The paradox of Nigerian ‘rich few’

 “A great man shows his greatness by the way he treats little men” - Thomas Carlyle

There have been various suggestions by different thoughtful minds on the need to do away with a few living human species among us here in Nigeria, where a few group of men and women  have over the decades turned us into modern slaves in our own country. These segregated few have greedily before and after independence forcefully inherited our collective national treasure. They cut across all the political zones and have been enjoying the vast rich wealth of this nation to the detriment of the majority of the population.

To be honest, it takes an animalistic feeling for someone to wish his fellow human being death, but the current situation in my dear country is quite frustrating and pathetic which could instigate a rational thinker to wish for the demise of some of his country leaders.  The Nigerian ‘rich few’ to be candid, are extremely greedy and sometime inhuman to their fellow citizens.

I sometimes conjecture silently, wondering if the inventors of some of the man-made devices that has helped alleviate and revolutionized our lives today, like the computer, the telephone, electricity, cars, airplanes, penicillin, the iPod, TV, radio, newspapers and the rest, were actually  these ‘few Nigerians’ . I shuddered on what would have been the fate of the rest of us. Definitely the computer would not have been affordable to an average Nigerian like in America; neither would cars have been built cheap, like Henry Ford did. I am sure majorities of Nigerians would still be sweating it out to communicate with their loves ones, as the price of owning a phone would be compare with the price of going on a holy pilgrimage to Mecca or Jerusalem. Again, I wonder how many Nigerian children would have died for lack of subsidy to buy a dose of penicillin, if the discoverer of the universal life safer was a Nigerian.

Ironically most of our present rich few are beneficiaries of the abundant legacies built and left behind by our past patriotic leaders. I am sure most of them would not have tested the four walls of western education; neither would they be in their present monopolized position and the wealth they are greedily holding on to, if the past nationalistic leaders were greedy like them.  Today, in the same country, education is monopolized by these few. Our hitherto vibrant public schools are now pathetic sites to behold. Only this cabal of greedy few could now afford to send their children to expensive private schools at home and abroad, while those public schools that nurtured them and gave them a ray of life are left to crumble under their uncaring watchful eyes.

It is sad that some of our present leaders are so blind to the realities on ground.  They are sightless to the fact that while they globetrot across the world, their own country is a public shame to see. They proudly traveled to various well organized countries and come back home to gawk shamelessly at the bad roads, hunger and insecurity in their communities.

The Nigerian rich few are part of the secret oil thieves that control the price of petrol and made it impossible for the average Nigerian housewives and mothers to buy kerosene at subsidized rate across the country. They see nothing shameful on the plight of our old citizens. Their self-centeredness and lack of patriotic vision has hampered their foresight to critically study how their counterparts in other developed nations have been able to hold on to that noble law as philosophically stated by Giovanni Cellini to his son in the classic: The Autobiography of Benvenito Cellini “it is a duty incumbent on us, and the command of God Himself, that he who has property should share it with him who had none”

The few self imposed rich men among us, don’t ever see it as a duty to share with us; they don’t see it as a duty to help facilitates the availabilities of good roads or hospitals in their communities without having a hidden agenda. While the world is getting global and breaking down cultural, religious and political barriers, my dear country Nigeria is still enmeshed in regional and ethno-religious segregation.

Well, any way the fortune of life deals the rest of us its blow, one thing that is certain is that our virtue can never be stolen, and the law of nature that has always given strength to those who are oppressed shall someday, sooner or later, prevail against these greedy few men and women, who over the decades have subjected the rest of us to suffering and smiling; as they continue to ride and surge towards illusive vanities.