Slave-Labour Economy

On page 6 of The Tide newspaper, Fri. Sept. 17, 2021, Professor Kingsley Moghalu, a former Deputy Director of the Central Bank of Nigeria, told us that over $600 billion of Nigeria’s money had been stolen since 1960. He is sad over that situation, like some other Nigerians are, which is his motivating desire to contest to be a president come 2023. Moghalu went on to tell us that corruption remains one of the biggest problems facing Nigeria, and also listed four measures necessary to fight the scourge.
Being an erudite economist, Moghalu would know how citizens react to a predatory and parasitic political economy deliberately put in place by caterpillars of the commonwealth. He would undoubtedly know what very wide income disparity in an economy can bring about, especially where the marginalised class of citizens gnash their teeth in silence. With a minimum income of N30,000 per month, Moghalu must be aware that there are Nigerians whose total monthly take-home is over N30 million; sans hidden incomes!
A slave-labour economy is captured in the common adage of “monkey working but baboon chopping”. Would any honest Nigerian deny that the Nigerian political economy operates on such predatory and parasitic foundation? While it may not be necessary to dig into the origin of how such foundation was put in place, any intelligent analyst would seek to dig out the engine of the Nigerian economy and those who hold it in monopoly. Docility of Nigerians may not continue for too long!
Clever schemes in a predatory and parasitic political economy are usually put in place in such a way that individual managers of the political and economic systems serve as mere yeomen or stooges. Being a professor, Moghalu must have supervised postgraduate projects and must also be aware of the role of a “blind reader”. A blind assessor evaluates what is brought before him to assess and within the context of academic culture. Academic culture trades on provable and quantifiable indices, such that what cannot be put in chapters and verses are not acceptable evidence.
So, the hide-and-seek game goes on and on, while naïve persons can be swayed by sanctimonious sermons as panacea for corruption. Four means of curbing corruption, according to Moghalu, include value system education and reform; leadership by example via accountability; punishment for corruption, and improvement in the reward system in public services. It is true that “many people steal in public life because they are afraid about their old age and whether they will have anything or a roof over their heads”.
When Senator Ben Murray Bruce once suggested an option of cutting down remunerations of political office holders in order to provide for a social welfare system, he was told to use his own allowances for that purpose. Another lawmaker had the audacity to say that their allowances were not enough for members of the National Assembly. Also a former state governor who later became a senator, went on to say that he was getting less as a senator than when he was a governor when all his needs were free.
When the umbrella body of Nigerian university lecturers (ASUU) cried out many years ago that Nigerian senators had remunerations four times what the President of USA earned, Nigerian masses did not go to the streets to protest. Nigerians did not protest because they knew what slave masters do to slaves who complain that they are hungry. When late Senator Francis Ellah raised a lone voice of protest in the Senate about a predatory structure that Nigerian lawmakers were putting in place, he was shouted down thanks to his Unfinished Motion.
It is not that a few Nigerians were not aware of what was going on in the Nigerian political economy since 1970, but the question is: who would fight a ruthless and vicious monster? Such a vicious titan or monster does not operate as an individual person but as an impersonal system foisted on a society through the instrumentality of state policies and programmes. An unsuspecting and naïve populace carry and endure the burdens of such chicanery, whereby lawmakers become the tools and agents of perfecting of the parasitic system. Do we have such?
We can see the excrescences and clever pattern of operation of the predatory and parasitic system in current issues of open grazing, PIA and VAT controversies where people can speak from two sides of their mouths. “Robbing Peter to pay Paul” is an idiom as well as a message, whereby those who are courageous to raise a voice of protest are called ugly names and their actions described as Satanic, idiotic, since they are seen as jokers who can be bought over. Truly, money has played a key role in the process of enslavement of the Nigerian masses.
Perhaps, the fault may not be in the stars but in ourselves, that we are such down trodden unaderlings or slaves to political and economic gangsters. A major tool used by gangsters is fear, through intimidation and braggadocio; thanks to proliferation of arms. Another tool is money, through which stubborn opponents can be bribed or bought over. Predators use the resources and opportunities provided by their target victims, to intimidate and hold them hostage. In the case of Nigeria, oil is the key resource.
It is important to state that the Nigerian Civil War (1967-1970) provided ample opportunity for the installation of a predatory and parasitic order of political economy. It came to stay and efforts being made currently to fight the monster is what we call war against corruption. Truly, corruption is not the fundamental issue but a living vestige of an institutionalised slave-labour economy. Therefore, Professor Moghalu, even as a President of Nigeria, would be fighting against an invincible monster which he cannot root out.
Add all these issues to the fact that Nigeria’s current total national debt stands at N35.5 trillion, not including other hidden commitments that are not made public. Then why do we have invincible “bandits” that cannot be beaten by the colossal might of the nation? Obviously, something is fishy somewhere, and Nigerians should be asking questions. Among such questions should be: who are the predators and slave masters who hire bandits to keep the status quo intact? And for whose benefits? At the end of the day, we can go the way of Afghanistan! End of story! Moghalu’s nation-building mission aside!

By: Bright Amirize
Dr Amirize is a retired lecturer from the Rivers State University, Port Harcourt.