Govt Steals From The Poor by Emmanuel Onwubiko

Last week Thursday May 18th, 2017 started for me in a very special way.
First I got a distress call from a young single mum of three chil­dren who ekes out a living by hawking fresh fruits somewhere in Wuse Two, Abuja.
This call came boozing in the phone at about 8 am the moment I settled into my office desk to be­gin the day’s work.

The purpose of the call was to report that the armed operatives of the Abuja environmental au­thority seized her articles of trade and arrested her late the previous night.
She was forced to cough out five thousand naira before she could be left off the hook but the men went away with her entire business wares.
This lady by name Miss Eve­lyn has a toddler she still breast­feeds in addition to the other two children who are in public school even as she relies on the petty trading to take care of them the best way she can.
She wept uncontrollably and urged that our group should in­tervene so her wares can be re­leased.
But our effort was fruitless.
This is because upon our in­vestigation those government sponsored armed thugs who brazenly took her wares away had gone to their various houses with the loots and we were even told that she was lucky to have escaped been dumped into the decrepit detention facility admin­istered by this notorious agency.
Many persons languish for days before bribing their way out of these dungeons that aren’t fit even for wild animals.
These detention centres are scattered all over Abuja and Abuja can’t boasts of vibrant Non Governmental groups that the­matically focuses on the plights of the poorest of the poor.
Most platforms are politically in­clined.
Their daily routines include roaming about the streets of Abuja chasing petty traders out of the streets, looting their wares, imprisoning them so as to extort some money from those severely disadvantaged and economically deprived poor Nigerians.
This is pure government-sponsored road side armed rob­beries and must stop except gov­ernance in Nigeria is meant to rob the poor to enrich the few privi­leged elite.
This was the basis for a letter we sent to the Abuja minister and the noisy Senator heading the Committee on the Federal Capi­tal Territory Mr. Dino Melaye but both of these men have taken no action to stop this day light rob­beries that have gone on for ages.
We had stated that we were writing to bring to the minister’s attention, the rampant cases of grave violations of the fundamen­tal and constitutionally guaran­teed rights of struggling and fi­nancially challenged members of the public in the Federal Capital Territory and especially those of them that have chosen to pur­sue one petty and small business or the other to survive the hard economic downturns that have bedeviled the nation.
We also said we wished to di­rect the political authorities’ at­tention to the provisions of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) which speak directly to the need for government to allow the citizens to engage in meaningful economic and sustainable means of livelihood especially from the Chapter two and chapter four of the constitution.
Section 16(2) provides thus: “The State shall direct its policy towards ensuring: (c) that the economic system is not operated in such a manner as to permit the concentration of wealth or the means of production and ex­change in the hands of few indi­viduals or of a group”
Same grund norm in Section 34 (1) of the Constitution spe­cifically condemns the practice of horse whipping poor petty trad­ers as are done on routine basis by armed security forces accom­panying the Abuja environmental agents sent from your office.
We have watched with amaze­ment the brazen display of brutal­ity and animosity by these task force officials against civilian traders only because these citi­zens were carrying out legitimate economic activities to ensure that their RIGHT TO LIFE IS AS­SURED.
That Constitutional provision aforementioned says directly that: “Every individual is enti­tled to respect for the dignity of his person, and accordingly -(a) no person shall be subject to tor­ture or to inhuman or degrading treatment; (b) no person shall he held in slavery or servitude; and (c) no person shall be required to perform forced of compulsory Labour.”
We note however with consid­erable trepidation those officials of the FCT environmental agency have constantly subjected poor/petty traders to horrendous physical torture even as their only means of livelihood are usually confiscated, stolen and they are locked up under dehumanizing conditions pending a monetary induced bail.
Interestingly, the current Sen­ate Committee Chairman on FCT Mr Dino Melaye has re­cently posted photos whereby he mimicked these small business operators even as he used his social media page to canvass for small businesses to be supported.
We then wonder why petty traders are humiliated and dis­graced on daily basis in the FCT and their wares seized.
We want to state that Small businesses are key to the econom­ic revival of Nigeria.
Relatedly, last week the UK based group OXFAM disclosed that only five rich Nigerians con­trol over $30 billion, an amount that can bring about an end to ABSOLUTE POVERTY of the over 160 million heavily impov­erished citizens.
These scenarios show that if the citizens are alive to their civic duties and refused to be docile then this Country is overdue for immediate and comprehensive REVOLUTION because Thomas Paine stated correctly that ‘it will always be found, that when the rich protect the rights of the poor, the poor will protect the property of the rich’.
Nigerians must demand that officials of government stop steal­ing from the poor. Let us demand for justice for all. Let us demand economic justice now because we are not slaves.
Let us demand the repatria­tion of over $400 billion of public fund stolen by government offi­cials since Independence.
Chatham House, a scholarly institution in the United kingdom has only recently uncovered that $480 billion of public fund have been stolen by officials of succes­sive and current governments.
Enough is enough!
Emmanuel Onwubiko is Head of HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) and blogs @ www. emmanuelonwubiko.com; www.huriwa@blogspot.com.