The Woman Advantage by Augustine Togonu-Bickersteth,London, England
Government in Nigeria seems to have "fallen" into the hands of Women and this stems from the fact that Nigeria has a woman, Nngozi Okonjo Iweala as Finance Minister and Coordinator of the Economy with 40 million unemployed to contend with as well as having a Woman, Alooma Muktar as Chief Justice of the Federation These developments remind one of the words of ex British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the noted and late Economist Professor Sam Aluko.
Gordon Brown in his book , Beyond the Crash, sums up the Business of Government as that of Jobs and Justice and Sam Aluko once affirmed that at the Family level when a amother she gets into the Kitchen to prepare food she makes sure all her Children have food to eat.Its not a case of some children going to bed with more than enough and ohers going to bed with nothing.
What Sam Aluko has tried to point out is that the Nigerian Nation should be treated like one big family.
According to the Uk Charity, Save the Children, there are an estimated 11 million Nigerian Children Malnourished and that figure could rise to 13.4 million in 2020.
At one of the World food summits in Rome durng the administration of President Bill Clinton of the United states, the US. refused to sign a Document that would have made food a Human right because of the fears of wide spread litigation back home in the U.S. As at that time of the summit there were an estimated 3 million hungry Americans. You can imagine 3 millon hungry Americans fighting it up to the Supreme Court. The U.S. was not ready to go to War with Herself but if it happened that there was one well fed U.S. citizen trapped in a hostile country, the U.S. with a current defence Budget of $700 billion would be prepared to wage War with the rest of the world.
The U.S. has been able to land man on the Moon and Robots on Planet Mars but was finding it difficult to land Breakfast, Lunch and supper on the Dinning table for just three milion Americans. During the said period of hunger there were an estimated 5 million miliionaires in the U.S.Three milion Millionaires could have easily solved the problem.
Coming back to Nigeria we need to address the problem of extreme riches and extreme poverty. according to he Book. Top ten of London, by Alexander Ash Nigerians are number 3 on the list of Shopaholics in London, Saudi Arabians number 1 and kuwaitis Number 2.
On the list of Nationalities buying prime property, Nigerians are number 10. Now you would think that "10" is too poor for Nigeria but note those who own London, the UK residents, are number 9 and the U.s. citizens number 8 on the list. The average value of the Property Nigerians buy is put a £3.1 million pounds about 800 million Naira. On the streets of London you meet an army of fundraisers raising money for all kind of causes including the Welfare of Children in Nigeria.
Perhaps Nigeria does not belong to that top ten list if you look at the level of employment in the U.S. at 12.7 million with a population of 300 million, Poverty 45 million and the level of employment in Uk at 2.6 million with a population of 60 million, Child poverty 3.6 million compared to our own 40 million unemployed out of a populaton of 167 million and Poverty 100 million people.
It is not Justice for Chidren to be left to Hunger. I hope those who have been cooking enough food for their children at the Family level would work towards cooking enough food for all of 167 million Nigerians.
N.B. Hliary Clinton is the Brain behind Universal Healthcare in the U.S.. Mothers have been descibed as the best Healtcare System but remember Margret Thacther was dubbed the " MIlk Snatcher". So its not exactly automatic we would find the milk of human kindness in Women.
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