In Nigeria, under the mala-administration of Olusegun Obasanjo, a sitting President gathered a team of local business predators and descended into the arena of business. Agreed, the ex president is a Nigerian, free to invest (his hard earned money?). Now, how do we reconcile the conflict of interest; when a man elected or selected to protect the peoples interest, metamorphosed into a special protector of his personal interest; to the detriment of the interests of 150 million Nigerians. The business moguls, that government leaders, under Olusegun Obasanjo were jointly investing with, are the very persons against whose greed, dangerous predatory instincts, fangs, claws, tentacles and proboscis, the government ought to have protected the innocent and vulnerable populace. It is no secret that under Olusegun Obasanjo's maladministration, a few individuals virtually transferred all of Nigeria's assets, that were developed under past administrations, when Nigeria was a quasi-planned economy, into their private domain.

 

Under the guise of privatisation and liberalisation, Obasanjo's maladministration propped up some robber business barons in a weird and bizzare scheme, to acquire the people's assets. There is a legal maxim, 'nemo judex in causa sua'. Meaning, one should not be a judge in his own case. Applying this wisdom to Nigeria's political economy, it is easily  obvious, that Nigeria's leaders have been judges in their own causes; as they have been the leaders, proposing, enacting and executing laws, for the regulation of the economy and markets, whereby, these same leaders have ironically, been the biggest players. What an oxymoronic and incongruous scenario. How sad and lamentable. In all of these shameless and naked abuse of governmental powers, the Nigerian masses have been the greatest losers. The unwholesome interconnectivity between the government leaders and business titans, has created a situation where a few 'anointed' businessmen are given state protection and empowerment, to run their rivals out of the playing field. Thereby, creating vampire business monopolies and oligopolies, that have been effectively mobilised to sulk blood and daylight out of Nigeria's helpless masses.

 

A monopoly is a system whereby there is only one seller. Oligopoly is a system, in which there is a small number of sellers. Monopoly and oligopoly have become the order of the day in Nigeria, depending on the industry in question. Nigeria's government leaders have in recent years, been building monopolies and oligopolies around a few high profile business persons, to the detriment of the majority, free commercial competition, resourcefulness, quality, creativity and fair prices in Nigeria. As everyone knows, the creation and encouragement of monopolies and oligopolies is wicked, ruthless, callous, anti-people and ungodly. These obnoxious business systerms, allow a few unscrupulous business persons to reign freely over a particular industry, with no challenge nor competition. Available goods are deliberately hoarded to create false scarcity. By virtue of the laws of demand and supply; when supply is low and demand is high, prices automatically goes up. Any wonder that Nigeria's monopoly king is now a Forbes magazine billionaire. The abuse of the pricing system in a monopoly is scary. In Nigeria, the price of a bag of cement has risen from 300 naira, within a few years to 2,200 naira. Guess what, the price is still rising. All local manufactures and importers of any product, who are not government sponsored and/or protected are usually denied import licences and ruthlessly forced by sharp business practices to close shop. Usually, Nigeria's masses are always the losers. 

 

In the petroleum, textile, cement, sugar industries among others, monopolists or oligopolists depending on the industry in question are having a field day. Nigeria's refineries were deliberately denied, compulsory TAM, (Turn Around Maintenance). The refineries were subsequently forced to, shut down, thereby giving room to oligopolists to import refined gasoline and other refined petroleum products. The oligopolists effectively deployed their usual hoarding tactics, that helps create false scarcity and drives prices up astronomically, due to high demand. Take a look at any industry in Nigeria, undergoing stress and crisis, you will see Oligopolists or a monopolist. Yes, you guessed right, they are all smiling to the banks. What is most worrisome about this unfortunate situation is the role of the government in this whole mess. The Obasanjo maladministration, that is. It is virtually impossible for any one or a few business men to successfully engage in sharp business practices, that would force other players in the said industry out of the playing field, without the active connivance and protection of the government. Here, we are talking about a government that ought to be protecting the people, by virtue of the social contract theory. Great protagonists of the Social Contract theory, like Hans Kelson, must be turning in their graves.

 

Monopoly prevents competition. When there is competition, the masses who are the end users, enjoy the best products at the best prices. Consumers get greater product variety. Where there is little or no competition, the monopoly and oligopoly kings would have no reason to engage in research for better products, quality control, cutting edge technology, better trained workers and excellent customer service. Even countries compete to provide the best available investment climate for multi national corporations and other assorted investors by making huge budgetary allocations and provision of other resources for the developement of infrastructure, energy generation and distribution; and a better trained workforce.

 

By encouraging monopoly and oligopoly, the Obasanjo administration placed Nigeria's economy on a retroactive, reactionary and retrogressive, roller coaster ride to atavism and nihilism. The right of every citizen to life and dignity of the human person is seriously infringed upon, when citizens cannot freely compete in a market overt to enable them provide for themselves and their families. When businesses are forced to shut down because of the underhand and sharp practices of government sponsored monopolists and oligopolists, many citizens are forced into the unemployment market; with serious consequential untold hardship, usually endured by such unemployed citizens and their dependent families. Government officials, who conspired with these vampire business men to enable such businessmen reap strange profits are also thereby dubiously enriched.

 

The emergence of monopolists and oligopolists in Nigeria is not unprecedented. What is unprecedented and globally shocking is the undisputable fact, that Nigeria is the pioneer and trail blazer in the art of state sponsorship and state protection of monopolists and oligopolists in a capitalist society. In all other countries, on planet earth, where monopolists and oligopolists have dared to raised their ugly heads; it has always been the noble and profound duty of the state to dismantle the business machines of these bandits. In the early 1900's, very wealthy and extremely powerful monopists and oligopolists emerged in the U.S.A.. These men were notoriously referred to as the Robber Barons. According to the FIDC website "The term robber barons was revived in the 19th century as a perjorative term describing businessmen who allegedly use unscrupulous tactics in their business operations and on the stock market to amass huge personal fortunes. Many of their massive businesses controlled a large majority of all activities in their respective industries, often arrived at through predatory pricing schemes that are now illegal. Some of the most notable notable robber barons were J.P. Morgan (Banking), John Davidson Rockefeller (Oil), and Andrew Carnegie (Steel)."

 

These business behemoths that dominated and controlled whole industries were known as Trusts. They were esentially monopolies and oligopolies. They were at the time, dangerously in charge of whole chunks of the American economy. The ruthless, callous and predatory activities of these Trusts inspired the emergence of a trend referred to as Trust Bursting in early America. Trust bursting is about the efforts of successive American federal administrations to dismantle the anti-masses business behemoths. Three remarkable American presidents are best known for their tireless efforts in getting these Trusts dissolved. They are President Theodore Roosevelt, William Taft and  Woodrow Wilson.

 

Again as reported on the FDIC website, [in 1911,] "The United States Supreme Court ruled that Standard Oil, which had 64 percent market share, is a monopoly and orders it to be broken up, resulting in the creation of 37 new companies". The break-up of Standard Oil gave birth to Texaco, Exxon, Chevron etcetera. It is interesting and instructive for opponents of free enterprise and free commercial competition to understand, that bursting Trusts or breaking-up monopolies is not about preventing businesses from making profits, but to prevent a dominant business outfit from stiffling competition.

 

When a responsible government creates an economic atmosphere, that encourages  free enterprise and  healthy commercial competition; a culture that encourages research and development of cutting edge technology, equitable and fair prices of commodities will thrive. The masses will receive true value for their money. Every market player will have a level playing field to operate. There will be no economic draculas, commercial predators nor other assorted business vampires.   

 

ANTHONY OKOSUN (TONYOSUN@YAHOO.CO.UK)  

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