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| HEAD OF NORTHEAST REHAB C'TTEE DANJUMA |
Two
highly government-favored Nigerians, Theophilus Danjuma and Aliko Dangote have
been selected by President Muhammadu Buhari to lead the northeast
rehabilitation committee. Danjuma's SAPETRO was awarded (OPL) 246 in 1998,
paving the way for his billions, and Dangote was favored by the Nigerian
Obasanjo government since as far back as the 70s! According to Wikileaks Cable:
05LAGOS362 a, 8:
"...the Government has been very supportive of Dangote. We know the
company at one time or another held exclusive import rights in sugar, cement,
and rice using such advantages to do volume business and undercut competitors.
In a December 1996 interview, Aliko Dangote admitted that a government mandate
once forced him to import so much rice that the local market crashed by almost
80 percent. [2] The direction of GON trade barriers also suggests preferential
treatment. High tariffs or outright bans on imported items favor the Group in
nearly all areas in which they do business including wheat flour, cement,
certain textiles, sugar and pasta."
We are not talking of just preferential treatment here; these advantages were
to the destruction of competition and small businesses; they were to the
destruction of the fibre of Nigeria. Danjuma in his later days has resorted to
the "charities" business with his $100 million donation to his
"foundation" in what some may consider "atoning"
for his undue advantages to the detriment to of the larger society, but others
put a bit worse as Emeka Obi said in Forbes in 2011: “I don’t believe TY Danjuma is a hero of philanthropy,” said Emeka Obi, a
social commentator and journalist at Compass Newspapers. “TY Danjuma is the
problem with Nigeria whereby a few members of the ruling elite appropriate the
nation’s resources and wealth to themselves at the expense of over 100 million
Nigerians who are struggling to make ends meet. This is the problem with the
Nigerian system: a single man makes so much money not because he is hardworking
or deserving, but because he is merely connected to the powers that be. Danjuma
was given an oil bloc as a gift. It is preposterous. The $100 million Danjuma
has given to the foundation is not his money; it is Nigeria’s money, and it is
absurd that he pretends like he’s some sort of philanthropist.”
These two men shall head the Federal-government set-up Northeast Rehabilitation
Committee, Buhari has just announced. Now this piece is less concerned
about the genuine agitation for the overdue probe into the wealth of
these duo and he like, as well as the need for some form of harsh restoration
of the balance in favor of the State over single individuals. This piece simply
asks:
Are billionaires and the Elite the best candidates for heading the address of
Nigeria's issues caused by the illicit cash flow to the very billionaires and
Elite and the social inequality thereby originated that led to the very terror;
and also these very monies flowing from them to Boko Haram and the
like also responsible for the ugly state of the nation today?
Are there no "austere" individuals like Buhari to put in charge of
these committees? Shall we always as a nation be made beggars to the cabal?
Dangote's policies in particular were branded
"beggar-thy-countrymen," by US analysts. It is true. Now what is a
worse insult than the beggars rendered so are again put at the mercy of those
who made them victims of terror and poverty?
Could Buhari not find one rich man and one poor man to head this committee?
Must the committee be used to again enrich the almighty cabal, by the use as
can be predicted of their companies, their exorbitantly sold cement, today
marketed at the highest price in the world?
Will Buhari vote for Buhari?
We had other options including wealthy Jonathan, Atiku and others to vote for as
our President in 2015. But we chose "austere" Buhari. To what end? To
get the very cabal who got us in this fix, back in charge of our nation's
affairs?
To be turned into a nation of beggars?
Have we forgotten that the very Dangote chaired the fundraiser for Jonathan's
PDP, raising billions to campaign against Buhari, that we fought blood and
brains against? Now he is being put in control of the parts of Nigeria most
bitter about the insensitivity and robbery of the nation and sponsorship of
terror by the very cabal!
Today the government is forcing itself by depending largely on World Bank and
other foreign loans. Is this why we voted for "change?" In the
professional world, the dependance on donations from these billionaires while
employing them in government committees and using them to fund government
processes is called "conflict of interest." The results are
100% predictable: more favoritism for them, and more coveting of the nation's
land, dollars and all other resources by the few with resulting deeper deadly
social inequality. Is this Nigeria's eternal destiny? Do we not have faith in
the power of the masses?
If we want funds from the colonial globe and Cabal, do we have to bend-over for
them to put it in our backsides or rather shall we position ourselves better,
fine and tax them appropriately for the same and even more figures we need that
we today favor them to beg for in "donations." Reposition ourselves
properly for fair and equitable trade with the world...to get the same value of
the subjugating "donations."
In my recent article, “Of Proudly Injudicious Lawyers Being Ministers And $7000
Beds For The Poor,” I asked the same question when we saw the list of
appointees for ministerial positions. Some of whom have been indicted by the
ICPC. Some of whom construct $400 boreholes for $450,000. None being a common
man, the force behind the electoral victory of commoner Buhari. I asked, would
Buhari give Buhari a chance?
On a related note as was observed in the recent Media chat:
Buhari To Give Cabal-Industry Dollars But Deny Same To The Largest
Labor Employers–SMEs
Today small industry and small entrepreneurs have no access to foreign
exchange.
Perhaps President Muhammadu Buhari does not get it, or does not understand the
severity of it, but from the President's media chat and his responses on the
government's choice for distribution of scarce dollars, Nigeria is at risk of
not creating but losing millions of jobs.
President Muhammadu Buhari in the chat said that the government was going to
focus on making dollars available for big manufacturing industry.He said:
"On foreign exchange, how much are we earning? We try in our priority
to look after industries that are employing people and producing goods and
services."
Big industry are owned of course by the Cabal; many such Cabal looted billions
of Nigeria's national earnings to establish their companies; but punishing them
for this is not even the issue. The issue is that big industry is the small
employer of labor. This is a known fundamental fact of economics especially in
the developing world.
SME (Small and Medium Enterprises) is the largest employer of labor. The
companies that you and I run; we are the people that employ 75% of labour in
Nigeria. It is the same in India, China, Malaysia, Brazil and so on. SMEs
across the world employ anywhere between 70 and 80% of labor. The so-called big
industries only employ a tiny fraction of labor.
Developed societies have actually moved from "manufacturing goods" to
service economies. Lots of such services are provided by small and medium
enterprises who are being starved of dollars.
The strict and partial moves being employed by the current administration in
these trying times are very risky and may implode the nation before they
possibly alleviate the crisis and before they may yield the needed returns.
Thousands of small and medium enterprises are folding across the nation
due to the shortage and denial of foreign currency. Nigeria has not yet
developed its manufacturing sector and a significant amount of SMEs depend
on various completed and partially manufactured materials from abroad. These
businesses are unable to get access to their raw materials, tools or
traded products. The implication is catastrophic.
While we are not suggesting that the government simply returns the access to
foreign currency to what it was; we demand that it be the same for Cabal big
industry as it is for Small and Medium enterprise. Whatever ration of
access to foreign currency is given to large companies, so also the same
ration of access to foreign currency should be given to small entrepreneurs.
We want change. We are tired of being slaves to the recurrently preferentially
treated Cabal who get tax breaks, access to credit, preferential choice land
and now, preferential access to foreign currency.
So we ask: why should the Dangotes and Danjumas always be favored above the
rest of us? Syria and Libya constructed infrastructure but what happened? Many
will say that the social inequality and government institutionalized
disadvantagement allowed those nations to crack; and look at them today.
In seconds it all came tumbling down. What is the use of Buhari building-up
Nigeria only to deepen the lines of inequality, frustration and anger that are
the roots of the terror and that will pave the path for the terror of tomorrow?
If Elite individuals as these are so good, I suggest we add Jonathan
to the list and surely two more Ds, Dasuki and Diezani to jointly head the
Rehabilitation committee?
God Bless Nigeria this 2016. May we reap the fruits of our votes.
COURTESY: Masterweb Reports/Dr. Peregrino Brimah
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