Fw: Abati--The Richest Persons Club Of Nigeria: Ha! Ha!
Umez
Excellent piece!
Umez
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The Richest Persons Club Of Nigeria: Ha! Ha!
Sunday, January 14, 2001
By Reuben Abati
ON Tuesday, December 19, The Punch (which now advertises itself as
newspaper of the year: well?), published a front page story in
which it alleged that six Nigerians have now been advertised by
the BBC to be among the six richest persons in the whole wide
world. In the process, the newspaper, relying on the BBC still,
managed to identify the richest Nigerian alive. He happens to be -
in case you have forgotten - Harry (Harry who?) Akande who is said
to be the seventh richest person in the world with a monthly
income of $533 million per month. He is followed by the
multilingual Oluwo Antonio Deinde Fernandez, one of the
ex-husbands of our own Erelu Dosunmu, who is said to be No. 9 on
the list of the rich with a monthly income of $469 million. Next
is the late M.K.O. Abiola, No. 26 with $339 million per month,
then Ibrahim Babangida, No. 76 in the world and Nigeria's No. 4,
with $216 million per month, Abacha, the world's No. 82 and
Nigeria's No. 5, with a monthly income of $198 million, and Arthur
Nzeribe, No. 96 on the list of the world's richest persons, and
Nigeria's No. 6, with a monthly income of $162 million. The story
further mentioned the following as members of the world's richest
persons club: Umaru Dikko, the prince of the rice armada, Joseph
Wayas, of the Second Republic fame (?), Mamman Ali Makele (if you
don't know Makele, think of Ajaokuta), Allison Ayida, one of
Nigeria's recurrent decimals, Buba Marwa, the richest man to have
ever been Governor of Lagos State, Maryam Babangida (of the
Mamangida fame!), Phillip Asiodu (always in the corridors of
power), Oba Oladele Olashore (Kabiyesi), the Ooni of Ife, Oba
Okunade Sijuwade (Arole Oodua), Gabriel Igbinedion, and the late
Dapo Sijuwade. I still cannot figure out what the Punch intended
to achieve by publishing this story. The editors probably wanted
us to get envious. Maybe they were just being plainly mischievous.
Whatever may have been their intentions at The Punch, I have
waited for close to three weeks for any of the persons mentioned
in this list to be modest and deny: knowing the way our country
is. But alas, only one person has spoken up.
Harry Akande has accepted then, the verdict that he is the richest
man in Nigeria, and all the others are pleased to be advertised as
money bags. That in my view is the only explanation for their
silence. Fine. What I intend to do in this piece is to argue that
I do not believe the story. I think it is false, sensational and
curious. Even if it were to be true, my gut reaction is to state
that the facts are based on all the wrong premises that anyone can
think of. First, the impression is being created that wealth is to
be measured in terms of riches, in terms of investments, in terms
of accumulated structures. I am sorry, I am not impressed. And let
no one argue as William Penn Patrick did, that "those who condemn
wealth are those who have none, and see no chance of getting it."
I do not bear the rich any grudges, but the point to be made is
that being rich is not synonymous with being human. Some of the
richest persons in the world are among the worst human beings to
have ever walked on the surface of the earth. Cranks, drug
addicts, misers (like Hunt Green), criminals, and mad men are
among the list of the world's richest persons. How a man or woman
makes money is something to be investigated. But in Nigeria,
nobody asks questions. Anybody who is said to be rich is
immediately considered to be better than the rest of us. But that
is not true. I consider myself to be more humane than many of the
so-called rich men in this country today. And I guess, you too,
the reader feels the same way. Well, no matter.
Let us take another look at that list. Harry Akande is said to be
the richest man in Nigeria. and yet he is better known in this
county as a failed Presidential aspirant. With all his money, he
couldn't get to the first base in the presidential race. He is
also the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of APP. Now, the APP is
a failed party. One more piece of information: on January 11,2001,
The Punch (yes, the same Punch) published on page 16, an
advertorial by the Oyo State Ministry of Finance about companies
that have refused to pay tax and are owing the Oyo State
government. One of the companies is identified as AIC Cocoa House
Ibadan. Harry Akande's company in Nigeria is called AIC and it has
its headquarters at the Cocoa House Ibadan.
Akande's AIC means Akande International Company (AIC), Cocoa House
Ibadan. The AIC on the Oyo state list of debtors is owing a small
sum of N435,702.00. When I saw this on the list, I started praying
that it should not be Hary Akande's AIC. I mean, it would be
really scandalous for the richest Nigerian to own a company that
is a tax debtor. Only Harry who? himself can clear the air on this
matter. But I should like to submit most respectfully, that one of
the reasons I am not too impressed by the rich in Nigeria, is that
majority of them are tax dodgers. It would be interesting for us
to know how much tax all the guys on the list of the rich and the
celebrated are paying to the Nigerian government. Of what use is a
rich man who does not pay tax?. Maybe that is why Justice Louis D.
Brandeis concluded that "we can have democracy in this country or
we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of few, but we
can't have both." The learned judge is right. Take Ibrahim
Babangida. He is a rich man. Good. But who cares? His wife is rich
too. Good. But the two of them cannot walk freely on the streets
of Lagos. Babangida in fact is so scared, he cannot afford to
appear before the Oputa panel. We are told that Abacha is also
rich. Good. But where is Abacha today? His son is in detention.
His wife is in compulsory purdah, despite the fact that she is a
widow: she is the only widow I know in this country that is still
in purdah, simply because she cannot walk freely around the
country. Tell me, what are we talking about?
I have read that Philip Asiodu has disowned the list. He has said
that he is not a rich man, or well, that he is not as rich as they
say he is. I am tempted to believe him. At least he has shown some
decency. I am also reliably informed that there is some mischief
involved in the origin of the list. The BBC for example does not
have the story in its archives. If that is really true, then the
editors of The Punch have some explanation to offer. In any case,
there is no doubt that all the names on that list would qualify by
Nigerian standards as rich men. What I disagree with is that they
are among the world's richest. The widow and daughter of Sam
Walton, the founder of the Wal-Mart, are among the richest in the
world. Helen hunt, the American actress, and Julia Roberts, the
Hollywood star, are definitely richer than Harry Akande. The
Sultan of Brunei is the richest man in the world. There is also
Bill Gates, the Queen of England, and the founder of Yahoo.com.
The story of wealth in contemporary terms is well told on pages
68-69 of The Guinness Books of World Records 2000, and you place
that against the Punch story and you begin to wonder. In fact you
are forced to ask: Harry who? To push the matter further, I
daresay that some of these 419 boys in Lagos, may well be richer
than all the persons on that list put together, but nobody is
talking about them because they belong to the underworld.
Okay, one other pertinent question to ask is how did the guys make
their money. Asiodu (well, let's excuse him) and Ayida have been
public servants all their lives. Marwa's biggest achievement, his
claim to glory, is that he was appointed governor in two states of
the federation (na wah!), Makele, Dikko and Wayas were also public
servants. Mrs. Babangida is in the news because she is the wife of
the man they call IBB and now that has become a big deal. The only
exceptions perhaps are Harry Akande, Oba Olashore, Dapo Sijuwade,
Gabriel Igbinedion, and Oba Okunade Sijuwade, who could be said to
have made their money outside government. But as for others, what
kind of message are we sending to young Nigerians?. That public
office is the easiest route to wealth? That money is more
important than honour? That a man who owns a house in Zurich or
London is necessarily important?. I beg, where are the marines?
Tell it to them. Frantz Fanon made the point when he declared
matter-of-factly that somehow, "the people came to realise that
wealth is not the fruit of labour but the result of organized
protected robbery." Percy Bysshe Shelley also said that "wealth is
power usurped by the few to compel the many to labour for their
benefit."
One thing we cannot deny perhaps is that all the persons on the
list of the rich are in fact rich. They may not be what we are
told they are, but clearly, they have some extra funds to play
with. But what we must remember is that wealth in itself is not
important, it is what a man does with it that matters. We should
not praise rich men until we know what they do with their wealth.
As Socrates put it in his own words, "if a rich man is proud of
his wealth, he should not be praised until it is known how he
employs it." Franklin D. Roosevelt many years later seemed to have
concurred when he added that "the hopes of the Republic cannot
forever tolerate either underserved poverty or self-serving
wealth." The truth of the matter is that in this country, what we
get for the most part is self-serving wealth. That is why the poor
are suspicious of the rich. That is why we are not impressed. In
this country, the spirit of philanthropy is in the throes of a
debilitating stroke. It is dying. It is half-dead. It has never
really been in good health. In other societies, the rich assist
the poor, they are positive members in society. In Nigeria, the
rich are owned by their property, they are slaves of wealth. Some
of the richest persons of all times include the following:
Croesus, Nicholas Fouquet, Jakob Fugger (a.k.a. "the Rich"),
Cornelius Vanderbilt, John D. Rockefeller, Henry Ford, John Paul
Getty, John D. MacArthur, Daniel K. Ludwig, Aristotle Onassis and
Howard Hughes. Each one of these men is distinguished and
remembered, not for his wealth but for his connection with
society. Croesus (560 ñ 546 BC) was the richest man in ancient
Greece, and the benevolent king of Lydia, Vanderbilt, a.k.a. "the
Commodore", was the richest man in the United States as at 1877,
but he was involved in public causes, Rockefeller
("God-gave-me-my-money), Henry Ford and Paul Getty all have
foundations named after them. What has Harry Akande done for the
ordinary people of Nigeria. Dele Momodu, the publisher of Ovation
has told us in a special edition that Fernandez has exotic houses
in New York and he is a big man in Angola and everywhere else, but
what has Oluwo Fernandez done for his compatriots? Abacha and
Babangida are rich, but they remain a continuing source of
embarrassment to Nigerians. There are perhaps a few exceptions.
MKO Abiola died for the country, Oba Olashore has a school where
younger Nigerians are being groomed; Mrs. Maryam Babangida is the
proprietor of a school in Minna; Nzeribe is a Senator, even if a
cantakerous one. They all probably mean well. Although I am
reminded of a caveat by Comte de Rivarol who wrote that "the only
thing wealth does for some people is to make them worry about
losing it."
Source <http://nigeriaworld.com/news/source/2001/jan/14/9.html>
Prosper...@yahoo.com
come pollute my Emperordom whit who get and who no get Absolute
Agbakara, now una don begin dey yab di people wey try put better dough
for dem pocket. If una say Madam Abacha dey for purdah, even if him
husband don quench, na what about Howard Hughes wey lock him sef sotay
till him come quench?
http://www.akwaibomstate.com/prosper.htm
Don Tempest Prospero, Di Grand Prophet and El Capo Di Tutti (Who no know
go know)
In article <002101c07ee9$0ae2f660$99c0c2d0@hppav>,
"Umez" <afric...@amexol.net> wrote:
>
> Excellent piece!
> Umez
> =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
> society. Croesus (560 =F1 546 BC) was the richest man in ancient
> Greece, and the benevolent king of Lydia, Vanderbilt, a.k.a. "the
> Commodore", was the richest man in the United States as at 1877,
> but he was involved in public causes, Rockefeller
> ("God-gave-me-my-money), Henry Ford and Paul Getty all have
> foundations named after them. What has Harry Akande done for the
> ordinary people of Nigeria. Dele Momodu, the publisher of Ovation
> has told us in a special edition that Fernandez has exotic houses
> in New York and he is a big man in Angola and everywhere else, but
> what has Oluwo Fernandez done for his compatriots? Abacha and
> Babangida are rich, but they remain a continuing source of
> embarrassment to Nigerians. There are perhaps a few exceptions.
> MKO Abiola died for the country, Oba Olashore has a school where
> younger Nigerians are being groomed; Mrs. Maryam Babangida is the
> proprietor of a school in Minna; Nzeribe is a Senator, even if a
> cantakerous one. They all probably mean well. Although I am
> reminded of a caveat by Comte de Rivarol who wrote that "the only
> thing wealth does for some people is to make them worry about
> losing it."
>
> Source <http://nigeriaworld.com/news/source/2001/jan/14/9.html>
>
>
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