She was raped once, twice, thrice, and so on. Her oppressors were
powerful and were ironically meant to protect her. She had been often
frustrated about her situation, but the resources and access to justice were
largely controlled by her oppressors. With the passage of time, she
had come to accept the brutality and callousness of her oppressors. As such,
she subsequently became a victim of both rape and learned helplessness. She
accepted new measures irregularly introduced by her oppressors. Daily molestations
became a normalcy for her. Suddenly, one day, her oppressors, as if they had a
change of heart, asked her to trust them to protect her interest; but on the
condition that she would allow for more temporary pains to be inflicted on her.
They promised some palliatives to help her endure the pains they would inflict.
Whilst the thought of freedom sounded exciting to her, she was
required to trust her oppressors ex ante – i.e. even before
they put the palliative measures in place to help her endure the anticipated
pains. She did not have any cause to trust her oppressors, and knowing their
kleptomaniac tendencies, she did not equally have any antecedents to base the
trust on. The oppressors promised further consultations to convince her of
their genuine intention. Unexpectedly and surprisingly one day, the oppressors
inflicted pains on her without any considerations of her feelings.
Unsurprisingly, it turned out to be grievous pains, which could cause death. Although
she was prepared to give her oppressors the benefit of the doubt, their
unanticipated behaviour convinced her more than ever that a leopard would never
ever be spotless. She is Nigeria and her oppressors are her successive
governments.
Only a couple of days ago, I watched them on Channels Television: Ngozi
Okonjo Iweala – the super minister and the economic messiah from the World
Bank; Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi – the very “erudite” economic scholar and
Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria; and Deziani Allison-Madueke – the
invincible minister of petroleum resources. They appeared human and genuine.
They curried for trust. They banded tenets of neoclassical economics to support
the removal of petroleum subsidy. They claimed we were in it together, although
Sanusi Lamido Sanusi made it clear that he did not know where the fuel for his
cars came from. The postulated date for the introduction of the subsidy removal
was the glorious April 1 – not withstanding that it is a fool’s day! But what
they did not say was that they would sneak in the petroleum subsidy removal
from the back door on the New Year – very typical of the Trojan horse Greek
gift. They were supposedly the best brains from the World Bank, the Central
Bank of Nigeria and the uber Ministry of Petroleum Resources
in Nigeria. They want the Nigerian populace to trust them, yet they have
blatantly undermined the very trust they crave for.
The heinous and deceptive removal of the petroleum subsidy from
the back door without the courtesy and civility of letting the public know
beforehand, and on a New Year for that matter, has come to epitomise the
decayed and distorted democracy in Nigeria. It is a rape of public legitimacy
and trust, by an insensitive government oppressing innocent and powerless
Nigerians – the very people they portend and pretend to represent. They
carefully and intentionally avoided the fight for corruption, which is the bane
of Nigerian politics and development, in their argument and actions for the
petroleum subsidy removal. This is not surprising since some members of the
cabal who have held the country hostage might have captured the government and
its governance machinery. They could have been their friends, political
supporters and cronies. Even rumour and conspiracy theories have it that it is
all a gang up by the present government to disarm the groups armed by the
previous government of Obansanjo. In other words, it is a struggle for GEJ to
displace those empowered by OBJ. No matter how true or false this conspiracy
theories might be they mainly confirm the old long saying that the grasses are
the obvious victims in a fight between two elephants. The masses will
definitely bear the brunt of this callousness and insensitivity meted by a
conscienceless and selfish government and its crème of arrogantly deceptive technocrats.
Unfortunately, despite the grandiose claim that the removal of the
petroleum subsidy would make available resources for infrastructural and
development initiatives, as well as spur foreign investments in the sector, it
is very obvious that the claim is empty and bogus given the weak institutional
context of the Nigerian political economy. Empirical evidence from
institutional economics suggests that the main socio-economic problems in
Nigeria are traceable to poor governance, weak institutional context, and lack
of institutional trust. As a result, Nigerians who have suffered repeatedly
under successive brutal regimes and have been disappointed many times by
kleptocratic governments will find it difficult to believe a word of what the
government of the day says. This is a necessary context for the
appreciation of the subsidy debate. Going by the tenets of institutional
economics, before any subsidy removal, the government needs to win the hearts
and minds of the people through tangible actions – including containing its own
prominent financial extravagancy and profligate Epicureanism. To acknowledge
that the government is over-bloated and do nothing about it, as a necessary
first step, appears to me as a miscalculated judgment and a further manifestation
of the old behaviour, which the people detest.
Poor governance and weak institutional context are recipes for
creating successful markets for corruption. Corruption, as one of the deadly
socio-economic ‘diseases’, has continued to threaten and diminish quality of
life in Nigeria. Pretending that the removal of the subsidy would
work, without first addressing the issue of corruption in Nigeria, is an
illusion. The people are not as dull and passive as the government
may want to believe. The people have been hard pressed for so long, which would
prompt any reasonable person to conjecture that Nigeria is teetering on the
edge at this moment and a cost shift in the name of subsidy removal could send
the country over the cliff. The lessons from the Arab Spring are still very
much fresh in the minds of people.
Suggesting that the rent-seekers are the main problem and yet do
nothing about arresting, prosecuting, and punishing them if found guilty, is a
million dollar question begging for a credible and trustworthy answer from a
government that is struggling to win the people’s trust. Unfortunately, but
unsurprisingly, the government has chosen not to set our house in order, first,
by enhancing our governance institutions, before removing the subsidy. This is
the height of public deceit, which is tantamount to a rape of democracy!
Dr Amaeshi writes from Edinburgh, UK; and is a Visiting
Faculty at the Lagos Business School. He is the Founder of Nigerian Thought
Leadership Forum
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