By Ilobi Austin
Sacrifice, in the words of Pastor Victor Great of the Zion
Prayer Ministry, is that thing that you offer that troubles the blood. It is
not something that you do and go home to watch Chanel O, because it is akin to
shielding ones blood.
And because it troubles the blood, its result or effect is almost
always instantaneous. Biblically, recall the sacrifice stories of Cain and Abel;
the Moabite king or that of Balack and Balaam that was used to create a realm
in order to summon the Almighty God, to ask for his permission to curse Jacob, luckily,
a sacrificial man himself.
Away from the bible to the nations of the earth we discover
that it was sacrifice more than anything else that propelled, otherwise, naturally
less endowed nations from positions of lack to that of leading members of the
global community, in terms of economic growth and development. China, as a
nation, was once invaded by Japan but through sacrifice, on the part of the
leaders and the led, it has grown and developed to the point were it is
unthinkable for Japan or even America to contemplate such a venture today. South
Africa’s freedom was possible due to the sacrifice of her oppressed citizens
led by Dr. Nelson Mandela.
There is no other way of attaining greatness but through
sacrifice. Greatness of any kind is a direct response to sacrifice. Nothing
comes for free where greatness or development is concerned. Isaac demanded balanced
diet from his very son, Esau, in order to bless him; and even when the food was
presented by the wrong candidate, Jacob, he still got the blessings of the
father. Development in other words is neither sentimental nor race-based. Whereas
it is potentially present everywhere, It only manifest itself where the realm
or environment for it survival has been created; It answers to sacrifice.
Nigeria, since independence has tried to deceive, not just
herself, but the rest of the world, particularly Africa, that she is a great
nation and therefore, Africa’s development torch-bearer without creating the
needed atmosphere, through sacrifice, for great things to happen within her
border. The result has been that goods and services for which her citizenry are
potentially capable of producing locally have constituted the largest chunk of her
foreign exchange guzzler; Petroleum products and its other derivatives readily come
to mind.
Then entered the ICT era that made it possible for one to be
in the comfort of his bedroom and at the click of a button follow events, real
time, in other climes. So, a Mr. Okeke’s imagination that, say, Kenya is
nothing more than a glorify zoo got jolted as he was assailed by pictures and
videos of a well ordered society with 21st century amenities. First
disbelief then questions that needed answers, fearful of the citizens unending
agitations against its woeful performance, successive government went for the
broke deconstructing the make belief greatness that had thrived on propaganda
and massive subsidies to the life-wires of the economy: petroleum products and
the exchange rate
This, the citizens could not take, as all they asked for and
wanted was development as seen in other climes. All attempts to address their
minds to the fact that such development rode on the back of collective sweat of
the people fell on deaf ears as those who would benefit from the new direction
got mis-educated by those whose interest lay with the old order.
But the truth be told, the greatness of this nation cannot
happen through the continuous application of abecedarian solutions of the past
that acted more as an incentive to policy somersault, un-ending corruption,
kleptomania, dysfunctional political system and an inorganically driven growth and
development that have all concertedly impinged on the otherwise fast growth forecast
of successive government.
Tough and painful options, such as the ones being currently
deployed by the Goodluck led Administration which, in the long run leads to
economic stability needs be encouraged. To be specific, fuel subsidy which is a
great disincentive to investment in local refining of petroleum and by
extension job creation needs be removed in it entirety.
Not only is subsidy
anti-investment as no investor would put up a refinery, buy crude at
competitive market rate and afterwards sell such finished product at a price
lower than the production cost, on the premise that the government would make
good the balance plus it profit margin. All funds has got cost ad opportunity cost
attached tailing it at all time and no investor is ignorant of this fact and would definitely take the more lucrative
and less risky option of importation.
Apart form making petroleum products available, that is when
it is available, at less than their true landing cost subsidy adds no value of
any kind to the economy. It instead fertilizes corruption and smuggling and
reduces government capacity to meet it obligation to the nation.
The Petroleum Equalization Fund that is suppose to make the
products available across the country at the official price by off setting the
logistic cost of moving it to all nooks and corner is heavily enmeshed in round
tripping and falsification of entries.
At the cartel end, the usurious profit to be made by smuggling
an already partially paid for products to neighbouring countries like Benin is
too tempting to be ignored. What does it take to get an army of poorly
motivated officers of the Nigerian Custom, Immigration or even the police and
the army look the other way while convoys of trucks snake their ways out through
the border?
The president has gone round the country promising a bridge
here, a university there and modern roads all over. How is this supposed to
materialize if Nigeria and Nigerians continues to consent to the arrangement
that allows a couple of persons share over a trillion naira amongst themselves
every nine months, in the name of subsidy?
These sets of Nigerians are so powerful and special and operates outside
the catchment areas of the laws that their profit is guaranteed them in advance
or else Boko Haram is motivated to go on rampage hiding behind a very thin
shield called anti-western education as if pulling down the school buildings in
the North requires the collaboration of Christians living within those areas.
The fuel with which the state runs it development race is
made of blood, collectively sacrificed by both the led and the leadership
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