BY CLEMS AGUIYI

They already own everything; they own our politics, our economy and our money. Even the CBN is being privatized and controlled by this cartel. The same cartel now wants to control the water we drink and the air we breathe to complete their vicious cycle of privatization.

They don’t care about the future but very selfishly only about the dark interest they represent. Unrestrained capitalism is evil and should be challenged. The media knows about this but will never write about it. They media writes what they want you to know not because they want to serve the truth or solve problems in favor of the people but to serve the government and the interest of powerful group that empowers government.

Throughout history, there have always been powerful people who work secretly behind the scenes to advance their own selfish objectives, often to the detriment of the people.

As a writer and Political Consultant I have had views of powerful men confided to me privately. Many powerful men in politics, commerce and manufacturing, are afraid of somebody, are afraid of something. They know that there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive, that they had better not speak above their breath when they speak against it. These powerful elements have owned the government. It doesn’t matter whether it is a military or civilian government.

Andrew Jackson, America’s 7th president wrote, “I weep for the liberty of my country when I see at this early day of its successful experiment that corruption has been imputed to many members of the House of Representatives, and the rights of the people have been bartered for promises of office.”

In the mid-1900s, President Dwight Eisenhower added this, “In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by business men. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.”

And shortly before his assassination, President John F. Kennedy added this: “The very word ‘secrecy’ is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and to secret proceedings.”

The situation is no different today in Nigeria. A few financial elements made rich by the people in power and societies who operate mostly behind the scenes, and keep their objectives secret from the public, largely own and control everything from our politics to the economy.

When the owners of Nigeria decided to remove former President Jonathan, they conspired and arranged all manner of forces against him. It doesn’t matter that their substitute lacked the capacity to deliver on the anticipated change they promised. May be one day Mr. Jonathan will tell his story.

The interest that converged to take power in 2015 using APC as an alternative vehicle had their objective well defined. They wanted political power so that they will control the oil and gas wealth of Nigeria and take over what remains of her strategic assets.

As soon as APC won the 2015 general election, the first major policy floated by his transition committee was the sale of NNPC and other oil assets. The forces behind this moved backed down due to public outcry but never gave up.

Even if the public forgot this agenda, the media that is fuelling the ongoing debate on sale of some national assets ought to know that Aliko Dangote and Senator Bukola Saraki didn’t just wake up to their simplistic solution to Nigeria economic tragedy.

These financial elements and there political collaborators carefully guided Nigeria into recession with hope that hunger and harsh economic reality will subdue the peoples resistance exactly the same way they were able to force the removal of fuel subsidy rather than fight the corruption in the system without the people whimping.

Forget what the government and the media tells you about the current recession. Our recession is not just caused by the corruption of the last regime because corruption and nepotism is now super with APC, neither was it caused by the fall in oil price.

To guide Nigeria into recession those that owned Nigeria deliberately caused wrong substitutions in our political play and opened wars on many fronts at the same time.

Whereas they never ended the war against Book Haram which before now has overstretched the military and national treasury, they opened another war in the Niger Delta, a region that has been peaceful in the past 7 years. As if the country is being ran by pyromaniacs another war was opened against Biafra agitators in the South East. The government also launched an all-out war against Corruption which of course is needed except that the approach and strategy is creating more problems than it is solving.

Government disobedience to court orders frightened investors and caused capital flights because no foreign investor will stomach executive interference in judicial processes. The lack of strategy in implementing the TSA policy successfully killed banks and eventually killed the Naira. It is the combination of these factors that caused our current recession and they were all self-induced and orchestrated as a prelude to force the sale of our commonwealths.

Why will any sane government contemplate the sale of its 49% equity in a thriving concern like the NLNG which has two wholly- owned subsidiaries: Bonny Gas Transport and NLNG Ship Management Limited. The company’s total Revenue from 1999 to 2015 was US$90.3billion while the figure for the last 5 years was US$ 48.54billion. The Capital Investment from 1999 to 2015 was US$15.6billion while the figure for the last 5 years was US$ 1.3billion. Dividend paid to NNPC (FGN) from 2004 to 2015 was US$15.3 billion while the figure for the last 5 years was US$8.74billion. Dividend (Net of WHT) paid to other shareholders from 2004 to 2015 was US$16billion while the figure for the last 5 years was US$9.43billion. Gas Purchase from NNPC from 1999 to 2015 was US$11.8billion while the figure for the last 5 years was US$7.39billion. Gas Purchase from (Shell, Total, Agip & Conoco/Phillip) US$9.6billion while the figure for the last 5 years US$6.3billion. Company Income Tax & Education Tax paid from 2011 to 2015 was US$3.8billion. PAYE – US$ 334million ( from 1999 to 2015) .VAT – US$ 647million ( from 2005 to 2015). State & LGA taxes – US$8.1million (from 2007 to 2015) Regulatory Fees, Levies, etc – US$ 299million (from 1999 to 2015). WHT – US$946million (from 1999 to 2015). Why sell such a concern? To who and for what?

I am weeping for Nigeria because President Buhari, is now a hostage of lumpen capitalists. He is in a hurry to liquidate what remains of Nigeria to fund the 2016 budget. Who are those advising Mr. President?

In the words of Senator Sani Bello of Kaduna, ‘if we must sell our national assets to fund the 2016 budget; then we have to sell our coat of arms, national flags and anthem to fund the 2017 budget as their will be nothing left to sell by then; as for the 2018 budget when the nation move from recession to receivership due to wrong policy and odd body languages then we auction the whole territorial land mass of our country to the Bourgeoisie class to raise cash and then we all live on tenancy.’

The thought of selling such national assets like NLNG, NNPC etc is not only myopic but an avoidable mistake that need not be contemplated in the first instance. Senator Saraki exposed himself as a politician with no patriotic instinct when he tried to guide the senate to sanction the rogue sale. I will urge President Buhari to resist this filthy cup. Very soon the storm will be over. He should avoid being the President that finally liquidated Nigeria.