When you listen to radio, watch TV or swing into the newspaper vendor, the kind of news you get is usually rapped with headlines such as “oil price slides further”, “naira slides to 340 to dollar as free fall continues”, “stock market records all time low in two decades”, “fire guts local market in borno as bokoharam claims responsibility”, “agriculture is the way to go says minister of labor”, “job creation can be achieved through youth empowerment”, “oil companies in massive retrenchment as oil prices slides further”, “the economy is in tough time – Buhari” etc.
These are basically reflecting the current dispensation we are today, not just in Nigeria, every nation on the planet is experiencing economic meltdown. But I have to be honest with you here, the worst heat is on nations that depends on oil as their major sources of foreign exchange, of course Nigeria is in the center of it all. With this scenario presenting itself, the battle line has been drawn for survival.
This brings us to the 80:20 rule made famous by Vilfredo Pareto,
a 19th century Italian, he applied this to the fact that 80% of the wealth was held by 20% of the population. This proposition has been proven right 100% of the time, check your fact files, go back to history and do your research; you can never prove this fact wrong and the truth remains that 80% of the entire wealth in any nation is held by only 20% of the people. Add 80% to 20% you get 100%, a complete circle.
Here in Nigeria, the same holds true for every segment of the economy, 80% of our common wealth is held by only 20% of Nigerians, whenever I think about this fact, I always come to a conclusion that these 20 percent are not necessarily driven by greed, selfishness or corruption, they actually fight and work hard to get there, and they definitely work harder to remain there. Any moment of weakness as part of the 20%, you are relegated immediately to the vast population that made the 80% of the masses.
Being either of these two segments is entirely by choice, it is no rocket science, you are part of the 80 percent because you chose to remain there, and whenever you are ready to join the competition, the 20% is always delighted to welcome a new member.
However, the conclusion above can only hold true in a sane clime, obviously Nigeria even in our days of economic boom has consistently maintained a wider divide between the rich and the poor. If Vilfredo Pareto was a Nigerian of this dispensation he could have propounded a 95/5 rule, actually that’s what is obtainable in our nation today.
Take for example the shocking revelation of job racketeering by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), it is unfathomable how the powers that be take the masses for granted, in less than a year riding into power through the change mantra, all we get is the same widening of the bridge between the few privileged government officials and the poor masses.
Recently the government made a pledge to the family of late minister Ocholi for immediate employment, a move I consider a slap on the faces of Nigerians, making it appear like the government is transparent as if the late minister’s family members are not already on payroll, but thanks to the revelation of illegal employment by the CBN, it only exposed this “change” as nothing but a hoax, a script wisely written for electoral gains.
Yes we are in economic depression as a nation, but still the heat is on the poor masses, the 95% in the case of Nigeria and obviously the wealth lies within the 5% who are heavily protected by power with our common wealth.