There is something morally repellent about one group seeking to gratify itself psychologically, pursuing novel and rarified pleasure, while the majority of mankind lives in wretchedness or starvationAlvin TofflerItdoes not take much to become rich in Nigeria. Every rogue, loafer and killer is rich. Except for insignificantly few honest rich people, all you need, depending on your divide is a gun or a pen, your backside or your smooth tongue; network of people living with corruption and the relevant stakeholders; the powerful mediocrities that have converted opportunity to impunity and have equated governance with looting. In a country with this satire, wealth is a thing to be ashamed of. If not for crass and chronic mediocrity, what could make one believe that a producer of a product contributes more to an economy like that of Nigeria than a veteran refiner of minds of over fifty years standing.Opportunity to steal, negligence or weakness of owner and impotence of law are critical conditions that aid rogues to succeed. In Nigeria, they do not only succeed, they also rule. So, the Rule of Rogues could be a substitute for the title of this article if an alternative is necessary. For rogues, every ground is fertile. If they are poor, poverty provides the excuse for stealing. If they are rich with power on their sides, impunity and tempestuous cruelty becomes a pastime. Our rogues, except the poor ones, owe nobody any explanation. The law is under their feet just as the enforcers of law are in their pocket. They set and break laws without reprehension. They are not only power brokers, they are also the Presidents Prophets! They tell their adherent worshippers when the price of goods will come down even when they know that they are incorrigible liars! They prophesy when to impose tariffs and when to remove subsidy. They turn Nigerias power house to cacophony of Disney Land that only fits into Ngugi wa Thiongo palliative phrase of Weep Not Child, caricaturing unlearned neophytic rulers whose soul and mind defile the concept of Platos Philosopher King. The danger of their modus operandi is not only that their business empires are mere slave camps to the young Nigerians that are battered and beaten by inclement economic weather and have no option than to serve mammoths but that the power house that Nigerians look up to for rescue and salvation is under hostage. Just as the colonial masters moved from slavery to colonialism and to neo- colonialism, they too are moving from their implanted fictitious fuel subsidy to ferocious removal of lives through tantrum called oil subsidy removal, using the ignoramus as their canon fodders. Like I wrote recently, oil subsidy is a fraud!They exported a barrel of our crude oil for $78; imported back an equivalent of refined petroleum for $110. The difference of $32 which is as a result of governments inability to refine its own product due to inefficiency, is what they gave their cronies and fraudulently tagged subsidy. It is not the Nigerian government that is subsidising oil; it is indeed the Nigerian people that have been subsidising their governments inefficiency. Nigerians should reject this fraud called subsidy removal and demand that our refineries work. A government that imports what its country produces is not worthy of being called a government! Simple! A government that cannot add value to crude oil can never add value to your life! Beyond oil and bread (anyway, I will not eat their cassava bread, because before you say Jack Robinson, they can tell you again that they are removing subsidy on cassava. I guess I am better off with my garri), we must fight to defeat the rogues who masquerade as business tycoons, who are indeed nothing but rent collectors, monopolists whose sole client is the government that is idea deficient but has sufficient dexterity in laundering the commonwealth through them into private tunnels; and the monopolists who have coveted and converted others opportunities into self-rights, not because they have wits but because they are connected to the corruption webs! We must resolve within ourselves to take our destiny in our hands and put to flight the army of the oppressors that have over the years through policies created more widows than jobs and brought into being more orphans than justice. Yes, we can!In a world where people ask questions whether it is safe or convenient, or diplomatic or harmless before saying or doing the right things, only you can set your own syllabus whether to do things right or not. Opportunity to do things right is always with us. The leaders resort to power to extract fact, the led retreat to cowardice to accept fact. The former do everything to ensure that dissent is silenced if the dissenter is not killed and the latter yield their soul to intimidation to accept error as gospel truth. In the end, it is only the one that courageously applies his or her conscience to the non- destructibility of TRUTH and what is right that will linger longest even if s/he dies. This is so because tyrants die with their reign , the timid die before their death but everlasting is the memory of the just. Their strife will kindle a battle between error and right and the sparkles from the collision will consume error to ashes, leaving the upright and the just, victorious in the firmament of history, even in the land of their enemies!. Nigeria needs such people, even you!Olajuyigbe, Human Security Coordinator, ActionAid Nigeria, wrote in via olugbenro.olajuyigbe@actionaid.org
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