On Jobs and Justice in Nigeria

Government in Nigeria seems to have "fallen" into the hands of Women and this stems from the fact that Nigeria has a woman, Nngozi Okonjo Iweala as Finance Minister and Coordinator of the Economy with 41 million unemployed to contend with as well as having a Woman, Alooma Muktar as Chief Justice of the Federation These developments remind one of the words of ex British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the nand late and Economist Professor Sam Aluko.

Gordon Brown in his book , Beyond the Crash, sums up the Business of Government as that of Jobs and Justice and Sam Aluko once affirmed that at the Family level what a Mother practices is Socialism because when she gets into the Kitchen to prepare food she makes sure all her Children have food to eat.Its not a case of some children going to bed with more than enough and others going to bed with nothing.

What Sam Aluko has tried to point out is that Nigerian Nation should be treated like one big family.

According to the UK Charity, Save the Children, there are an estimated 11 million Nigerian Children Malnourished and that figure could rise to 13.4 million in 2020.

At one of the World food summits in Rome during the administration of President Bill Clinton of the United states, the US. refused to sign a Document that would have made food a Human right because of the fears of wide spread litigation back home in the U.S. As at that time of the summit there were an estimated 3 million hungry Americans. You can imagine 3 million hungry Americans fighting it up to the Supreme Court. The U.S. was not ready to go to War with Herself but if it happened that there was one well fed U.S. citizen trapped in a hostile country, the U.S. with a current defence Budget of $700 billion would be prepared to wage War with the rest of the world.

The U.S. has been able to land man on the Moon and Robots on Planet Mars but was finding it difficult to land Breakfast, Lunch and supper on the Dinning table for just three million Americans. During the said period of hunger there were an estimated 5 million miliionaires in the U.S.Three million Millionaires could have easily solved the problem.

Coming back to Nigeria we need to address the problem of extreme riches and extreme poverty by the instruments of the Law,Religion and Moral philosophy to borrow from the American Economist, Jeffrey Sachs.. According to the Book, Top ten of London, by Alexander Ash , Nigerians are number 3 on the list of Shopaholics in London, Saudi Arabians number 1 and Kuwaitis Number 2.

On the list of Nationalities buying prime property, Nigerians are number 10. Now you would think that "10" is too poor for Nigeria but note those who own London, the UK citizens, are number 9 and the U.S.. citizens number 8 on the list. The average value of the Property Nigerians buy is put a £3.1 million pounds about 800 million Naira. On the streets of London you meet a battalion of fundraisers raising money for all kind of causes including the Welfare of Children in Nigeria.

Perhaps Nigeria does not belong to that top ten list if you look at the level of unemployment in the U.S(5.9%). at 17.7 million with a population of 300 million and the level of un employment in Uk at 3.7 million with a population of 63 million compared to our own 24 %, 41 million unemployed out of a populaton of 174 million".

It is not Justice for Chidren to be left to Hunger. I hope those who have been cooking enough food for their children at the Family level would work towards cooking enough food for all of 174 million Nigerians.

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Articles by Augustine Togonu-Bickersteth