When our law makers and so many Nigerians were in favour of capitalism and privatization, I was writing and preaching against these evil economic systems. Unfortunately, majority of Nigerians seem not to understand what I was lamenting about. Even as at now, not everybody will agree with me that Nigerians are not yet matured enough to embrace privatization. Most of the economic problems we are facing in Nigeria right now is as a result of privatization. Now that Nigeria has embraced privatization people are beginning to feel the negative impact, most people don’t even know why they are suffering. They keep blaming the President and the governors, not knowing that part of our problem is poor economic system.
One of the reasons why people voted in favour of Privatization is of course, because of high level of efficiency and profitability. There is no doubt privatization is among the best economic system when it comes to profit making but it is the worst system when it comes to the well being of the human person. The major difference between capitalism and nationalization, (communism and socialism) is that in capitalism economic firms are owned and managed by the individuals whereas in nationalization economic firms are owned and managed by the government.
Since Nigerian embraced privatization a lot of things have gone wrong. To start with, the money that were realized from the government owned firmed are not properly accounted for. Most of the firms were sold away to the same set of people that are closer to the power that be. The first shock after privatization is the sack of government workers. Most people lost their jobs as a result. The ‘private owners’ of such firms had the privilege of replacing old workers with their friends and relatives. The work force was drastically reduced. In a department where fifty people were meant to work ten were retained, forty sacked. You can imagine the kind of stress those ten workers will be facing!
The worst aspect of privatization is the monopoly by the individual owners of the firms. What used to be government and masses property are now reduced to an individual’s property. The bourgeoisie, that is the owners of the means of production are the ones that determines the charges. Since they are out to make as much profits as possible their charges are always on the high side. This can easily lead to all kinds of agitations and even revolutions even proper care is not taken.
For the past three to four months the people of Ekpoma in Esanland of Edo State have been plugged into complete darkness by the Benin Electricity Distribution Plc (BEDC). The office of the BEDC at Ekpoma is completely shut down. The people of Ekpoma took to the streets demonstrating the high cost of billing and poor power supply. The issue was allegedly resolved by one of the members of the House of Representative, Hon. Joe Edionwole. Even after his intervention with that of other well meaning Nigerians the issue is not yet resolved.
One thing people of Ekpoma don’t understand is that power supply is no longer under the government. With privatization the government has little or nothing to do in this matter. Because one cannot eat his cake and have it back. Instead of attacking a poor woman who is desperately looking for her profit, we should condemn this evil economic system which is causing tensions and untold hardship in the lives of the people.
When the banking sectors in Nigeria were privatized so many people lost their jobs. Some banks have to merge with others. The number of workers that are working in those merged banks, instead of increasing were drastically reduced. Since the banking sector were out to make profit ATM machines were introduced and most of the cashiers that were working in the bank were sacked and replaced with ATM machines. Do you now see the reason why the issue of unemployment will remain a perennial problem in Nigeria and most capitalist societies?
Pope Francis describes capitalism, which according to him is the worship of money, as another form of terrorism: ” “Terrorism grows when there is no other option, and as long as the world economy has at its center the god of money and not the person. This is fundamental terrorism, against all humanity.” This is exactly what is happening in our country today. The rich are using their wealth to terrorize the poor. No matter how educated and how gifted one may be, as long as you have no money and you have nobody to sponsor you, you can never dream of becoming a leader in a place like Nigeria where money is the ultimate value.
His holiness, Pope Francis spoke against privatization of essential commodities such as water: “Even as the quality of available water is constantly diminishing, in some places there is a growing tendency, despite its scarcity, to privatize this resource, turning it into a commodity subject to the laws of the market. Yet access to safe drinkable water is a basic and universal human right, since it is essential to human survival and, as such, is a condition for the exercise of other human rights. Our world has a grave social debt towards the poor who lack access to drinking water, because they are denied the right to a life consistent with their inalienable dignity.” — Pope Francis, 2015
Even the Americans are beginning to criticize this idea of privatization: Barnara Mikulski for instance declares, “I am emphatically against the privatization of Social Security. It is going to hurt millions of American women, American families and ultimately the whole country.” Imagine a situation where one’s enemy is in charge of social security, you will either have to relocate for your dear life or rely on divine protection.
Hugo Chavez pointed out a good number of things that should never be privatized, which according to him are among the fundamental human right. Electricity happens to be one of them: “Privatization is a neoliberal and imperialist plan. Health can’t be privatized because it is a fundamental human right, nor can education, water, electricity and other public services. They can’t be surrendered to private capital that denies the people from their rights.” The worst mistake the Nigerian government has made is the privatization of Electricity, which is among the fundamental human right. By so doing, the government has sold people’s birth right and have now left them at the mercy of the bourgeoisie.
Most of the problems we are facing in our country and even the world today are caused by privatization. For people like Napoleon Bonaparte, “Terrorism, War & Bankruptcy are caused by the privatization of money, issued as a debt and compounded by interest.” A system where an individual or particular set of individuals are controlling what rightly belongs to the masses, at the detriment and exploitation of the masses cannot yield a peaceful result.
Nigeria is not matured enough for privatization! The level of poverty and pursuit for money is so high that any attempt to privatize any sector will definitely lead to all kinds of abuses and exploitations as we are now experiencing in the bank and power sector. According to Valentin Sergeyevick Pavlov, “Privatization must come after the liberalization of prices? How on earth can you privatize or denationalize anything if you have no means of assessing the value of assets before offering them on the market?.” Without this liberalization of prize the masses will always be at the mercy of the bourgeoisie.
Unfortunately, without this liberalization of prize and without the consideration of other factors, our country Nigeria has fallen into the pit of privatization. We have sold our birthright. Most of those in charge of these means of production are not mature enough. Most of them are even heartless money seekers, people who have no regard for the interest of their fellow human beings.
As I reflect on all these I kept asking myself, but who will deliver Nigeria from this pit of privatization? Since the law makers and well meaning Nigerians cannot resolve an ordinary problem of Electricity who will deliver Nigeria from the pit of privatization? All the people that lost their jobs are helpless. Some of them have even committed suicide. They don’t have anybody to defend them and it seems there is no law that protects the workers from these cruel bourgeoisie. Workers are not even free. Most of them are employed as contract workers. Any little mistake they are fired. So, people are now working under tension and untold duress. As I reflect on the plight of our workers, I kept asking myself who will deliver this nation from the pit of privatization. For the Psalmist (Psalm 121:1), our help shall come from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. may God deliver us from the pit of privatization in Jesus name – Amen!
