The Nation Newspaper

Tag: The rich

  • The church, the rich and Easter

    There’s much we don’t take cognizance of at Easter, the most eventful festival in the Christian calendar. We discountenance its deep, bottomless sacrifice content and message and concentrate on a fleeting euphoric aftermath of Good Friday and Resurrection Day. On Saturday after the death on the tree at Calvary, we wait for the grave to give up its Dead, knowing the Scriptures must, of necessity be fulfilled. At the break of dawn the next day when the tomb can no longer retain its Tenant, it releases Him, to declare the ordained victory of life over death.

    We experience the passion on Friday. We stay in our closet that day, sanctimoniously grieving for the ‘exit’ of the Lord. We miss Him. On Saturday, you remain in the valley mourning for the second successive day. Finally, on Sunday, there will be a shaking of the bones in the sepulcher to free the crucified Son of God. The Saviour has dealt a death blow to death itself.

    But what has been man’s response over the ages? We dash back into the snare and stranglehold of the wily enemy of our soul. How? We go back into Satan’s subtle system of sins that moved the Man of Galilee to go to Calvary in the first place. How? We organize feasts where we go into unbridled revelry, an orgy of celebrations antithetical to all Easter stands for. Now, all this is opposed to the purpose of the Salvation the Creator worked out for fallen man.

    The perception of Easter as a time to abandon ourselves in festivities and reenact the wild displays of the mythological Greek gods at parties on Mount Olympus led by Bacchus himself has blinded the church and its leaders. It is drowning church and society as we seek excitement and fulfillment outside the template of sacrifice. We are slumbering, cuddling in the nest of complacency. We are carried away by the noxious feeling that after resurrection day, we can go to sleep, waking up dead and expecting another crucifixion.

    No! Easter is a call to self-abnegation. It’s a call to remember that without Good Friday, there would be no Easter Sunday; there would be no Resurrection Sunday. We must perpetually honour that day by a continuous abstemious life of sacrifice. If Christ’s selfless death brought life, we must not go back to habits and practices that lead to death.

    But some Christians in Nigeria would okay post-Good Friday and Easter Sunday feel-good assemblies and congregations, along with the rolling out of riotous riches by our clerics flaunting a flamboyant lifestyle. They say these are evidence that you are a possessor of the riches brought the believer by the Master’s death. They must exhibit their wealth as proof Jesus went to the Cross to bring the ‘abundant life’. Those who are His children can’t but go about as the ‘King’s seed’, with royal gait and arrogance.

    How else are we to identify them if they are not distinguished and set apart from the common people by the wealth displayed at their immoderate feasts? Those who organize these gatherings at Easter would always ask the poor to come for the crumbs on offer. The deprived of the society are quick to take the bait, seeing it as an opportunity to have a ‘feel’ of the season and indirectly eat of the ‘national cake’ through the friends of the government. For indeed in Nigeria, as elsewhere in capitalist settings, all wealth comes from the state. The labour of the people create wealth. Millionaires and their cousin billionaires are a creation of their cronies in power. They don’t spring from nowhere.

    It is the involvement of these state and church-assisted patricians in the celebration of such festivals as Easter and Christmas that inject them with the Dionysian characteristics of ancient Grecian orgies. Otherwise, where would a plebeian, scavenging to survive and feed his family, get the loose resources for loose seasonal parties?

    Therefore the social parties the nation witnessed across the country on Easter Sunday along with all other secular and so-called religious ones constitute an abominable disavowal of what Jesus stood for. He was (and remains so) a friend of the poor, the deprived and the denied. But the wealthy class and their parties alienate this class of the citizens. You can’t claim to celebrate Jesus if you won’t be friends with His friends, the poor of the community.

    Now, it is disturbing that a section of the church itself is an accessory to the crime, as it were. The church is pitching its camp with the rich as its leadership continuously absorbs the lifestyle of the aristocratic class. The poor can’t satisfy the gargantuan demands of the ecclesiastical leaders. Only the rich can. And it does flagrantly. That draws the degenerate wing of the church and the corrupted rich into a sort of irreversible covenant. Christ, the founder and owner of the church, frowns at this unholy union, which disinherits the poor from what He left them.

    A feeble, feckless and fruitless clergy is what passes for most of the leadership of the church in Nigeria at the moment. Wielding an authority long disowned and disempowered by Heaven, they rest on lucre for recognition instead of on righteousness for the love of God. Discipline, sacrificial service in evangelism and work for their God without fleecing the vulnerable in the society have disappeared from their language. These were fruits Jesus Himself bore. And He says those who are His would do the same.

    Those who don’t, but are steeped in self-seeking, seedless and sybaritic conduct, are not His! They belong elsewhere.

     

    • Ojewale writes from Ota, Ogun State.

  • EKEDC: the rich also steal?

    The popular Mexican TV soap was The Rich Also Cry.

    But from complaints, from the Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC), alleging meter bypass, bordering on electricity theft, at the tony Victoria Garden City (VCG), perhaps the first luxury residential estate on the Lagos Lekki axis, you won’t be wrong if you expect a Nigerian follow-up to the Mexican soap: The Rich Also Steal!

    According to a report in the Vanguard of May 21, EKEDC alleged it had discovered bypassed meters at VGC, which suggests some residents may have been pilfering electricity without paying for it!  Holy Moses!   Could the rich also steal?

    But before you jump to any conclusion, perhaps you should pause to do the real demographics of those allegedly involved.  Are they the real rich, which James Hadley Chase in his thrillers loved to call “the rich and the spoilt”?  And even if they are spoilt, could they be spoilt to the extent of stealing electricity, despite their clout, despite their reach, despite their wealth?

    Or it is only the minnows, the rich wannabes who also struggle to put up some appearance among the rich and the mighty, with an eye on the next kill, to actualize their nouveau rich status?

    Or is it the biblical hewers of stone or fetchers of wood, who serve their wealthy and near-Royal majesties, that play a fast one on EKEDC and neatly filch power it buys from  the transmission company and pre-pays at a premium, to enjoy at their wanton pleasure?  Unbelievable!

    But whoever is responsible, could it be good, old Karma at work — or what do you call when a scammer is himself scammed?

    Of course, you won’t dare suggest EKEDC is a scamming corporate citizen.  Neither would you say that of its tag-team mate, Ikeja Electric (I.E.), both the duopoly that straddle the Lagos electricity market and its environment.

    But don’t be too sure their customers, grumbling, dissatisfied and infuriated, won’t call both just that — corporate scammers.  All over the vast market, teeming with no less than an estimated 20 million people, there are daily cries of “crazy bills”, from the unmetered segment of the market.

    But the more the customers scream and bawl, the more arrogantly EKEDC and I.E. barge in, on the neighbourhood, with their disconnection gangs ever eager and ready, always with manic pleasure, to disconnect its customers at the virtual drop of a hat.

    What is more?  While these DISCOs have done little to up the ante in terms of service delivery, they have scaled up their revenue push, so much so that the creed appears payment first, service never!  Now, how do you survive doing business in such a market?

    So, maybe those who steal EKEDC’s electricity are returning the full compliment, stealing back the revenue the DISCOs are “stealing” — or what do you call forceful payment of bills without service — from their helpless and browbeaten market?

    Indeed, the rich — or their proxies — also steal!  No tears for EKEDC?  Hardball didn’t say so!

     

     

     

  • The rich are also poor

    It was the kind of news that was no news.  What the Oxfam International’s Inequality report said was not news to many Nigerians. The report, released on May 17, stated that the combined wealth of five richest Nigerians, put at $29.9 billion, could end extreme poverty in the country. The report, titled ‘Inequality in Nigeria, Exploring the Drivers,’ highlighted the immense and increasing gap between the stinking rich and the stinking poor in Nigeria. Oxfam is “an international confederation of charitable organisations focused on the alleviation of global poverty.”

    Who are these super-rich five whose prosperity could make a difference to the landscape of poverty?  Quoting Forbes, the agency listed the five richest Nigerians as Aliko Dangote, with a net worth $14.4bn; Mike Adenuga, $9.9bn; Femi Otedola, $1.85bn; Folorunsho Alakija, $1.55bn; and Abdulsamad Rabiu, $1.1bn.

    It is thought-provoking that the report said 112 million Nigerians lived in abject poverty, and that the richest man in Nigeria earned 8,000 times more in one day than a poor citizen would spend on basic needs in a year. The report listed Nigeria as one of the few countries where the number of people living in poverty was on the increase despite the growth of the economy, adding that 69 per cent of citizens in the North-East states were living below the poverty line, compared with 49 per cent in the South-West.

    These identified five filthy rich Nigerians may need to enlighten their compatriots, especially the filthy poor, on what they consider to be the purpose of wealth, or what they think should be the point of prosperity. Beyond the phenomenal and dazzling affluence of these Nigerians, and the international focus on their billions of dollars, the question must be asked: How has the country which provided the space for their outstanding success benefited concretely from their deep pockets? In other words, what efforts have they made to help their poor compatriots rise materially?

    Perhaps more fundamentally, it is important to reflect on not only the concept of social responsibility, but also the idea of wealth responsibility or the social duty of the wealthy.  It is illuminating that the legendary US billionaire, Bill Gates, named the world’s richest man by Forbes, provided what may be regarded as a useful guiding principle for the super-rich. He said in an interview: “I’ve been very lucky, and therefore I owe it to try and reduce the inequity in the world. And that’s kind of a religious belief. I mean, it’s at least a moral belief.”

    It is noteworthy that Gates initiated The Giving Pledge campaign in 2010 with co-US billionaire Warren Buffet. This is officially described as “an effort to invite the wealthiest individuals and families in the world to commit to giving the majority of their wealth to philanthropy.”  It is noteworthy that the pledge is “a moral commitment to give,” and “the donation can happen either during the lifetime or after the death of the donor.”   A report said: “An estimate of the contribution promised by the first 40 donors, based on their aggregate wealth as at August 2010, was at least $125 billion…As of April 28, 2011, 69 billionaires had joined the campaign and pledged to give 50% or more of their wealth to charity…As of January 2015, 128 billionaire or former billionaire individuals and couples have signed the pledge.”

    What are Nigeria’s Forbes billionaires doing?  Or perhaps more significantly, what are they thinking of doing? It cannot be enough to luxuriate in luxury, without a thought for the wretched of the country. However, it may be observed that the business of redeeming the country’s numerous poor is probably too critical to be left to what the super-rich might be thinking of doing or what they could do based on their thinking. The poverty of the affluent may be that they are not thinking of doing something or anything for the poor, or that they are doing little or nothing for the poor.

    The Oxfam report also alleged that public office holders stole an estimated sum of $20tn from the treasury between 1960 and 2005. “Despite being Africa’s biggest economy, the share of the national budget allocated to education, health and social protection is one of the lowest in the region,” said the report.  It added:  “In 2012, Nigeria spent just 6.5 per cent of its national budget on education and just 3.5 per cent on health. By comparison, Ghana spent 18.5 per cent and 12.8 per cent, respectively in 2015. As a result, 57 million Nigerians lack safe water, over 130 million lack adequate sanitation and the country has more than 10 million children out of school.”

    The portrait of indigence and its consequences is an inexcusably tragic irony for an oil-rich country, and puts a huge question mark on not only the quality of governance at all political levels in the country, but also the quality of the social responsibility of the rich.  It goes without saying that the country’s poor deserve an urgent solution.

    The overriding concern is whether the people in power and the people who have the power of money are sufficiently interested in providing poverty-reducing opportunities, or even whether they care about anything beyond their pockets. In the final analysis, the picture is that the country’s poor languish at a hard place between the prosperity of power and the power of prosperity.

    It is alarming that the Minister of State for Budget and National Planning, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, responded to the report without appreciating its signification. The minister, who was represented by the Director of International Cooperation in the ministry, Mr. Eloho Samuel, said: “I was worried by the language, tone and style of the report, and this made me to ask what was at the back of the mind of the authors when the report was being written? Oxfam needs to tune the report and put in an element of diplomacy. The methodology used in the report also raises some questions. Is it for empirical or theoretical purpose? Oxfam needs to tell us in the report what it intends to achieve, what data was gathered, where it was gathered, the sample size and the uses of the data.”

    Ahmed continued: “When I looked at the report, I was worried about certain concepts such as ‘who are the elite?’ There was no definition of terms, such as elite and poverty. More worrisome is if the report falls into the hands of aggrieved individuals, how would they react?

    This is a big question. How would the people react to the news that is no news? There is no doubt that there is a ticking time bomb, which means a bomb blast is predictable.

  • The rich evade tax, says NLC

    The rich do not pay tax, the General Secretary, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Mr. Peter Ozo-Eson, has.

    Speaking with reporters in Lagos, he said: “Most of the very rich people in the country are not paying tax; there must be a scheme to get them to pay adequate tax.

    “Most of the luxury goods are consumed by the rich, and goods in this category include private jets that are in our airports today.’’

    He said the country could survive the economic depression occasioned by the fall in oil prices with effective taxation on luxury goods being consumed by the rich.

    The labour leader appealed to the government to shun plans to transfer the burden of the crisis to the workers.

    “Nigeria is a country that is so rich and yet there is serious poverty that we are talking about. If we tax private jets and other frivolous forms of consumption in a very high rate, that will be a welcome development. Those who consume such commodity should be taxed heavily,’’ Ozo-Eson added.

    The unionist said the starting point of the austerity measures should be a cut in the cost of governance to check waste, adding that the government could efficiently function with leaner expenditure pattern.

    He said: “Our position is that with the employment positions in public sector today, most of the cost that is heavily weighing down the finances has nothing to do with the remuneration of workers. It has to do with the bloated and exquisite allowances attached to the management staff, political office holders and their staff.’’

    The NLC, he said, is supporting the government’s plan to raise tax on luxury items.