Sir: It has now become very common in Nigeria for people to throw lavish weddings where large local and foreign currencies are scattered everywhere and the social media are awash with various videos of people throwing caution into the wind all for the sake of trying to make an impression of affluence. Quite unfortunately, the society watches the trend and keeps mute because they think it is none of their business. The question all those engaged in such acts is whether they can do so in countries where the impact of government is visible everywhere? And if they know they cannot do so in such countries, why do it in Nigeria? The only answer is because of the weakness of the government and the fact that laws are made for only the common man to obey while the high and mighty are exempted.

Nigerian government will never realise the implications of most of the nonsense that are tolerated in the country. People are allowed to throw and scatter foreign currencies in a country where such money is not a legal tender and nobody sees anything wrong with that. Yet the same government says it has prohibited the spraying of money on people at parties and because of that, some people who were found culpable were promptly sanctioned. So does it mean that only spraying of local currency is forbidden while spraying of the one not in use in the country is allowed? It all shows lack of seriousness on the part of the government. Now that such nonsense is always going viral, what should one expect if not more ritual murders by hardened youth who would vow to have money at all costs.

The Nigerian government should wake up to its responsibilities. Sadly, all these stinkingly rich people who have so much money to throw away hardly pay adequate taxes and what the government does every time is to put more and more burdens on hapless and already impoverished citizens. In the advanced countries, the millionaires and billionaires carry most of the state burdens so that those in the lower class can breathe. But here in Nigeria, the reverse is the case. The rich hardly contribute much personally to national development apart from the taxes some of them pay on their businesses. That is why they always have so much funds at their disposal to throw around just to oppress the poor and force many into depression. Government exists in order to keep all citizens, whether rich or poor, in proper check. That, sadly, is what is missing in Nigeria.

•Jide Oyewusi is the Coordinator of Ethics Watch International, Lagos.