Dangerous Balance

RANDOM THOTS

Nigeria is blessed, and despite all selfish efforts to rob the citizens of the gains of these blessings, the country is still delicately glued together. But that is as far as the togetherness goes. The inequality gaps among Nigeria’s over 170 million citizens are obvious and now threaten the peaceful coexistence and continued existence of the nation as a whole.

It is saddening that rather than official looters ploughing back the billions stolen from the commonwealth coffers over the years, they prefer to stash their loot in numbered accounts in faraway foreign banks. If those numbers are not passed to their kin at death, the loot ends up in the grateful hands of the country where the funds are domiciled.

Another ploy by looters is to build mansions and estates and leave them empty and unoccupied as fixed assets, while housing remains a critical challenge for the generality of citizens, especially those who sleep in the open at Agege Oja area of Lagos State. The affluent citizens live in opulent mansions, only to be guarded and attended to by hungry staff members, who scrounge for food daily.

Statistics say more than 63 per cent of Nigerians suffer hunger and millions go to bed hungry every night in the midst of plenty. It is not because the latter group are not hard working enough; it is because less than 5 per cent of the total population control over 95 per cent of this nation’s resources and are not willing to share.

The average citizen grows angrier by the day; and the fear is that this anger may boil over into open revolt against a seemingly uncaring government. Until these glaring inequalities are speedily redressed, Nigeria cannot experience true development… Simple fact

– Abimbola Akosile