THE WIDENING GAP 18092006" /> THE WIDENING GAP 18092006">

THE WIDENING GAP 18092006

© THE WIDENING GAP 18092006
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THE WIDENING GAP

BY: LES LEBA (Email: lesleba@yahoo.com) 
Website:  www.betternaijanow.com


The gap between the rich and the poor in this country has probably never been so wide, nor the ratio between the deprived and the priviledged been so high.  Our founding fathers would never have imagined that their creation will evolve into a nation where such a small minority wallow in opulent extravagance with loot salvaged from the communal treasury while the vast majority remain victims of abject poverty.

The colonial administration in Africa facilitated the rapid and efficient exploitation of our agricultural and mineral reserves by creating a relatively conducive environment that made the burden of oppression bearable for the subjects while basic functional schools, colleges, hospitals and other people oriented welfare infrastructure were put in place.  Children with vastly contrasting backgrounds attended the same school and the same hospitals served everyone who was sick, no matter whether you were a messenger or a minister! The wages structure in the economy provided for a relatively dignified standard of living and the transition from school to paid employment was supervised to avoid the pitfalls of stagnation and the insecurity caused by increasing levels of unemployment.

The post-Independence political class managed for a short while to maintain a social welfarist posturing with public office as a platform to serve and improve the lot of the masses.  This populist motivation, however, gave way with the intoxication of political power and the political class began to see itself as exercising dominion over the masses in the manner of a colonial overlord and unwittingly promoted the beginning of a true class divide.  The authoritarian nature of military interregnum inevitably widened the divide as the process of resource allocation became arbitrary and accountability was jettisoned for military expediency.  

The consequence was a small class of noveau riche whose sources of wealth and contribution to the economy could not be easily ascertained, while sustainable progress became the victim of the policy of federal character which shot merit in the foot!  From then on, the battle cry for most public office holders has been ‘everyman for himself, God for us all’.  The debilitating legacy of unbridled corruption inherited from the overbearing presence of military dictatorship in our lives in the last 40 years fitted like tradition on the emergent civil political class.  The pseudo federal nature of the 1999 constitution is the outcome of the marriage of convenience between a buccaneering military elite and a sycophant political class who do not see political office holding as a means of service but rather as a business of treasury looting!  

As things stand, it would be easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for an honest man to win his party’s primaries for the post of state Governor or the Nation’s President.  So far, only money bags who aspire to recover their investments with bountiful returns from the treasury appear up to the task of seeking high political offices.

The devastating impact of corruption on the lives of the masses can be seen throughout the length and breadth of our country; from dilapidated educational infrastructure and the collapse of public health delivery service to inadequate provision of water, power and mass transit systems; naked poverty stares us in the face inspite of reports of best ever revenue reserves, which sound like fairy tales to those Nigerians who live on less than $1 a day.

On the other end of the scale, for possibly less than 5% of our 130 million fellow Nigerians, the sky is the beginning.  For this blessed few, private schools and hospitals have been founded primarily for the children and families of well placed civil servants and professional public office holders who can pay fees and medical bills in dollars!   While in theory the upper salary limit of less than N3m p.a. for the highest paid civil servant cannot permit a cash outlay of say N2m for a one bedroom bungalow in Amuwo, in reality, it is common place to find that most of the choice accommodation priced at over N30m a piece in prime estates in Lekki, Abuja and other state capitals are often snatched up by public servants, most of whom cannot attribute their good fortune to a heavy dose of thrift.  The media reports of the stupendous legacy of over N7bn left by a deceased accountant in a state office in INEC (Independent Electoral Commission) after the Bellview crash in Ogun State last year can only be the tip of the mound of corruption in the public service.  

The incidence of such a high level of treasury looting in INEC, the bedrock of our electoral process and the hope of our nascent democracy must be very worrisome for those Nigerians who pray for free and fair elections for selecting those whom we give our mandate to serve us.  The electoral crisis in Anambra State in the last gubernatorial election and allegations of poll rigging across the country may just be indicators of the depth of the level of corruption in the electoral process.   The aggression and the enthusiasm exhibited by seekers of political office must not be mistaken for a passion to serve and improve the welfare of the masses.  The huge revenue allocations running in excess of N250bn every month to the three tiers of government is obviously the target of the political class when they put themselves forward for elections, and for civil servants, when they endure the indignity of an official salary package that cannot realistically sustain them.

Lack of transparency, unaudited government accounts, conflicting statements of revenue receipts from the Accountant General’s office, the NNPC, the Auditor General and the FIIRS are all symptoms of corruption.  The net result of this malaise is the further impoverishment of the masses while a few fat cats, who have cornered the system in their own favour amass unimaginable public wealth to themselves.  

The question now on discerning minds is whether the skewed system of resource allocation can continue forever; put in a  different way, how much poorer can the poor be so the few rich can be richer?

The answer to this question can be found in a historical observation of masses who have been impoverished by a despotic class of rulers.  Sooner than later, the matrix of corruption will consume the oppressors regardless of ethnic or religious bias in a communal implosion fuelled by mass poverty with disastrous consequences for the few ‘rich’ members of the perceived looting brigade! Whether or not our political class and professional public office holders see the handwriting on the wall is another matter, but what is clear is that the dialectics of history is no stranger to any corner of our small planet.  An increasing gap between the rich and the poor breeds instability and the higher the ratio of haves to have not, the greater the danger of insecurity to those who flaunt their wealth and dare the poor!  The current roforofo fight between the President and the Vice President may be the beginning of a process that would cleanse the land and enthrone a caring leadership over time.



SAVE THE NAIRA, SAVE NIGERIANS! 

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