- Says this is economic apartheid
Rev. Fr. George Ehusani, Executive Director, Lux Terra Leadership Foundation has berated the political leaders over extreme economic inequality which he summed up as economic apartheid against the poor. According to him, more than half of the population still grapples with huge poverty, while a small group of elites enjoy ever-growing wealth. He made this assertion while delivering his homily at the televised Catholic Mass on Sunday, June 9, 2024 in Abuja. His statement is consequent upon the minimum wage which has been a contentious issue between the Federal Government and the Organised Labour.
Recall that the 36 state governors, under the aegis of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), had said that the N60,000 minimum wage proposal by the Federal Government was not sustainable and could not fly. In a statement by Halima Ahmed, Acting Director of Media Affairs and Public Relations of the Forum, the governors noted that if the proposed N60,000 minimum wage is allowed to fly, many states would use all their monthly allocations from the federation account to pay workers’ salaries. The governors had, therefore, appealed to members of the tripartite committee to agree on a minimum wage that would be fair and sustainable. Reacting to the governors’ and economic experts’ stance, the fiery priest described their claims of unsustainability of the proposed N60,000 also as wicked, unconscionable and inhuman. “I have been sick of this problem.
I have been sick of this controversy over living wage or minimum wage. And I believe something is seriously wrong with the heads of many of our leaders.” The priest wondered why persons who earn fat salaries will contemplate paying a minimum wage of N60,000 to the poor worker. “How can anyone who earns at least N200,000, N300,000, N400,000, N500, 000, not to talk of people who earn N1,000,000, N2,000,000 go to sleep in good conscience every day? “How can they go to sleep in good conscience and come out to sit down in boardroom to discuss the sustainability or otherwise of paying N60,000 to the poorest of workers? “How can we go to bed and sleep; all those who belong to the elite who earn two, three, four hundred thousand, one million naira? How can you go to sleep in good conscience, I say if you still have any conscience? How can you go to sleep in good conscience, come out to be debating people on TV? “
I watch people on TV, experts; economic experts, corporate executives, government officials who are taking home more than a million naira in a month, and they are there arguing that N60,000 or over will destroy the economy, the economy is not sustainable. “How wicked! You give N60,000 to a poor worker who may have a family of two or three or four for his feeding, for his accommodation, for his house rent, for his medical care, for his children’s school fees; how wicked, how blind! How can we do that and we think that God will bless our country? “We think that it is by bringing back a new national anthem that God will bless our country? How can you commit this crime against humanity?” He further expressed strong concerns that the N60,000 minimum wage is insufficient to sustain a poor family, considering the hardship in the country as he labelled government’s action as a crime against humanity. “For me, this is a crime against humanity because the poor people who cannot afford to buy garri; I’m not saying that they are to buy sardine, I’m saying buy garri; poor people who cannot buy garri.
I’m not talking of meat or fish. Poor people are dying because they have no money to treat malaria. “How can you go to sleep in good conscience; those of us who belong to the elite, how can we go to sleep with good conscience and we are debating, and we are discussing, and we voted N500,000, 000 to meet and debate about paying N60,000 to the poor?” He decried the economic inequality in Nigeria that has reached extreme levels, despite being the largest economy in Africa. Recent research findings indicate that income inequality is one of Nigeria’s most serious but least talked about challenges. According to him, despite years of growth, Nigeria has also seen a huge increase in the number of people living in poverty. He said, “My dear friends, I see this as a new form of apartheid. Nigeria is one of the most unequal societies in the entire world. “
A society where it is like an animal farm. A society where we have conspicuously rich people, people who are living in conspicuous consumption and others who are in deplorable dehumanising poverty. “If you have somebody in this country that takes home N1,000,000 in the month, I’m not talking about N30,000,000, and he opens his mouth to be part of a discussion about the poor getting N60,000, I say he should keep his mouth shut when he hears them debating about taking N60,000 for the poor. More than 60 years after independence, we are running an apartheid society.” He likened this development to economic apartheid. “This time, it’s not racial apartheid, it’s economic apartheid. We are running an apartheid society of people of conspicuous consumption, flying in private jets around at government expense; people who are riding four, five, six, seven SUVs with pilot vehicles chasing the poor out of the road. And poor people, you are debating, discussing over N60,000 for the poor? You insult the poor by saying N30,000 and later, you say N48,000.
And now you say N60,000, and you say you will pay more than N60,000; you come out with N62,000. “You insult poor Nigerians. I say there is hardly any society I know that is as divided as the Nigerian society. And a society that is so divided is just sitting on a keg of gunpowder.” The aggrieved priest warned government to retrace its steps. Fr. Ehusani condemned its failure to tackle this inequality, amid warnings as he admonished that this disparity between rich and poor, could generate anti-government sentiment and could fuel civil unrest down the road. He noted, “I have warned before that the revenge of the poor is at the corner. The revenge of the poor is at the corner! I am not calling for it, but it will happen as night follows the day, because when you so reduce people to this dehumanising level, nature does not allow a situation of islands of affluence amidst a sea of poverty. Nature does not allow it. “And let me warn those in the elite.
Let me warn those in the tripartite committee of government. Let me warn that it is in the course of nature that when a predator continues to devour the very resources that the predator needs for its own sustenance, nature will take out the predator in order to have a measure of equilibrium. “Nature is about balance you know. All of nature is about balance. And human beings are part of nature. And Nigerians are part of nature. If the predator who needs the animals in the kingdom to survive, if it is recklessly and senselessly devouring the very animals it needs for its own survival, nature will step in and remove the predator so that there can be balance in the ecosystem.”
He took a swipe at government officials, “Let me warn that all those who are in government; I hear but I have not confirmed that there are people taking almost N30,000,000 in a month, and you have the guts, and you have the temerity to sit down, and your conscience allows you to sit down to discuss N60,000 for poor worker for the whole month, and you are the one that has all the opportunities of estacode; you sit down to discuss about N60,00, and that is all the person will have in the month, you sit down to discuss this and come out to say this is not sustainable, how is N30,000,000 sustainable in that economy?”
He queried their claim of unsustainability, “How is it sustainable that the leader has 100 SUVs going with him to the airport? How is it sustainable? How is it sustainable that government officials junket around the world? How is that sustainable? “I say we are committing a crime against humanity. And if we do not repent and retrace our steps immediately, a revenge of the poor is at the corner. “Do not hold me responsible because while the devastation was on, I did not keep quiet. Do not hold me responsible because while the madness was on, I did not sit on the fence, I kept on shouting that the revenge of the poor is at the corner, unless we change our course. And if we do not change our course, we will end up where we are headed. And where we are headed is devastation, is destruction, is violent revolution. I rest my case.”
