From Pwanagba Agabus, Jos
A former President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Prof. Abdullahi Sule, said Nigeria leaders are operating a crony capitalism.
He also said as at today, President Muhammadu Buhari does not know what economic system the country is operating.
The former ASUU boss equally accused former President Olusegun Obasanjo of intensifying the aforementioned system of capitalism, in 1999, saying while the politics was going in different direction, the economy was also going in a different direction, in the country.
Prof. Sule stated this during a Town Hall meeting with critical stakeholders in the education sector in Plateau State, held at University of Jos ASUU Secretariat, in Jos, the Plateau State Capital.
He said, “Your rulers don’t know the type of economy they are managing, they will say they developing Nigeria, private sector driven; its so hypocritical that they will not tell you that you are running a capitalist system and the type you are running.
“I have never heard this characters in power, coming to tell Nigerians, that this the type of capitalist system we are running, because they are ignorant, they don’t even know the type of capitalism their running.
“In political economy we identify several types political economy, and there are five prominent types that Nigerian rulers don’t even know, but they would compare us with United States of America, Germany, Korea, Singapore or Malaysia, while they understand the nature of those countries even as capitalist economies.
Sule who is also a Trustee of ASUU said, “there are five types of capitalist economies in the world; prominent among many others that are evolving; the is the one you find in the United States of America and United Kingdom or Australia; this is the classical form of capitalist economy, in which the so called concept of free market is attempted to be practiced in which the rich can accumulate wealth, without limit, where you the culture of am a billionaire or am the richest man in the world.
“At the end of the day, you see a sharp difference between the working people and the extremely rich ones.
“That is why, irrespective of the richness of the United States of America, they still have people who are homeless, who can’t feed themselves among others; but what they do is to ensure that in that economic system they create room for subsidy, in which they will try to prevent revolution from happening, knowing that if they allow it to some certain extent there will be revolution.
“That’s why if you look at the United Kingdom, irrespective of the character of the type of capitalism their running, you find out that there is some kind of welfare system which can guarantee a citizen certain minimum in terms of health, education, in certain basic things.
On the second type of capitalism, the former ASUU President said, “Is the type you find in Germany, we call it social capitalism, where the state is in control of the economy run by that particular state.
“What they do is, they limit the accumulation of capitalist, in that system any amount you earn will go back to the state, and this amount is utilised as fund of the state, where everybody will have access to housing, education, health, among many others; in that system you will never hear a German say he is a billionaire, or have you ever heard a German say he is the richest man in the world? No.
He added that the social capitalism being practiced in Germany is also applicable in most Scandinavian countries like Norway, Sweden, Denmark, among others.
The ASUU Trustee maintained that, in the aforementioned system, the countries ensure that they leave in peace and harmony, saying” nobody will go to bed hungry, everybody goes to the same school”.
He further stated that because there is enough funds in the state coffers, if they invite anyone to their country, “you study for free”.
The former ASUU boss, talked about oligarchy capitalism, which is practice by the Arabs, where the aristocrats own large chunk of the wealth, control politics and the economy, but they ensure that their citizens are provided with whatever they need to the barest minimum.
“People who come to work in countries practicing this system of capitalism are treated as slaves, including intellectuals, as your income is determine by the kind of economy you come from”, he explained.
Among countries practicing the oligarchy capitalism include: Saudi Arabia, UAE, among others.
Sule also said, State Capitalism being the fourth type is practice in Malaysia, “in which the state controls all the processes of capitalist production, with clear rules in which no capitalist will violate, the state manages the economy.
“They ensure that, as far as society is concern, food is of the same price across the country, so there is a very strict price control.
“Housing is virtually the same architecture in the region, you are not going to build a mansion because you think your a billionaire. So long as you are a worker you have a house to leave in, and that house remains with your family, even if you die; education is free”, he explained.
Speaking on Nigeria economic system, the University don asked, “what type of capitalism is Nigeria practicing? If you ask President Muhammadu Buhari today, he doesn’t know, neither does Osinbajo know.
“In Nigeria we are operating what we call crony capitalism, which is a version of classical form of capitalism.
“But now they introduce to it a kind of primitive relationship, between rulers and citizens; lords and safs, like in the feudal system.
“So in this system, when they get power, they accumulate primitively the resources of Nigerians, and they share it among themselves and their cronies.
According to him, “this process was actually intensified by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, in 1999, that’s why the politics was going in different direction, and the economy in a different direction, in the country.
“What they do is that, they get their cronies, they give them the money they stole.
“Some of them have no experience of managing any economy in their life, so whatever you give them, they ruin it.
“They privatise the property of this country at will; take power for instance, they shared the electricity component of the energy sector and they can’t manage it; even those who took the emerging industrial sector cannot manage it.
“In my state for example Kano, those who bought all those industries owned by Kano State Government, what they do, is that they buy it, drive the workers away. Lock it down, to them they are having assets, they accumulate land and so on.
“They don’t understand the capitalist mode of production, that is why anyone who wants to produce genuinely in Nigeria to make profit, if you want to do so, they become your enemy, because they create an environment that makes it unprofitable for you to produce.
“Banks in Nigeria today, extort peoples money to survive, this is the crisis we are in.
“So for us as academics, it is important for us to train and educate people, for our students to understand the kind of society they are in, ensure that they have access to education, so that they can organise to fight these idiots.
He said idiots in politics means people who are, “extremely parochial, self centred, very greedy, they don’t have societal project in their mind, don’t initiate anything for development; so when you have leaders that have this characteristics, they are idiots”.
Also speaking, President of ASUU, Prof. Biodun Ogunyemi said the proliferation of private universities in Nigeria by the political class has reduced the quality of education in the country.
Ogunyemi noted that the political class has deliberately refused to address the neglect of infrastructural deficit in Nigeria Universities but prefer to establish private Institutions to kill public Universities.
“Not only students are suffering the infrastructural deficit in the Universities but the lecturers are also suffering because our salaries has been amputated and devalued by the Federal Government for about 11 years.
“The proliferation of private universities will not help Nigerian educational system,rather it would and has reduced the quality of education.
“I am pained that Nigeria Universities are established as constituency projects by Governors rather than Centre for learning. Governors who come from different Senatorial districts always want to establish states Universities in their Senatorial districts rather than funding the existing ones.”
He explained that the money being generated from the stamp duty which was recommended by the ASUU to Federal Government is no where to be found.
