You probably do not have the Flash Player (Get Adobe Flash Player Here) installed for your browser or the video files are misplaced on your server!
|
Most people will view the video clip above from Nigeria and will see an "Occupation".
The government which they will say is out of tune with the daily struggle of the people allowed the fuel prices to double over night as it removed its price support. The "Least Of These" among the masses now have their lives turned upside down because they are now priced out of the market because their fuel expense now consumes too much of their household budget.
This is a flawed way to look at the facts that were presented in the video.
What you must purposely spike from your consideration is the fact that Nigeria is an OIL PRODUCING NATION. Their lands hold some of the largest oil deposits in the world. There are many foreign national oil companies that extract the oil from the ground and give the CENTRAL GOVERNMENT a healthy sum of money for drilling rights and fees on the volume of material that is extracted. The government, not the international corporations ultimately control the land-use policies. The government being corrupted by foreign influence is a separate and distinct matter from the issue of their ultimate sovereign responsiblity.
The key point that I heard from the story was that Nigeria lacks domestic oil refining capacity. Thus the raw materials taken out of the ground are shipped out of the country. It is sent to other nations that have greater technical capabilities to refine the petroleum. Gasoline, plastics and other goods are then imported back into Nigeria for consumer and industrial use inside of the country. This is the definition of a "colony" based upon my recollection.
With the sums of money sent to the central government - WHY WEREN'T REFINERIES BUILT inside of Nigeria, allowing them to slowly tip the balance in their favor?
The years of subsidies were merely "Maintenance Payments" to the people.
In their wake there is a lack of sufficient enterprise around the nation in which the people are plugged in to operate the "economic machinery" that produces the higher living standard via economic expansion that they WOULD have enjoyed. In this sense these "social justice maintenance payments" are a vote of no confidence in the competencies of the people to ever become the primary agents of uplift for their own interests. Instead this possibility was liquidated by the failure in visionary leadership and the direct cash payments that appeased them. The "rickety infrastructure" and the present void in economic production is what they actually purchased.
We here of mass corruption where top government officials extract millions from the national treasury and store their stolen funds abroad. We hear about the "Delta Region", the area where the oil is taken from but the local residents do not benefit from the proceeds. They have neither land ownership rights at a local level - allowing them to directly sell "mineral rights" to the oil producers, nor do they receive a reasonable portion of the money that is sent off to the central government.
The activist press talks more about "oil spills" and "environmental degradation" at the hands of foreign oil companies more than they are prone to key in on the real problem: THE RULING GOVERNMENT.
The Inferiorization Of African Governments and Governance
In America - if there is obvious need for regulation of our domestic commerce the focus is placed upon the government to put the commercial interests in check. In Nigeria and other African nations - when the same issues are noted (environmental, public health, public safety, justice) the call is placed to corporations, NGOs and the United Nations to either lean on the reigning governments to force a policy change or to effect this change through their (the outside force's) institutions.
Africa, more than any other plot of land on the Earth, has outside interests running its affairs.
They have abundant human and mineral resources that are not leveraged sufficiently for their own advantage. The longer they fail to develop sound institutional governance - the more it will become obvious that their present state of "freedom" from colonialism is merely a matter of legalese.
What good is a "sovereign nation status" if YOU operate like a protectorate? (Note: Do not take this as a question for the OUTSIDERS - as is usually the case. This question was directed to the people within these various countries and their shortsighted leadership.)
The "Let Them Eat Cake" Response:
Close your eyes. Transport the arguments heard in America and transport them to this situation in Nigeria as you hear the "intellectual" say:
"This problem with 'The Least Of These' in Nigeria is temporary. The future is in GREEN ENERGY. By raising the price of "carbon based fuels" that produce the greenhouse gases those among 'the least of these' who now will not be able to purchase the fuel that had allowed them to live up to their meager state of living will produce a net reduction in carbon-based energy consumption.
We must discipline ourselves to look past their present occupation of the streets for this necessary action by their government will have the net effect of presenting a "0.00001" degree rise in global temperatures. surely THEY are more tolerant of living in the 'hand to mouth' standard of living that this will render them down to."
0 comments:
Post a Comment