It is estimated that over 400 billion US dollars has been stolen or frittered away by Nigerian officials between 1960 and 1999. This amount of money is not small by any comparison. This is about 0.0042 percent of the world’s estimated wealth in 2005. Another piece of relevant information is that over 60 percent of Africa’s wealth is kept outside of the continent. Besides all these, Africa’s rulers steal even from development loans that they take to “develop” the continent. It has been reported that annually, about 20 billion US dollars is stolen from those development loans and deposited in foreign banks outside of the continent by African politicians, businessmen and civil servants who through an evil synergy of efforts have crafted a smooth scheme of deceit.
As I write, the sovereign debts of Nigeria have started piling up again under President Yar’Adua (now over 3.6 billion US dollars) after his predecessor had set us free from foreign debts not long ago. The deeply immoral part of it all is that even from development aid that comes to Africa to fight diseases such as HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis etc, African rulers and civil servants steal (Could this immoral conduct have brought severe sets of curses on the land?) For each single death that occurs in Africa because of the theft, those thieving officials and their immediate family members will get terminal sicknesses more egregious which will defy cure in the best of hospitals on earth! I say it with a strong conviction. Amen.
This is what we also know. We know that all those huge amounts of money are in the control of Africans. Oh yes, there is the talk of some of the deposits being lost in foreign banks when the thieves died (A court has now ruled to return the wealth of the late Mobutu Sese Sekou to his family rather than to the government of Congo DR for lack of “evidence” that he stole). But that, by statistical inference, is negligible when compared to what is still under the control of Africa’s thieves. So, we can conclude that Africa’s wealth is in their hands. We know from World Wealth reports that out of Africa’s population of 800 million, only 100,000 High net-worth Africans (who have wealth valued at 1 million US dollars and above) control 700 billion US dollars.
Lately, our brothers and sisters in South Africa went wild protesting poverty and poor housing in their country. Although the protest was against their government, some South Africans unfortunately blamed immigrants for their plight. In this biggest economy in Africa, about 1 million families live in shacks without basics like electricity. The levels of crime in that country have been only upwards since 1994. Poverty and crime are usual bedfellows.
Nigeria, which is the second largest economy in Africa and top oil exporter on the continent, has its unacceptable levels of poverty and decay-decay of public education, public health, and general infrastructure.
The few Africans who have unjustly taken our wealth live among us; they are living large in our midst. What can we do with what we know? We may pray and hope that the thieves will have a change of heart one day and start restituting in publicly acceptable ways. We may also decide to launch an unprecedented wave of protests across our countries. If Nigerian workers decide to shut down their country because there is no use working for little or no pay that will send a strong message. Power shut-downs and total grinding of essential services will be worth it.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) has shown us what it takes to get government’s attention. Whether you support MEND’s methods or not, you will agree that they have forced government’s attention disproportionately or otherwise. Governments such as we have in Nigeria have no regard for public opinion. They have no sense of self-respect. What MEND needs now is a highly intellectual angle to their struggle-our struggle. Their recent attack in Lagos, though painful, has shown that no part of Nigeria is immune if we Nigerians continue to view MEND’s cause as theirs and not ours. If we ignore the cries of our neighbors simply because our house is not the one being attacked on the street, we shall one day cry and no one will be there to help us because all our neighbors have been lynched without our intervention.
Let me talk specifically about Nigeria which is the one country in Africa with the most potential for turning the fortunes of Africa around. We Nigerians have made some painful mistakes in the past:
1. We have failed to understand the result of the cold fact that our governments despise public opinion. We assume that signing documents and sending to our “elected representatives” will sink in. That only works in societies where the electorate wields the power of electoral choice. We may still write, sign, and submit certain documents to our legislators, but honestly it is only to fulfill all righteousness that we took those decent steps.
2. The disproportionately huge wealth our politicians command accords them great power of mischief in the system. Grinding poverty in the land only serves to elevate their false sense of relevance, as they instantly are the de facto benefactors of the impoverished majority who usually would defer to them. Their balloon cannot be punctured by an uncoordinated and inconsistent intellectual assault. One person cannot do the work; few people cannot do the work. It takes a sizable group of Nigerian intellectuals and other concerned Nigerians to use whatever we have to lay out the message in languages and methods we can afford. It is our onerous task to educate the people using the methods at our disposal. For instance, if we sponsor messages on television and radio stations and post bills on bill boards, and organize meetings in our small towns (Not huge rallies) and let the people know about some of the facts we do put out, that would be worth it. But if we only complain without making efforts to enlighten the people, ignorance will be our waterloo. Nigerians in the Diaspora can remit money to their friends and trusted relatives at home to pay for those messages and advertorials.
3. We have played too safe for too long. Iran, where there is relatively more restriction than in Nigeria, has witnessed recently courageous acts by many of her citizens. Mir-Hosseini Mousavi only triggered the movement. He may not be the leader. From the way things are going, he may not even be in a position to calm things down now even if he wanted to. He was simply the arrow head. Nigerians who complain about the situation of things privately must step up and begin to agitate publicly. The name of the game is numbers.
4. “If I do something now what shall happen to me?” This is a sample of questions many Nigerians ask? We have been too preoccupied by self. The question is: If you don’t do something now what will happen to the nation? What future will your children inherit should you do nothing?
5. We are too quick to be suspicious of people who want a change. We say, “He or she is doing this in order to gain political relevance and power?” How I wish that all Nigerians possessed this political power and relevance! What is wrong with possessing political power and relevance? The important thing is what you do with the political power. This attitude leads to a wrong behavior- “If I am not the initiator, let it collapse. What is in it for me?” The position, “If I cannot get the live baby divide it (kill it)” is a statement we usually hear in our conduct.
6. Some Nigerians who live comfortably (or otherwise) abroad are inclined to be less than interested. They feel secure living overseas. They read the horrible stories coming out of Nigeria and simply pity “those poor Nigerians” and stop at that. Every day a Nigerian walks on the streets of Tokyo, London, Paris, New York, Sydney, Auckland, Washington DC, Frankfurt, Shanghai, Brussels, Vienna, Dublin, etc they are reminded they are strangers in those countries. Will your children grow up and live all their lives like you have and are?
What we must do as Nigerians with resources and compassion, with renewed hope and anger, with the right information and reach is to pull together our collective resources for the necessary synergy in order to counter government’s propaganda and the presumptuous belief by government officials and public officials that they can always rig their way through to power. Let me give a pointed example (again). In the months we have before general elections in 2011, Nigerians can pay for television and radio ads packaged in different Nigerian languages, pidgin and classical English in order to inform Nigerians about the dangers and choices before us all. Money is required for this. But in an environment where it is easier for a camel to slide through a needle’s hole than to trust people with money how can we solve this problem of mistrust?
First, if individuals would like to sponsor messages, they could contact us on www.nigeriarally.org . We shall prepare and package a message together with the help of relevant experts. Those individual volunteers would pay directly to the experts and radio and television stations of their choice. We shall not handle money; we only assist with the message. Identities of those individuals would be kept secret if they choose so.
Our experience when we placed advertorials in national newspapers, national, private, and state radio stations for the Nigeria Rally in Gboko, Benue state (December 26th, 2008), which President Yar’Adua’s government stopped, teaches us that Nigerians are well receptive to such messages, and that those messages can be powerful weapons of change. Do you think Yar’Adua would have stopped us if they did not realize in Abuja that a consequence of societal awakening could be full liberation of the people? As people listened to the daily ads they would call me and assure me that they would attend. Some would say how much “we love you!” I was amazed, to say the least. Now, if you are asking how you could be involved, this is one way. Let us seek action beyond mere words.
Remember what the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ads did to John Kerry’s quest to become America’s president in 2004, though unfortunately. Let Nigerians who have got my drift commit to change the color and texture of politics in Nigeria in order to force respect for public opinion. I believe that public officials respect public opinion only if the alternative response comes at dire costs. We must work to push up those costs.
Second, although we have so many groups which all claim to be seeking for a better Nigeria, we cannot succeed if:
i. those groups are seeking the recognition of public officials in government.
ii. the groups refuse to work with others when revealed common mission paths converge.
iii. some groups despise others and only view others with suspicion. If I do not have any indisputable reason to doubt the credibility of a group I must not vilify it.
iv. the primary objective that promotes those groups is the formation of a political party. There are many political parties in Nigeria already with wonderful manifestos and ideologies (Some of the parties are moribund since everyone is jostling for the ruling party); just read those on their websites. If I should decide to run for a political office in Nigeria, I could choose to join one of those parties and help pump life into them. It would be on the basis of shared conviction and uncompromising ideologies (some of which I have published about). The urgency of our time is certainly not the formation of a political party but the promotion of a national awakening based on knowledge, which will definitely force political parties to respect and honor their professed manifestos.
Finally, I believe that Nigeria shall witness true growth only when each state and region grows and develops at their utmost best speed. The whole body (Nigeria) shall have increase and grow according to that which every joint (part, state and region) supplies. Lagos state is giving us some hope. If you the reader are very specific about your state and would like us (www.nigeriarally.org ) to help frame a relevant message directed at your state for radio and television ads which you will sponsor, we can do that. We know what is happening in the states.
Thank you for taking out time to read. I am hopeful, be hopeful too.
Leonard Karshima Shilgba is the President of the Nigeria Rally Movement (www.nigeriarally.org ) and Assistant Professor of Mathematics with the American University of Nigeria.
Email: [email protected]
TEL: +234 (0) 8055024356
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