DEM DON SELL OUR PROPERTY FINISH
ATHENS CALLING
ATHENS CALLING
BY Nnamdi OBODOECHI
a.k.a Nwa
Biafra
E-MAIL: nwabiafra2003@yahoo.com;
omumukezeobodoechi@gmail.com
Dear
readers, it is my pleasure to welcome you to this column, which I hope to make
a fortnightly affair for now. Having arrived in Greece only a few months ago
from Lagos, Nigeria, in the face increasing crackdown on Biafran activists by
Nigerian security operatives, I am still battling to settle down over here. While
doing so, it is my intention to continue expressing my opinion on various
relevant issues- as I did back in Nigeria. Only that this time I will from to
time keep you posted on life in the white man’s land, which I know that many of
you are equally eagerly to taste.
For
those of you who used to read me in National Sunrise, which has been rested
temporarily due to unforeseen circumstances, I am surely not a new face. I feel
relieved that the publishers have graciously accepted to transfer this column
to our darling Global Star so that we can communicate again, I am glad to be
back Meanwhile, I thank all of you who have sent me e-mails to comment on some
of my write ups, I appreciate your comments and promise never to let you down. Surely
the best is yet to come.
In
this edition, we are going to discuss the vexatious issue of PRIVATIZATION. It is
no longer news that the Federal Government has inaugurated and is zealously
pursuing the privatization programme in Nigeria. What is the essence of it?
Well,
through this controversial programme the Federal Government has sold many of
the companies / industries which belong to the nation. The latest was the sale
of the country’s oldest newspaper, The Daily Times Group, and the Aluminium
Smelter Company (ALSCON),Ikot Abasi, Akwa Ibom State on June 14.
The
questions well meaning Nigerians and friends of Nigeria all over the world are
asking are: why sell off what previous administrations labored to put in place
to make life less burdensome for Nigerians? What happens to the money realised
from the privatization exercise? Are they using it for the massive development
of Nigeria at large?
I
have my doubts about the sincerity of the programme and something tells me that
it is just systematic way handing over our commonwealth to a few favoured
individuals and making some extra money to be squandered the same way our oil
wealth has been squandered throughout the years while the masses continue
suffering in abject poverty.
A
very big and frightening word, privatization to me, simply means to sell out
the government’s (public) companies or industries to individuals in the
society. In other words, Mr. President is selling what belongs to the
nation-what belongs to all of us. He claims that doing so would solve the many
problems of Nigeria, but the truth is that it will bring the entire nation to
perpetual suffering-indeed, catastrophe.
We
should have ask ourselves, who are they selling these things to? They are
giving them out to some powerful Nigerian business men and some top officials
in Nigeria, as well as their foreign partners. This is not surprising because
only a very negligible percentage of Nigerians can afford the kind of billions of Naira and millions of America dollars at which these properties are being sold.
Does
it mean that no one in the both the lower and upper houses of the national
Assembly can mobilize his colleagues to challenge the Obasanjo administration
on this issue? Common sense dictates that the government should not privatize
or sell off what belongs to all of us on the argument that they are not being
properly managed. If we are to go by that argument, then we should also
privatize the government and allow foreigners to come and buy shares and rule
us since our rulers have failed woefully to manage the country.
Clearly,
what is needed is not to sell off these vital organizations but to appoint
capable hands-which abound in the country=to manage them. After all, there are
many, many private and public companies, as well as government parastatals, like
NAFDAC which are being run by Nigerian experts with proven integrity and who
are making a dawn good Job of it.
Let us stop here for now and continue the
debate in two weeks time. Remain blessed.
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