By Victor C. Ariole
Life is wasted, at every turn… concrete-carrying women… the road-side mechanic at Itu…slum dwellers of Ilasamaja, Nyanya, New Kuru, One man village… Ogoniland… eighteen thousand minimum wage… but eighteen million comfort allowance for national Assemblyman
–Ekundayo Simpson in The Act, 2019.
Professor Ekundayo Simpson former Commissioner of Education in Lagos State and a renowned Interpreter of United Nations’ reckon transited on May 26, 2023. In his novel, The Act, he treated the theme of oppression in Nigeria that started since 1960 of Independence till this time of his transition. His father was a great civil servant in the era of the colonial masters before entering into ‘independence’ Nigeria in 1960. He marvels at the degradation of humanity and human life occasioned by politicians and the Military which sicne remains unabated, and craves for a collective resolve by the poor masses to usher-in a new era of respect for human dignity. Unfortunately the SDP he once belonged to which was expected to usher-in the new era had been absorbed by either PDP or APC for further widening the gap of the poor and the rich, expressed in N18,000 minimum wage and N18 million allowance for the politicians.
Farouk Lawan and Femi Otedola saga opened the eyes of poor Nigerians to what is happening to them; still, no government in power has been able to stop the leakage, instead they prefer to prevent the poor people from even “picking the crumbs”, quite dehumanizing as it still is. Just like the currency re-designing of the CBN was expected to target the rich, it went on to discriminate against the poor and landed great damages to the poor, including even the not-so-poor who had died hanging around banks to beg to have access to their money, and leaving out the rich who operate in dollars. The current removal of fuel subsidy is likely to land more damaging effects on the poor, living out the rich and even getting the rich to get richer. Licensing the rich to import refined fuel as anticipated is going to be like “import licence” regime of Joseph Sanusi time in CBN when, according to reports, importers were siphoning Nigeria’s hard earned foreign currency only to import cargo filled with sand in the name of importing goods. It is still the rich getting richer at the expense of the poor. Cement became costlier as it turned out a “monopoly” in Nigeria swallowing Togo cement factory and Nigeria – Benin cement factories in Benin Republic, either by, deliberately, orchestrating their death or promising redundancy dividend to those poor countries, even when they expect such partnership venture involving Nigeria to thrive for excellence. Refined fuel is not far from suffering such fate in Nigeria even when it is known that the PMS that is intended for the poor to help in generating power for their informal trade is just a marginal item out of the myriad of items that comes out of a baril of crude oil; and crude oil is Nigeria’s comparative advantage natural resource that could help in greater artisanal employment generation if, indeed, Nigerian government thinks well for its masses.
Cote d’Ivoire shows such worthy example in Grand Bassam. Gabon shows also such example in Franceville. These are two oil rich cities of the two countries. These are also two great GDP leading Francophone countries in West and Central Africa. Gabon parades equivalent of $270 minimum wage and $8600 GDP per capita and sells a litre of petrol at near $1 whereas Nigeria’s GDP per capita is $2000 and sells fuel at about $1.5; at official rate. Gabon does not have multiple exchange rates like Nigeria hence not discriminating against the poor, as exchange rate disbursed to the rich at official rate is mere plundering of collective resource by government in favour of the rich. Even as it is being planned for unification with parallel market, the rich will find way to get access to the covert official rate.
Some people could say they are small countries but the capacity and knowledge of organizing resources for optimum result is upscalable and is of the same effect, if the right people are put in right places to execute the expected work for optimum performance. Gabon and Cote d’Ivoire are managed differently but the expected results, overall well being of the majority and the steady growth of the economy, remain undeniable, as the nationality or ethnicity of the managers of the economy create less tension. Gabon is expatriate loaded, Cote d’Ivoire is afrocentric as people from Burkina Faso, Mali and Senegal contribute to diversity management of their economy and the poor among them are just poor not because the government placed burden of poverty on them in the rural areas. Most of them prefer to stay in the rural area as their activities, there, are valuable, and, just that they are living life as of rural life with contentment. Nigeria’s own is a great drift to the urban area because government leave must rural area ungoverned. Three of my siblings and some children of Nigerians they call, there, “Anago”, known to me who are doing well in Nigeria today, during the time the current president Alasane Onattara was Prime Minister schooled in rural areas that have remained rural till today producing coffee and cocoa for the country. Coffee and Cocoa that kept them in the rural areas were not exploited to their detriment the way Nigerian government perceives the exploitation of oil and mineral resources. The greedy ones in Nigeria should be brought to book, whether as oil subsidy racketeerers or gold mining oligarch, instead of depriving the poor Nigerians of the little crumbs they receive from what nature has endowed the nation with.
Subsidised energy is the only way to grow Nigeria’s economy and it is done covertly in other climes including USA. Food production and public transports are greatly leverage by energy subsidy in advanced country to the extent that what 100 million people do in Nigeria to produce food, or working on the farm, or animal husbandry, is done by only one percent of people in USA who carter for over 350 million people and still have surplus for export. Even public transports is so cheap that it could only be seen as subsisdised.
Africa with over 30 million Km2space should wake up and use what is available to it to support its population that harbours the poorest of poor of the planet. Crude oil is one of them and its ethane, naphtha, ammonia contents are valid for greater food production.
Ariole, Ph.D, Professor of French and Francophone Studies, University of Lagos.