How conspiracy theories make you poorer

I will hopefully one day write about all I have learnt on world history and the Nigerian circumstance.  It is impossible to see where we are going except we know where we are coming from.  Most of the comments we hear and read, from our so-called intellectuals, tend to abridge history in the way that […]

I will hopefully one day write about all I have learnt on world history and the Nigerian circumstance.  It is impossible to see where we are going except we know where we are coming from.  Most of the comments we hear and read, from our so-called intellectuals, tend to abridge history in the way that suits them.  And it would seem as if none of the intellectuals are taking the pains to embark on a virtual, academic and empirical ARCHEOLOGY to determine Nigeria’s situation and the way forward.  If they attempted, they would have seen how inextricably linked the fortunes of black people are in the world.  In fact, how inextricably linked all of human race is.  

But those who criticise international conspiracy theories, which are indeed true accounts of events, in a world where the media is used to dispense falsehood routinely, find it easy to key into local tales by moonlight.  They find it easy to talk about ‘cabals’, ‘turai did this, turai did that…’, ‘they have eaten all the money in the country…’, ‘everybody in government is a confirmed rogue…’ and so on.  I personally do not take local conspiracy serious because, as chess games go, they don’t think more than one step forward.  Our local conspiracy, sold on by newspaper houses, only revolve around how some government official wants to steal money that he cannot spend, to develop every other country but his own.  Nigeria’s local conspiracy theories ridicule the intelligence of those who plot them, and those who believe them, as well as those who pass them on.

But talk about international conspiracy theories!  Many of them are designed to obliterate history in order for those who benefit from the misfortune and cheating of others to continue to enjoy and worse still, perpetuate great injustices through their offsprings.   But indeed, in this internet age, conspiracy theories are no longer mysteries.  Many of them can be corroborated from credible sources for those who care to know the truth.  For example, when I heard on an interview on Aljazeera (featuring Robert Fisk of the London Observer newspaper), that the USA subsidises its weapons manufacturers, I was amazed.  Then I investigated on the internet and found it to be true.  Ditto, when a Swedish Newspaper carried the news that Israeli soldiers harvest the organs and skins of Palestinians who die in the many wars and pogroms, the Israelis shouted blue murder, ‘anti-semitism’, but the truth is out there on the internet for those who care to know.  A confession was later made by the former head of Israel’s forensic agency.

But I will leave you with yet one more conspiracy theory.  And just so you know that this one is one of the originals, who this conspiracy theory will take money out of your pocket and likely make you poorer, very soon.

It is the theory going around among people who know, that Diezani Allison-Madueke’s posting as Petroleum Minister, is designed to finally kill the Petroleum Industry Bill.  Lest you forget, before coming into government, she was ED Human Resources with Shell, the singular most vehement opponent to the bill that would have reformed that sector in the way Lamido Sanusi reformed banking.  The bill is designed to get more money for this country, end the cheating that has been carried on in this country by the Oil Majors through the so-called Joint-Venture agreements, and ensure that NNPC stands on its feet as a profit-making institution.  Shell’s Ann Pickard, their Business Development Director, at the last Oil and Gas Summit in Abuja, had sworn that the bill will never see the light of day.  She said the bill wasn’t worth the paper it was written on.  Here we are, Nigerians, wearing the toga of corruption and backwardness, and when we attempt to change that destiny, our biggest adversaries are the same people who condemn us.  Nice one!

The other conspiracy has to do with Mr Aganga, ex-Goldman Sachs Hedge Fund MD, who is now our Finance Minister.  Notwithstanding that Goldman Sachs, especially the Hedge Fund where he was MD, has been indicted for fraud, the latest move by Mr Aganga is to collect loans on behalf of Nigeria to FUND BUDGET DEFICIT.  Does the country really need loans at this point in time, or are we being dug deeper into another debt crisis?  I would have thought his preoccupation is to ensure that the country’s resources are being channelled into projects that really matter, as he himself had suggested during his senate interview.  I would have thought he should institute ideological changes at the budgetary level, to ensure that the plans made for our finances coincide with value-added spending.  But no, we are rushing to sign more loans.  And for that, Aganga is now World Bank/IMF Chairman.  Dude, I’m not impressed…

These two ‘theories’ would have qualified as ‘local’ conspiracies but for the fact that behind them we have Shell, and the IMF and the World Bank, infamous and discredited for the trouble in which they sunk developing countries in the 80s and 90s with their cancerous structural adjustment programs.  Imagine that now that their host countries are in recession, their governments are creating jobs, reducing taxes, supporting both private and public companies with tax payers’ monies, reducing interest rates to near zero levels, maintaining strong currencies and so on.  When we had the same problem years ago, they asked us to devalue our currency, sack people in the public service, privatise, increase taxes, increase interest rates and so on; the EXACT opposite of what they did to their own economies.  

Before you heave a sigh of relief, I have seen on NTA, scrolling news that Nigeria will soon deregulate the energy sector, and wait for this, increase VAT by 100%, from 5% to 10%.  This was the increase that Yar’adua reversed.  We will soon begin to enjoy the dividends of Jonathan’s government, given that he was sent by God to be our Messiah, as my people have been bandying about.  We will soon begin to enjoy the benefit of U.S. ENDORSEMENT of the Jonathan government.  Increased VAT is a policy that the Westerners have been trying to sell to this country for quite a while.  Just don’t worry, call all these conspiracy theory, until it begins to steal money from your pocket, and leave you poorer.  

One last tiny conspiracy theory for those think – the solution to our problems is ON THE INTERNET.  The U.S Empire can only be tackled by appropriate use of information, which is already available, almost freely, on the internet.  We should not be ignorant, or afraid, to use information.  When we harvest information by reading good books and harnessing the internet, we will see the big picture, and realise that CONSPIRACY THEORIES ARE THE TRUTHS THEY DON’T WANT YOU TO BELIEVE.