When the financial infrastructure of the capitalist world almost collapsed on the head of the global community owing to dangerous and self-defeating greed of less than one percent of the entire world’s population, no one foresaw that the world would pay a much higher price than it did in the immediate aftermath of the disaster. That aftermath was coined as a meltdown, but in reality it meant that the economies of the industrialized world, and those of other countries which depended on them to survive, were devastated by unimaginable losses and total loss of confidence in the financial system. Entire financial subsystems collapsed, and an elaborate stricture sustained by greed and cult like relationships between politicians, bankers and other rich people who abused confidence and hard-earned money of ordinary people took down with them national economies. Every citizen in the world felt the impact of that disaster, and is still going through the trauma of that crash. Rich nations which had tolerated the abuses and excesses of their capitalist classes scrambled to save what was left of their financial systems at great cost to their public. Poor nations attempted to make adjustments on the logic and the interests of rich nations, and most became even poorer than they were. Across the world, poor people suffered, while the rich was bailed out to continue to scheme out the poor. A few cosmetic changes were made, most of which salvaged a corrupt financial system by giving it more of poor people’s money. A token global indignation was registered by a media controlled by a sub-elite which was responsible for the disaster, and some commentators offered the opinion that the world capitalist system had collapsed or had shown signs that it will completely collapse soon. The citizens of the world took notice.
Since the near-total collapse of the global financial system, and in spite of spirited efforts to salvage it through individual and collective efforts of the world’self-defetions, there has been marked restiveness on the part of the real victims of the crash, which are ordinary men and women across the entire system. Policies aimed at bailing out whole economies were built upon increasing the hardship on ordinary families and working citizens. Scarce resources were diverted to shore up collapsing sectors of the economy. Huge amounts of debts were incurred by governments in order to bail out indebted private sectors. Welfare programmes for the poor dried up because governments needed funds to bail out the rich. Countries whose economies were already on the brink of collapse borrowed more, or turned back millions of their citizens who needed assistance to go to school, get jobs or receive state-assisted medical attention. All in all, the world became a more difficult place to live in, and poor people pointed accusing fingers at the tiny percentage of the rich whose greed and control over the economic and political process brought untold hardship upon the lives of every living person on earth.
It now appears that the advanced industrialized countries who have been under the strangledhold of finance capital have ignored even the exhortations of the most prominent champion of global capitalism Christine, Lagarde. At an international forum which brought together all those who have responsibility for the mess the world finds itself today, the then new head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) advised political leaders and operators of the world’s financial system to take four basic but critical steps towards saving the world’s financial system from total collapse. First, she advised them to repair all balance sheets, from the household to the sovereign. This means higher levels of discipline and prudence. Second, she urged for reform of the financial sector. This means improving levels of efficiency, transparency and accountability of the system. Third, she advocated a re-balancing process between the public and private sectors; and between developed and non-developing nations. This means introducing real changes that will shield public funds from the excesses of the private sector; and improving access by poor countries into the benefits of the system which developed nations enjoy at their expense. Finally, she advocated the rebuilding of the basic economic infrastructure of the low-income countries which largely sustain the affluence of the rich nations, and which stimulate demand in the high income countries.
So, a few days ago, some citizens decided to draw the line and attention against the dangers and excesses of the American financial sector by protesting on Wall Street, a symbol of global capitalism. In a matter of days virtually the entire capitals of the western nations took over these protests. Their messages were simple. Ordinary men and women want the world to know that they hold the bankers of the capitalist world responsible for their difficult lives; and they want them exposed and brought down. They have no faith in a system which is rooted in corruption, and which feeds off high levels of collusion between rich investors and politicians they largely helped put in place. They want a new system in place that is more transparent and which punishes impunity and recklessness of the wealthy. They want a more humane and accountable capitalist system which will allow them to keep their homes, and jobs, and see their children go to schools and universities. They want their political leaders to demonstrate acceptable levels of autonomy from operators of a corrupt and dangerous financial system which continuously threatens a global economic system in which the poor is constantly exposed.
The multitudes who are now protesting in financials districts in major cities across the advanced industrialized world demanding for radical changes in the manner the global economy is being managed are the lucky minority. Poor people in three quarters of the world have very little say in these matters. Their world substantially collapsed with the setbacks in the economies of wealthy nations. Prices of everything went up. Their governments diverted the very little resources they had towards so-called mitigating policies aimed at shielding their fragile economies from fallouts of the meltdown. These policies failed because weaker economies which are appendages to stronger economies cannot protect themselves. Growth and development were set back by decades, and the dangerous linkages between the developed and the non-developing economies in a globalised system was exposed at its most vulnerable points.
Just when the world’s poor was about to give up the struggle, flashes of hope began to flicker. The uprising in the North African and Arab nations signaled the hope that ordinary people can make a substantial difference in terms of how they live. Then people in the poorer regions of the advanced capitalist world periodically rose in protest at the system’s demand that they gave up more and more of their livelihood for its survival, not theirs. In Greece and the southern regions of Europe, people rose up to say no. Young people ran around for days in major British cities a few months ago, looting shops like hoardes of barbaric conquering armies.
While citizens in rich countries are marching in protest against governments which are too weak or unwilling to protect them against bad policies or the impunity of wealth and privilege, our own government is rolling out plans to visit more hardship on us. Electricity tariffs have gone up; and will go up even higher in the near future. Petrol subsidy will be removed, starting from early next year. Subsidy on fertilizer will be removed. An entire system which will add cost to virtually every facet of our existence will be built upon these decisions of the government. Life will be a lot harder for ordinary Nigerians, and there are no parallel policies that will curb corruption, or improve the management of the nation’s economy in such a way that it will mitigate the negative aspects of these decisions.
The world today in a much smaller place. The crash of a bank in America has meant that a measure of maize in Kaura Namoda costs more. A man sets himself on fire in Tunis because he had no job; and many regimes collapsed across an entire political and cultural system. A few people pitched tents to protest against Wall Street in America, and many capital cities are now being besieged by protestors against a decaying capitalist system. The lessons for our leaders in Nigeria is to sit up and take notice. Intolerable levels of poverty will feed the current levels of insecurity and alienation among the vast majority of our citizens. They also see and hear how citizens rise up and demand for radical changes elsewhere in the world. They are part of the global community, and have tolerance limits. If we want to avoid a major social and political catastrophy, this is the time to act decisively to address poverty and the seeming indifference of the government to matters which affect Nigerians.
Since the near-total collapse of the global financial system, and in spite of spirited efforts to salvage it through individual and collective efforts of the world’self-defetions, there has been marked restiveness on the part of the real victims of the crash, which are ordinary men and women across the entire system. Policies aimed at bailing out whole economies were built upon increasing the hardship on ordinary families and working citizens. Scarce resources were diverted to shore up collapsing sectors of the economy. Huge amounts of debts were incurred by governments in order to bail out indebted private sectors. Welfare programmes for the poor dried up because governments needed funds to bail out the rich. Countries whose economies were already on the brink of collapse borrowed more, or turned back millions of their citizens who needed assistance to go to school, get jobs or receive state-assisted medical attention. All in all, the world became a more difficult place to live in, and poor people pointed accusing fingers at the tiny percentage of the rich whose greed and control over the economic and political process brought untold hardship upon the lives of every living person on earth.
It now appears that the advanced industrialized countries who have been under the strangledhold of finance capital have ignored even the exhortations of the most prominent champion of global capitalism Christine, Lagarde. At an international forum which brought together all those who have responsibility for the mess the world finds itself today, the then new head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) advised political leaders and operators of the world’s financial system to take four basic but critical steps towards saving the world’s financial system from total collapse. First, she advised them to repair all balance sheets, from the household to the sovereign. This means higher levels of discipline and prudence. Second, she urged for reform of the financial sector. This means improving levels of efficiency, transparency and accountability of the system. Third, she advocated a re-balancing process between the public and private sectors; and between developed and non-developing nations. This means introducing real changes that will shield public funds from the excesses of the private sector; and improving access by poor countries into the benefits of the system which developed nations enjoy at their expense. Finally, she advocated the rebuilding of the basic economic infrastructure of the low-income countries which largely sustain the affluence of the rich nations, and which stimulate demand in the high income countries.
So, a few days ago, some citizens decided to draw the line and attention against the dangers and excesses of the American financial sector by protesting on Wall Street, a symbol of global capitalism. In a matter of days virtually the entire capitals of the western nations took over these protests. Their messages were simple. Ordinary men and women want the world to know that they hold the bankers of the capitalist world responsible for their difficult lives; and they want them exposed and brought down. They have no faith in a system which is rooted in corruption, and which feeds off high levels of collusion between rich investors and politicians they largely helped put in place. They want a new system in place that is more transparent and which punishes impunity and recklessness of the wealthy. They want a more humane and accountable capitalist system which will allow them to keep their homes, and jobs, and see their children go to schools and universities. They want their political leaders to demonstrate acceptable levels of autonomy from operators of a corrupt and dangerous financial system which continuously threatens a global economic system in which the poor is constantly exposed.
The multitudes who are now protesting in financials districts in major cities across the advanced industrialized world demanding for radical changes in the manner the global economy is being managed are the lucky minority. Poor people in three quarters of the world have very little say in these matters. Their world substantially collapsed with the setbacks in the economies of wealthy nations. Prices of everything went up. Their governments diverted the very little resources they had towards so-called mitigating policies aimed at shielding their fragile economies from fallouts of the meltdown. These policies failed because weaker economies which are appendages to stronger economies cannot protect themselves. Growth and development were set back by decades, and the dangerous linkages between the developed and the non-developing economies in a globalised system was exposed at its most vulnerable points.
Just when the world’s poor was about to give up the struggle, flashes of hope began to flicker. The uprising in the North African and Arab nations signaled the hope that ordinary people can make a substantial difference in terms of how they live. Then people in the poorer regions of the advanced capitalist world periodically rose in protest at the system’s demand that they gave up more and more of their livelihood for its survival, not theirs. In Greece and the southern regions of Europe, people rose up to say no. Young people ran around for days in major British cities a few months ago, looting shops like hoardes of barbaric conquering armies.
While citizens in rich countries are marching in protest against governments which are too weak or unwilling to protect them against bad policies or the impunity of wealth and privilege, our own government is rolling out plans to visit more hardship on us. Electricity tariffs have gone up; and will go up even higher in the near future. Petrol subsidy will be removed, starting from early next year. Subsidy on fertilizer will be removed. An entire system which will add cost to virtually every facet of our existence will be built upon these decisions of the government. Life will be a lot harder for ordinary Nigerians, and there are no parallel policies that will curb corruption, or improve the management of the nation’s economy in such a way that it will mitigate the negative aspects of these decisions.
The world today in a much smaller place. The crash of a bank in America has meant that a measure of maize in Kaura Namoda costs more. A man sets himself on fire in Tunis because he had no job; and many regimes collapsed across an entire political and cultural system. A few people pitched tents to protest against Wall Street in America, and many capital cities are now being besieged by protestors against a decaying capitalist system. The lessons for our leaders in Nigeria is to sit up and take notice. Intolerable levels of poverty will feed the current levels of insecurity and alienation among the vast majority of our citizens. They also see and hear how citizens rise up and demand for radical changes elsewhere in the world. They are part of the global community, and have tolerance limits. If we want to avoid a major social and political catastrophy, this is the time to act decisively to address poverty and the seeming indifference of the government to matters which affect Nigerians.
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