What does it take to destroy an economy and make a people in a country become extremely poor? Whether they know it or it’s taking place by happenstance, all such a country’s leaders need to do is to see to it that the root of an economy, sustainable demands for and timely/qualitative supplies of goods and services, is wrecked. What to be done is that those in government should deny the people good infrastructure, good education, ensure they lack skills to trade with, deny them access to good healthcare and portable water, ensure the people don’t have nutritious food, and no financial help to do business with. Also let there be insecurity and violence all over the place, gender or ethnicity discrimination, no social safety nets, lack of government support for entrepreneurship, huge unemployment among the working class, unchecked corruption among political office holders, non-diversification of the economy, indolence in governance, income inequality, laziness, and ensure the people are denied basic necessities of life. Added to this, those in charge of the economy – after successful destruction of the people’s purchasing powers – should simply keep increasing interest rates, load the people whose means of livelihood had been destroyed with more taxes, and the government should spend less to stimulate the informal sector to sustain decrease in consumer spending and demands for products. In a matter of few years such a people would have become so poor in thinking and rendered weak physically; and they will easily become pawns in the hands of politicians to be used for political games while being tricked with freebies. In Nigeria such freebies from political jobbers and other attention-seekers had become curses that is now spreading untimely death at dozens-a-penny rate.
Western Nigeria consists of nine states in today’s Nigeria. They are Delta, Edo, Ekiti, Kwara (with a portion now in Kogi), Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, and Oyo States. As a region, the geographical entity could boasts of many firsts not only in Africa but before some of the developed countries ever thought of having such establishments. Such landmark monuments, majority of which were located in the capital, Ibadan, included first television service in 1959, Liberty Stadium, Cocoa House, Western Nigerian Broadcasting Service (radio), University of Ibadan and University College Hospital (UCH), to mention few. With thriving agricultural sector, Western Nigeria had free education and free health services; and the capital city, Ibadan, could boasts of such companies as Sonel Boneh Construction, Ferodo Pad manufacturing company, Sanyo Electronics, Gas Cylinder manufacturing company, National Bank, Cooperative Bank, the Oodua group of companies, Bode Akindele group of companies, and many others long dead that many people would find so difficult to believe that they once existed in Ibadan. Ibadan as the capital of Western Nigeria was the toast of many from various walks of life who desire to live in the city that was bubbling with economic life as symbolized with the ever-busy Dugbe Business District dotted with high-rise structures that caressed the skyline.
Ibadan was a fruitful city and Western Nigeria was doing great as both old and young were gainfully engaged and living their lives to the fullest, until Nigeria happened to the region. Today, Ibadan, the pride of many and a beautiful, highly-coveted place to live, is dotted with millions of beggars and alms-seekers. If one declares the city has become beggars and alms-seekers’ headquarters of south west, not a few will adjudged such a statement as correct description of the city. With old men and women, hardly able-to-walk, dotting the streets, motor-parks and worships centres to beg for pennies (in embarrassing manners) and able-bodied working class shamelessly doing ‘fine-bara’ all over, coupled with some radio stations that had seen it as duties to be begging for freebies to be handed out, Ibadan is far becoming notoriously a beggars enclave. Not helped at all is the dispositions of the politicians who, instead of stimulating entrepreneurship will prefer to achieve political gains with ‘kongos of rice’ and N2k hand-outs. Sense of dignity and self-respect had since departed, and those seeking emergency popularity have joined in the name of one NGO or Foundation to keep destroying the mind of the people with freebies.
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Without mincing words, politicians, in the bid to build their own political industry, had destroyed enterprise in Nigeria. They now prefer to rule over poverty-stricken population who they can be using as army of brainless supporters and foot soldiers after giving them a plate of rice. They had seen that to keep these people perpetually subservient, they must not be allowed to become educated or equipped with skills to earn respectable income from. They give them freebies – a meal per day – and not more than enough to ensure they return the next day for another bowl. ‘Baba oloore ilu’, they enjoy and revel in their praise-singing. That is why they are no longer bothered with ensuring quality education, healthcare and enterprise that guarantees freedom and good standards of living by allowing the system to be destroyed. They are okay and at home with reigning over wretched alms seekers.
That Nigeria’s political leaders don’t know or don’t understanding causes of poverty in the country is not the question, what is benumbing is a situation that seems as if these leaders don’t know how to address the causes of poverty is what rankles to bone marrow. Why would Nigerians be poor in the midst of abundance of natural resources? Poor leadership caused by politics is it. Poverty has been rising by the day due to misgovenance of several decades; and the effects of the ongoing economic reforms of the present administration have rendered many to become emergency beggars. Nigeria’s structural arrangement and reliance on the centre, Abuja, for resource allocations is not helping this country. If this centrally-cornered resource control system and its attendant mismanagement continues, (God forbids) not a few unprivileged able-bodied working class will be scavenging dump sites in order to put hands into their mouths. No one should wait for this to happen before something drastic and meaningful is done.
Ola Emmanuel is a business planning consultant
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