Three recent events have drawn attention to the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few people, commonly referred to as the Top One Per cent. First, since December 18, 2010, when protests broke out in Tunisia, following Mohammed Bouazizis self-immolation in protest against police corruption and ill-treatment, protests have spread against oppressive regimes in the Maghreb and the Middle East. The term Arab Spring used to describe these protests privileges the changes that are expected to follow, thus disguising the social and economic inequalities that gave rise to them. Yet, the real focus of the protests is the removal from power of the family or a few elite controlling national wealth.The second event is the series of protests by the Occupy Movement, an international protest movement which started in New York City on September 17, 2011 with Occupy Wall Street. The protests are primarily directed at social and economic inequalities. The target is the TOP that controls wealth, power, and influence in the United States and other nations. Hence the protesters common slogan, We are the 99 per cent.Between the two events is President Barack Obamas $447bn jobs package, which includes plans to tax corporations and the wealthiest TOP in order to pay for it. Republicans opposition to this tax plan underlies their opposition to the entire package, despite huge public support for it. Liberal activists reacted against the seeming protection of the rich with protests which crystallised in the Occupy Wall Street movement. The protests soon spread beyond New York City and across Americas borders.At the macro level, the Occupy protests crystallise public dissatisfaction with the downturn in local and global economies, beginning with the economic recession precipitated by the mortgage crisis in the United States and including the ongoing economic crisis in Europe, highlighted by Greeks insolvency. Greek Prime Minister Georgios Papandreou is as much a target of protests as are American finance institutions and wealthy investors behind the mortgage crisis.Today, these three events and the global economic downturn have combined to put the searchlight on the TOP, which controls wealth, power, and influence around the world. The situation in the United States is particularly instructive, where the TOP (the upper class) owns 35 per cent of all privately held wealth. The next 19 per cent (the managerial, professional, and small business stratum) has about 50 per cent. This means that just 20 per cent of the people own a remarkable 85 per cent of the wealth, leaving only 15 per cent for the bottom 80 per cent (wage and salary workers).The American situation is fairly representative of many post-industrial nations, give or take a few percentage points here and there. This situation contrasts sharply with that of Africa, where the wealth disparity is much greater due largely to political corruption. A quick comparison between American and Nigerian situations highlights these contrasts.According to various estimates, the TOP in Nigeria controls a whopping 80 per cent of the wealth, which leaves only 20 per cent to the remaining 99 per cent of the population. Of this 99 per cent, about 80 per cent lives on $2 or less a day, while the remainder lives on varying income that is barely sufficient to qualify the few top earners for middle class status by Western standards. This is the negligible few that have enough surplus funds to take a cruise to the Bahamas, a vacation to Dubai, or even maintain an apartment overseas, a practice that puts them next door to the TOP. Far from controlling 50 per cent of the wealth like the American middle class, what is left of the Nigerian middle class hardly owns ten per cent.The Nigerian middle class has shrunk considerably in the last 30 years due to the collapse of small businesses and the huge gap between wages on the one hand and the rate of inflation and the dipping value of the Naira on the other hand. What is left is a huge gap between the TOP and the remaining 99 per cent. While the former gets wealthier and wealthier, because the same people keep recycling themselves in political and economic corridors, the latter gets poorer and poorer. To complicate matters, the government institutions and facilities they once relied upon are either no more or are not functioning well. The result is a drastic fall in the standard of living and a shortened life expectancy.The TOP in America earned their status by using their talent, knowledge and skills to create wealth. This group includes innovators like the legendary Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and Steve Jobs as well as contemporary entrepreneurs like Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Ted Turner and Oprah Winfrey. From what we know of their creative talent and hard work, they are all deserving billionaires.The situation is different in Nigeria, where the TOP consists largely of politicians and military officers who participated in various military governments between 1966 and 1999. These are people who made their wealth largely by dipping their hands into our national and state treasuries. The source of their wealth is corruption rather than profit from industries or investments they owned or reward for their knowledge and skills. True, there are some Dangotes, Otedolas, and Adenugas, who you could say earned their wealth, but they are few and far between. Even then, a number of these entrepreneurs made money from government and its parastatals.This leads to yet another difference. In America, the TOP makes money from the sale of goods and services to consumers worldwide. In Nigeria, where government is business, the wealthy make money largely from government patronage. To make big money in Nigeria today, you have to be a politician, a political appointee, a top civil servant, a government contractor or consultant.Because the bulk of Nigerias wealth comes from government-controlled petroleum resources, the TOP makes its money either as government officials or as government patrons. The control of the transactions by the same cabal limits participation by new members, unlike the situation in the United States where upstarts like Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook can quickly shoot to the top by leveraging technology and their brains. There are, of course, numerous Zuckerbergs in Nigeria; but they got derailed early into the fraudulent, rather than innovative, use of new technologies.Where does all the money go' Americas TOP invests its money in America. True, some manufacturing industries occasionally outsource production to other countries for cheap labour costs but America still remains the largest market for finished products. Apart from creating jobs for millions, the American TOP donates generously to universities, floats research foundations, and engages in numerous philanthropic activities. A good example is the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation which has allocated over $30bn to fighting malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV/AIDS. The global effectiveness of the Foundation prompted Warren Buffett to donate about $30bn of his fortune to its philanthropic work.By contrast, Nigerias TOP stashes its ill-gotten weight in overseas bank accounts; invests in property and stocks, especially in Britain, America, and Dubai; and spends the rest on huge mansions, expensive cars, foreign education of children, overseas medical treatment, mistress maintenance, and so on. Even the Nigerian government partakes in the externalisation of wealth by maintaining overseas Foreign Reserve, Excess Crude, and now Sovereign Wealth Fund accounts. Incidentally, these funds often end up in private pockets. The first two accounts have been depleted by over $50bn within the last seven years with little or nothing to show for it.If Nigerians were a people who cared enough about their collective patrimony and their own welfare, the TOP that appropriates the bulk of the nations wealth would have been occupied like Wall Street. However, the degree of resignation and complacency is such that any suggestion about occupation is likely to be rejected with a wave of the hand. Yet, the question is not whether the bubble of this social and economic disparity will burst some day. The question is when.Prof. Akinnaso teaches Anthropology and Linguistics at Temple University, Philadelphia, United States. He can be reached at niyi@temple.edu
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