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FORMER Minister of Petroleum, Professor Tam David-West, has assessed the
prevailing socio-economic conditions of Nigerians, submitting that the
have-nots will soon take up arms against the state.
David-West made the submission while delivering the 13th annual distinguished guest lecture, entitled “The Social Pyramid and Good Governance” organised by a Forum in the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, yesterday.
He said a situation where government policies and programmes were for the few rich, who dominate the country’s social pyramid, at the expense of the masses, who populate the base of the pyramid, was unhealthy for the nation.
Sounding prophetic, the don said God, out of His
love for the masses, created them in the majority in every society, noting that
any government that is anti-poor, like Nigeria, is also anti-God and will be
pulled down by God.David-West made the submission while delivering the 13th annual distinguished guest lecture, entitled “The Social Pyramid and Good Governance” organised by a Forum in the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, yesterday.
He said a situation where government policies and programmes were for the few rich, who dominate the country’s social pyramid, at the expense of the masses, who populate the base of the pyramid, was unhealthy for the nation.
He said Nigeria is daily preparing for its requiem mass in view of the social inequality currently creating upheavals in the country, while claiming that the political class would have no hiding place when people revolted.
“Like Jeremy Bentham says, the happiness of the people in a society is the end of governance. But what do we have in Nigeria? The gulf between the rich and the poor keeps expanding. If this gap is not narrowed, a time will come soon when the suffering masses will see no difference between living and dying and will take up arms against the state. And when this happens, Abuja cannot stand.
“I have argued with documented evidence that there is nothing like fuel subsidy and so they can’t remove what does not exist. Petrol should sell for N40 in Nigeria. Although officially it is N97, marketers sell petrol for between N110 and N120 and government closes its eyes to this illegality.
“The Ribadu panel has shown how the country lost billions of naira to swindlers under non-existing subsidy. A Senator earns N500,000 in a day and N15.18 million in a month, which can employ President Barrack Obama four times.
Source: Compass
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