The-aggression-of-the-poor-is-coming-unless-nigeria-changes-its-current-course
September 7, 2020 | News
THE AGGRESSION OF THE POOR IS COMING, UNLESS NIGERIA CHANGES ITS CURRENT COURSE
It is a natural phenomenon to expect that when a people have been pushed to the wall, and the odds are daily made to be against them and their survival; they would eventually retaliate and violently pour out all their bottled-up anger and aggression against those who have decided to make life miserable for them. Not that we support any form of public aggression, violence of any sort or assault on anyone, but we also have to realize that every human being is born with a ‘natural instinct of survival’. And once they feel their future survival is being threatened by other humans and factors that are beyond their control, the next thing that comes naturally is to retaliate, which often times are exhibited in different violent forms. We are already seeing evidence of this across Nigeria, and even abroad, more recently. And we fear it can only get worse, if the nation and its players should continue on their current path.
Sometime ago, we wrote a piece on how there are only two tribes in Nigeria: the elites (super rich) and the masses (general poor). This fact was also reiterated in a news report few years back, which stated that only 350 Nigerians (out of about 180million Nigerians), are responsible for more than 80 per cent of the N5.4 trillion debt portfolio of the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON). The problem we have with this picture is that it is never in the favour of the Nigerian poor masses, especially when it comes to getting little loans from Banks to do any legitimate business.
We have, in several write ups, warned that, with the way Nigeria is still struggling to come out of the woods in the last five decades as a Third-World and ‘developing’ country - where the space between the rich and poor, the Government and the Governed, the haves and the have-nots, and the Public Masters and the Public (Common masses) – have continued to increase tremendously – the country will eventually be pushed to the verge of becoming a tragedy as a nation, or as a failed state. And we deeply fear that, what will bring about that fall, that is, the straw that will break the camel back – may be an aggression of the poor and downtrodden, against the seemingly untouchable rich/elites and political class.
In a well circulated short video recently, Rev. Father George Ehusani, gave a vivid description of what we are trying to say here. In his words: “I have constantly said in this country that, until Nigeria get to a stage to say no, you cannot be a Minister of Power if it is a generator that is powering your own house, and you have not provided generators for every other person. You cannot be Minister of Housing if you are not staying in a Government Apartment. You cannot be a Minister of Health, if you cannot have your medical treatments in this country. You cannot be a Minister of Education and all your children are schooling outside the country. you can’t? Why? Because human beings have Self-Interest. If his children are going to the Government Secondary Schools, he will make sure that the Government Secondary Schools are well taken care of. If his family is going to go to the General Hospital next door, he will make sure that the General Hospital is working and well taking care of. But as long as political leaders do not share in the plight of the people; as long as leaders can fly to the US, to the UK or to the Dubai for their health care needs, and condemn the people to the kind of conditions here; as long as that is the situation – we are not moving forward anywhere as a nation.
“So, Nigerians should have to rise up, and say no! You cannot be our Minister for Education because your children are not schooling here. When you have a situation, rather than the people making sacrifices, you have made for the people, then we say yes! You can be our leader because you have suffered for us. You have denied yourself legitimate pleasure for our sake. That is what is used to qualify people for leadership. Now, we have people who conquer us, they take the resources of our land to conquer us, and remain there, and it becomes difficult to remove them from power.
“But someday, someday like I have always said, the aggression of the poor is at the corner. The aggression of the poor is coming, and that one you will not be able to do anything about it again. You can have your Jeeps, you can have your generators, you can have your bullet proof, but the revenge of the poor will not be stopped. It happened in France, it happened in Russia, it recently happened in Sudan, it will happen in Nigeria. Unless we change our course, we will end up where we are heading. And where we are heading now, unfortunately, is a ‘violent conflict situation’. That is where we are heading, unless we change our course. And I am not just talking of leaders in the national level. I am not just talking of Presidents, Governors, Senators and House of Representative Members. I am talking of all of us who are ‘privileged’. Many of us are privileged. What is our concern for the people next door? For the poor people next door? What is our concern for those who do petty works for us?
“I hope you know that in this Africa, in this Nigeria, there never used to be a distinction between the rich and the poor people. I hope you know that poor people and rich people used to live together. That is the hut of the blacksmith, that is the hut of the king; it all used to be together. But it is a completely new terrible thing that has happened to us, and people are happy about it. They enjoy it. They ask you, what part of town do you live in? And immediately you tell them the part of town you live; you know your status. And I am saying, by the time you SEGREGATE SOCIETY; what used to be called Apartheid – Nigeria was in the fore front of fighting Apartheid, where the white man says you black, live there, we white will live here. That is exactly what we are doing to our fellow black people now. And you know, IT MAKES IT EASIER WHEN REVOLUTION COMES. IT MAKES IT EASIER BECAUSE IT MEANS THE POOR PEOPLE KNOW WHERE TO GO. I CHALLENGE TOWN PLANNERS, THAT THIS IS NOT HOW YOU PLAN TOWNS. LET US START WORKING NOW IF WE WANT OUR PEACE AND SAFETY IN THE FUTURE. LET US START DOING WHAT IS CALLED INTEGRATED CITIES, INTEGRATED ESTATES, INTEGRATED SETTLEMENTS, IF WE WANT PEACE IN THE FUTURE.
“With the ones we have now, you will never have peace. We need to have Integrated Cities; where the ‘not so rich, and the rich, and so on, can live together and share things. So that the children that are growing up privileged, will know they are privileged when they see next door, and the other children. And they go to the same School by the way. When I was in Primary School, everybody went to that Primary School. We never knew that anyone was rich, or that anyone was poor. And that helped us. But the society we are creating today, I am saying it is not sustainable. We cannot run a society like this in the next hundred years. It is not possible! So, if you have a future. IF YOU DREAM OF A FUTURE FOR YOUR CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN, YOU WILL NEED TO JOIN ME IN SHOUTING AGAINST THIS. IF YOU DREAM OF A FUTURE FOR YOUR CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN, YOU NEED TO JOIN ME IN SAYING; THIS IS INAPPROPRIATE. THIS IS DANGEROUS. THIS IS DESTRUCTIVE. LIKE I SAID, IT IS NOT OUR HIGH WALLS, IT IS NOT OUR BARBWIRES, IT IS NOT OUR ELECTRIFIED FENCES THAT CAN SAVE US. WHAT WILL SAVE US, IS THAT THE POOR SHOULD BE INCLUDED AT THE DINING TABLE…”
In another speech made by Kenyan anti-corruption crusader, Prof. Patrick Loch Otieno (PLO) Lumumba, he said: “Africa has Universities in their numbers. Nigeria has Universities… Tanzania has Universities… Nairobi Kenya has Universities, as indeed Kampala, as indeed South Africa Johannesburg… We have all these Universities. We have Engineers, but our roads (and rails) are not being made by Tanzanian Engineers. It is the Chinese who are present in this Assembly, who are making our roads (and rails). So, we have Engineers who cannot even make roads. We have Medical Doctors whom we have trained, but when we are sick, particularly the political class; depending on who colonized you – if you are colonized by the UK, you rush to London. If you are colonized by the French, you rush to Paris. If you are colonized by the Portuguese, you rush to Lisbon. And if you are colonized by the Spaniards, you rush to Madrid in Spain. And recently, because the Asians are beginning to get their acts together, we run to India. And very lately, because the Arabs are beginning to get their acts together, we run to Dubai. Not withstanding the fact that we have the Kenyatta Hospital of this country, the one in Tanzania, the ones in South Africa, the ones in Kinshasa of Zaire, of the Democratic Republic of Congo. But we have no faith in our Doctors.” But mind you, in Nigeria, the rich patronise the foreign hospitals not because we do not have qualified medical doctors. Far from it. It is simply because the Nigerian hospitals do not have the required modern facilities for these hospitals to function like their counterparts abroad.
“In the area of Education, we also do not have faith. Our political class introduce something that they call ‘Free Education’. But it is ‘Free-indeed-free of knowledge’ because they are so suspicious of those institutions that the typical African politician would not dare take their children to those Schools. Their children will be educated in the British system, in the American system, so that when they graduate, they will go to the United Kingdom, and to the United States of America. Not that there is anything wrong with those foreign institutions. But the agenda is wrong because or leaders here have long lost the script, and they ought to be described as who they really are – ‘our mis-leaders’. But we are co-authors of our misfortune. Whenever we are given the opportunity to elect our leaders, we are given a blank cheque. And if you give me a blank cheque, and allow me to analogize, and you say am given the blank cheque to buy a Mercedes Benz, what we do is that when we are called upon, having been so empowered, we buy what one calls the ‘tuktuk’ (Tricycle) from India, and expect it to behave like a Mercedes Benz. How does that happen? Because what we do, is to elect thieves. We elect Hyenas to take care of Goats, and when the Goats are consumed, we wonder why.”
With this, you all would then understand what we meant when we say there is a conspiracy of the rich against the poor in this country, the above development is a clear evidence and that this conspiracy is not a theory. We can then see that the real lines are divided between us and them. The wall holding us back is between the rich and the poor - not between PDP and the APC. Not between Christians and Muslims. Not between Igbos, Yorubas or Hausas, or the other ethnic groups. That means tribalism and religion are artificial problems created by selfish leaders for their own personal interest. In other words, there are only two major tribes in Nigeria. The Elites and the Masses. Once you make lots of money (especially from stolen public funds), you belong to the ‘elite tribe’. When you are a commoner, suffering or struggling daily to make-ends-meet, you belong to the tribe of the masses. If you are an elite, and you need more power, or elective position, you sow seeds of tribalism and religion among the masses, so as to sway their emotion for your personal victory. This happens at both the national and State level. Unfortunately, after the election when they have won and joined their “sworn enemies” to drink and party, the gullible masses continue to fight each other. Even smart people who belong to the masses, sometimes will sow seeds of tribalism and religion among the masses, and then the masses will carry them up until they belong to the elite class. It is a classic strategy used over 3000 years ago in the art of war.
Former American President, Abraham Lincoln, in one of his famous quotes, once said: “You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.” Legendary musicians like Peter Tosh and Bob Marley also repeated these lines in some of their songs. Reminding our Nigerian Politicians that, a day will come, when even those praising/celebrating and running after Politicians who have stolen their collective wealth meant to provide a better future for their children, will turn against them and publicly shame and disgrace them, just like the Political leaders in Ukraine were dumped in dustbins. Let us be reminded that Ukraine is amongst the developed countries in the world, yet they are still complaining of the wrong doings of their Political leaders, to warrant them being disgraced in public. Nigerian Politicians, who have committed more atrocities over the past decades, should then imagine what majority of the Nigerian poor masses will do to them when the day of reckoning is upon them.
Zik Gbemre.
October 21, 2019
We Mobilize Others To Fight For Individual Causes As If Those Were Our Causes
It is a natural phenomenon to expect that when a people have been pushed to the wall, and the odds are daily made to be against them and their survival; they would eventually retaliate and violently pour out all their bottled-up anger and aggression against those who have decided to make life miserable for them. Not that we support any form of public aggression, violence of any sort or assault on anyone, but we also have to realize that every human being is born with a ‘natural instinct of survival’. And once they feel their future survival is being threatened by other humans and factors that are beyond their control, the next thing that comes naturally is to retaliate, which often times are exhibited in different violent forms. We are already seeing evidence of this across Nigeria, and even abroad, more recently. And we fear it can only get worse, if the nation and its players should continue on their current path.
Sometime ago, we wrote a piece on how there are only two tribes in Nigeria: the elites (super rich) and the masses (general poor). This fact was also reiterated in a news report few years back, which stated that only 350 Nigerians (out of about 180million Nigerians), are responsible for more than 80 per cent of the N5.4 trillion debt portfolio of the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON). The problem we have with this picture is that it is never in the favour of the Nigerian poor masses, especially when it comes to getting little loans from Banks to do any legitimate business.
We have, in several write ups, warned that, with the way Nigeria is still struggling to come out of the woods in the last five decades as a Third-World and ‘developing’ country - where the space between the rich and poor, the Government and the Governed, the haves and the have-nots, and the Public Masters and the Public (Common masses) – have continued to increase tremendously – the country will eventually be pushed to the verge of becoming a tragedy as a nation, or as a failed state. And we deeply fear that, what will bring about that fall, that is, the straw that will break the camel back – may be an aggression of the poor and downtrodden, against the seemingly untouchable rich/elites and political class.
In a well circulated short video recently, Rev. Father George Ehusani, gave a vivid description of what we are trying to say here. In his words: “I have constantly said in this country that, until Nigeria get to a stage to say no, you cannot be a Minister of Power if it is a generator that is powering your own house, and you have not provided generators for every other person. You cannot be Minister of Housing if you are not staying in a Government Apartment. You cannot be a Minister of Health, if you cannot have your medical treatments in this country. You cannot be a Minister of Education and all your children are schooling outside the country. you can’t? Why? Because human beings have Self-Interest. If his children are going to the Government Secondary Schools, he will make sure that the Government Secondary Schools are well taken care of. If his family is going to go to the General Hospital next door, he will make sure that the General Hospital is working and well taking care of. But as long as political leaders do not share in the plight of the people; as long as leaders can fly to the US, to the UK or to the Dubai for their health care needs, and condemn the people to the kind of conditions here; as long as that is the situation – we are not moving forward anywhere as a nation.
“So, Nigerians should have to rise up, and say no! You cannot be our Minister for Education because your children are not schooling here. When you have a situation, rather than the people making sacrifices, you have made for the people, then we say yes! You can be our leader because you have suffered for us. You have denied yourself legitimate pleasure for our sake. That is what is used to qualify people for leadership. Now, we have people who conquer us, they take the resources of our land to conquer us, and remain there, and it becomes difficult to remove them from power.
“But someday, someday like I have always said, the aggression of the poor is at the corner. The aggression of the poor is coming, and that one you will not be able to do anything about it again. You can have your Jeeps, you can have your generators, you can have your bullet proof, but the revenge of the poor will not be stopped. It happened in France, it happened in Russia, it recently happened in Sudan, it will happen in Nigeria. Unless we change our course, we will end up where we are heading. And where we are heading now, unfortunately, is a ‘violent conflict situation’. That is where we are heading, unless we change our course. And I am not just talking of leaders in the national level. I am not just talking of Presidents, Governors, Senators and House of Representative Members. I am talking of all of us who are ‘privileged’. Many of us are privileged. What is our concern for the people next door? For the poor people next door? What is our concern for those who do petty works for us?
“I hope you know that in this Africa, in this Nigeria, there never used to be a distinction between the rich and the poor people. I hope you know that poor people and rich people used to live together. That is the hut of the blacksmith, that is the hut of the king; it all used to be together. But it is a completely new terrible thing that has happened to us, and people are happy about it. They enjoy it. They ask you, what part of town do you live in? And immediately you tell them the part of town you live; you know your status. And I am saying, by the time you SEGREGATE SOCIETY; what used to be called Apartheid – Nigeria was in the fore front of fighting Apartheid, where the white man says you black, live there, we white will live here. That is exactly what we are doing to our fellow black people now. And you know, IT MAKES IT EASIER WHEN REVOLUTION COMES. IT MAKES IT EASIER BECAUSE IT MEANS THE POOR PEOPLE KNOW WHERE TO GO. I CHALLENGE TOWN PLANNERS, THAT THIS IS NOT HOW YOU PLAN TOWNS. LET US START WORKING NOW IF WE WANT OUR PEACE AND SAFETY IN THE FUTURE. LET US START DOING WHAT IS CALLED INTEGRATED CITIES, INTEGRATED ESTATES, INTEGRATED SETTLEMENTS, IF WE WANT PEACE IN THE FUTURE.
“With the ones we have now, you will never have peace. We need to have Integrated Cities; where the ‘not so rich, and the rich, and so on, can live together and share things. So that the children that are growing up privileged, will know they are privileged when they see next door, and the other children. And they go to the same School by the way. When I was in Primary School, everybody went to that Primary School. We never knew that anyone was rich, or that anyone was poor. And that helped us. But the society we are creating today, I am saying it is not sustainable. We cannot run a society like this in the next hundred years. It is not possible! So, if you have a future. IF YOU DREAM OF A FUTURE FOR YOUR CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN, YOU WILL NEED TO JOIN ME IN SHOUTING AGAINST THIS. IF YOU DREAM OF A FUTURE FOR YOUR CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN, YOU NEED TO JOIN ME IN SAYING; THIS IS INAPPROPRIATE. THIS IS DANGEROUS. THIS IS DESTRUCTIVE. LIKE I SAID, IT IS NOT OUR HIGH WALLS, IT IS NOT OUR BARBWIRES, IT IS NOT OUR ELECTRIFIED FENCES THAT CAN SAVE US. WHAT WILL SAVE US, IS THAT THE POOR SHOULD BE INCLUDED AT THE DINING TABLE…”
In another speech made by Kenyan anti-corruption crusader, Prof. Patrick Loch Otieno (PLO) Lumumba, he said: “Africa has Universities in their numbers. Nigeria has Universities… Tanzania has Universities… Nairobi Kenya has Universities, as indeed Kampala, as indeed South Africa Johannesburg… We have all these Universities. We have Engineers, but our roads (and rails) are not being made by Tanzanian Engineers. It is the Chinese who are present in this Assembly, who are making our roads (and rails). So, we have Engineers who cannot even make roads. We have Medical Doctors whom we have trained, but when we are sick, particularly the political class; depending on who colonized you – if you are colonized by the UK, you rush to London. If you are colonized by the French, you rush to Paris. If you are colonized by the Portuguese, you rush to Lisbon. And if you are colonized by the Spaniards, you rush to Madrid in Spain. And recently, because the Asians are beginning to get their acts together, we run to India. And very lately, because the Arabs are beginning to get their acts together, we run to Dubai. Not withstanding the fact that we have the Kenyatta Hospital of this country, the one in Tanzania, the ones in South Africa, the ones in Kinshasa of Zaire, of the Democratic Republic of Congo. But we have no faith in our Doctors.” But mind you, in Nigeria, the rich patronise the foreign hospitals not because we do not have qualified medical doctors. Far from it. It is simply because the Nigerian hospitals do not have the required modern facilities for these hospitals to function like their counterparts abroad.
“In the area of Education, we also do not have faith. Our political class introduce something that they call ‘Free Education’. But it is ‘Free-indeed-free of knowledge’ because they are so suspicious of those institutions that the typical African politician would not dare take their children to those Schools. Their children will be educated in the British system, in the American system, so that when they graduate, they will go to the United Kingdom, and to the United States of America. Not that there is anything wrong with those foreign institutions. But the agenda is wrong because or leaders here have long lost the script, and they ought to be described as who they really are – ‘our mis-leaders’. But we are co-authors of our misfortune. Whenever we are given the opportunity to elect our leaders, we are given a blank cheque. And if you give me a blank cheque, and allow me to analogize, and you say am given the blank cheque to buy a Mercedes Benz, what we do is that when we are called upon, having been so empowered, we buy what one calls the ‘tuktuk’ (Tricycle) from India, and expect it to behave like a Mercedes Benz. How does that happen? Because what we do, is to elect thieves. We elect Hyenas to take care of Goats, and when the Goats are consumed, we wonder why.”
With this, you all would then understand what we meant when we say there is a conspiracy of the rich against the poor in this country, the above development is a clear evidence and that this conspiracy is not a theory. We can then see that the real lines are divided between us and them. The wall holding us back is between the rich and the poor - not between PDP and the APC. Not between Christians and Muslims. Not between Igbos, Yorubas or Hausas, or the other ethnic groups. That means tribalism and religion are artificial problems created by selfish leaders for their own personal interest. In other words, there are only two major tribes in Nigeria. The Elites and the Masses. Once you make lots of money (especially from stolen public funds), you belong to the ‘elite tribe’. When you are a commoner, suffering or struggling daily to make-ends-meet, you belong to the tribe of the masses. If you are an elite, and you need more power, or elective position, you sow seeds of tribalism and religion among the masses, so as to sway their emotion for your personal victory. This happens at both the national and State level. Unfortunately, after the election when they have won and joined their “sworn enemies” to drink and party, the gullible masses continue to fight each other. Even smart people who belong to the masses, sometimes will sow seeds of tribalism and religion among the masses, and then the masses will carry them up until they belong to the elite class. It is a classic strategy used over 3000 years ago in the art of war.
Former American President, Abraham Lincoln, in one of his famous quotes, once said: “You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.” Legendary musicians like Peter Tosh and Bob Marley also repeated these lines in some of their songs. Reminding our Nigerian Politicians that, a day will come, when even those praising/celebrating and running after Politicians who have stolen their collective wealth meant to provide a better future for their children, will turn against them and publicly shame and disgrace them, just like the Political leaders in Ukraine were dumped in dustbins. Let us be reminded that Ukraine is amongst the developed countries in the world, yet they are still complaining of the wrong doings of their Political leaders, to warrant them being disgraced in public. Nigerian Politicians, who have committed more atrocities over the past decades, should then imagine what majority of the Nigerian poor masses will do to them when the day of reckoning is upon them.
Zik Gbemre.
October 21, 2019
We Mobilize Others To Fight For Individual Causes As If Those Were Our Causes