NIGERIAN politicians get away with murder. Their constituents are often too poor or uneducated to fully understand the issues at stake or to really make the cause and effect connection between their local government chairman’s ostentatious lifestyle and their own lack of basic social amenities, talk less of the Senator or House of Representatives member whom they hardly see.
Politicians take advantage of popular naiveté, our forgetfulness, our greed, our hypocritical obsession with tribe and religion to con us into supporting their activities which ironically lead us into further poverty.
The media doesn’t help by giving everyone space to pollute the polity with lies or hate speech without much analysis of the speakers’ motivations; as “big men” they buy and control the media space and dictate the pace of our conversations, telling us what to think, selling old, dead ideas that the rest of the world has moved on from.
Those who speak the truth are considered rebels or to use a word popular on social media “haters”, that is, “spoilers”, and most Nigerians, although they secretly agree with their views, don’t have the courage to admit to this in public. Virtually everyone in today’s Nigeria is too greedy or beholden to some secret, perverted sectional interests to dare admit that the sky is blue or that grass is green which would be displeasing to their political paymasters.
Therefore, year in, year out, we talk about corruption scandals (only to move on to the next without resolving anything or punishing anyone), we get poorer, struggle and hustle harder, while the people responsible for this constant humiliation and debasement, this denial of our humanity enjoy their loot and laugh. When does it end?
Oxfam has released yet another report on poverty and inequality in Nigeria. This new edition states that the fortunes of the five richest Nigerians, which comes to $29. 9 billion, would be enough to end extreme poverty in this country.
Without asking anyone to give away their hard-earned money (although given the nefarious connections between Nigeria’s business and political elite, and the many scandals which the public has grown accustomed to, the term “hard earned” is debatable), interestingly enough, “the giving pledge” a commitment by the world’s richest individuals to give the majority of their wealth to charity does exactly that. This extraordinary group of men and women have pledged to give over $365 billion to lift nameless and faceless people out of poverty.
Now, let’s go back to Nigeria. Mohammed Indimi, a billionaire from Borno, one of the states most affected by the Boko Haram insurgency, reportedly donated $14 million dollars to a university in Florida (USA) where most of his children were students. Imagine what $14 million could do for any of Nigeria’s universities, talk less of the university of Maiduguri, in a state where an Islamist sect has waged war on education or what this sum could do for the Internally Displaced Persons (if of course it wasn’t looted by some committee or other).
The Daily Mail, a popular newspaper in the United Kingdom, was stunned when, by its estimates, Mrs. Folurunsho Alakija, Nigeria’s richest woman, held a £5 million wedding extravaganza for her son outside London recently. These comments are not meant to vilify anyone. However, given the contrast and obvious divergence between the compassion and diligence of billionaires in Europe or America and our very own Nigeria, certain facts are too obvious to be ignored. The rich can spend their money however they choose. But given that the society within which their money is made is still so poor, one must wonder, do people feel nothing at all going home to their villages and seeing those they’ve left behind continuing to suffer?
The Oxfam report goes on to state that despite being Africa’s largest economy, Nigeria’s growth benefits only a small percentage of the population who’ve cornered opportunities for themselves (please refer to my past article on the Vanguard’s website on “robber barons” and crony capitalism, for a further analysis of the dysfunctionality, nepotism and systemic corruption in Nigeria’s economy which fuels periodic recession).
The Oxfam report also stated that Nigeria is one of those rare countries where the number of poor people is on the rise, despite improvements to the economy. We are a country with many private jets but little affordable housing. One where women are trapped in “low-skilled, low-paid informal jobs”, where despite accounting for 79% of the rural work force, women are five times less likely to be land owners or to go to school.
Religious establishment
Business owners in Nigeria have colluded with government and the religious establishment, the super pastors in particular, to trap Nigerians into a cycle of poverty. We pray a lot in this country but don’t understand the machinations and conspiracies keeping our socio-economic situation static.
According to Oxfam, $20 trillion vanished from Nigeria’s treasury between 1960 and 2005. Let that sink in. $20 trillion. What do the rich and well-connected in this country think and feel when they visit Dubai, Indonesia, Malaysia etc. who used similar sums to jumpstart social services and infrastructure for their people? The system is broken.
To make the average man on the street believe in justice and fairness, or to simply believe in his country again, the EFCC must obtain convictions. The idea that corruption is killing Nigeria is an understatement.
It already has. Nigeria is on life support, the various insurgencies and secessionist cries are only the symptoms of a perennial problem: Mr. Magu must stay on as Chairman of the EFCC, no matter the forces against him, who oppose him due to their own shady dealings. Nigerians must analyse and think deeply about the issues, plus encourage the Acting President to keep fighting, in all our interests. Nigeria’s survival is at stake.
Bukola Saraki
THE Senate President’s son recently graduated from the London School of Economics, my alma mater. I came across these two comments online: “the boy may be innocent, he may have reservations to what his parents were allegedly doing, but the poor masses want judgements here on earth not in heaven anymore, so that the righteous and the oppressed can be happy and see their children graduate too.” Someone else said “see all these leaders, they did not fix schools back home.
They are sending their children abroad to study, if that is how the leaders in the western world neglected their schools will he be able to send his son there”. The Senate President chose to wade in to the debate over religious education in the Nigerian curriculum.
A futile, easily resolved matter (both religions should be studied in equal measure to promote understanding), distracts from the real question of educational reform: how do we promote critical thinking in Nigerian universities so young Nigerians can emancipate themselves?
Interestingly, the LSE’s motto “Rerum cognoscere causas” means “to know the causes of things”. Will Nigerian politicians ever be in favour of this when it concerns the masses?
Kemi Adeosun
THE Finance minister said recently that only lower income Nigerians seem to pay taxes: “remember that tax is one of the instruments the government uses to redistribute income; to take from the rich to support the poor. Everybody has to carry their fair share according to their level of income.
That is how progressive taxes work all over the world.” This was buttressed by the governor of Lagos, Akinwunmi Ambode who was quoted as saying that only 600,000 people in Lagos out of 22 million pay taxes.
Every issue in Nigeria goes back to corruption and to the collusion between the business and political elite who want a disproportionate part of the pie. Some people want to eat their cake and have it too. They want easy money and don’t want to give back to the same society that enables their fortunes. Nigeria assists only the guilty and ignores the honest or hard working. Let’s hope Mrs. Adeosun’s initiatives are successful.
Tabia Princewill is a strategic communications consultant and public policy analyst. She is also the co-host and executive producer of a talk show, WALK THE TALK which airs on Channels TV.
The post Theft and misery: Will this always be Nigeria’s story? appeared first on Vanguard News.
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