By Sonny Atumah
Senior editors of the Daily Times in 1991 interviewed  the then military President General Ibrahim Babangida, who in his characteristic humour in fielding questions, said that the Nigerian economy defied all logic. All manner of interpretations were given in newspaper editorials at the time; many alluded to executive carelessness in reflection.

Rationalising the Babangida’s response, he genuinely expressed his thought on an economy which had experienced excessive hemorrhage and in coma. For divine reasons Nigeria remained afloat under life support. Political and economic theorems have indeed been fathomed in Nigeria’s problems, yet economy defied logic.

Since the first oil shock in 1973 which we called oil boom in Nigeria we have depended on oil and gas which contributed about 95 percent of export revenue and 75 percent of fiscal revenue. Oil had become the milk cow with tubes to siphon funds from the Nigerian commonwealth to other countries of the world.

In this treatise we go philosophical, sociological, and psychological in thoughts to conjecture what went wrong that those placed in charge of public resource behave the way they do. One tries to ask why there is thievery from the privileged class in Nigeria. Is it for social security, maintaining false social status, or accumulation for the unborn child?

We mismanage and embezzle funds and make the illegal acts of converting public funds into private use appear legal. This attitude of inheriting public trust as one’s lost property to repossess, to own and to dispense to whoever it pleases one is termed prebendalism. Prebendalism connotes the pattern of corruption in Nigeria as developed by Joseph A. Richard of the Program of African Studies, Northwestern University, and the United States.

Richard is credited with the first usage of the term to describe patron-clientelism in Nigeria. The system describes how public officials and government workers feel they have a right to a share of government revenues and use them to benefit their supporters, co-religionists and members of their ethnic group.

We run our institutions, projects and agencies down just for primordial selfish interests. We milk them till death. Can we really develop? President Muhammadu Buhari has a lot of work to do at his old age. Examine a few of the following listed and you will discover that they all have a common denominator.

Sugar Companies, Paper Mills, Farm Settlements, Palm Oil Companies, Rubber Plantations, Commodity Boards, River Basin Authorities, Dams, Water Boards, Iron & Steel: Ajaokuta, Aladja, Jos, Oshogbo, Katsina, Itakpe, DICON; Petroleum refineries and petrochemicals; Automobile assembly plants in Lagos, Ibadan, Kaduna, Kano, Bauchi, Enugu; NEPA or PHCN, Nigeria Airways, Nigerian Railway, Shipping Line, Textiles in Lagos, Kaduna, Kano, Aba, Asaba; P&T, NITEL/MTEL; Conglomerates except Nigerian Breweries, Guinness, Coca Cola, 7 UP, Nestle, Cadbury, Unilever still surviving; Hospitality and Tourism facilities; Banks, Insurance companies, Finance Houses, Community Banks, Peoples Bank; Media houses; National Stadium Lagos; Schools from primary to university. The list is endless.

They were all established for the welfare and well-being of the people. But now they have been either killed or have gone comatose in operation. With oil these institutions and agencies were well funded but had become gory tales of woes for the rural and urban poor. Perpetrators of the heinous crime of theft, stealing, robbery or corruption believe is the way to authentic happiness but are they really happy? Will a man that steals large sums of money and stashes away overseas really happy in his mental state? I believe we do not show love to ourselves; it is a matter of selfishness.

Aristotle in his principal work on ethics, the Nicormachen Ethics defined happiness as activity that accords with the specific nature of humanity. Happiness results from the unique human attribute of reasoning, functioning harmoniously with human faculties. Moral virtues are the habits of action that conform to the golden mean, the principle of moderation and they must be flexible because of differences among people and conditioning factors. For Aristotle, the intellectual and the moral virtues are merely means towards the attainment of happiness, which results from the full realization of human potential.

Jeremy Bentham, 18th century British philosopher, explained this principle of human behaviour in his ethical and political doctrine known as utilitarianism. He explained the principle of utility as a means of augmenting the happiness of the community. He believed that all human actions are motivated by a desire to obtain pleasures and avoid pain. Utilitarianism is universal and not egoistic and its highest good is the greatest happiness of the greatest number.

The typical manager of our resources cares for his pocket and pain for his neighbour. When you do not feel and show kindness and charity to the other person, you are a nefarious being. We are deceived by thoughts that primitive accumulation of wealth for generations unborn would give happiness. Wealth accumulators do not know what happens to their genuine or illegal funds when they are no more; most times offspring do not have the capacity to manage inherited stupendous wealth.

The Chatham House of United Kingdom Think Tank report on Nigeria’s criminal crude in September 2013, said that Nigeria’s oil was being stolen on an industrial scale with ready buyers in West Africa, the United States, Europe and several Asian countries. It reported that Nigeria loses about $8billion a year to oil theft.

That President Muhammadu Buhari’s shuttles to the G7 summit in Germany in June and the United States in July, to plead for the recovery of $150billion Nigeria’s stolen oil revenue. We kill government agencies like NNPC and refineries and so on, advocate for their rummage sales and then come back with stolen funds for their purchase. We preach private ownership in the guise that it is only the private sector that can manage business concerns.

One marvels at such arguments for wanting government strategic infrastructure like refineries sold. Main point for such advocates is that governments are not good business managers. Many private businesses including banks, airlines, conglomerates and many more have gone under due to mismanagement.

We privatised telecommunications and power with foreigners controlling such critical infrastructure. Sad enough the upstream of the petroleum sector have been in the hands of foreigners who own the equipment, storage, terminal and export facilities. And now we want to sell our refineries. We have no peer review mechanisms with OPEC members. In 1980 Saudi Aramco, our own equivalent of NNPC took full control (100 percent stake) of oil and gas resources in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Aramco posted revenue of $378 billion in 2014 operations.

Telecommunications, power and petroleum facilities are of strategic and economic significance that should not be in the hands of foreigners. Foreigners now invest in agriculture to feed our people. We have about 18 agricultural research institutes, tested researchers, and vibrant young men and women that can be enlisted into agriculture. A nation that cannot feed her people is a disaster in waiting. It is gratifying that the youth forum convened by President Muhammadu Buhari last Wednesday discussed agriculture for the youth. It is a step in the right direction for reorientation of our youth on the need to embrace the utilitarian principle of caring for neighbour.