In the discussion under this treatise, we have succeeded in unveiling the philosophy and the operational strategies that informed the machinations of the western powers as they continued to overrun, plunder and pillage the ‘dark continent’ of Africa and Nigeria in particular. The essay has revealed the senseless collaborations of our elites in the modernised and repackaged slave trade of the twentieth century alias Globalisation and Free Market ideology.
The next question begging for answer is how can every common Nigerian disentangles him/herself out of the evil claws of the clever white supremacist believers and their stupid Nigerian elite collaborators?
There is no need to flog the issue about racial sentiments that informed the acceptance of the odious inequality of the world peoples as a normal state of political, social and economic affairs and development.
There is no need repeating the sentiments, which accept and do not see anything wrong in paying fifty pence (Fifty Naira) per day as minimum wage to Africans in Africa while their counterparts in Europe and America earn thirty pounds (Three thousand Naira) per day.
The sentiments that can live with the mega-profit flowing from the exploitation of the poor countries of the world by the Multinational Corporations without any moral or ethical conflict in the minds of the religious, political or social leaders of the western world.
The sentiments that can allow even western Christian Churches to invest their Sunday Service collections and offerings in all kinds of nefarious businesses like oil companies that are rampaging and robbing Nigeria blind without seeing anything ethically wrong whatsoever.
Nigerians should be reminded that the argument that sees injustice in the global geo-political and socio-economic arrangements is derived from the moral principle of equality of persons. However, as soon as the governing powers and satanic rulers of the world have philosophically and covertly rationalised that Africans are not equal to them in every respect, then there is no reason anymore why they can feel guilty about this fictitious imperfectly constructed ‘Global Economic Order’.
According to Sam Keen in Fire in the Belly, “History offers us the chance to take responsibility and change what we previously considered our fate.” He added that history does not offer a magic wand to any person in the world “to change the course of things in the twinkling of an eye or in the length of a sermon.”23
It is the wisdom of this sensible advice which informed the effort of this writer to dig into the past in order to enable every thinking and living Nigerian to come to an understanding of the core and the periphery of our socio-economic problems. This is to enable every Spirit-of-Truth-led Nigerian to take up his/her own responsibility as we correct the mistakes of the past and as we reconstruct the moment and the future on a sound foundation of truth, knowledge, love and courage.
It is imperative that we, as a people, must wage war on the psychological disease of inferiority complex that have so far informed the servile and parasitic attitudes and behaviours of our elite – the unconcerned professional, the political gangsters, the untraditional rulers, the uncivil servants and the prodigal sons – as they stupidly turned their country over to the Caucasian race and others for a rich and cruel picking.
The inferiority complex that informs the behaviour of ‘educated Honourable’ Ministers of Government Cabinet to shop around the cities of Europe or America for any Caucasian (even now Indians and Lebanese) as business technical partner. The whole idea of picking any ruffian or scumbag as long as he is white or of other colours for a technical partner smirks of nothing but a psychological ailment that derives from a lack of self-esteem.
These are the kinds of Caucasian/Asian business partners that masterminded the over-invoicing scams, the supplies of fake imported materials, the shoddy construction works and the massive capital flight from Nigeria. This writer believes that the cure for this ailment can be found in the portent power of the light of a true knowledge of history. It is in the analytic facts of history that the solution for the present ailment can be found. It is from knowing these facts and sensibly acting on them that permanent cures can be found for the social, economic and political ailments that have sent a blessed country to the political sick bay of the world.
In summary, this writer is inviting every Nigerian to take a stand as we address the issues identified in this essay. Remember, there is no easy fix and this writer does not have any magic wand of any kind. But what we have and what we shall use is the God-given gift of intelligence and wisdom that come from a programme of rigorous development of the mind and spirit.
Some of the issues emerging from this discuss can be formulated into four questions. First, how do we, as a people or nations, stop the rape of justice, liberty and equality which flows from the racial supremacist prejudices that have informed the satanic foundation of the global economic structure?
Second, how can we get out of the debt-trap, which is one of the many consequences that derives its life-blood from a racially designed supremacist political economy and its superficial international relations of inequality?
Third, how do we stop the local collaborators from continuing with their vile trade of exchanging their brothers and sisters for a price of smelly porridge offered to them by their racial supremacist friends and business partners?
Fourth, how do we bring the majority of the people of this blessed country to an enlightened state of mind that would begin to see every person be it white, arab, asian, etc. as an equal and not as a painted adorable effigy that should be worshipped or reverenced, whose wish must be obeyed, whose culture and life-style must be foolishly copied and whose fake religion must be practised unreservedly and unquestionably by all black persons?
The Global Injustices
The rape of the weak and the vulnerable groups of the world that has marked this Age out as one of the most callous and ruthless in the world history began when the Europeans embarked on the vanity programme of empire ownership in the fifteenth century. Their purposeful but vulgar conquering, pillaging and raping of all territories of the world for lucre and national glory was vicious and totally out of proportion to human decency. There was no iota of respect for the life, the human or territorial right and the human dignity of all ‘strange’ beings they found on their imperial expeditions.
The programme was bloody, ruthless and merciless. It was indeed the political scrambling for the land and other resources; the economic strangulation of the people; and the total annihilation of the societal norms and culture of Africa. As a consequence of these ungodly and inhuman atrocities, the world and Africa in particular have been subjected to the rule of the godless Europeans ever since.
The Europeans formulated the law, maintained the rulebook, created the institutional order, professed the philosophy, market the beliefs and devised the culture of our present Age. It is a state of affair seen by Thomas Paine as clearly as any just man would see it when he writes in The Agrarian Justice… “The present state of what is called civilisation is as odious as it is unjust. It is the reverse of what it ought to be, and it is necessary that a revolution should be made in it.”24
If Thomas Paine could be as morally outraged as to write the above at the early stage of this European and American civilisation in 1797, we could just imagine what he would have felt today at the full bloom of this heinous civilisation. Thomas Paine was a gifted thinker and therefore a prophet or seer or sage. His revolutionary works for America in The Common Sense testified to this because it became the pivotal idea that inspired the Americans to stand up and to fight for Independence in 1776.
Thomas Paine was in tune with the frequency of heaven and the wisdom that comes from above was channelled to him. Of course, the debased people of America who were operating at a lower carnal frequency could not understand him and neither could they forgive him when he wrote The Age of Reason in 1795 and 1796, a treatise which challenged their ungodly beliefs and wanton hypocritical worships.
This writer has found the works of Thomas Paine very inspiring and therefore would like to recommend them to all seekers of truth for study. I sincerely believe he has some answers or good ideas worthy of reflection for the correction of the present injustices emanating from the perverted philosophies of the Caucasian race of our world.
Nigerians should not expect any magic wand for the correction of the global injustices, imbalances and inequalities. These cancers must have to be attacked and defeated by the sword of truth found in all the inspirational materials of philosophers, prophets, seers, and sages that have graced our world particularly since the seventeenth century.25
The books they wrote on liberty, equality, justice, economics, politics, political economy, etc. are gathering dusts in library shelves all around the country begging for seekers to pick them up. These books must be studied not simply read because in their messages we shall find the first principle of the meaning of true freedom that can throw a fruitful light on our dark continent.
The Debt Trap
How do we get out of the debt trap? This essay has demonstrated the reality facing every Nigerian with respect to the amount of debt burden we have been saddled with without our consent. The Military ‘Governments’ that started on this foolish financial management of the resources of Nigeria never consulted with the general masses of the country. They were pure and simple despotic, autocratic and oligarchic governments who took the law into their hands but claimed they did all those things that led to this problem on our behalf and for our benefits. However, the benefits have so far failed to materialise but we know that some of them have become conspicuously and filthily wealthy as a result of their ‘devoted and selfless services’ to the fatherland.
Now let us pursue further the analysis on the debt profile we discussed above. It is on record that Nigeria has been servicing this debt with 47 per cent of total exports since 1985 even though the government of Ibrahim Babangida set a 30 per cent target debt-servicing ratio.26
The following is the Nigerian debt profile since 1993 computed by the International Herald Tribune:
1993 – $31billion
1994 – $34billion
1995 – $35billion;
1996 – $34.5billion;
1997 – $35billion;
1998 – $35billion.27
If the annual total export earnings averages $11.670 billion (This is the 1995 figure)28 and 47 per cent of this amount goes on debt servicing, it means that about $5.46 billion is spent on debt servicing every year.
If we compute the total amount Nigeria has spent on debt servicing since 1985, it comes to about $71.3 billion. This means that the out-gone Federal Military Governments of Nigeria paid this colossal sum to the Paris and London Clubs under the supervision of the International Monetary Fund.
Yet, the $35 billion debt has virtually remained intact since 1985 because the entire fund paid for debt servicing has merely gone to offset the annual interest charges.
Are you confused or flabbergasted? You must be unless you are a classical economist from the Revisionist School of Adam Smith self-centred economics. You may be wondering what legal writ would permit a creditor to continue to take interest charges every year from a debtor to the extent that while $35 billion owed remained untouched year after year, the creditor has coolly but brazenly collected more than $70 billion in interest charges.
You may be wondering what kind of a callous creditor will take over and above the amount loaned out and still has the moral effrontery or audacity to keep asking for more? This is what is called the ‘Shylockian’ economics. It is also the nature of the legal parameters our Caucasian partners and ‘International Banksters’ have devised and bestowed to the world as the only justifiable arrangement for organising international trading, financial, banking and insurance relations.
It is a principle that is derived from a might-is-right philosophy. The mighty and powerful lay down the rules, protect the rules, change the rules as it pleases them and judge the weak and powerless by the rules made mostly without consulting the weak and powerless. This is the spirit that made Europe and America great. It is a satanic spirit. It is not a compassionate spirit of The Creator of Heaven and Earth.
Whether this outrageous insults and glaring injustices in the global relations should continue lies with Nigerians. This writer is calling on all Nigerians to start from today to use your mind and your intelligence to unravel this imported mindless and ungodly misery that is tearing us apart and making a mockery of our liberty and human dignity. Nigerians should be reminded that the only weapon an oppressor possesses is the clever machinations to deny the oppressed an untainted and unbiased access to true knowledge. Britain has perfected this craft (of the use of ignorance as a state policy to keep down the masses) very well, but through the divine grace and by foreordination, Nigerians are capable of breaking and foiling for ever the efficacy of this amulet or voodoo of ignorance.
O! Nigerians, hear it now, just in case it has not registered on your reasoning radar yet, the debt trap under which our Caucasian partners have cleverly schemed us into is unjust, inhuman, ungodly, unethical, and immoral. It is usurious. The Creator of Heaven and Earth in all the revelations made known to mankind forbade and condemned in strong terms the use of usury (interest charges) in trade relations. We have a divine as well as a moral duty to resist, defeat and put out of life for ever this deadly game of usury.
The Lord of the Universe has given this divine duty to Nigerians. The procedure of this divine battle shall be rested on the sword of truth as found in the true knowledge of the meaning of life. Nigerians who have seen the light of truth must put additional effort to the task of seeking and searching for knowledge to the end of the world. You must forget the bogus but empty certificates that you wear around your neck like an amulet. You must start afresh a programme of learning for the sake of acquiring true knowledge and not because of capturing any stupid lucrative job that the morally unjust Multinational Corporations or other such likes are offering.
However, this writer believes there are two approaches to the freedom from debt burden outside the hypocritical crusade for debt forgiveness being suggested by ‘friends’ of Africa.
First, Nigeria can play the legal game if we put our intelligence to task. The Caucasian countries and their banking and financial industries were guided by one important historical and legal fundamental principle when they conned and granted so much loan to Nigeria and other poor countries. This is the principle that believes a nation cannot go bust or cannot declare itself bankrupt. It is recognised that government can become insolvent but then with some monetary and financial manipulations and, of course, coupled with a rigorous cooking of the national accounts or other accounting books, national debts can be deferred or rescheduled. Is it really true that a country cannot declare itself bankrupt? Let the legal luminaries among us put on their thinking cap and give this puzzle a good food for thought. But supposing the British-Nigeria dies, which we must all work towards, is it not therefore possible to extricate ourselves from the debt of British-Nigeria?
The second alternative is to set a three-year target to clear up all the debt capital owed after suspending every other stupid consumption that the oil revenue is being spent on. At the end of the payment, the oil industry should be turned over to the indigenous owner. This shall be the first step towards the full independence of all the States and to a genuine political self-determination as demanded by a true federalist philosophy under an unadulterated republican spirit.
The Nigerian elite will find this suggestion very difficult to swallow because they are used to a parasitic life of existence that gladly reaped where it has never sowed. But no matter how strongly their self-centred objection is, this is the future for all humanity. Every living human being shall be king on planet earth when The Creator of the Universe shall be the King of Kings. Under such a divine political arrangement the game of oppressing and exploiting your neighbour either by cunning or by force would have ceased. Nigeria, as a model geographical space for the New World, must learn quickly to embrace this new reality.
The Local Collaborators
There can be no doubt in the minds of all those who have closely followed the historical antecedents contained in this treatise that the Nigerian elite have behaved very stupidly indeed since 1960. They have behaved like spoilt brats who lacked knowledge, moral values and discipline. These elites were misled and they salivated like Pavlov’s dogs for dung and other worthless materials presented to them as gold, success, good life and achievements. In the words of Walter Rodney, “The responsibility for the slave trade, as far as Africans themselves bear part of the responsibility, lies squarely upon the shoulder of the tribal rulers and elites. They were in alliance with the European slave merchants, and it was upon the mass of the people they jointly preyed.”29
It will be highly hypocritical for this generation to claim any moral high ground from their ancestors when the issue of slave trade is being discussed. It is totally immoral and of a heartless hypocrite for a once upon a time head of an African Division of International Thief Thief (courtesy of Fela Anikulapo’s typology of an international organisation – ITT) to become the mouth piece of the Reparation Crusaders on behalf of the black world. It was a thoughtless performance and it showed a man with a shallow understanding of what his total life stood for in the pantheon of the international global economic order. This writer has been unable to see anything significantly different between the mentality and personality of the tribal rulers and elite quoted in that passage and those of the present generation of African elite.
Can any of our military rulers, feudal lords, politicians, professionals, business magnates and civil servants look Walter Rodney straight in the eye and say in all honesty that he/she is different from the African slave hunters and slave traders of the 15th-19th centuries?
Considering all the filth that have taken place in Nigeria since independence, can we vouch for the innocence of our elite in the ruin of the Nigerian nations caused by the hanky-panky of our international trading and business partners?
Haven’t these privileged elite of our country similarly formed unequal as well as vile alliances and secret bonds with the oil companies, construction firms, importers and exporters of goods and services, multinational conglomerates and others whereby they provided the valuable and indispensable local facilities and assistance that make the raping, pillaging and rampaging activities of these foreign firms possible?
Isn’t it true that the complete unmodified structure of the Federal Government of Nigeria set up by the colonial government is a strategic device for enhancing the British continued economic operation, exploitation and domination of Nigeria?
And hasn’t the Federal Government of Nigeria through the Trojan Constitution bestowed on the people of Nigeria been effective as a mere conduit pipe in the guise of a middleman for Britain and her allies since 1960?
The question is how do we, the children of The Light and Truth who are in the majority, stop the minority but crafty children of darkness and lies who have ganged up against the innocents all these years from continuing with their vile trades?
The simple truth is, evil persists in a society when no one has the courage to raise an objection. We are all aware of the ways and means by which our military and political millionaires came about their loot. How many families have turned their backs on a known robber in the family who is known to have colluded with local and foreign hoodlums to rob our local and national treasuries?
At few times when a particular elite robber is caught and sentenced to prison, hasn’t it being thanksgiving and celebration galore in his/her homes, villages and states of origin when he/she is released? This is one of the evidences that show that we are all riddled with the seed of perversion because our sense of right and wrong has become greatly befuddled. It is the only reason why we could not raise objection of any kind to stop the minority vandals and brigands in our midst. Instead, we have all stupidly and cowardly embraced the slogan and motto that says, ‘if you can’t beat them, join them’ as a national ethos or ideology.
The truth is, each of us has the same seeds of perversion, of greed, of robbery, of sleazy collusion, of hate, of wickedness and of cruelty that are found in the make up of the Caucasian race and our treacherous elite. We are only different from our elite because we have not got the opportunity to be in their shoes.
How many of us can resist the temptation of a ‘free’ foreign account in six figures on offer by a contractor at the appending of just one signature on a contract document?
As late as 1970, this writer heard an elderly office messenger in an international organisation saying, ‘Leave dem, make dem they chop am. Me, I know say I no fit reach there but I go train my picking make him too join dem chop.’ ‘Chop’ in that statement means steal. This is the value context under which most Nigerians were born and bred. Stealing by officers of the state has become acceptable as a normal way of life and it is seen as an essential part of the unwritten privileges that come with public service appointment. At few times when a morally straight kinsman refused to ‘chop’ while in office, he becomes an object of hilarious jest and ridicule in the community after his retirement.
This writer is convinced that the problems facing Nigeria cannot be premised under intellectual dimension alone but that it also has a large spiritual content. The procedure for stopping the collaborators has to begin with each Nigerian. Each of us must cure the psychological disease of inferiority complex in our lives. Each of us must wage war on the seed of perversion in our lives. Each of us must repent of the sins of omission and commission in our lives. Each of us must seek the true wisdom that come from The Creator of Heaven and Earth.
There is no particular method for this cure than to seek and search for the truth of life with all your life. It is in the genuine searching and seeking for the truth of life that each of us can be cleansed to receive a new life, which can withstand all the temptations from the children and father of perdition. So, in other words, don’t get headstrong on your thieving neighbour when you have not dealt with your own human frailties.
Don’t forget the lessons from the Sermon on the Mount where Yeshua of Galilee (a.k.a Jesus) said, “And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye but do not consider the plank in your own eye? … Hypocrites! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”30
Reformation or Revolution?
How do we bring the mass of the Nigerian population to a state of enlightened awareness of the how and why of the evils around them? This writer believes there is no other way to accomplish this goal than by a fundamental revolution. Merely reforming our dead institutions of family, education, religion, government and others cannot cure this endemic disease. It is a fact that most families have lost the rudder of the mores, norms, values and culture that served their ancestors brilliantly well.
The line between the values of right and wrong has become so thin that it is now no longer visible. Most parents, for example, cannot teach the moral truth about the evil and injustice of stealing anymore to their wards because their conscience will be greatly troubled with guilt. A simple question from a four-year-old, like, ‘Daddy is it right to steal when nobody is watching and if you can get away with it’? This simple moral question will find daddy sweating unable to give a straight forward coherent answer. Why, because daddy lives by stealing, albeit, as an executive robber with pen and paper.
This writer is not canvassing for a violent overthrow of any government or the replacement of the elite class by another but it is a call for a fundamental change of values. It is a call for the enthronement of the value of love, compassion and piety in our societies in place of hate, cruelty, ostentation and greed. It is a call to give co-operation a chance in the management of our socio-economic affairs instead of a ruthless engagement in competition as propagated by the Caucasian race. It is a call to give peace a chance in our political relationships instead of propagating fear of war and domination.
The engine for this fundamental revolution shall be based solely on the power of true knowledge. Therefore every Nigerian that has been visited by the light of The Spirit of Truth must rise to the challenge of passing this light along to other members of your family. The revolution shall be solely a family affair. It is a revolution designed by heaven to rebuild each family on the solid rock of truth and knowledge. The only secret of a good and perfect life is the God-given gift of wisdom that comes with a fundamental revelation of the truth of life. This kind of truth shall be of one based on and derived from firm knowledge vigorously and enthusiastically searched and sought for.
Each Spirit of Truth-led Nigerian must create in his/her own locality, outside the established institutions that have been pandering lies and deceits to the people of this country, an informal forum for debates, discussions and enlightenment programme on the essential truth of life. Each seeker of truth must continue to seek from The Creator of Life, the true meaning of life.
It is the strong desire of your heart to find answer to the question of what the true meaning of life is, that will set The Spirit of Truth in motion to teach and to guide you to a safe landing. But you must desire to know. The Spirit of Truth is not given the power to force anyone to know. Each human being must exercise his/her own God-given prerogative of will power to make a choice on what he/she wants out of life.
However, it will be highly desirable to allow the burning question of your heart at this historical moment to be, simply but incessantly, what is the truth of life? This writer is happy to tell you that The Spirit of Truth is hovering over Nigeria now to answer the historic and age long question of, what is the truth?
May The Spirit of Truth find you worthy of the gift of true knowledge and real wisdom. May you be fruitful as you share with your family and community the knowledge of the true meaning of life. And may The Spirit of Truth find you worthy to partake in the season of revival of truth and knowledge in Nigeria and the world.
SAM ABBD ISRAEL
17 August 1999
NOTES
23. Sam Keen, Fire in the Belly: On Being A Man New York: Bantam Books 1992. p.39
24. Thomas Paine, ‘Agrarian Justice, Opposed to Agrarian Law and to Agrarian Monopoly Being a Plan for Meliorating the Conditions of Man’ in Mark Philp (ed.) Thomas Paine, Rights of Man, Common Sense and Other Political Writings. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1995. p.425.
25. A study of works of philosophers like John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Thomas Hobbes, Rene Descartes, John Stuart Mill, P.J. Proudhon and revolutionary writers like Thomas Paine, Karl Marx and Walter Rodney and many others will be a worthwhile adventure for all seekers. There are two prophets in our Age who have been singing melodious songs of economic liberty and deliverance from the untamed and reckless capitalism in a peculiarly modern but very well guided politically correct voices whose works also need to be studied – the American, J.K. Galbraith and his British protégé, Will Hutton.
26. Central Bank of Nigeria Annual Report and Statement of Accounts for the Year Ended 31st December 1997.
27. International Herald Tribune, ‘Nigeria Battles Plaques of Corruption and Chaos’, 24 August 1998, p.2
28. Central Bank of Nigeria Annual Report and Statement of Accounts for the Year Ended 31st December 1997.
29. Walter Rodney, A History of the Upper Guinea Coast. p. 148. (Quoted from Elizabeth Isichei, A History of Nigeria. London: Longman. 1983 p. 102)
30. Matthew 7: 3 & 5 in Holy Bible, New King James Version. Thomas Nelson Publishers. 1994.
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