Nigeria Plc

Nigeria Plc

SO much has been written about deregulation and privatisation in recent times that one hesitates to add to the list. But when Nigerians who find themselves in power tend to behave as if they and only they own this blessed country, we should remind them that we all have equal stake in this land and no one should be allowed, for a moment, to think otherwise. We should keep on reminding them of this fact even when they delude themselves with their own wisdom and play God with the lives of the people. We should not forget, even if they do. Sadly, Nigerian presidents and ministers and their placement have this one thing in common: they are all blessed with short memory. At least, it is convenient for them to be so generously endowed. Unfortunately, not all Nigerians have the knack for behaving as if the past never existed. Somehow, somewhere someone still remembers the recent, if not the distant, past.

Under the Babangida administration of 1985-1993, a Structural Adjustment Programme was the golden key to Nigeria's future. Billboards all over the country said so. Some may remember the comments of one secretary to the government of the federation on floating the naira: 'just take your naira to the bank and you will receive the foreign exchange equivalent in any currency of your choice". No sweat. The naira has since floated into the whirlpool of market forces and has been swallowed up by the greedy dollar. As for Structural Adjustment, it systematically destroyed whatever semblance of structure there was in our economy and turned our oil wealth into an instrument of pitiless poverty. Except that those who promoted these programmes became instant naira billionaires.

There was the Debt-Buy Back Scheme. Again, government officials and the national television economists told us it was the panacea to all our debt problems. The people believed but now we know that behind those Aso Rock pronouncements was a master plan to siphon the nation's money into private accounts. The Abacha family alone will refund 16 billion naira to the Federal Government (if we are to believe the newspapers) as part of the money from what is now known as the Debt-Buy-Back Scam. Still, many Nigerians do not believe that the Abacha family was the only beneficiary of the debt-buy-back scandal. But then Abacha is dead. Between 1997 and 1998, we were bombarded with caps that fitted only one head and golden keys that opened the right door to Nigeria's promised land. Again, with the golden voice of the NTA, the youths earnestly asked for and got all sorts of result, including a million-man march earnestly promoted by the NTA and FRCN.

Over the years, there have been many other dubious schemes promoted by the same group of people whose sole purpose is to defraud the nation and enrich that same class of fraudulent experts whose only claim to recognition is that they will always serve and promote the fantasies of anyone or anything in power. They are the ubiquitous chairmen of probe panels and public panels set up to justify all manner of government policies.

Now the cry is deregulation, the slogan is privatisation. All public enterprises are wasteful and corrupt. Apparently, angels rule the private sector. It is surely the whitest lie ever told. Competition is not a game of cricket and in modern capitalist democracies, even cricket has become corrupt. So let no one deceive us about fighting corruption in an impoverished democracy like ours. All those who are shouting themselves hoarse in favour of deregulation have not given one clean, solid reason to back up their claims. Even our dear President, with all the weight of the presidential office, was less than convincing. Of course Ragolis bottled water or whatever, is more expensive than a litre of petrol but how many Nigerians depend on Ragolis? Some air lines are cheaper than others; but how many Nigerians fly? Mr. President's example of tuition fees in England is of course the strongest argument against deregulation. Yes, the British raised the fees for foreigners but not for their own citizens. That is the primary duty of a patriotic government. It is the responsibility of government to protect the people and the boarders of the country and it cannot make the Nigerian citizen pay for its failure to perform a basic and essential duty.

Indeed, if we accept our President's position that crude oil for the Nigerian market should be purchased at prevailing world market prices, we would have the bizarre situation in which we would pay high prices induced by severe winter in Europe or America. Worse still, if President Bush decides to play the periodic American war games in Iraq or Libya, for example, and cause a rise in price of oil, we would be compelled to bear the cost of his quixotic military adventures. No doubt the IMF (International Monetary Fallacies) would produce statistics to justify such infliction. But how do you argue with an institution that declares that debt cancellation will hurt you but high prices in the vital petroleum sector will reduce or even eradicate you poverty?

Besides, there is this infantile myth engineered by the IMF World Bank that there is a subsidy on oil. More perplexing still, the impression is often given that subsidy is an economic crime of enormous proportions. Yet we know that the economy of Western Europe is built on a wide range of subsidies. The claim by our governments at the instance of the IMF that there is a subsidy on oil which ought to be removed is absurd, to say the least. It is as ridiculous as saying that because we pay more for yam, or plantain in London, for example, the price of yam or plantain in Nigeria is subsidised and therefore ought to be sold at the same price here in Nigeria as it is in London. It is as naive as that.

But we ought to be a little more serious than that, even in a cash-and-carry-democracy like ours. For after all the statistics, the charts and mathematics, the lie that competition will bring down prices, and the worn-out slogans, the fact still remains that we are a poor people and nothing should be done to further impoverish us. Successive governments have been too ready to buy the arguments of an increasingly aggressive and selfish private sector that nothing can be done well that is not done by the private sector. They would want us to believe that they breathe purer, healthier air and even make their own pure water. And that is why it is a miracle that they have not been invited to take over where it matters most. We all know that every government we have had since 1960, whether in Khaki or Agbada, has been inept, selfish, corrupt and unproductive. These are also the crimes of public enterprises, naturally. But all that can be changed within a matter of days and with the signature of the Director-General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises. Privatise the government, of course! Deregulate ministerial appointments! Dispense with the wasteful National Assembly and the State Houses and the Local Government Councils. Then appoint a board of directors and invite a core investor. An obvious choice is Microsoft with Bill Gate as the President of Nigeria Plc. He will probably put an end to those invitations "to come and eat".

Perhaps we should do a little more of self-examination. It is not enough to put all the blame on the corruption and inefficiency of the public sector. As long as we run a cash-and-carry democracy and the politician's primary duty is to count the returns on his investment, neither deregulation nor privatisation will save us from the crushing load of poverty imposed on us by those who came to power on their own volition to save us; or those whom we elected to lessen our burden, but have found it more rewarding to enrich and further enrich themselves. Our situation is as grim as that and not even the latest edition of slogans from our slogan-mint can alter that. Only people without ideas find wisdom in slogans and you can be rest assured that those who never told a lie can never know the meaning or value of truth.

Ogude is a Professor of English at Benin.