The Deconstruction of an Economic Hitman

There is a well know African proverb that goes like this; “the child that says it’s mother won’t sleep would not sleep as well.” As we move towards the end of the first quarter of the 21st century, it is begining to dawn on the World that one part of the World cannot be at peace while the other lives in hunger, poverty, tyranny and oppression.

“Economic hit men,” John Perkins writes, are “highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe of trillions of dollars. Their tools include fraudulent financial reports, rigged elections, payoffs, extortion, sex and murder”.
"Confessions of an Economic Hitman", by John Perkins; Berrett-Koehler Publishers; 2008 is a book in which the author, a former economic hit man exposes how the U.S. government in the past, manipulated some 3rd world countries of strategic importance into accepting huge loans. These countries now saddled with such loans could now be controlled by the U.S government her benefit.
Who is John Perkins? John perkins was for many years one of the world's top economists. He worked directly with the heads of the World Bank, IMF, and other global financial institutions. He quit his work about 20 years ago because morally and ethically, he felt it was wrong to play such a key role in creating World Empire at the expense of the poor and less advantaged around the world. After being persuaded and even bribed not to write a book about his experiences, Perkins states, "When 9/11 struck, I had a change of heart." The book, Confessions of an Economic Hitman, has now been published and has spent many weeks on amazon.com's bestseller list.

MEND IT OR BEND IT

History is laced with so many movements or struggles for causes, however the one big difference between a successful movement and one that is not, is a clear cut vision of what the movement hopes to accomplish and the best path in getting there. Examples of visionary leaders who led a successful movement are Mahatma Ghadi, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. These leaders were able to identify the fine line between leading a legitimate struggle legitimately and becoming hoodlums or public enemies.
I write about the MEND (Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta) cause of which I, as well as most well meaning Nigerians are well aware and have always been sympathetic towards. The recent actions of MEND rebels are however fast depleting the goodwill and sympathy of both the international and local community, and can at best be described as a becoming a nuisance. This is no way to lead a struggle for what is a well known legitimate cause.
MEND leaders do need to do a little bit of soul searching,they need to go back to the drawing board. They need to ask themselves if the tactic of hostage taking, and blowing up oil installations is really working? Who are those really affected by such acts? What can they hope to acccomplish by such acts? is it really worht it? After all Albert Einstein one of the greatest minds of all time did say insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result. Blowing up oil installations does have an environmental impact on the very land that is being struggled for; such environmental impacts remain unknown as at now but can rest asured that it would be felt for many years to come. Secondly, what does hostage taking really accomplish? A ransom of money maybe. Such an action does have much deeper boomerang effects. It leads to loss of credibility and tends to dis-legitimize the cause or struggle. Most of the hostages being taken are innocent oil workers who are just doing their job! The second and more worrisome effect is that it tends to enhance the proliferation of crime. We are beginning to see an increase in copy cat kidnappings and lootings from mushroom rebels and dissident groups that use the cause as an excuse to carry out crimes for profit. None of this in the short or long term can be good for the Niger Delta region.
The Nigerian State does indeed need to address the issues of Federalism and resource control, however how we get there is another story altogether. In regards to this there are basically two factions in the political class of Nigeria. There are those who would like to keep the status quo for the simple reason that it benefits them, and there are those who would like to see Nigeria move forward and become a true federal state. It is obvious that the present system has failed, it is simply not working. In my previous blog, I talked about, the present state of affairs being asymptomatic of a deep rooted problem in Nigeria.
The MEND leaders need to realize that they are Nigerians, and being part of Nigeria is not the problem. It has never been. The problem is not Nigeria but the cabal of selfish leeching individuals who have clung on to power for the better part of the Nation's 5 decades of existence. We would have found a solution to the Niger Delta Crisis, and a myriad of other problems plaguing the Nation, if we can figure out a way to get rid off these parasites in government. Nigeria needs new talent, young blood, fresh minds, new ideas, new vision. Then and then only would we begin to see the emergence a beautiful new Nigeria, a progressive new Nigeria, a beautiful new Federal Republic of Nigeria. The solution to the Niger Delta problem does not lie in kidnappings, blowing up installations or sectarian acts of violence; it lies in the true political emancipation of the people and citizens of Nigeria.

The Professional Politician

The use of public office, to carry out sharp or corrupt practices is a serious crime; it is a crime against humanity. Today we see the evolution of the some politicians into professional politicians.
There are three types of professional politicians.
Type 1: The background professional politician. This type of politician has not really held any public office and most likely has very little work or entrepreneurial experience. He is more of a hustler type politician with the expectation that should his party win, he is able to feed of party connections, securing contracts or money making opportunities.
Type 2: Ex public officio now background politician. This type of politician would have amassed some wealth from previously held office, and welds a more influence than the type 1. His primary objective is to make more money through government and probably to scheme his way back to public office.
Type 3: This is the professional politician in office. This guy believes it’s his time, and his objective is to make as much money as he can before his term ends. He is bound by allegiance to give his cronies as much money making opportunities as well.
These types of politicians have one thing in common; they have no intentions of public service, they are in politics for selfish reasons and they can’t survive outside government, because they are very low on the human resource scale. They have no intellect, no useful skills, no ingenuity, little or no education, and are very insecure. For such, politics is a do or die affair.
Public positions should be offered to people who have a proven, exception track record. We must probe the history or track record of individual who mount the podium to represent their parties. A political party has the responsibility of presenting credible individuals to run for office. Any party who cannot do this is a sham and not worth voting for.

Address Both the Root Cause and the Symptoms

Those in the medical field would understand the term symptom. I quote verbatim Merriam-Webster’s definition of symptom as: 1 (a): subjective evidence of disease or physical disturbance; broadly: something that indicates the presence of bodily disorder (b): an evident reaction by a plant to a pathogen. 2 (a): something that indicates the existence of something else < (b): a slight indication: trace. As a practical example, if you’ve ever had malaria, some of the symptoms that follow are headaches, fever, loss of appetite, dizziness, vomiting, etc. The root cause of malaria is a protozoan parasite vectored by mosquitoes. In treating malaria a good doctor would prescribes medication to relive the symptoms, in addition to medication to fight the parasite. He knows fully well that simply trying relieving the symptoms is not sufficient; the real solution lies in getting read of the parasite from the patient’s body.
There is a parallel or analogy between the Nigerian situation today, and the malaria victim. Nigeria has for a couple decades been bedeviled by parasites largely vectored by the military and is very sick. We have for a while been, and we still are witnessing the symptoms of a very sick nation. Some the symptoms are a dilapidated electrical power infrastructure tantamount to an almost none existent electrical power supply, almost no-existent water supply, dilapidated and poorly managed telecommunication infrastructure leading to an overly congested cell-phone network, a dilapidated and poorly managed health care system, dilapidated and seriously under-funded educational institutions, a dilapidated and outdated police force with no public credibility, a dilapidated military of no honor, her citizens being maltreated all over the world, ever rising crime, rising secessionist movements, pockets of religious violence here and there every now and then, and the list goes on and on. It is a sad, sad, tale of woe that every Nigerian knows, but nonewithsanding the parasites refuse to acknowledge.
Nigeria’s problem must be addressed both from the root cause as well as the symptoms. If we choose to continue relieving symptoms as we have largely been doing, we would continue to get short term temporary relief and those parasites would keep getting stronger.
For Nigeria to be a healthy nation once again we must not only figure out a way to rid the nation of those ugly parasites, but how to make it impossible to for such to come back. We must all get our hands on deck, do something in your own little way; otherwise just like the malaria victim who is not treated dies, Nigeria would eventually die.

The Old Nigerian National Anthem

Nigeria we hail thee
Our own dear native land
Though tribe and tongue may differ
In brotherhood we stand
Nigerians all and proud to serve
Our sovereign motherland


Our flag shall be a symbol
That truth and justice reign
In peace or battle honour
And this we count as gain
To pass unto our children
A banner without stain


O God of all creation
Grant this our one request
Help us to build a nation
Where no man is oppressed
And so with peace and plenty
Nigeria may be blessed