The deputy majority leader in the Lagos State House of Assembly, Hon Jimoh Wahab, in an interview with TEMITOPE MUSOWO has reacted to the OXFAM report on inequality citing the imbalance spotted in the distribution of national wealth.
OXFAM recently released a report where Nigeria and India were found at the bottom of 175 countries in a survey concerning Goal 10 of the SDG. Can you help us understand why a country that produces the richest man in Africa also has the highest number of extremely poor people on earth?
Goal 10 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) harps on the reduction of inequalities bridging the gap between the poor and the rich but by Oxfam assessment report, the level of inequality in Nigeria is still alarming, situating this on the fact that among the rated richest Africans according to Forbes, Nigeria takes the lead with the richest man and woman in Africa. Well, it is very difficult to understand how imperialism works. You claimed that somebody is the richest man in Africa, citing Dangote and Alakija but riches are measured by the people that you have impacted positively and I think that is the argument of labour that if you have 200 million naira and there is no human being to turn it over and you keep it somewhere in a bush, it would not increase; it needs the contribution of labour to increase its volume of wealth. So, if there are some people that are rich, I don’t know the yardstick of their measurement. In human living index, riches are measured by the totality of the people within a confined area, but because we don’t know how imperialism works, we take it for granted. Imperialism came in to cripple our people deliberately where a few people would be empowered and others disempowered; that is the evil of capitalism and a lot of people have been shying away from this.
It’s like this gap would continue to widen with the Nigerian economic structure or what do you think sir?
That is what imperialists want; they just need few people around that they can negotiate and relate with to the extent that right now, we don’t know the volume and quantity of oil that is being taken from our shore. It’s only what they declare and any government that is not interested in knowing the quantities and volumes of crude oil that is being taken from its shore may not be interested in development of the people. That is the fundamentals that are affecting us. I am not expecting the 200 million Nigerians to be as rich as Dangote but a minimum condition to live, so the problem is highly protracted. There is no where in Nigeria that the UNESCO standard are met in the nation’s budget for education. We have not met half of it and that is what UNESCO and other teaching unions are shouting and making noise about. You won’t be surprise that we are churning out graduates that cannot even demonstrate that they are university graduates; there are so many we are producing in the institutions that cannot even fit in to the system.
So with this level of inequality and fueling insecurity, don’t you think it is time for us to rejig our economic structure to bridge the gap between the rich and the poor?
In the Scandinavian countries like Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark in the entire Scandinavian axis, what they do is to moderate their economy by redistributing wealth through the introduction of neo-welfarist programme such that the tax being paid by the rich in conjunction with government funds augment the needs of the poor so that there won’t be absolute poverty. Not only the Scandinavians, if you go through the Balkan region in Eastern Europe, though they are not as rich as the Scandinavians, they also demonstrate a welfarist agenda depending on the quantity and the volume of money in their possession. It is just the way Cuba is doing it. Cuba is not fantastically rich but you can’t be poor there because your needs will be met. In fact, in Cuba, virtually everybody is educated; however in Nigeria, over 60 per cent are still illiterates; even in government schools, people don’t even have access to basic educational needs in the 21st century, you feel like committing suicide when you see things that are happening around us.
In that report, it is said that Nigeria and India are not actually making effort to reduce these inequalities. What do you think this portends if the inequality continues unchecked?
We have interpreted our problems here in Nigeria in so many ways; what is left is to tackle it but we have not really done anything about it. It was not by accident when Francis Fanon said everybody must be compromised for the struggle of the common good,there is no sitting on the fence; so, we must address the problems, Awo said problems are like plants that you need to look at its root because if you don’t tackle the root, it would grow another leaf, so we must address the fundamentals. I should be able to see you as my brother, that what you need is three naira and if I have ten naira, if I can’t spend the entire seven naira, I should be able to spare you three naira as the minimum need that you require, but instead, we continue to accumulate for fear of tomorrow.
Don’t you think another leg of this inequality is the problem of the rich representing the poor masses?
The problem is protracted and I won’t tell you lies, I will tell you this from my background and I understand the import of what you are saying but do you know you get the form, the endorsement from people, the campaigns, logistics and the request of the people? If you are not financially bouyant, you can’t withstand it, so how do you get money to run for an election? If you demonstrate it, there are other parties you can go to and tell them that you are going to do social amenities and more, but the average Nigerian would not listen to you. It is more than ordinary periphery saying that the poor would represent the poor; how would they go about the campaign? They expect you to dole out some money, other items and you want to tell them that you are the Messiah that they are expecting? They won’t listen to you because to a hungry man, food is God. You can’t preach the gospel to somebody that is hungry. Jesus Christ demonstrated it when he was here preaching.
30,000 naira minimum wage is still in contention despite the jumbo pay for lawmakers. In contrast, is this not part of what is widening inequality?
You can look at it from that angle but as a representative, you can’t go into your community without being loaded with finances. Everyday, there are several request upon request and if you don’t meet them, you are seen as a bad person. They have alternative to go to and you should thread with caution since you are in it. You should be able to find your way around it because even those who criticise you while in office also eye your position; they would criticise you, but the moment they have the opportunity, they put in. It should be living wage not minimum wage. I am an apostle of the need for people to live well whether jumbo pay or not but they also should consider that when you leave office, you won’t apply to any company for employment; you survive within what you could get while in office.
