Press Statement
It has come to our knowledge that a group of Nigerian Oligarchs who
have for long held this nation hostage have been mounting pressure on
the Federal Government to sell-off some of its national assets to
raise cash to meet other national demands.
This organised group whose members cut acrose various socio-political
and economic divides have come out openly to ask the Federal
Government to do its biding having succeeded in creating and blowing
the current hardships in the country out of proportion! For Example,
after spending his luxurious holidays in Spain, Senator Saraki
returned to Nigeria only to mock the suffering masses by telling them
that he is also suffering!
The symbolic head of this very formidable group led by Senator Bukola
Saraki, Alhaji Aliko Dangote and others are asking the Federal
Government to sell-off its shares in all Joint Venture Companies,
Liquified Natural Gas, Africa Development Bank etc knowing full well
that they are the only ones who have the cash to buy them.
This is however coming at a time when one in every nine Nigerians
donot have enough food to eat!
This is also coming at a time when 85 richest people on Planet Earth
can buy 3.5 billion people with their wealth according to Oxfam.
While Nigerians are still suffering from the Federal Government
Indigenisation Policy of 1971 which beqeathed the great wealths of
Nigeria in to the hands of few whom the vast majority of the people
are servants to their children and grand children today, their
primogenitures are back calling on the government to sell-off the
remaining assets of Nigeria to them so that they can permanently
mortgage the future of Nigeria having destroyed the chances of an
ordinary Nigerian from climbing the socio-political and economic
ladder without them.
This is a group who have destroyed the middle class in the country and
blocked the possibility of any social mobility among the children of
the poor, thereby creating extreme inequality in the system.
Therefore, we call on President Buhari who is a friend of the masses
to ignore their calls. If President Obama who became President of
America in the time of Economic Meltdown, had sold-off America’s
assets, there would not have been opportunities for people like Mark
Zuckerberg to be richer that both Saraki and Dangote combined on the
ground of his ideas. In America today, if you work hard, you can be
whatever you want to be but in Nigeria, it is not so.
In the same token, we urge the President to introduce property tax and
utility tax as a an alternative to selling national assets. This is
because, if you should go to Maitama, Asokoro and Victoria Island
areas of Abuja and Lagos, you will see alot empty houses and cars
wasting while 18 million Nigerians are homeless.
Finally, we call on the President to constitute Tax Assesment
Committee that will clampdown on tax dodgers and those who hide their
wealth in tax haven coutries like Panama.
Signed:
Mr. Brown Justice,
Convener, New Mandate Movement
Email: brownjustice649@gmail.com
