Nigeria: The Death Wish Of The Ninety Percenters By Isaac Aluko Ademoroti

Nigeria: The Death Wish Of The
Ninety Percenters
An Article By Isaac Aluko Ademoroti
Going by all available records, Nigerian politicians
generally, shortly before and immediately after
independence from Britain, were often referred to
as ten percenters. This was a reference to a
situation where ten per cent of the worth of any
contract awarded by the then political leaders
ended up in their pockets or personal coffers.
It is another way of saying that a tenth of the
nation’s resources was misappropriated or stolen
by those politicians. Not unexpectedly, this was a
phenomenon that was to be the harbinger of all
other forms of corruption. Those were the heady
days of Regional politics.
However, according to records, in one or two of
those Regions, the leaders, at least, managed to
use the remaining ninety per cent of our resources
to introduce free and qualitative education and to
ensure that the people had access to good
medical care. There was full employment. There
was also a well- thought- out programme of
integrated rural development which meant that
development was extended to people who lived in
the remotest parts. This was the era of farm
settlements. Even though there was no oil boom
at this time, the first modern sports stadium was
built. The first television station in Africa was also
built. Those leaders were able to notch up several
other firsts. All these things were accomplished
using ninety per cent of our resources.
Now, looking back longingly, one could say that
the politicians of that era were mere choir boys
compared to the present ones who are
dangerously rapacious by any standard. It is a
shock that what happens these days is that our
politicians steal ninety per cent of our resources.
Perhaps, this was why the immediate past
president of the country, Goodluck Jonathan,
defiantly refused to accept that stealing is
corruption. To him, political banditry is normal.
This is hardly surprising considering that this was
a man who presided over the looting of the
nation’s treasury. The former president’s stance
was simply a confirmation that we are dealing
with depraved, hardened opportunists.
Is it any wonder that with only ten per cent of our
earnings remaining, we do not have enough left to
develop the country? How can ten percent of our
resources be sufficient to run a country of almost
200 million people? Why should people then be
surprised when many of our poorly equipped
soldiers who go to the war front are brought back
in body bags? Should we not all spare a thought
for the family of an Air Force pilot who is ordered
to go on a sortie in a rickety, malfunctioning,
Stone Age military aircraft? In all these, the death
wish of the ninety percenters is simply coming to
pass.
What about our youths? Millions of these youths
are idle as they roam the streets. It is because
only a meagre 10 per cent is left in the national
coffers. There is simply not enough to keep them
usefully engaged. Many university graduates
cannot get jobs. There is no doubt that an idle
mind becomes the workshop of the devil. This
explains why many of these youths are attracted
to cults which promise them heaven on earth.
They do not realise that they are just being set up
for destruction. Rather than build hundreds of
21st century colleges of Arts, Science and
Technology all over the country where the youths
can be trained and retrained in all kinds of trades,
they are left to roam the streets. We would rather
pander to the wishes of the ninety percenters
than care for the future of our youths.
Our motorways, the railways and the waterways
are all in a state of disrepair because 90 per cent
of our resources are in private accounts. Money is
needed to repair, rebuild and revamp these
transport infrastructures. It is a shame that a
nation that generates billions of dollars can also
not pay government employees simply because
the ninety percenters must have their fill first.
What about our senior citizens, people who have
spent their whole lives serving the nation. Some
God-forsaken ninety percenters do not care if
these retirees perish as they criss-cross the
country chasing their stolen pensions.
The ninety percenters make sure that Nigerians
do not have access to good medical care as
there is no money left to build modern, excellently
equipped hospitals. Many people, as a result, die
from easily preventable, treatable ailments and
diseases. We must not forget the poor, the weak,
the disabled and the disadvantaged who are
mostly all on their own. The 90 percenters have
always chosen to turn a blind eye to the plight of
these people.
Ultimately, the wish of the ninety percenters is for
the hopes of the people to be dashed. It is their
fondest desire for our collective aspirations to be
destroyed and for the union to die a slow death.
Frighteningly, the grim reality is that should this
trend continue, the dispensation of the ninety nine
percenters may just be around the corner. This
connotes a period when only one percent of our
resources will be left to run the country.
When the era of the ninety nine percenters
arrives, the chances are that places like Banana
Island, Lekki, the exclusive residential areas in
Abuja, all government reservation areas in all the
state capitals and other places regarded as safe
havens by our deluded elite may no longer be
safe.
It is then that our leaders will come to the
realisation that it might not be wise after all for
them to think that they can always shut
themselves away from the plight of the generality
of the people.