Former Special Assistant to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan
on New Media, Reno Omokri, has stated that most of the wealthy Nigerians who
own private jets and attended the daughter’s wedding of former military
president, Ibrahim Babangida, have questionable wealth.
He lamented that many of them cannot boast of business
ventures in Nigeria where they can employ Nigerians.
In an article on Saturday, Omokri said Nigeria has a long
way to go if some set of people make easy billions despite doing little or
nothing to contribute to Nigeria’s growth and ease the alarming unemployment
rate.
It reads:
“Let me start this piece by congratulating former President
Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida on the marriage of his daughter, Halima, to her
beau, Auwal Abdullahi.
In case you missed the news, let me inform you that no fewer
than thirty private jets landed at Minna airport last weekend on account of
this wedding that locked down Nigeria!
Thirty private jets. I do not even know what to exclaim!
This is more than wow! Gosh does not even come close to the exclamation I
wanted to express when I first read of this private jet convention in Minna!
Gobsmacked is the only word that comes close, but even it does not quite capture
the reaction I had.
Thank God former President Goodluck Jonathan, who was
amongst the wedding guests, does not have a private jet, because that would
have been the major topic of the day.
The propaganda loving All Progressive Congress would have
capitalized on that to rubbish Jonathan. Lai Mohammed would have been hyper
ventilating with excitement at the character assassination possibilities if
such had been the case.
But the lesson Nigerians may want to take from this is that
few, very few of those who arrived Minna in private jets have any sort of
productive business venture that generates and sustains jobs in Nigeria.
Yes, there were a couple of folks made rich by oil and gas
at the Minna private jet convention, but these are not people that did anything
constructive, productive or job creating that gave them wealth.
Some were given oil blocks or allocations, others were given
allocations to import petroleum products. Even a monkey would prosper if given
such oligarchic opportunities. But how does that sort of business create jobs
or adds value to Nigerians?
Others amongst them are government contractors, supplying
sundry items to the various governments at federal, state and local government
level. They are basically suppliers. They buy and resell to the government. But
how does that sort of business create jobs and adds value to Nigerians?
Yet, they have private jets, private jetties, private yachts
and even private body guards!
Nigeria has one of the lowest, if not the lowest, tax to GDP
ratio in the world. In a country of 190 million people, only 214 individuals in
the entire country pay tax of 20 million naira or more. This is according to
the very latest official figures from the Federal Inland Revenue Service.
Norway has a population of just 5.2 million people yet they
have more than 100 times the amount of people paying tax of $65,000 of more
(the equivalent of 20 million naira).
But the story does not end there. Norway has never had a
private party or private wedding or any private celebration that attracted 30
private jets! The funniest thing is that Norway gives Nigeria financial aid
every year!
Norway is number 1 on that list. Nigeria is 152 out of 188
nations. Libya (102) and Iraq (121) both of which are war torn nations, outrank
Nigeria. But most embarrassingly, Syria that has been enmeshed in probably the
worst humanitarian crisis the world has seen in at least 10 years also outranks
Nigeria (149)!
And almost all our elites are involved in this. President
Muhammadu Buhari likes to be seen as the only good person in Nigeria but we
have not forgotten so soon how, according to Daily Trust (which also happens to
be the President’s favorite paper) his own daughter, Zahra Buhari, received pre
wedding gifts worth 47 million Naira from her then suitor and now husband,
Ahmed Indimi.
This same Ahmed Indimi likes to fly in private jets,
pictures of which dot Nigeria’s social media landscape. I can assure you that
Ahmed Indimi is not one of the 214 Nigerians who pay tax of over 20 million
Naira.
It is this same Indimi family that likes to marry and be
married to Nigeria’s high and mighty (President Ibrahim Babangida was also once
their in-law via the marriage of Mohammed Babangida, his first son, to Rahama
Indimi).
Many Nigerians are not aware that if you isolate Borno state
from the rest of Nigeria, that state becomes the poorest region on planet earth
BAR NONE!
Borno has the highest unemployment rate in Nigeria and the
second lowest primary school enrollment rate in Nigeria. What has her private
jet loving, high and mighty marrying elite done to change that?
I was in Anambra once and the type of community spirit I saw
there impressed me. They may not have a lot of private jets in Anambra, but in
Anambra, they have community associations that give scholarships and business
grants to those who are commercially inclined. There is NO poverty in Nnewi,
one of the communities where this community spirit is most prevalent.
They build their own primary and secondary schools through
community effort. I am dead serious. If you go there you will not believe your
eyes! They have well tarred modern roads that were built through their private
efforts. All over Anambra, the various towns and villages copy the Nnewi model.
I daresay that there is more evidence of private and
community development in Anambra than there is of any type of federal
government presence. Anambra does not even have an airport! Borno does. Anambra
does not even have a publicly built federal university!
The only so called Federal University in Anambra, Nnamdi
Azikiwe University, was built by the state government with contributions from
private citizens and then compulsorily taken over by the military government of
General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida via Decree No. 34 of July 15, 1992. But in
Borno, they have a massive federal university WHOLLY built with Federal
Government funds.
If any state deserves to be poor from lack of Federal
Government presence, that state is Anambra. If any state deserves to be rich by
reason of the existence of Federal Government presence, that state is Borno.
But Borno is poor while Anambra is rich! Why?
Bill Gates and Warren Buffet are sponsoring immunization and
other medical interventions in Borno state. They are together the richest
people on earth. Yet their life styles is nowhere near as lavish as Nigeria’s
private jet loving parasitic elite.
If those thirty private jet owners or leasers could do in their
communities what Nnewi people do in theirs, then most assuredly Nigeria would
not be in recession today”.
By Wale Odunsi
