By Jaye Gaskia
The constant refrain
we keep hearing like a broken record from this voraciously greedy treasury
looting ruling elite is that they are speaking for, making demands on behalf,
or agitating for the interests of this or that region, this or that
geo-political zone, this or that ethnic group, this or that state, and or this
or that religion!
And as the
contestations in the political space deepen towards the 2015 general elections,
we shall hear a lot more about this profanities and untruths from these
congenital liars, about how it is the turn of their people to rule, about how
it is only fair that their people should get to continue in office, etc.
But beyond the
obvious platitudes and barefaced falsehoods embedded in their self-serving
declarations, who do they really speak for? In whose interests have they
governed all these years since independence? In whose interest really do they
aspire to govern?
Let us take some
examples to expose these carefully woven myths of representation. Let us begin
with the North, simply because it is the region from which the most strident
cry of marginalisation and unfairness has been promoted by shameless ruling
elite in recent past.
How can any
self-respecting, self-proclaimed leader of the North speak of injustice and
unfairness concerning the fate of the teeming mass of Nigerians from the north?
By October 1st 2014, the country will be celebrating 54 years of
flag independence. More than 30 of those 54 years have seen persons of Northern
origin at the helm of affairs of the country.
Yet the North is
still the poorest part of the country; yet the north is responsible for the
overwhelming majority of the 10.5 million out of school children; yet it is
largely because of the dire situation of Nigerian children from the north that
we have both the Nomadic and Almajiri education systems, which by the way have
not been adequately funded.
At the just concluded
2014 National Conference, there were those among the elites of the North who
would reject modernization of the livelihood system of the nomad in the name of
defending tradition and the cultural rights of their people. Yet their own
children school abroad and in the most expensive private schools; and although
they also own large herds of cattle, these are tended to, and escorted on foot
across thousands of kilometers not by their own children, but by the less
fortunate from among their people.
If that way of life needed no modernization
in order to improve productivity and ease the burden on the people, why are
they not wandering the wilderness with the cattle? Why were they coming to
Abuja for the conference and returning back home in chauffeur driven state of
the art vehicles as well as with flights? Shouldn’t their people, whose
cultural rights they are so wont to defend also be entitled to such a life?
What about the middle
belt leaders and elites? They have served in every government, and have even
headed governments in the name of the North, yet they speak of the
marginalisation of their people?
And yes, the south,
the south-south, south-west, and the south-east! The South-South or the Niger
Delta is the most marginalized part of the south; it is also the area with the
most degraded environment in all of Nigeria. Yet with a Niger Delta presidency,
the NDDC, the Niger Delta Ministry, and the Presidential amnesty program
combined, along with state governments and state resources controlled by Niger
Delta indigenes, the East-west road remains uncompleted after several decades,
youth unemployment continues to rise, while environmental degradation continue
to worsen with the environment witnessing crude oil spill for nearly half a
decade now of more than 10,000 barrels per day.
It is true that the
amnesty program and the post militancy period have seen the emergence of
billionaires from among erstwhile militant generals and commanders, from among
sponsors and protectors of the lucrative crude oil theft criminal business, and
from among politicians cohering around Aso Rock and the various government
houses in the Niger Delta; yet the misery of ordinary citizens have worsened.
As for the amnesty program itself, it has turned out into an unsustainable
bribing of 33,000 youths out of a very active, restive and desperately poor and
alienated population of more than 2 million unemployed and unemployable youths
in the Niger Delta.
If these leaders had
indeed the interest of the Niger delta citizens at heart, why has no single
inch of the Niger delta environment been cleaned up? Why is it that livelihood
support systems and mechanisms are not proliferating across the Niger Delta?
Why are these so-called leaders ‘chopping alone’. Acquiring numerous properties
in Abuja and across the country to the detriment of the poor Niger Deltans?
Is it just a mere
coincidence therefore that the Richest Nigerian and African is from the same
northern part of the country with the highest poverty rate? Or is it just a
further coincidence that the richest black woman is from the same south west
where the bulk of women traders are struggling and languishing in poverty?
These elites do not
represent us even when they make demands in our name.
The only interests they
represent as can be seen are their own private selfish interests. And in order
to get their hands on the pie of national wealth, in order to have access to
loot our collective treasury, they invoke our pains, and dramatise our
marginalisation, a condition of existence which they have been quite complicit in
imposing on us.
After all at least
since 1999, and at every other time except perhaps under military rule, there
has been no state or local government in Nigeria governed by non-indigenes;
there has been no state that has not sat over and overseen the disbursement of
resources totaling more than N1tn each since 1999. So what has happened to
these budgetary and equally humongous extra-budgetary spendings? Where have the
monies gone?
As the 2015 general
elections approach therefore, and well beyond that general election, as these
politrickians and treasury looters approach us seeking our votes and support,
wiping up ethnic, religious and other sentiments; it is important that we
understand that they are responsible for our present conditions; that what they
accuse others of doing to us, they have willingly participated in ensuring that
it happens. We should understand they are coming to us only because they need
us as bargaining chips, and we should therefore be very vigilant and alert.
The most significant lesson
taught by our collective history is that these ruling class is incapable of
transforming our conditions of existence positively, that it is incapable of seeing
beyond its greed, and that our fate ultimately lies in our own hands.
We can take our destiny
back from them in the short term by ensuring that we properly scrutinize the
parties and their candidates, voting only for those whose scale and scope of
greed and deceit will not incinerate us. In the medium to long term however,
our collective task is to build a powerful, popular, and nationwide mass
political movement capable of successfully challenging these ruinous light
fingered elite for power.
In the medium term
such a movement can become an effective opposition in the period between the
2015 and 2019 general elections; in the long term, such a movement can
effectively and successfully challenge the thieving ruling class for power in
2019, or be in a position to lead to victory such other popular outbursts of
the masses that may occur as we saw during the January Uprising of 2012.
Follow
me on Twitter: @jayegaskia & @[DPSR]protesttopower; Interact with me on
FaceBook: Jaye Gaskia & Take Back Nigeria.
JAYE
GASKIA IS NATIONAL COORDINATOR OF PROTEST TO POWER MOVEMENT & CO-CONVENER
OF SAY NO CAMPAIGN
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