ZION B-BC NEWSLETTER. [ A Publication of the Zion Faith Bible-Believing Church, Kpeyegyi, Abuja.] VOL. 2. NO. 37. 27-04-14. NIGERIA’S RE-BASED GDP SHOULD DELIVER DIVIDENDS OF DEMOCRACY! Gross Domestic Product or [GDP], is an economic gauge of the value of total production attributable to overall factors of generation of goods and services in a given country if prudent calculation is based on the national product or income. This economic evaluation is aimed to achieve the specific purpose of proving a country’s viability as an international entrepreneurial destination and it is termed ‘gross’ because allowance was not yet made for the ingestion of the fixed capital expended in production, to establish or determine actual market price. Nigeria’s GDP was last calculated in 1990! Since all incomes are generated through production, total national earnings of a given period are established by the application of monetary evaluation to all agricultural goods, labour and capital resources, hence Nigeria’s GDP estimates for the year 2013, which makes her the largest economy in Africa, and the 26 globally, is put at $510billion US dollars or N80.3trillion naira, taking into account, a range of new sectors and industries like the mobile telephone market and Africa’s largest-music and the entertainment local Nollywood film enterprise, which has now produced 12per cent of the GDP, or N853.9 billion naira. The re-based GDP numbers imply that the level of economic activity which is much higher than in the past 24years, is now being more driven by the SERVICE SECTOR, which means that we now have a clearer picture of Nigeria’s economic landscape which offers a significant opportunity for growth and wealth creation. But on ‘per capita’ basis, Nigeria is number 121 in the world! The universal index for measuring living standards and welfare is per capita income which is obtained by dividing the total national income by the total population; the higher the quotient, the higher, the standard of living, provided leaders are righteous and accurate census is achievable! A World Bank’s recent research has revealed that about 100million Nigerians dwell in abject poverty on a per capita of $1.5US dollars or N250 naira per day which makes the re-basing on Nigeria’s GDP as a total contradiction, a misnomer! WHAT ARE THE SOURCES OF THE GDP OF EVERY NATION? The poor masses of course and not the power usurpers! Masses are the, “hewers of wood and drawers of water” who will always procure wealth for the rich through cheap labour in the formal and informal sectors of the economy. In the formal sector, the civil servants, armed forces, police, customs, immigrations etc, are paid paltry sums as salaries, forced to pay taxes, labour and die as patriotic citizens! The elites hardly pay taxes because they are very fraudulent when it comes to declaration of incomes! In the industrial or informal sector, which is privately powered, driven and funded, workers are goaded by task masters to work far beyond their pay packets! This bunch of unfortunate third rated citizens of the third world countries are also forced to bear the brunt of all societal ills, disasters and calamities resulting from consistent maladministration! WHO ARE THE EASY TARGETS OF BOMB BLASTS? WHOSE GRAVES ARE FOUND ON ROAD SIDES AND RIVER BANKS? WHO ARE THE ROBBERS AND KIDNAPPERS VICTIMS? WHO DWELL IN THE SLUMS AND THE WORST OF ALL RURAL AREAS? WHO ARE THE “AWAITING TRIAL” INMATES IN ALL THE PRISONS AND DETAINEES IN ALL POLICE CELLS AND SECURITY DETENTION CAMPS OF THE LAW-ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES? WHO ARE THOSE WHO GOT HIT BY STRAY BULLETS OF TRIGGER-HAPPY POLICEMEN? WHO SUFFERED HIGH-RATES OF CHILD/MATERNAL MORTALITY? WHO ARE DENIED MODERN HEALTH FACILITIES AND PORTABLE WATER SUPPLIES BUT CONDEMNED TO DRINK FROM THE SAME POOLS WITH ANIMALS? WHO ARE THE DREGS OF THE SOCIETY, WHO SHOULD BE LEFT TO ROT AWAY UNEDUCATED? The poor masses of course! But this scenario is not DIVINE it is man-evolved through an orchestrated abuse of the fundamental human rights, coercion and manipulation of the masses by a devious few and with God’s intervention, this ugly trend which has become a universal norm can be reversed! The Labour Force of these nations are the ordinary everyday people around the neighbourhood, the streets, the vicinities, hamlets, villages and rural areas who eek their living at the mercy of the high and mighty of the urban societies of all third world countries! Except for the United States of America and a few civilized countries of Europe and the Near East, the glaring neglect, of basic amenities and necessary infrastructures of life, like decent housing scheme, good roads, electrification, portable water, is visible all over rural Africa and Asia! Are we all conscious of the, “divide and rule” tactics, handed over by colonial masters to indigenous neo-colonialists, now responsible for the chaos of non-development in these countries? At the period of “independence”, the colonialists always ensured that a legacy of tribal sentiments and segregation, nepotism, religious bigotry, north-south dichotomy, land disputes, indigene/settler controversies, etc. were left unresolved while they imposed their surrogates to continue the oppression where they stopped! The following countries, Democratic Republic of Congo [DRC], Central African Republic [CAR], Somalia, Sudan, Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Turkey, Burundi and Rwanda, Cote’ de Voire [Ivory Coast], Sierra Leone, Liberia, Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia and Nigeria, have all tasted the bitter pills of wicked and ruthless colonization experiences of the past and are still struggling to rise from the ashes of the devastation that have wiped out most citizens from existence! Presently in these countries, ‘dividends of democracy’ is ‘anathema’, meaning an accursed expectation, because, the few, who are at the helm of affairs, have sworn to keep their grip on all loots through the services of the police, and armed forces, recruited from among the masses! It is an irony of faith, but hope is not lost, because, the ONE who is in charge, is JEHOVA, who created the Heaven and the Earth and who has promised that He would neither forsake nor abandon his faithful children! When Prophet Elisha found himself with a similar situation of a pleasant land which harboured bitter springs of waters, he wasted no time in seeking divine solution to heal the waters which story, the Bible records as follows: “And he said, bring me a new cruse and put salt therein and they brought it to him. And he went forth unto the spring of the waters, and cast the salt in there, and said, Thus saith the LORD, I have healed these waters; there shall not be from thence any more death or barren land. So the waters were healed unto this day, according to the saying of Elisha which he spake”[2Kings.2:19-22]. In Nigeria, bad leaders and their acts of corruption with impunity, constitute the “bitter springs” and the “bareness”, in our pleasant land flowing with milk and honey! Nigeria is so blessed with natural, economic and human resources, that with good leadership and sound management, there should be no citizens regarded as “poor masses”! Scientists have always tried unsuccessfully to prove the theory of EVOLUTION OF HUMAN SPECIES, asserting that men are “descendants of baboons and gorillas”! We disagree with that theory because, GOD created Man in His own image and likeness and gave them the mandate to be fruitful multiply and fill the earth. Man is also commanded to have dominion over all other creations! [Genesis.1:26-30]. But we are likely to agree with the scientists that the African elites evolved and not created because like all animals, they are neither God-conscious nor sensitive to wickedness and brutality against their fellow humans! In Nigeria for instance, these masses of poor people are “ local government” authorities unto themselves because, out of their poverty, they still provide all the basic amenities of life – houses, water, light and community-funded roads; they also purchase electric transformers for government to supply them power! The Big Question is, “Why should those who occupy transient positions of authority become so heartless, so ruthless and so insensitive to the citizens from one administration to another? WHO GAINS FROM THE PRIVATISATION INSTEAD OF COMMERCIALISATION, WHICH WOULD ENGENDER PUBLIC OWNERSHIP OF ALL GOVERNMENT COMMERCIAL VENTURES? WHO GAINS FROM THE SUBSIDIES ON THE DOWN STEAM OF THE PETROLEUM SECTOR OF THE ECONOMY? WHO GAINS FROM ORGANIZED VANDALIZATION OF OIL AND GAS PIPE LINES? WHO GAINS FROM OIL THEFT, OIL BUNKERING AND MONEY LAUNDERING? They are the ‘ELITES’ of course! They have all the wherewithal to organize any act of wickedness including, high-tech robberies, large-scale forgeries kidnappings and assassinations! For instance, no one has arrested or interrogated the OGA AT THE TOP, under whose supervision, millions of dollars of oil moneys are being stolen with impunity and who brazenly, in spite all legally-instituted probes, issue media statements that no money was missing from the NIGERIAN NATIONAL PETROLEUM CORPORATION [NNPC], COFFERS! We need to remind the ‘BIG MAN OF NIGERIA’ that he is only but, ONE HUMAN ORGANISM, who without the supportive structure of his ‘conscripted’ retinue of HELPERS – servants, batsmen, houseboys/girls aide-de-camp, vice brother, assistant sister etc, he is HELPLESS! Recently, Mr. Joe Biden, US Vice President, said in Ukraine, that, “Government exists to serve the people and not the people to serve government.” We agree with this factual 21 Century statement and pray that those, in government, who do not want to serve the people, from whom sovereign power is derived, should be made to account for their period of stewardship and be shown the way out! DIVINE JUDGEMENT IS AT THE DOOR! If you have not accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Saviour, don’t miss this great opportunity as you pray this prayer: Lord Jesus; I confess that I am a sinner who needs to be saved through the grace of the New Testament of your Blood, shed on the Cross at Calvary; I renounce every sin in my life and accept you as my Lord and Saviour. Please forgive me and write my name in the Book of Life. Amen. If you prayed this prayer, you have been admitted into the family of sons and daughters of God, who are born-again. Congratulations. Please look forward to more divine revelation in the next edition of Zion B-BC Newsletter as you share this with friends and remain blessed in the Lord. [For weekly access,to this newsletter, log on to: facebook.com/zionfaithbible.believingchurch & Zfbbc1.blogspot.com]. I am, Yours sincerely,Dr. David B.A. Olufon, Resident Pastor and Editor.08058436756 08098194390.g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com . th st