Why I’m fighting the elite – Ben Bruce

Media mogul and senator-elect, Ben Murray Bruce has stated that he is fighting the elite because they consume the resources of the country at the expense of the poor.

Bruce, who is known to champion the cause of the masses, noted that it is absurd that a few elected officers monopolise the resources of the country, living a champagne life while majority of Nigerians live below a dollar a day.

“I am fighting against the elite. Definitely, I am fighting them. When they drink that champagne that can educate a child, they should know that I am fighting them. You don’t fly a first class in government while in your private life, you fly economy. I am totally against their lifestyles,” he said in an interview with Vanguard.

The chairman of Silverbird Group added that the level of poverty and unemployment in the country is devastating and more worrisome is the wide gap between the rich and the poor.

“We need to enact laws that favour the masses. The biggest problem in Nigeria today is that our consumption is on the high while production is low. Our leaders in APC, PDP, Labour, APGA and others are all guilty of one thing, which is consuming the resources of the majority of Nigerians.

”Imagine a situation where governors fly private jets, commissioners drive a twenty million naira car. Commissioners flying first class, living like kings while the state cannot pay salary of its workers. If a commissioner can have three or four policemen around him, who is policing the poor where they are being raped, maimed, robbed and killed?

“The question is what do we have for the masses? There are one hundred million people living on two dollars a day, in some places, the unemployment rate is 80 0r 90% and then you have governors living a champagne life. Small wonders in some places, thieves steal N50, N200, fishing nets and destroy the lives of the people”.

Bruce who said that it is illegal for elected officers to live like kings and turn the electorates to beggars, argued that the consumption behaviour of public office holders in Nigeria cannot be justified because it is against moral and ethical norms.

He expressed optimism that the administration of president-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, will not use the wealth of the country to service the lifestyle of the elite.