Feature photo: Jaye Gaskia
By Jaye Gaskia
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, and are endowed with certain inalienable rights by the creator, among which are freedom, justice, the right to own property, and the pursuit of happiness…”
THESE were the opening words of the American (US) Declaration of Independence in 1776. How many of us remember these words? And quote it glibly? How many of us take it for granted?
Well, to be sure, as self-evident as “these truths” were to the signers of the Declaration of Independence, as at the time of making the proclamation, virtually all the delegates to the continental congress, all the authors of the declaration, and all the signers of the declaration of independence were slave owners, owning slave plantations, and representing colonies which accepted slavery as normal, and the rights of slave owners as sacrosanct! In point of fact, slaves were at that time considered properties, and thus the right to own property included the right to own slaves!
Again, as at the time of the proclamation and signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the UN in 1948, more than half of the world’s population were living in colonies, where the very survival of colonialism depended on the routine and ‘legitimate’ violation of the rights of the colonial subjects!
What is the implication of this? What does this tell us?
Unless we attach a grave cost to the violation of our rights, they will neither be guaranteed nor preserved. That is why even the celebrated American declaration of independence proceeded to state that it is for the protection of these rights that governments are instituted, and once a government has become implicated in the systematic and structural violation of these rights, such a government deserves to be recalled, and replaced by another one.
Simple; Rights are fought for, not given; rights are the outcome of a struggle for justice. All rights, political, economic (and yes economic as with the recent unconscionable hikes in electricity tariffs, fuel price, and taxes), social, environmental or ecological, and cultural; are won, preserved and expanded, only on the basis of struggle, of resistance.
The right to assembly, the right to freely express oneself, the right not to live a life of misery, the right not to live a life shackled by poverty, the right not to be out of work, the right not to live a life bedeviled by insecurity and fear, the right not to live a life of unending want, the right not to have one’s life taken and arbitrarily cut short, the right not to live a life ensnared by ill-health, the right not to live a life where justice is denied, the right to have government manage the resources of society in a manner that does not promote inequality and the concentration of societal wealth in a few hands.
All of these rights universally guaranteed, held to be indivisible, and enshrined in chapters two and four of our constitution, are rights that are daily being consciously and unconsciously breached and violated, often with impunity, by our governments and our thieving ruling class; and they are all rights that can only be enjoyed, protected and guaranteed only when we fight to enjoy them, and wage a concerted and continuous resistance struggle to preserve and expand them.
Unless we attach a grave cost to the violation of our rights, they will neither be guaranteed nor preserved. That is why even the celebrated American declaration of independence proceeded to state that it is for the protection of these rights that governments are instituted, and once a government has become implicated in the systematic and structural violation of these rights, such a government deserves to be recalled, and replaced by another one.
This was the case made by the American patriots against the British Crown and colonial authority. This is the case we are making now against Nigeria’s entire ruling class, who has, since independence in 1960, and particularly since the 1999 return to civil rule, relentlessly and grievously violated and with impunity our rights as human beings, as Nigerian citizens as enshrined in all the global declaration of rights, as well as in our constitution.
In the struggle of the American patriots for independence and against the impunity of tyranny, they also rejected taxation without representation.
Similarly, today, in our country we equally reject hikes in the cost of basic services, engendering unaffordable cost of living, and resulting in abysmal standard of living for our people, without social dialogue, in the absence of equitable and inclusive governance, in the midst of the widest gap in living memory between the poor and the rich, in the context of the most unequal society yet since independence.
This is why we must fight! This is why all the social forces organising for resistance must be supported! This is why I endorse the actions being taken against the current punitive economic hardships being visited on our people.
This is why we are mobilising, organising and preparing for more inclusive, and wider based resistance against bad governance.
The Dilemma of a Bandit State and Profligate Ruling Class
ACCORDING to the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) in its 2019 financial report; “Manufacturers spent N68 billion on self-generated electricity (power), accounting for 38% of their production cost.”
Now this was the case for 2019, before the recent hike in fuel price, the hike in electricity tariff, and increase in VAT and sundry taxes of 2020.
So in the context of a comatose electricity sector, after the expenditure of huge public funds ($16 billion under OBJ, plus the pilfering of public infrastructure in the name of privatisation under GEJ plus the more than N1.7 trillion in intervention funds injected into the privatised power utilities under the current PMB regime); one can only imagine what the manufacturing sector will be expending on self-generated electricity, and public electricity (whenever it is available) in 2020; and what percentage of production cost, this will amount to in 2020.
We can say without any fear or favour that the amount spent on self-generated electricity will increase significantly, while its share of production cost will be hovering around 45% in this current financial year.
And what will be the implications of these on the cost of doing business? On the price of goods and services produced, and on the competitiveness of manufacturing businesses in Nigeria?
For instance in response to the pandemic, the CBN has established and disbursed several intervention funds – N100 billion for health and pharmaceutical sector; N50 billion for households and MSMEs; another N75 billion for MSME survival; N632 billion for the agriculture sector in total; N10 billion for transport sector; N67 billion for health sector research; N52 billion for the 774,000 short-term public works jobs; N152 billion disbursed for manufacturing sector; N75 billion youth intervention fund; among several others. The question to ask is; where is all the funds coming from? And where have they gone to? The CBN claims it has disbursed over N352 billion between May and August 2020. The question is; where is this fund? Is it possible to have injected close to N400 billion in extra-budgetary spending into the economy over just three months, in addition to capital budget releases over the period, and still have the rate of job losses, business closures, and high cost of living that we currently have?
How will this impact on the ability of the businesses to retain, let alone grow jobs? And in the context of reduced purchasing power of citizens given higher cost of living in the midst of stagnant and even declining incomes, what impact will these have on the inventories of businesses? On their ability to sell the goods and services produced at higher costs, and thus on their profitability and productivity?
In other countries faced with similar context like ours, even with historic levels of economic decline, what has their responses been?
They have reduced cost of basic services, not increased them; they have suspended tax increases, and increased tax reliefs; they have used stimulus packages to make direct hardship payments to individual citizens, while also injecting funds into companies to directly fund payrolls for certain periods of time; they have also used stimulus packages to make direct funds payments to companies at risk and impacted sectors to enable companies sustain economic activities and productivity and retain jobs.
But here, what is our ruling class doing? Increasing costs and taxes across board in the name of growing revenue!
Now let’s talk about revenue. Outside of the funds accruing to the consolidated revenue funds of the federation, have we ever wondered how and where the CBN gets all of its intervention funds from?
For instance in response to the pandemic, the CBN has established and disbursed several intervention funds – N100 billion for health and pharmaceutical sector; N50 billion for households and MSMEs; another N75 billion for MSME survival; N632 billion for the agriculture sector in total; N10 billion for transport sector; N67 billion for health sector research; N52 billion for the 774,000 short-term public works jobs; N152 billion disbursed for manufacturing sector; N75 billion youth intervention fund; among several others.
The question to ask is; where is all the funds coming from? And where have they gone to? The CBN claims it has disbursed over N352 billion between May and August 2020. The question is; where is this fund? Is it possible to have injected close to N400 billion in extra-budgetary spending into the economy over just three months, in addition to capital budget releases over the period, and still have the rate of job losses, business closures, and high cost of living that we currently have?
Add to these the fact that we know from the NASS and Auditor General of the Federation’s reports that more than half of revenue generating agencies including the NNPC, CBN, etc. do not make statutory remittances of generated income and revenue into the federation account.
We also know from the evidence revealed in public probes that huge sums of money running into hundreds of billions are routinely looted through agencies like the NDDC, NEDC, PPPRA, etc. among others.
So, obviously the revenue profile of the country and the revenue statutorily accruable to the federation are immensely more than what is officially recorded, and what is officially available for disbursement.
The implication of these is that the ruling class in and out of government is routinely looting the public treasury, with impunity, and literally at gun point.
This is why the Nigerian state is a Bandit State, and the Nigerian ruling class is a band of thieves.
This is why we must resist their lies about shortfall in revenue, and why we must resist their attempts to make us pay for their profligate and ruinous pilfering of our collective wealth.
