Where
do we begin from? Well, let us start by explaining what we mean by
impunity and why it is important for us as a people to confront it
head-on, reject, and resist it in its totality!
By
impunity we mean the lawless acts of institutions and personnel of
state that undermine the very fabric of legality and constitutionalism,
and jeopardize legitimacy, thus undermining the very foundations of
human civilisation and societal existence.
In
this write up we intend to go through a litany of acts of impunity by
the state and the ruling elites that compromise and jeopardize our
collective existence as a people and nation. It is important to know
that these acts are social, political and economic in nature, and that
their combined effect is such that it retards our national development
and impoverishes an increasing majority of citizens.
In
general terms on the economy, the Federal government has ‘invested more
than N2tn in special intervention funds targeted at various sectors of
the economy [including Agriculture – N200bn; Aviation – N300bn; N300bn
on Power Intervention; N75bn on grooming enterprise leadership; N32bn
entertainment intervention fund; N100bn Textile intervention fund;
N126bn Export expansion grant; N200bn indigenous pharmaceutical
intervention fund; N300bnHotel & Leisure intervention fund; N7,5bn
to 25 companies from national automotive intervention fund;N200bn small
& medium scale enterprise grant;N200bn restructuring &
refinancing fund; etc since 2010, yet absolutely nothing has been
shown as positive results of such intervention funds.
Industrial
capacity utilisation continues to hover around 35% of installed
capacity, with more than 1,000 large scale enterprises closing shop
between 2000 and 2010, accompanied by more than 2,000,000 million job
loss [776,000 job loss from the textile industry alone]from those shut
down enterprises.
At
another level, according to the Adamu Fika Presidential committee on
reform of the public service, since July 2007; salaries of just 18,000
top federal civil servants and state personnel have gulpedN1.23tn
annually, much more than the entire annual federal capital vote for any
single year since 1999.
Let
us turn to the oil (petroleum sector); inspite of the more than N20bn
in combined annual maritime and oil pipelines security contracts to just
5 militant ‘Generals’ from the Niger Delta [excluding recent reports of
a new multi-billion naira contract to one of the OPC factions]; the
country continues to lose approximately 250,000 to 350,000 barrels of
crude oil, and several million liters of refined products monthly, at a
combine annual loss of $10bn to crude oil and refined products theft,
with an average annual incidence of more than 1,500 cases of pipe lines
vandalism being reported. According to the NNPC, between 2002 and 2012
16,083 pipelines breaks were recorded with only 1,398 attributed to
mechanical faults.
Meanwhile
according to NEITI, the FGN is owed N1.536tn [$9.6bn] in non remitted
revenue by the International Oil Corporations [IOCs] operating in
Nigeria.
And
with respect to the vexed Oil subsidy scam corruption conduit pipe;
subsidy claims rose from less than N600bn in 2010 to more than N2.7tn in
2011 with spurious claims for 60 million liters per day of imported
refined products. And although as a direct consequence of the January
Uprising, the subsidy claims have drastically reduced and fallen to the
pre 2011 levels of claims for less than 40 million liters per day of
PMS, sharp practices continue to be witnessed in this subsector of the
industry. So for instance although NNPC claimed by March 2013 to be
refining 10 million liters of PMS per day through the domestic
refineries; PPPRA claims it has no record of such production capacity or
input into the economy, and continues to pay for claims of 39 million
liters of PMS per day from importers. And although the Federal Ministry
of Finance could not verify N232bn in subsidy claims in 2012, only N29bn
of this amount has been recovered from the indicted marketers. Yet
inspite of this unprecedented scale of fraud and treasury looting in the
subsidy regime, not a single marketer has been successfully prosecuted,
nor has any single personnel of the petroleum ministry or any of its
parastatals, including the NNPC been indicted, let alone prosecuted.
Nevertheless it is inconceivable that the level of fraud in this sector
could have been undertaken without official connivance or at the very
least negligence.
What
is even more amazing is that whereas since 1999 over $12bn has been
expended on Turn Around Maintenances [TAMs] of the four domestic
government owned moribund refineries, nevertheless, capacity utilisation
at these refineries have not exceeded 50% of installed capacity!
We
have also been told that since 1999 over N1.4tn has been spent on
34,000 KMs of Federal roads, without any appreciable improvement in the
condition of roads in the country. Instead, more than N250bn is needed
in additional funding for instance to complete the East West Road
project, a road project that has been funded by successive governments
since 1983.
And
from the National Assembly’s oversight committees investigations
between 2010 and 2012, we learn that over N850bn in accumulated solid
minerals development fund, as well as, over N400bn in accumulated
ecological funds between 2000 and 2012 have been misappropriated by the
FGN; while the country’s landscape is littered with approximately 12,000
abandoned infrastructural projects [excluding NDDC projects of which
less than 30% have been completed, with more than 40% abandoned], at the
combined cost of N7.7tn and with more than N2.2tn paid in mobilisation
fees.
In
the power sector, despite more than $25bn investment since 1999, total
power generation capacity has not exceeded 4,500MWs from the average of
2,000MWs in 2000. Significantly, inspite of this huge investment no
significant improvement on power distribution capacity has been recorded
with the result that in 2012 alone there were 24 system failures, while
in 2013 there has been 15 power system failures; resulting from the
inability of the national grid to accommodate more than 3,500 to
4,000MWs of generated power.
To
put this in perspective, in December 2012 when power generation was
about 4,000MWs, the pick demand during the same period was
approximately12, 000MWs; and according to the projections in the
Vision2020:20 document, Nigeria requires to acquire a power generation
and distribution capacity of 88,000MWs in order to sustain economic and
domestic activity that will enable it rank 20th amongst the 20 largest economies in the world!
And
in the public service, the situation is no different. The FGN has
announced the saving of N118bn annually from over 200 MDAs, being
salaries and allowances hitherto paid to Ghost workers. Yet no single
official has been implicated, indicted, let alone prosecuted or
punished. How is it possible that legers will be prepared and salary
checks issued to ghost workers without the complicity of any official?
There
have also been allegations from the pension reform task force that more
than N3.3tn is missing from pension funds cutting across different
agencies of government.
Furthermore,
according to NASS a total of 60 revenue generating agencies generated
and failed to remit to the federation account a total of N9.1tn between
2009 and 2012.
And
according to a Punch Newspaper investigation, between June 2010 and
July 2012 alone, there were more than N5tn combined in reported cases of
corruption across the country. This is approximately the size of the
2013 Federal budget and amounts to a monthly theft rate of slightly over
N220bn.
At
the political level this impunity is expressed in the emasculation and
undermining of state institutions; the flagrant and incessant violation
of the constitution; the undermining of the Justice system and
emasculation of the judiciary as an autonomous arm of government; the
complete and total absence of internal democracy within the political
parties; the emasculation of the Local Government Councils by the state
governments; and the emergent crisis in the Nigeria Governor’s Forum
[NGF] as well as the tragedy unfolding in Rivers state.
It
is also manifested in the disdainful manner with which the poor, that
is the majority of the population at 70%, is treated by this ruling
class in power as well as in opposition. For example rather than provide
affordable housing for the poor, this ruling class engages in routine
demolition of their homes and neighbourhoods, and in the consequent
eviction of the poor, thereby making many more millions homeless. The
livelihoods of the poor are also not left out of the biased, class
bigoted targeting for destruction. The means of living of the poor are
routinely criminalised and destroyed, accompanied by constant
harassment. It is as if after their greed and light fingered treasury
looting spree has impoverished the immense majority of the masses, their
solution to poverty and the scourge of the poor, is not to eradicate
poverty, but to eradicate the poor by driving them into their early
graves!
Furthermore,
in the political arena, we find the competitive accumulation of
weapons, competitive arming of jobless youths, and the competitive
establishment of private armies by the politicians, in their fierce
contestation for control of political tuff as a means of accessing
control of state power. This low intensity armed struggle then drives
and intensifies the antagonistic nature of the competitive drive towards
primitive accumulation; and thence the increasingly grandiose scale and
scope of corruption and treasury looting unfolding in the country.
At
the social level, one single unfortunate and irrational case suffices
to illustrate this impunity by a ruling class accustomed to undermining
our collective well being while getting away with routine and serial
violations of our rights.
A
ruling class that self righteously criminalises and punishes with long
jail terms, consensual sex by adults [gay sex], goes right ahead almost
immediately to legitimize and constitutionalise the violation and
brutalization of underage girls by old men under the guise of marriage!
Let there be no iota of doubts about this; this is not about child
marriage, it is about child rape; and all those who play any role in
perpetrating or perpetuating this crime against humanity will be rounded
up and punished when we Take Back Our Country from these Gangs of
Bandits!
The
combined effect of these multiple impunities has been the increasing
impoverishment of the people, with more than 69% [112million people]
living in poverty; more than 30 million going to bed hungry; 10% of the
world’s out of school children [the highest in Africa]; 11% of global
Under 5 Child Mortality [the second highest rate in the world]; second
highest HIV/AIDS incidence rate in Africa; record homelessness, with
more than 11 million housing deficit; and record general [at 28%] and
youth [45%] unemployment rates!
To
put this in perspective; Recently 16,000 applicants applied for 100
Federal Judicial Service Commission openings, while 22,000 youths
applied for 3,000 Osun state SURE-P positions.
Additionally,
whereas 10% top richest Nigerians own 41% of national wealth, while 10%
of bottom Nigerians own a mere 4.1% of national wealth [50% of
Nigerians own 20% of National wealth]. And this in a context where the
Richest African is a Nigerian [with one company alone accounting for 33%
of the value of the Nigeria Stock Exchange – NSE]; while the richest
Black Woman is also a Nigerian.
The
only conclusion that can be drawn from all of these is that the Nigeria
Ruling Elite is a failed elite; that it has become the albatross
hanging round the nation’s neck, and weighing down her national
development and citizen welfare; and that this elite [its political and
economic wings inclusive] have become the single most significant
obstacle to the development and advancement of human civilisation in our
country.
It
is therefore up to us as active citizens to take concrete collective
steps towards overthrowing this inept, treasury looting, and light
fingered ruling class; supplant it; and consign it to the thrash heap
and dustbin of history.
The
condition for our collective social emancipation, and our genuine
national liberation, is the removal from power of these treacherous
unpatriotic and greedy ruling elite.
Against
the background of global crisis and resistance, within the context of
the global resurgence of popular power, we have a historic opportunity
going into the 2015 general elections, to organise ourselves
politically, independently of the different factions of this ruling
class, and autonomously of any of its power brokers [and or Godfathers];
and seizing the historic moment, organise our freedom from the death
grip of their pestilential rule.
We
have reached that point in our historical march towards civilisation,
where failure to take immediate concrete steps and action towards ending
the impunity of these ruling elites imperils our collective survival,
and endangers our collective well being and societal advancement.
It is our country, let us take it back from these swarm of locusts! Let Us Take Back Nigeria Now!
Visit: takebacknigeria.blogspot.com; Follow me on twitter: @jayegaskia & @protesttopower; Interract with me on Facebook: Jaye Gaskia & Take Back Nigeria
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