ECONOMIC BRIGANDAGE

What gives Nigerian Presidents the temerity to single handedly hand over large tracts of Nigeria’s continental shelf to politicians, girlfriends, fraudsters, in-laws, boyfriends, and sycophants? Meanwhile, Nigerians worship, adore, and celebrate these oil thieves.

Thieves, yes. When a select few without any regard for fairness and equity is looting the commonwealth of a nation, something is amiss in the whole citizenry. Instead of celebratory songs praising these thieves to high heavens, they should be made to return all the ill-gotten wealth to Nigeria.

Why do Nigerians engage in this type of dastardly praise? The new wave of prosperity churches are urging members to pray and fast to join the looters. They should be fasting and praying for a President to wrest control of Nigerian resources from these cabals. These select cabals determines the outcome of elections, sponsor assassinations with police acquiescence, and are generally above the law. They are the law.

Another group of looters are “businesspersons” who spend all business hours hobnobbing with politicians to corner essential commodities such as sugar, cement, flour, salt, and soon oxygen. Anyone who corners these commodities in a country of 180 million people should be a dollar trillionaire and not a dollar billionaire.

When your money is acquired through business practices unacceptable in most countries of the world, you spend that money arbitrarily. These oil billionaires are known to donate money to foreign universities while local universities are decrepit. They spray money at weddings, funerals, birthdays, and naming ceremonies instead of building factories, investing in local businesses, or establishing foundations. Some have claimed that they do not know what to do with “their” money. If you did not earn the money through sweat labor, why would you know what to do with it? The money belongs to Nigeria and Nigerians.

If you hail from the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria and persons far removed from the delta are drilling your oil, flashing dollar bills at your face, polluting your environment, and kill you when you protest, what will you do if you have an opportunity to grab some of the oil money? Get some for yourself and your people.

President Muhammadu Buhari’s lopsided and vindictive war on political opponents under the guise of fighting corruption should be extended to oil block thieves and monopolists. Economic brigandage must end or Nigeria will never have a middle class.

Africastallestman is watching as usual from his high vantage location.