Sunday, January 8, 2012

Sacrifice: the sine qua non for development

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

Ilobi Austin is also available is on facebook, twitter
 

 

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