The Senator representing the Bayelsa East Constituency, Senator
Ben Murray Bruce in delivering a speech on Healing a Nation Scarred
by Injustice, at the House of Justice 2017 Summit/Dinner on
Tuesday, December 19, 2017, highlighted key facts affecting the
Nigerian State.
The Senator, whilst commending the organizers for choosing the
thought provoking topic, noted the state of the suffering faced by
Nigerians and the need to cure the abnormally.
According to the Senator, many Nigerians have accepted to pass
through dangerous paths just to make it in life. Wondering why
Nigerian citizens prefer to face a perilous journey through the
Sahara Desert, then risk slavery in Libya and afterwards death by
drowning in the Mediterranean Sea just to make it, he came to the
conclusion that after much finding and enquiries, it is nothing
other than the fact that Nigeria, herself has what is considered to
be a greater danger to her citizens than what they face out there.
This according to him this is contrary to what he actually thought
about those leaving the shores of the country.
In his words:
“I have been crisscrossing Nigeria and meeting everyday people
and becoming more intimate with the issues they face and the scales
have fallen from my eyes. I listed three perils that Nigerians face
if they decide to risk their lives by immigrating to Europe through
the Sahara Desert. I never knew that to many of these people, if
not all, the dangers are more if they remain in Nigeria.”
“In Nigeria, they face Boko Haram terrorism, and if they escape
that, they may encounter killer herdsmen. But even if they do not
meet death by killer herdsmen, they may become victims of the
Special Anti Robbery Squad or SARS, who many times stereotype
Nigerian youths as armed robbers or Internet fraudsters. I have not
talked of kidnappers, militants, one check point per one kilometer
or the menace of one chance robbers.”
Speaking further he noted that there is hardly any Nigerian
whose relationship with Nigeria has not been abused and year after
year, we keep on treating the symptoms instead of curing the
disease. Noting that the population is growing far faster than the
economy of the nation, there is a dare need to renegotiate the
country as this is the only way to solve the problem facing the
country. According to him, if we do not restructure, we will just
keep reacting from one problem to the other until one day we end up
with Armageddon.
“Recently some people said that Nigeria does not need
restructuring and I laughed. How can you say a nation with one of
the highest numbers of private jet owners/users and yet without its
own national line, does not need restructuring? Obviously anyone
with such a view is living in denial! Nigeria needs restructuring
to foster peaceful and prosperous coexistence between her various
people because the alternative to coexistence is not something we
should ever contemplate. If we don’t promote peaceful coexistence
we will eventually get violent co-destruction.”
So how do we heal a nation scarred by injustice? By
restructuring her according to the principles of justice so that we
do not have a situation whereby Lagos generates 55% of Nigeria’s
Value Added Tax yet other states get a larger share of those
revenues than Lagos state. This is even when some of those states
ban the sale of some of the items that make up the 55% from Lagos.
You cannot rob Peter to pay Paul and expect Peter to be happy. And
of course Paul will not want the situation to change. But Paul must
realize that one day Peter will have nothing left to rob and then
Paul will be faced with a situation where both he and Peter are
penniless.”
According to him only restructuring will create the atmosphere
for Nigeria to thrive. But denial of restructuring will create the
atmosphere for Nigeria to die. That is why we are spending 70% of
our budget to pay salaries to less than 1% of our population and
when we don’t have the money to pay we go a-borrowing instead of
reducing the size of our civil service.
He also noted that a leader who knows that he is never going to
repay what he has borrowed will continue to borrow for so future
generations will repay the debt that he has spent but if we
restructure we can make sure that instead of that we have a
situation where elders plant trees whose shade they know they will
never enjoy.
He therefore noted that the answer to the question that he was
asked to speak about is nothing but restructuring and that the
answer lies in the report of the 2014 National Conference. “If we
implement it and other reports like the Orosanye Report, we will
bring justice to Nigeria speedily and heal our land and our
people.” he said.
The Senator representing the Bayelsa East Constituency, Senator
Ben Murray Bruce in delivering a speech on Healing a Nation Scarred
by Injustice, at the House of Justice 2017 Summit/Dinner on
Tuesday, December 19, 2017, highlighted key facts affecting the
Nigerian State.
The Senator, whilst commending the organizers for choosing the
thought provoking topic, noted the state of the suffering faced by
Nigerians and the need to cure the abnormally.
According to the Senator, many Nigerians have accepted to pass
through dangerous paths just to make it in life. Wondering why
Nigerian citizens prefer to face a perilous journey through the
Sahara Desert, then risk slavery in Libya and afterwards death by
drowning in the Mediterranean Sea just to make it, he came to the
conclusion that after much finding and enquiries, it is nothing
other than the fact that Nigeria, herself has what is considered to
be a greater danger to her citizens than what they face out there.
This according to him this is contrary to what he actually thought
about those leaving the shores of the country.
In his words:
“I have been crisscrossing Nigeria and meeting everyday people
and becoming more intimate with the issues they face and the scales
have fallen from my eyes. I listed three perils that Nigerians face
if they decide to risk their lives by immigrating to Europe through
the Sahara Desert. I never knew that to many of these people, if
not all, the dangers are more if they remain in Nigeria.”
“In Nigeria, they face Boko Haram terrorism, and if they escape
that, they may encounter killer herdsmen. But even if they do not
meet death by killer herdsmen, they may become victims of the
Special Anti Robbery Squad or SARS, who many times stereotype
Nigerian youths as armed robbers or Internet fraudsters. I have not
talked of kidnappers, militants, one check point per one kilometer
or the menace of one chance robbers.”
Speaking further he noted that there is hardly any Nigerian
whose relationship with Nigeria has not been abused and year after
year, we keep on treating the symptoms instead of curing the
disease. Noting that the population is growing far faster than the
economy of the nation, there is a dare need to renegotiate the
country as this is the only way to solve the problem facing the
country. According to him, if we do not restructure, we will just
keep reacting from one problem to the other until one day we end up
with Armageddon.
“Recently some people said that Nigeria does not need
restructuring and I laughed. How can you say a nation with one of
the highest numbers of private jet owners/users and yet without its
own national line, does not need restructuring? Obviously anyone
with such a view is living in denial! Nigeria needs restructuring
to foster peaceful and prosperous coexistence between her various
people because the alternative to coexistence is not something we
should ever contemplate. If we don’t promote peaceful coexistence
we will eventually get violent co-destruction.”
So how do we heal a nation scarred by injustice? By
restructuring her according to the principles of justice so that we
do not have a situation whereby Lagos generates 55% of Nigeria’s
Value Added Tax yet other states get a larger share of those
revenues than Lagos state. This is even when some of those states
ban the sale of some of the items that make up the 55% from Lagos.
You cannot rob Peter to pay Paul and expect Peter to be happy. And
of course Paul will not want the situation to change. But Paul must
realize that one day Peter will have nothing left to rob and then
Paul will be faced with a situation where both he and Peter are
penniless.”
According to him only restructuring will create the atmosphere
for Nigeria to thrive. But denial of restructuring will create the
atmosphere for Nigeria to die. That is why we are spending 70% of
our budget to pay salaries to less than 1% of our population and
when we don’t have the money to pay we go a-borrowing instead of
reducing the size of our civil service.
He also noted that a leader who knows that he is never going to
repay what he has borrowed will continue to borrow for so future
generations will repay the debt that he has spent but if we
restructure we can make sure that instead of that we have a
situation where elders plant trees whose shade they know they will
never enjoy.
He therefore noted that the answer to the question that he was
asked to speak about is nothing but restructuring and that the
answer lies in the report of the 2014 National Conference. “If we
implement it and other reports like the Orosanye Report, we will
bring justice to Nigeria speedily and heal our land and our
people.” he said.