May Nigeria succeed.

Posted on Facebook on October 25, 2023.

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