Not too long ago, a survey of some of the developing economies revealed Nigerian bureaucracy to be not just one of the least efficient and one of the most corrupt, further it was also found that working with the Nigeria’s civil servants was a "slow and painful" process.
As early as the 1970, the blend of the oil boom into the liberalization of the Nigerian economy and the attendant developments gradually opened up the economic skies but every consequent government unfortunately tightened its hold over the resources. This brought to the surface the practices of kickbacks, both during disinvestment and offering government contracts, while setting up of industries by foreign businesses were soon employing same corrupt practices to survive in Nigeria.
Over the years, several reasons have been cited by various schools of thought regarding the sustained existence of corrupt practices within the Nigerian bureaucratic system, leading among them is its nexus with political corruption, lack of accountability and low regulatory controls. Others have suggested a rigid bureaucracy with an exclusivist process of decision making in an overly-centralized government as the reason its pervasiveness despite the passing years. In fact surveys have found it to be most resistant to transformation in its ways of functioning, even after repeated efforts by successive governments. Some experts believe that a fall out of the existing corruption and red tapism can be detrimental to the Nigerian economy in the long run, as foreign investors in a rapidly global, economies of the world still view entering into Nigeria as a monumental challenge and plagued as it remains both with political and bureaucratic corruption as well as systematic inefficiency which leads to long turn around period as project delays cause cost escalations in volatile market economies.
It is not possible to run any kind of government whether a military dictatorship or a democracy without a large number servants of the State to ensure that the orders of the “Ruler” are carried out. In Nigeria, for instance, prior to the emergence of democracy, which in itself is a relatively new form of governance, the Executive President or Governor appointed his servants i.e. Ministers, Commissioners, Special Assistants, etc from among his relatives and favourites. They were responsible to him and held their office at his whim and pleasure. Thus their loyalty is invariably only to him and not to the people
Be it said to the ninety years old tradition of the Nigerian Civil Service that it did not, for a very long time, in spite of their salaries having become meagre, become parties to dishonesty, fraud and corruption. Corruption descended to the Civil Services from the top and did not do so till it had thoroughly soaked the political world. In other words, both the military and politicians are culpable and have contributed a lot to the plight of the civil service.
Due to the very nature of the Nigerian Constitution, both politicians and the military have been opposed to the independence of the Civil Services from the very beginning, and this has contributed in no small measure to why he has become as corrupt as he is now. That Constitution is based on ideas which are still not understood or acceptable to the vast majority of the Nigerian people although they might be acceptable to the tiny minority which has received a westernised education. Those ideas are democracy, equality, secularism, human rights and, above all, the Rule of Law. All these ideas are of foreign origin and they are contrary to our traditions.
In this context, where does the civil servant fit in? His function is to implement the law. This is regarded by the politician as a check on his power and that check is unacceptable to him. There is, consequently, a continuous war between civil servants who try and live up to the democratic concept of the Rule of Law. The weapon used to bend civil servants to the minister's will is frequent transfers or even dismissals which ruin a man's life. Once having said goodbye to one's conscience, it would be foolish not to also become a partner in the loot that is so easily available. There is unfortunately no denying the fact that an increasing number of civil servants are now corrupt.
Another factor which has changed the position of the civil service is the spread of corruption at all levels throughout the country. Not too long after Independence the whole country seems to have changed its religion. The worship of and strict belief in God was replaced by the worship and celebration of Mammon. The economic policies we adopted, the strict control over private industry and the interference of the military in governance placed enormous powers in governmental hands and gave both, the politicians and the bureaucrat, an opportunity to make money.
Yet another factor, which is more or less a widely held belief in Nigeria was the purge of the Civil Service by the Murtala/Obasanjo military administration of the mid-70s in which many civil servants found themselves without any property and/or retirement plan to fall back on after the sudden purge. Successive senior managers thus resolved never to be caught unawares again, and therefore started preparing for such future sudden purges by dipping their hands in the treasury or by engaging in bribery and corruption to secure a comfortable life out of service whenever this occurs. The corruption soon escalated in proportion and dripped down to even the most junior civil servant in all kind of ways.
A modern Civil Service, with its well-defined regulations, defines what qualifications its members should have, how they should be chosen, the duties they have to perform and their own rights regarding their salaries, their security in service and the like, is linked with democracy and the Rule of Law which is one of its prime functional features.
The establishment of the Nigerian Civil Service dates back to 13th March 1862 when the British government declared its interest in the Port and Island of Lagos under the title of the settlement of Lagos. A government was constituted and provision was made for the various posts of Governor, Chief Magistrate, Colonial Secretary and Senior Military Officers. The Offices of Private Secretary to the Governor and Auditor for Public Accounts, Chief Clerk, Collector of Customs, Judge Gaoler and Registrar were established shortly afterwards.
By 1906, the British Government had extended its authority over most of Nigeria. The Government began to establish its instruments of Law and Order such as Departments of Judiciary, Police, Prisons and added Public Works Department and the Departments of Customs, Ports and Telegraph, Marine and Mines in quick succession. (Ref: http://www.hosf.gov.ng/civil_service_2)
In spite of the foregoing, the origin of the Nigerian Civil Service can best be traced to the administration of Lord Lugard who was the Governor-General of the amalgamated administration of Northern and Southern Nigeria from 1914. The real structure of the service as we now know it was put in place by Sir Hugh Clifford who succeeded Lord Lugard and was appointed Governor of Nigeria. He established a Central Secretariat in Lagos in 1921.
In 1939 similar Secretariats were established for the three broad groups of Provinces administered from Ibadan, Enugu and Kaduna. The 1940s and 1950s saw the emergence of the Nationalist Nigerian Administrator and marked the beginning of a truly Nigerian Civil Service. This period also marked the beginning of pressures for Reforms in the Nigerian Political and Civil Service Structure. Since 1945 various panels have been set up by various governments to study and make recommendations for the reforming of the Civil Service. Prominent amongst these were the Tudoe Davies Commission of 1945; the Harragin Commission of 1946; the Gorsuch Commission of 1954; the Mbanefo Commission of 1959; the Margan Commission of 1963; the Adebo Commission of 1971 and the Udoji Commission of 1972-74. The outcome of the reports of the various panels impacted on the structure of the service and the remuneration and productivity of the Civil Servant.
The changes also from the Westminster model to the Presidential System of Government over time also impacted on efficiency, effectiveness and productivity of the Civil Service. The Dotun Philips Panel of 1985 attempted to address observed lapses and inadequacies of the Civil Service. The promulgation of the 1988 Civil Service (Reorganization Decree No.43) had tremendous impact as well on the structure and the efficient performance of the Civil Service. Subsequent study group report as the Ayida Panel not only reversed some of the structural innovations but endeavoured to reinstate the noble values of the Civil Service of the glorious past. (Ref: http://www.hosf.gov.ng/civil_service_2)
Other major efforts aimed at repositioning the Civil Service to meet the challenges of the 21st Century as well as the aspirations of government are manifested in the ongoing "Public Service Reform". The mission of the Reform is to build "a public service that is performance and results-oriented, customer-driven, investor-friendly, professional, technologically sensitive, accountable, fostering partnerships with all stakeholders and committed to a continuous improvement in government business and the enhancement of overall national productivity".
In August 2009 the Head of the Civil Service, Stephen Osagiede Oronsaye, proposed reforms where permanent secretaries and directors would spend a maximum of eight years in office. The reform was approved by late President Umaru Yar'Adua. Stephen Oronsaye said that his goal is for the Nigerian civil service to be among the best organized and managed in the world.
On November 18, 2010, Professor Oladapo Afolabi OON was appointed and sworn-in as the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation. He is an Applied Chemist/Biochemist who has specialized in environmental and food/nutritional chemistry and had began his academic career in 1976 as a Graduate Assistant at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife and where he rose to the position of Reader in 1990. In November 1990, he was appointed Professor and Head of Department of Pure and Applied Chemistry at the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso.
His Career in the Federal Public Service commenced when he joined the defunct Federal Environmental Protection Agency (FEPA) in 1991 as a Manager where he served in various capacities before the Agency was dissolved to form the Federal Ministry of Environment in 1999.
On creation of the Ministry of Environment in 1999, Professor Afolabi was absorbed as a pioneer staff. Subsequently, he was appointed as the Coordinator of the Department of Pollution Control and Environmental Health and later as the Director, Department of Pollution Control and Environmental Health, effective 1991.
On October 20, 2006, Professor Afolabi was appointed as a Permanent Secretary of the Federal Civil Service of Nigeria.
As a Permanent Secretary, Professor Afolabi has served in the following Ministries:
• Federal Ministry of Labour, June 2007 – November, 2007
• Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources, November 2007 – February, 2009
• Cabinet Secretariat, Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, February 2009 – August 2009
• Federal Ministry of Education, August 2009 – November, 2010
Since 1999, the pace of reforms in the Federal Civil Service quickened as government strived to reposition the service for improved service delivery and to dispel the perception of the Nigerian Civil Service as a corrupt, unwieldy, over-bloated, and inefficient institution. A major thrust of these reform efforts is the capacity building of civil servants to foster acquisition of knowledge, skills and attitudes matching the demands of public service in the 21st century and for a country aiming to be among the top 20 economies by 2020.
On assumption of office in November 2010, Professor Afolabi moved very quickly, keenly and proactively to build on the gains of his predecessors in the area of capacity building by initiating novel and bold strands of activities. First is the provision of high-level training for Permanent Secretaries by staff of the Kennedy Business School, Harvard University, USA and the second initiative is the e-Learning initiative
The major objective of this project is to link competency testing to promotion in the Federal Civil Service via e-Learning, taking into consideration the over 100 cadres with many different categories of specializations within the service. The base courses will be designed for all Civil Servants irrespective of areas of specialization; and grade courses from Level 8 to Level 17, with each grade having its own level of complexity.
E-learning is justified because of the following:
• Personal choice will run throughout the entire project where employees are given the opportunity to learn at their desk, or at learning centres or even in their own homes, thus offering flexibility which is appealing.
• E-Learning will also reach employees who have traditionally resisted any formal training, and hence change.
• It will also provide ready access to the managerial and change management skills needed – and do so affordably.
• Employees can also tap into the online and other learning programmes to sharpen existing skills retrain through acquiring new skills and improving knowledge in relevant areas.
During this period of global change, e-learning needs to form part of the overall learning strategy – whether it is for induction, re-skilling, promotion, performance management or management and leadership training for all staff. Eventually, everyone will have access because everyone – individual, organisation or the country as a whole – can benefit
Accompanying this initiative is the plan to make available to all the 197,000 civil servants each a laptop computer to aid in accessing on-line training and taking progression tests and examinations.
To this end, the Online Training Programme for the Federal Civil Service has already taken off, initiated and implemented by the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (OHCSF) and the Manpower Development Office of the OHFCS with the full backing and commitment of the Federal Government and the inclusion, participation and technical expertise of various organisations such the Nigeria Universities Commission, Nigcomstat, Richfield Technologies, Galaxy BB Ltd; and the Public Service Institute of Nigeria (PSIN), Administrative Staff College of Nigeria (ASCON) and Centre for Management Development (CMD) as the executing agencies as well as several Consultants each with specialised areas of training, modules and units development, etc.
Moving this forward with gusto, excellence, patriotic zeal, selflessness, commitment, experience, professionalism and esprit de corps are, amongst others, Professor Peter Okebukola, former Executive Secretary of the Nigeria Universities Commission, NUC, and his team of professionals – The Okebukola Technical Team; Mrs Nkechi Ejele, Permanent Secretary of the Manpower Development Office of the Office of the Head of Service; Dr Habibat Lawal, Deputy Director (Training) – “The Lawal Training Team”; Dr Francisca Odeka, - The Odeka Module Development Team, and Mrs Moni Udoh, Assistant Director in the Office of the Head of Service.
The overall vision is “about building the capacity of the Civil Service to be responsive to major changes which are occurring, to be flexible and adaptive and to seize opportunities”, Prof Afolabi said, adding that changes in working environment have increased instability and magnified many of the challenges that were being faced at local, community, national and international levels. He lamented the fact that promotion in the service was on the basis of seniority rather than results and their substantive contributions.
“We reward people for patronage instead of for innovation and achievements. To break out of this morass will require a massive cultural change in our civil service practice and ethos,’’ he said
A new dawn has come to the Nigerian Federal Civil Service, and hence to Nigeria as a whole. It is a legacy that Prof Afolabi wants to leave behind and wants to be sustainable.
All we need is a few good men and women!
Wednesday, 30 March 2011
Friday, 25 February 2011
Party Politics And The 2011 Elections
In previous articles, since 2007 I have always defended and given the excuse for our aberrant democratic practice as being nascent, (i.e. new, embryonic, blossoming, hopeful, promising, and budding). In fact, I try very hard to believe in my own folly, always trying seriously to believe myself that we cannot perfect our brand of democracy so soon. After all, as they say, Rome was not built in a day, and even the great democracies of the modern world like the United States of America and Great Britain also had several decades, if not centuries, of teething problems.
Now, after almost 12 years of groping about in darkness (literarily talking about the electricity problem in the country) I have come to the conclusion that our democracy should be termed “nauseous” instead of the gratifying “nascent”. Nigerians have succeeded in making democracy a farce, against all logical odds and historical precedents. In fact, we have, or are developing a new system of politics called “Selecto-cracy” or as we also like to term it “Demo-crazy”. Very innovative people, my people! But not always in the right direction!
Party politics is defined as political acts and principles directed toward the interests of one political party or its members without reference to the common good. So we see that party politics is mainly for the benefit of the party members. In Nigeria this is even more so where corruption and nepotism are the motivating factor for forming political alliances and seeking elective offices.
A Nigerian in office would like his/her party to be the only party; for instance, the leaders of the PDP want a one party dominance; they want to control everything in Nigeria from the local to the federal levels. Unfortunately, this is not for the good of the country itself or for the benefit of those they want to control – the people of Nigeria. In all fairness, this phenomenon is not unique to Nigerians; it occurs all over the African continent. It is a cultural thing, ingrained in us for centuries. Fortunately for us, Nigerians do not suffer fools gladly, and I believe ultimately, despite our seeming complacency and docility at the polls, we will get our act together and start rooting out bad politicians, bad leadership and bad political parties.
It's an elementary yet interesting question, "Would the 2011 General election, incorporating party politics, matter to the average Nigerian?" For most, the answer is probably yes. There is no doubt that most Nigerians, from the poorest to the most-well-to-do, from the crooked politician to the few well-meaning politicians, have an interest in where this country is headed, and that being the case, you would certainly have to be interested in who is pulling the reins. However, many of us are quite cynical in terms of our faith in the system that puts our various leaders – Federal, State and Local Governments - in their various offices.
The primary concerns that many Nigerians have about our political structure is not only the influence of money in the process, but the danger, and a very glaring one at that, of putting the wrong people in power, as we always seem to have done election after election (or is it selection after selection). Let's be candid here...the average Nigerian, who struggles every day to make an honest living as even a small time entrepreneur, hasn't got a chance in hell of ascending to an elective office at any level. Even if he has several brilliant ideas that can improve the lives of the people even minutely, improve the electricity, reduce corruption, provide jobs, and protect our integrity, etc, he/she is going to be sharing those in the pepper soup joints and beer parlours for the rest of his days, all because nobody’s going to ever give him a chance, not even his kin from his village. That's right my people, this presidential political system that we are trying very hard to work out is a very exclusive club...a club for mega-billionaires who achieved their dubious wealth through massive corruption.
It's scornful, isn't it? Every four years (that is, if the dates are not shifted or if INEC is well organised) we get inundated with a parade of very dodgy and questionable characters, proven (already holding one political office or the other) or unproven (calculating opportunists who want to hold office so they can continue looting the treasury), who declare their understanding of the common man, yet not one of them shares the common man's plight, in fact, they are far removed from the reality on the streets, yet you wonder “how can”? Weren’t you drinking or walking the streets with these guys just a few months ago? So why can’t they know what is hurting Nigerians? Why are they so insulated from the daily suffering of their people around them?
In Nigeria, there are today at least 64 political parties registered with INEC, I will not mention names, since they are too many, but all of our "Third Parties" are a joke, I call them Third Parties because, to be truthful, only two parties; the murderous and deceptive PDP and the undemocratic and equally deceptive ACN, are the big parties, (actually because we do not have a choice, we have to go with them despite their very grave shortcomings and miserable excuses for political parties where none of these parties will are based purely on ideology)
The point is, very few of us have actually ever heard of these parties. Certainly, none of us have ever seen them win a major race. When they enter, they don't have a chance, and the best they can hope for is to upset the balance between the big parties. So essentially, Nigeria is a two-party political system. Well, maybe throw in the CPC and the ANPP, and what have you got? Nothing really! Well, you get the idea.
So why do we have all these contenders? A close look at these “Third Parties” shows that the reasons for their being are most times not altruistic. Many alter egos of these emerging political parties just registered them to enable them control one or two states and rip the economic gains flowing from the allocation. With our gradual political maturity, these miserable excuses called political parties look threatened and I will not be surprised if these mushroom parties go extinct as it will not be business as usual. I see a situation where three or four parties will remain players in the political field. Eventually, they will dump their parties for the enduring parties.
Most people view a third party vote as a wasted vote. Ultimately it has no long-term effect on the election, and can often become tools of the major parties. In the end, however, third parties in our country have no real hope of winning any but the most insignificant elections.
But would our vote ever count? Check history! In Nigeria, history has consistently shown that the people who cast the votes decide nothing; it is those who count, that is, rig, the votes that decide everything. This is one of the reasons why the late legal icon Gani Fawehinmi said that in our country, "corruption has many grand children". Corruption is multifaceted.
Twelve years into this "nascent” or rather, “nauseous” democracy", little or nothing has happened to improve the lot of Nigerians. While illegal and excessive pay for legislators, fist-fights and bribe-cash display occur in the Legislature, unnecessary world-wide gallivanting, executive interference in the legislature, executive chicanery, electricity is still erratic, personal security of life and property is still non-existent, jobs remain a mirage, three-meals-a-day is a luxury for most, the people are "shuffering" but certainly not "shmiling." apologies to the late Great Fela Anikulapo-Kuti. Wasn’t it the late Fela again who labelled these our leaders “Vagabonds In Power” VIP? – What a great vision since the 70s?
Yet we talk about some elites jockeying and calculating for raw power in this forthcoming election of 2011. The voter registration process, party registration process, conventions and choice of candidates have resulted in bitter battles because clear electoral reforms to prevent rigging have not been put into place despite knowing about these several years ago. It is always “fire brigade” approach.
The current party chieftains are experts at rigging, and therefore know what kinds of trickery they each played to get to where they are now, and will probably want to prevent others from taking the same advantage of them now that they are re-aligned in different camps.
The irony is that despite our fears, our collective shouting and rendering our voices hoarse to deaf ears, we will survive the ensuing disaster, just as we survived, barely though, Obasanjo’s bare-faced election frauds of 2003 and 2007. Even now, he is still trying his hands in Ogun State.
According to Victor E. Dike “State Administration and Acrimonious Party Politics” (Nigeria Village Square, 23 September 2007) “Nigeria’s politics has been, and remains dominated by crooks whose stock in trade is corruption; and that is one of the reasons for Nigeria’s wasteful and ineffective governance and acrimonious party politics. For these crooks and their political parties a state could better be destroyed if they are out of political power. It has been business as usual in state administration in spite of all the fantastic campaign promises. …..The cast of characters in state politics seem to lack the moral purpose to affect the needed change in the grassroots. There has been no major shift in the nation’s political atmosphere; many of them do not understand the purpose of leadership and politics. Consequently, daily life in the grassroots has been harsh and brutish because like the previous corrupt governors and local government administrators the officials are working for their personal interest. However, because of Nigeria’s acrimonious party politics and corruption their monthly allocations are not being properly utilized”.
I will let you in on a secret or rather how I plan to vote. Simply, I am not voting for parties; I am voting for individuals. If the candidate in my local government ward is a PDP man and I trust him or think he will perform for my ward, I will vote him in. If the Local Government Chairmanship candidate is a man I think I can trust to deliver the dividends of democracy to my grass-root level is an ACN man or a Labour Party man, then I will vote for him. If the man looking to be my State Governor is a CPC man and I trust him to work hard for me and his state, then I will not hesitate to vote for him; the same goes for the Presidency, Senatorial, House of Representatives and the State Assembly. In other words, I am not voting according to the party; I am not playing party politics, I am voting for my choice of candidate, not political party. Fortunately, I am not a member of any political party in Nigeria.
But let us pray this works, but for me, this is the only method/solution I have now.
Let the Truth be said always.
Now, after almost 12 years of groping about in darkness (literarily talking about the electricity problem in the country) I have come to the conclusion that our democracy should be termed “nauseous” instead of the gratifying “nascent”. Nigerians have succeeded in making democracy a farce, against all logical odds and historical precedents. In fact, we have, or are developing a new system of politics called “Selecto-cracy” or as we also like to term it “Demo-crazy”. Very innovative people, my people! But not always in the right direction!
Party politics is defined as political acts and principles directed toward the interests of one political party or its members without reference to the common good. So we see that party politics is mainly for the benefit of the party members. In Nigeria this is even more so where corruption and nepotism are the motivating factor for forming political alliances and seeking elective offices.
A Nigerian in office would like his/her party to be the only party; for instance, the leaders of the PDP want a one party dominance; they want to control everything in Nigeria from the local to the federal levels. Unfortunately, this is not for the good of the country itself or for the benefit of those they want to control – the people of Nigeria. In all fairness, this phenomenon is not unique to Nigerians; it occurs all over the African continent. It is a cultural thing, ingrained in us for centuries. Fortunately for us, Nigerians do not suffer fools gladly, and I believe ultimately, despite our seeming complacency and docility at the polls, we will get our act together and start rooting out bad politicians, bad leadership and bad political parties.
It's an elementary yet interesting question, "Would the 2011 General election, incorporating party politics, matter to the average Nigerian?" For most, the answer is probably yes. There is no doubt that most Nigerians, from the poorest to the most-well-to-do, from the crooked politician to the few well-meaning politicians, have an interest in where this country is headed, and that being the case, you would certainly have to be interested in who is pulling the reins. However, many of us are quite cynical in terms of our faith in the system that puts our various leaders – Federal, State and Local Governments - in their various offices.
The primary concerns that many Nigerians have about our political structure is not only the influence of money in the process, but the danger, and a very glaring one at that, of putting the wrong people in power, as we always seem to have done election after election (or is it selection after selection). Let's be candid here...the average Nigerian, who struggles every day to make an honest living as even a small time entrepreneur, hasn't got a chance in hell of ascending to an elective office at any level. Even if he has several brilliant ideas that can improve the lives of the people even minutely, improve the electricity, reduce corruption, provide jobs, and protect our integrity, etc, he/she is going to be sharing those in the pepper soup joints and beer parlours for the rest of his days, all because nobody’s going to ever give him a chance, not even his kin from his village. That's right my people, this presidential political system that we are trying very hard to work out is a very exclusive club...a club for mega-billionaires who achieved their dubious wealth through massive corruption.
It's scornful, isn't it? Every four years (that is, if the dates are not shifted or if INEC is well organised) we get inundated with a parade of very dodgy and questionable characters, proven (already holding one political office or the other) or unproven (calculating opportunists who want to hold office so they can continue looting the treasury), who declare their understanding of the common man, yet not one of them shares the common man's plight, in fact, they are far removed from the reality on the streets, yet you wonder “how can”? Weren’t you drinking or walking the streets with these guys just a few months ago? So why can’t they know what is hurting Nigerians? Why are they so insulated from the daily suffering of their people around them?
In Nigeria, there are today at least 64 political parties registered with INEC, I will not mention names, since they are too many, but all of our "Third Parties" are a joke, I call them Third Parties because, to be truthful, only two parties; the murderous and deceptive PDP and the undemocratic and equally deceptive ACN, are the big parties, (actually because we do not have a choice, we have to go with them despite their very grave shortcomings and miserable excuses for political parties where none of these parties will are based purely on ideology)
The point is, very few of us have actually ever heard of these parties. Certainly, none of us have ever seen them win a major race. When they enter, they don't have a chance, and the best they can hope for is to upset the balance between the big parties. So essentially, Nigeria is a two-party political system. Well, maybe throw in the CPC and the ANPP, and what have you got? Nothing really! Well, you get the idea.
So why do we have all these contenders? A close look at these “Third Parties” shows that the reasons for their being are most times not altruistic. Many alter egos of these emerging political parties just registered them to enable them control one or two states and rip the economic gains flowing from the allocation. With our gradual political maturity, these miserable excuses called political parties look threatened and I will not be surprised if these mushroom parties go extinct as it will not be business as usual. I see a situation where three or four parties will remain players in the political field. Eventually, they will dump their parties for the enduring parties.
Most people view a third party vote as a wasted vote. Ultimately it has no long-term effect on the election, and can often become tools of the major parties. In the end, however, third parties in our country have no real hope of winning any but the most insignificant elections.
But would our vote ever count? Check history! In Nigeria, history has consistently shown that the people who cast the votes decide nothing; it is those who count, that is, rig, the votes that decide everything. This is one of the reasons why the late legal icon Gani Fawehinmi said that in our country, "corruption has many grand children". Corruption is multifaceted.
Twelve years into this "nascent” or rather, “nauseous” democracy", little or nothing has happened to improve the lot of Nigerians. While illegal and excessive pay for legislators, fist-fights and bribe-cash display occur in the Legislature, unnecessary world-wide gallivanting, executive interference in the legislature, executive chicanery, electricity is still erratic, personal security of life and property is still non-existent, jobs remain a mirage, three-meals-a-day is a luxury for most, the people are "shuffering" but certainly not "shmiling." apologies to the late Great Fela Anikulapo-Kuti. Wasn’t it the late Fela again who labelled these our leaders “Vagabonds In Power” VIP? – What a great vision since the 70s?
Yet we talk about some elites jockeying and calculating for raw power in this forthcoming election of 2011. The voter registration process, party registration process, conventions and choice of candidates have resulted in bitter battles because clear electoral reforms to prevent rigging have not been put into place despite knowing about these several years ago. It is always “fire brigade” approach.
The current party chieftains are experts at rigging, and therefore know what kinds of trickery they each played to get to where they are now, and will probably want to prevent others from taking the same advantage of them now that they are re-aligned in different camps.
The irony is that despite our fears, our collective shouting and rendering our voices hoarse to deaf ears, we will survive the ensuing disaster, just as we survived, barely though, Obasanjo’s bare-faced election frauds of 2003 and 2007. Even now, he is still trying his hands in Ogun State.
According to Victor E. Dike “State Administration and Acrimonious Party Politics” (Nigeria Village Square, 23 September 2007) “Nigeria’s politics has been, and remains dominated by crooks whose stock in trade is corruption; and that is one of the reasons for Nigeria’s wasteful and ineffective governance and acrimonious party politics. For these crooks and their political parties a state could better be destroyed if they are out of political power. It has been business as usual in state administration in spite of all the fantastic campaign promises. …..The cast of characters in state politics seem to lack the moral purpose to affect the needed change in the grassroots. There has been no major shift in the nation’s political atmosphere; many of them do not understand the purpose of leadership and politics. Consequently, daily life in the grassroots has been harsh and brutish because like the previous corrupt governors and local government administrators the officials are working for their personal interest. However, because of Nigeria’s acrimonious party politics and corruption their monthly allocations are not being properly utilized”.
I will let you in on a secret or rather how I plan to vote. Simply, I am not voting for parties; I am voting for individuals. If the candidate in my local government ward is a PDP man and I trust him or think he will perform for my ward, I will vote him in. If the Local Government Chairmanship candidate is a man I think I can trust to deliver the dividends of democracy to my grass-root level is an ACN man or a Labour Party man, then I will vote for him. If the man looking to be my State Governor is a CPC man and I trust him to work hard for me and his state, then I will not hesitate to vote for him; the same goes for the Presidency, Senatorial, House of Representatives and the State Assembly. In other words, I am not voting according to the party; I am not playing party politics, I am voting for my choice of candidate, not political party. Fortunately, I am not a member of any political party in Nigeria.
But let us pray this works, but for me, this is the only method/solution I have now.
Let the Truth be said always.
Revisiting The Remunerations of Nigerian Legislators: Time For Action
I am really sorry I have to bring this up again, but my conscience, frustration and disgust will not allow me to rest. I have written several times about this issue, but because the situation is getting worse, I still have to write about it.
Whilst in Abuja just this week, I learnt that each Nigerian Senator had just collected 42 million Naira as their salaries, expenses and whatever. Each Member of the House of Representative had just collected 36 Million Naira. These are per quarter, which means each Senator gets (I will not say “earn” because judging from the very low quality services they provide to Nigeria, we could hardly say they earned these huge sums of money) 164 million Naira per year – and there 109 of these parasites. A simple calculation therefore means 109 Senators X 164 million Naira X 4 years = 71,504,000,000 or 71 Billion Naira for 4 years. In other words, each Senator will take home 656 Million Naira in 4 years. Not a bad little earner, is it?
For the House of Representatives, there are 360 of these parasites. Each gets 36 Million per quarter, which translates to 144 million per year per Member. The calculation of their drain on the Nigerian treasury is 360 X 144 million Naira X 4 years = 207,360,000,000 or 207 Billion Naira. Each member of the House of Representatives will take home 576 Million Naira after 4 years, laughing all the way to the bank.
According to some reports, “each Senator will pocket 720 million Naira in four years, while each House of Representative member will get 540 million Naira. These sums do not include the approved pay by RMAFC which they also collect. Senate President David Mark gets 250 million Naira per quarter; Deputy Senate President Ekweremadu 150 million Naira; and each of the eight remaining principal officers 78 million Naira”. Wow!
Lord have mercy on my poor people of Nigeria. What a waste? What a damn waste? What a thievery and cheating and injustice? And what an aberration of democracy? What an expensive type of democracy we are running here. I am in the dark here!
It is no wonder that Nigerians are yet to see the dividends of democracy, over 11 years later Nigeria’s democracy must surely be the most expensive ever run on this planet called Earth and if nothing is done quickly to stem this looting tide, it may come to a time that there will be no money to run the government beyond paying the swollen salaries and allowances of our public office holders. It is definitely unsustainable, profligate, and wasteful and does not yield the desired result. Our democracy, much as we desire it, is run by thieves, opportunists, charlatans and never-do-wells.
Compatriots, think of what these huge sums of money can do if diverted to building power plants to rescue us from our comatose power problem; funding railway and road construction; funding education; reviving agriculture; funding hospitals and dispensaries; rescuing our moribund sports development; developing the Niger Delta; even, paying salaries of teachers and the pension entitlements of our pensioners. I will throw in funding the proper training and arming of the Nigeria Police Force.
Okey Ndibe called it “A Feeding Frenzy”. NEXT's Musikilu Mojeed and Elor Nkereuwem christened it “An Assembly for Looting” saying “Considering that Nigeria's minimum wage stands at ?5, 500 a month, each senator's quarterly allowance "will pay for 2,909 workers earning the minimum wage." The reporters offered other tantalizing projections. If Nigerians were to fire the entire membership of the National Assembly, the savings would be more than enough to "fund the N88.5billion" Mr. Umaru Yar'Adua budgeted this year for building power plants. Alternatively, we could "fund hospitals and clinics" all over Nigeria, "fix the Benin-Ore Expressway, which has collapsed, or make a significant down payment on the Lagos-Kano railway line”. The Tribune editorialised this perilous trend as “Poverty Inflicted by Profligacy”. Whatever it is, Nigeria cannot sustain or afford this waste.
The fact is Nigerian politicians have turned themselves into instant millionaires just for being members of the National Assembly, paying themselves huge, obscene and unjustified salaries and allowances not commensurate with their very low productivity and without doing anything worthwhile for the country, for you and me, or for humanity. They are “Legis-looters”, “Dis-Honourables” and “Execu-thieves”.
What visible difference has their representations made in the lives of the represented Nigerians to give them the false idea that they deserve their present salary talk less of a pay rise? Please, someone tell me: how many bills have these odious, greedy and lazy thieves passed into law since 1999? Do we actually know what they are doing except some of them using big vocabularies? What are we getting in return for their large obnoxious salaries and expenses? Why are Nigerians funding their expensive lifestyles, and getting zero in return? What kind of legitimate work can anybody do in Nigeria that will fetch such atrocious remuneration or salary?
Our law-makers are overpaid and underworked and what do they do? The only time Nigerian legislators suddenly become vocal and creative (according to Reuben Abati) is when they are hustling for jumbo pay and allowances. This is the case not only in Abuja but also in the states, where the members of the Houses of Assembly are perpetually fighting the Governor to give them more money.
Most of the lawmakers, Federal, State and even the Local Government Councillors are mostly absent, running after and making dubious political and financial deals, “busy chasing contracts in government departments or peddling influence around town, or busy harassing companies and MDAs over which they exercise oversight functions”. (Reuben Abati). Anytime they say they want to visit MDAs, etc, it is actually to go and demand and collect money from the hapless civil servants, or else they will institute investigations into their affairs, they always threaten. Compatriots, yes, it is that bad.
At the same time, no Bill gets passed unless individuals and organisations pay bribes to these “legis-looters”, despite their already huge remunerations. Yes, believe it. I know. I have been keenly following a struggle to get the National Assembly to pass a Bill to establish an agency which will be of tremendous benefit for the health and safety of Nigerians and huge sums have had to be paid to lawmakers just to get the bill passed, and it has not even happened. They keep demanding more and more everyday.
For Ministries and Government departments and parastatals to get their budgets approved, they have to factor into their respective budget what will go to the legislators as bribes.
Yet, how many Bills and Acts have these politicians passed since 1999? Help me out here, dear brothers and sisters. I am in the dark here. I can’t put my finger on a single Bill since 1999. Their services to this battered and abused country are not commensurate to their remunerations, and this is the bottom line!
How many of our legislators have Constituency Offices, for which they collect the allowances, and where they are supposed to regularly meet and listen to the concerns of the people who they are supposed to be representing?
How many of them implement Constituency projects in their communities, for which they also collect huge sums?
These opportunists, thieves and charlatans have hijacked Nigeria’s political well-being and economic wealth and it is the ordinary Nigeria who continues to pay the price.
This has got to stop. One way it can stop is to reduce very drastically the remuneration of lawmakers and other political offices such that it will be unattractive to potential thieves and looters and that only people who sincerely want to serve will see such small remuneration as enough motivation to contest elections to these office and be committed to good governance and delivering desired results. Right now, we have only self-serving politicians – executives or lawmakers. The obscene salaries and perks are what is attracting thieves to the serious business of governance and lawmaking, and this is why these thieves will always rig elections, commit murder and assassinations to position themselves where they will steal, shutting out genuine and sincere democrats who want to do well for the welfare of their people.
Secondly, as I have written before (A Democracy Of Profligacy and Outright Treasury-looting, http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/articles/akintokunbo-a-adejumo/a-democracy-of-profligacy-and-outright-treasury-looting.html ), Nigeria does not need a full time bicameral legislature (In government, the practice of having two legislative or parliamentary chambers. Thus, a bicameral parliament or bicameral legislature is a parliament or legislature which consists of two Chambers or Houses); in other words, we do not need full time lawmakers or two assemblies – Senate and House of Representatives. What is needed is a unicameral legislature (the practice of having only one legislative or parliamentary chamber) that will meet for a maximum of 30 days a year and afterwards, they would go back to whatever their various professions are, if they have any at all.
Or maybe we need to change back to the Parliamentary system of government or democracy. This Presidential system, although a good option, is not being operated properly by Nigeria. In a country and society as corrupt as ours, we now know that it very open to gross abuse by unscrupulous and self-seeking politicians.
I am firmly and definitely of the opinion that that legislative work in Nigeria should be a part-time commitment. Only persons with a visible means of livelihood should be allowed to become lawmakers, and the various legislatures do not have to sit so often.
Lawmaking should NOT be a full time career, as we have it in Nigeria. I am proffering a solution which is a part -time National Assembly that sits for no more than 30 days a year. There’s no reason why a country half the size of the State of Texas will have as many legislatures as big as the whole of the United States.
Ideally, legislators should be paid sitting allowances and work on a part-time basis. This is what obtains in several states in the U.S, whose system of government we claim to be copying. If the attraction of effortless money is removed, we're certainly to see an enhancement in the quality of lawmakers. The leeches who are in it for the cash will take their game elsewhere.
In my article “In A Lighter Mood: The Way We Seriously Feel About Our Leaders” (http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/articles/akintokunbo-a-adejumo/in-a-lighter-mood-the-way-we-seriously-feel-about-our-leaders.html 29th August 2007), I wrote “Therefore, any new political reform should address this. Legislators must be paid expenses only for their service to the country. The current system is very profligate, expensive and attracts thieves and mediocre. Expenses must be for attendances, cost of keeping constituency offices open, and if they have to be given car, housing and transport allowances, these must be properly allocated, scrutinized, monitored and commensurate with the service provided by these people. Judging from recent revelations on the wastefulness and profligacy of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Senators, etc, the cost of running Nigeria’s democracy is too high, and especially given our penchant for lack of accountability and corruption, this has to be brought under rigid and strict control. Our unscrupulous political class should be discouraged and deterred from going into government to make money. Hence make it unattractive to them.
Having said all these, who will change it? We are in a dilemma, big trouble, because the very politicians who can change and implement our suggestions are the same people benefiting immensely, corruptly and illegally from it – the Senators, the Representatives (or the Legis-looters). How can they deny themselves the opportunity of looting more money? Where is their conscience and moral and political will to change the system from within, by themselves? How can they be part of the problem and then proffer the solution?
Dear compatriots, how do we overcome this problem and change this system? The problem is not abating, it is getting worse. Next year, they will again move to increase their remunerations. I am out of ideas, please help!
These unscrupulous and conscienceless looters are draining the very life out of us. And others are waiting in the wings to take part in the looting too. We must stop them before it is too late.
Let the truth be said always.
Akintokunbo Adejumo is the Global Coordinator of Champions For Nigeria Organisation (www.championsfornigeria.org)
Whilst in Abuja just this week, I learnt that each Nigerian Senator had just collected 42 million Naira as their salaries, expenses and whatever. Each Member of the House of Representative had just collected 36 Million Naira. These are per quarter, which means each Senator gets (I will not say “earn” because judging from the very low quality services they provide to Nigeria, we could hardly say they earned these huge sums of money) 164 million Naira per year – and there 109 of these parasites. A simple calculation therefore means 109 Senators X 164 million Naira X 4 years = 71,504,000,000 or 71 Billion Naira for 4 years. In other words, each Senator will take home 656 Million Naira in 4 years. Not a bad little earner, is it?
For the House of Representatives, there are 360 of these parasites. Each gets 36 Million per quarter, which translates to 144 million per year per Member. The calculation of their drain on the Nigerian treasury is 360 X 144 million Naira X 4 years = 207,360,000,000 or 207 Billion Naira. Each member of the House of Representatives will take home 576 Million Naira after 4 years, laughing all the way to the bank.
According to some reports, “each Senator will pocket 720 million Naira in four years, while each House of Representative member will get 540 million Naira. These sums do not include the approved pay by RMAFC which they also collect. Senate President David Mark gets 250 million Naira per quarter; Deputy Senate President Ekweremadu 150 million Naira; and each of the eight remaining principal officers 78 million Naira”. Wow!
Lord have mercy on my poor people of Nigeria. What a waste? What a damn waste? What a thievery and cheating and injustice? And what an aberration of democracy? What an expensive type of democracy we are running here. I am in the dark here!
It is no wonder that Nigerians are yet to see the dividends of democracy, over 11 years later Nigeria’s democracy must surely be the most expensive ever run on this planet called Earth and if nothing is done quickly to stem this looting tide, it may come to a time that there will be no money to run the government beyond paying the swollen salaries and allowances of our public office holders. It is definitely unsustainable, profligate, and wasteful and does not yield the desired result. Our democracy, much as we desire it, is run by thieves, opportunists, charlatans and never-do-wells.
Compatriots, think of what these huge sums of money can do if diverted to building power plants to rescue us from our comatose power problem; funding railway and road construction; funding education; reviving agriculture; funding hospitals and dispensaries; rescuing our moribund sports development; developing the Niger Delta; even, paying salaries of teachers and the pension entitlements of our pensioners. I will throw in funding the proper training and arming of the Nigeria Police Force.
Okey Ndibe called it “A Feeding Frenzy”. NEXT's Musikilu Mojeed and Elor Nkereuwem christened it “An Assembly for Looting” saying “Considering that Nigeria's minimum wage stands at ?5, 500 a month, each senator's quarterly allowance "will pay for 2,909 workers earning the minimum wage." The reporters offered other tantalizing projections. If Nigerians were to fire the entire membership of the National Assembly, the savings would be more than enough to "fund the N88.5billion" Mr. Umaru Yar'Adua budgeted this year for building power plants. Alternatively, we could "fund hospitals and clinics" all over Nigeria, "fix the Benin-Ore Expressway, which has collapsed, or make a significant down payment on the Lagos-Kano railway line”. The Tribune editorialised this perilous trend as “Poverty Inflicted by Profligacy”. Whatever it is, Nigeria cannot sustain or afford this waste.
The fact is Nigerian politicians have turned themselves into instant millionaires just for being members of the National Assembly, paying themselves huge, obscene and unjustified salaries and allowances not commensurate with their very low productivity and without doing anything worthwhile for the country, for you and me, or for humanity. They are “Legis-looters”, “Dis-Honourables” and “Execu-thieves”.
What visible difference has their representations made in the lives of the represented Nigerians to give them the false idea that they deserve their present salary talk less of a pay rise? Please, someone tell me: how many bills have these odious, greedy and lazy thieves passed into law since 1999? Do we actually know what they are doing except some of them using big vocabularies? What are we getting in return for their large obnoxious salaries and expenses? Why are Nigerians funding their expensive lifestyles, and getting zero in return? What kind of legitimate work can anybody do in Nigeria that will fetch such atrocious remuneration or salary?
Our law-makers are overpaid and underworked and what do they do? The only time Nigerian legislators suddenly become vocal and creative (according to Reuben Abati) is when they are hustling for jumbo pay and allowances. This is the case not only in Abuja but also in the states, where the members of the Houses of Assembly are perpetually fighting the Governor to give them more money.
Most of the lawmakers, Federal, State and even the Local Government Councillors are mostly absent, running after and making dubious political and financial deals, “busy chasing contracts in government departments or peddling influence around town, or busy harassing companies and MDAs over which they exercise oversight functions”. (Reuben Abati). Anytime they say they want to visit MDAs, etc, it is actually to go and demand and collect money from the hapless civil servants, or else they will institute investigations into their affairs, they always threaten. Compatriots, yes, it is that bad.
At the same time, no Bill gets passed unless individuals and organisations pay bribes to these “legis-looters”, despite their already huge remunerations. Yes, believe it. I know. I have been keenly following a struggle to get the National Assembly to pass a Bill to establish an agency which will be of tremendous benefit for the health and safety of Nigerians and huge sums have had to be paid to lawmakers just to get the bill passed, and it has not even happened. They keep demanding more and more everyday.
For Ministries and Government departments and parastatals to get their budgets approved, they have to factor into their respective budget what will go to the legislators as bribes.
Yet, how many Bills and Acts have these politicians passed since 1999? Help me out here, dear brothers and sisters. I am in the dark here. I can’t put my finger on a single Bill since 1999. Their services to this battered and abused country are not commensurate to their remunerations, and this is the bottom line!
How many of our legislators have Constituency Offices, for which they collect the allowances, and where they are supposed to regularly meet and listen to the concerns of the people who they are supposed to be representing?
How many of them implement Constituency projects in their communities, for which they also collect huge sums?
These opportunists, thieves and charlatans have hijacked Nigeria’s political well-being and economic wealth and it is the ordinary Nigeria who continues to pay the price.
This has got to stop. One way it can stop is to reduce very drastically the remuneration of lawmakers and other political offices such that it will be unattractive to potential thieves and looters and that only people who sincerely want to serve will see such small remuneration as enough motivation to contest elections to these office and be committed to good governance and delivering desired results. Right now, we have only self-serving politicians – executives or lawmakers. The obscene salaries and perks are what is attracting thieves to the serious business of governance and lawmaking, and this is why these thieves will always rig elections, commit murder and assassinations to position themselves where they will steal, shutting out genuine and sincere democrats who want to do well for the welfare of their people.
Secondly, as I have written before (A Democracy Of Profligacy and Outright Treasury-looting, http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/articles/akintokunbo-a-adejumo/a-democracy-of-profligacy-and-outright-treasury-looting.html ), Nigeria does not need a full time bicameral legislature (In government, the practice of having two legislative or parliamentary chambers. Thus, a bicameral parliament or bicameral legislature is a parliament or legislature which consists of two Chambers or Houses); in other words, we do not need full time lawmakers or two assemblies – Senate and House of Representatives. What is needed is a unicameral legislature (the practice of having only one legislative or parliamentary chamber) that will meet for a maximum of 30 days a year and afterwards, they would go back to whatever their various professions are, if they have any at all.
Or maybe we need to change back to the Parliamentary system of government or democracy. This Presidential system, although a good option, is not being operated properly by Nigeria. In a country and society as corrupt as ours, we now know that it very open to gross abuse by unscrupulous and self-seeking politicians.
I am firmly and definitely of the opinion that that legislative work in Nigeria should be a part-time commitment. Only persons with a visible means of livelihood should be allowed to become lawmakers, and the various legislatures do not have to sit so often.
Lawmaking should NOT be a full time career, as we have it in Nigeria. I am proffering a solution which is a part -time National Assembly that sits for no more than 30 days a year. There’s no reason why a country half the size of the State of Texas will have as many legislatures as big as the whole of the United States.
Ideally, legislators should be paid sitting allowances and work on a part-time basis. This is what obtains in several states in the U.S, whose system of government we claim to be copying. If the attraction of effortless money is removed, we're certainly to see an enhancement in the quality of lawmakers. The leeches who are in it for the cash will take their game elsewhere.
In my article “In A Lighter Mood: The Way We Seriously Feel About Our Leaders” (http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/articles/akintokunbo-a-adejumo/in-a-lighter-mood-the-way-we-seriously-feel-about-our-leaders.html 29th August 2007), I wrote “Therefore, any new political reform should address this. Legislators must be paid expenses only for their service to the country. The current system is very profligate, expensive and attracts thieves and mediocre. Expenses must be for attendances, cost of keeping constituency offices open, and if they have to be given car, housing and transport allowances, these must be properly allocated, scrutinized, monitored and commensurate with the service provided by these people. Judging from recent revelations on the wastefulness and profligacy of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Senators, etc, the cost of running Nigeria’s democracy is too high, and especially given our penchant for lack of accountability and corruption, this has to be brought under rigid and strict control. Our unscrupulous political class should be discouraged and deterred from going into government to make money. Hence make it unattractive to them.
Having said all these, who will change it? We are in a dilemma, big trouble, because the very politicians who can change and implement our suggestions are the same people benefiting immensely, corruptly and illegally from it – the Senators, the Representatives (or the Legis-looters). How can they deny themselves the opportunity of looting more money? Where is their conscience and moral and political will to change the system from within, by themselves? How can they be part of the problem and then proffer the solution?
Dear compatriots, how do we overcome this problem and change this system? The problem is not abating, it is getting worse. Next year, they will again move to increase their remunerations. I am out of ideas, please help!
These unscrupulous and conscienceless looters are draining the very life out of us. And others are waiting in the wings to take part in the looting too. We must stop them before it is too late.
Let the truth be said always.
Akintokunbo Adejumo is the Global Coordinator of Champions For Nigeria Organisation (www.championsfornigeria.org)
Of Nigerian Democracy, Governance And Profligacy
I have spent a total of nine months in Nigeria since my relocation experiment started and everyday I wake up to see what those ruling us have done and are still doing to Nigeria, I become despondent, desperate and disillusioned. I sometimes want to give up and when I reflect, despite my long-held belief that Nigeria will change for the better, in the face of all the evidence I see and hear and feel and experience everyday, I privately think, “No, Nigeria will not change, at least not in my lifetime”.
For someone like me, a man who is convinced that all we need is a “Few Good Men and Women” to change Nigeria, I see all these hopes evaporating away on a daily basis.
It is a fact that while some Nigerians are doing better, most Nigerians are not faring well at all. The society as a whole is doing far worse, and whose fault is it?
The Yorubas have a saying (and I am sure other tribes have too) that “we should do things the way they should be done, so that the result will be what we want or expect”. What kind of nation do we have if, after all we have been through, and all we know, and all we have, we still refuse to do what is right for ourselves, or rather, our so-called leaders refuse to do what is right? How far more can we expect to carry on without doing the right things before we implode? These are questions that must be answered now.
There is more urgency now in doing the right things because the world economy is getting worse, but our leaders are either ignorant of this fact, or ignorant of the consequences, or they just don’t care what happens to us and the future they will leave behind. Actually, I do not expect an ex-convict or ex-policeman or ex-soldier-turned State Governor, Senator or other law-makers to be able to grasp the complexities of world economy and political issues to be able to determine what is good for their people. Even their so-called erudite advisers (read hangers-on, sycophants and spongers) are just there for the money, so what can they teach their “ogas”? Especially now that we do not have the money anymore to get things done, because we have wasted the money and the opportunities.
Compatriots, we are in very deep shit (pardon my language) in this country. We keep on shouting, threatening, begging these evil people ruling us, and they never listen to us.
I am very sure that Nigeria runs about the most expensive, profligate and wasteful democracy in the world. Look at it this way:
• The presidency and state governors appoint a despicable number of aides, mostly useless and as we know, they are just saying “thank you” to these aides, whose contribution to the well-being of this country is at best, spurious and undefined. One state governor, I heard, had almost 700 special assistants, special advisers, etc
• Governors are awarded almost 80 million Naira a month in what is called Security Votes, which they don’t have to account for. Beside this largesse, they still loot the treasury, demand and receive massive bribes, neglect the people and waste our money.
• Our lawmakers, federal, state and local governments practically laugh all the way to the banks without any iota of work or service to show for what they are paid to do, and what they steal. Their service to the nation is hardly commensurate to the huge sums they allocate to themselves as salaries, allowance and perks; yet you still see them rushing about for government contracts. They want to have it all.
• Election time is drawing near, and most elected (or should I say, selected), officials have abandoned their employment and duty of governance and are spending public funds on getting themselves re-elected (or re-selected, as it may be)
• State Governors seeking second terms have bought hundreds of vehicles to campaign for re-election (I am really having problems with this election or selection, but please where you read election in this article, think selection) and hardly attend to the functions of governance. I don’t have to tell you that funds for re-election campaigns do not come from their personal pockets; it is state money, yours and mine.
• Those governors not seeking a second term because the Constitution, fortunately for us, does not allow for a third term, are now busy tying up loose ends, destroying evidence of corruption, murder, etc and still looting the treasury.
(These are money that should have gone into providing healthcare, good urban roads, schools and the attendance education of our future generation, potable water, electricity, railways, clean environment, etc.)
• The Presidency recently bought 3 presidential jets in addition to the ones already on the fleet. Each president or ruler of Nigeria always buys jets when they are in power. I don’t know how much these cost, but I can bet it will go a long way to do some overdue repairs on certain motor-ways in the country.
• The Presidency of Goodluck Jonathan, despite its very bright, promising and brilliant start when he took over from the late Yar ‘Adua, has become distracted and disoriented because of his ambition to contest for election next year. He has abandoned all his promises and is concentrating all his energies into staying in power.
(Huh, huh, I am not saying he doesn’t have the right, but look at it this way: he has never contested any election on his own in his life, yet he rose from being a Deputy Governor to being President of Nigeria. Now at the pinnacle of any man’s political career without lifting a finger, he now wants to “test” himself with an election when he’s already at the top. What he’s saying is that God has not done enough for him! I personally don’t think he should run; he should be the referee in a credible, free and fair election, that we hope will produce the right person to lead us and change Nigeria, then we will carve Jonathan’s name in stone)
• Then the 50th Birthday celebrations came and went, federal, states and local governments spent billions to celebrate, and they told us that the next 50 years will be better. Hardly one month into the next 50 years, there is no sign that things will change.
• As if these are not enough, former Nigerian Presidents, Heads of State, Heads of Federal Legislative Houses and Chief Justices of the Federation, whose exact successes as public servants of this potentially great but moribund country is very suspect, lacklustre, undefined and unproductive, have been awarded scandalous pensions which even takes care of their wives, children and some other relatives, even when the record of the individual’s performance does not justify such privileges.
I recently drove my 80 year old mother to the Secretariat in Ibadan because the Government wanted to “screen” the pensioners. She was on her feet for almost 8 hours in the hot sun, because the seats provided did not go around and just a small tent was provided. This “screening” exercise has been going on for the past 20 years without end. Some pensioners have died without being able to collect their pensions, yet, the pensions and entitlements to these people, who truly worked for Nigeria, are being withheld by dubious leaders and useless and corrupt civil servants. Ghost pensioners abound, some civil servants collecting the pensions of the dead. My uncle died 5 years ago, without collecting his pension, but we discovered that his name was still on the list and somebody had been collecting his pension.
But we are going to pay Gowon, Shagari, Obasanjo, Babangida, Buhari, Abdulsalaam, and even Shonekan and their families, awesome pensions for life. And what about the families of Tafawa-Balewa, Aguiyi-Ironsi, Abacha and Umar Yar ‘Adua? Are they going to get their late fathers’ pensions too? I am not even talking of the Chief Justices and the others who they say are entitled to this pension.
As the respected Reuben Abari wrote in his piece, “Scandalous pension benefits for former leaders”, The Guardian, Friday, 05 November 2010 “We run an economy that services the privileges of the already over-privileged, an economy that promotes waste and inefficiency with little consideration for the poor and the aggrieved. In a season where the world economies are making austere plans; with the UK shaving off expenses and benefits and the USA saying loudly to the President through the mid-term election verdict that the economy cannot wait much longer for the economic prosperity promised; this action can be nothing more than insensitive”.
Insensitive? No Dr Abati that is the mildest word to express our anger. It is a show of utter disregard for the people who put this set of people into power. It is a show of absolute power of life and death over 150 million people. It is a statement that “We own you; we own Nigeria; Nigeria is ours to do what we like with”. It is a statement of blatant inconsideration for the plight of 150 million Nigerians. It is profligacy at its best, or worst. It shows you that we are being ruled by thoughtless, brainless morons who couldn’t care less if 150 million Nigerians die.
The impact of most of these people have always been negative, otherwise if they are successful, Nigeria will not find itself in such big problems as we have today. They did not even try to change things. They did very little to impact on our lives. They pretended they want to serve, yet they serve only themselves and some other selfish sectional, tribal or religious interests. And they have never, ever been accountable to their people. In fact they shun accountability. They have never ever been responsible for their people.
Every day in the newspapers, it is one corruption scandal or the other, yet, nobody is ever held to account. What this tells us is that some people are above the law in Nigeria and can do whatever they like with impunity and immunity. What it tells us is that all the law enforcement agencies, including the EFCC and ICPC which were especially created to fight corruption are nothing but toothless tooth dogs at best, or as camouflage by the government itself at worst. Even recent pronouncement by Government officials on the list of corrupt politicians that the EFCC was seeking to bar from contesting elections tells us how insincere the fight against corruption is, from the perspective of the government itself.
Look at the waste of all these monies and resources, wasted opportunities; wasted individual and collective brilliance; wasted generations.
How many of our governors embark on aggressive revenue drive to supplement shortfalls from their allocation? None! They all wait on the monthly allocation, and even when that comes, profligacy, corruption and mismanagement begins. Half of the money disappears into private bank accounts, leaving capital projects devoid of funding, hence the roads are bad, the schools are poor, healthcare is poor, etc, and Nigerians are dying unnecessarily.
One of the problems with our democracy is that people (s)elected into public office do not regard themselves as servants of the public who elected them and is paying their salaries. They regard governance as a right for them to do as they like with public money; with our lives. They regard the governed as their servants and slaves, and their states and boundaries as fiefdoms. The reason might be because we do not have a truly representative democracy where credible, free and fair elections are conducted. Most of these vagabonds in power (VIP) lied, rigged, murdered, raped and looted their way into positions of power; so what should we expect of a brigand and rogue to deliver when he/she becomes someone with authority?
Read the newly published Wale Adedayo’s book “Micro-seconds Away From Death” and you will understand how base, evil and depraved our so-called democratic rulers have descended. And for what? Money, power and recognition.
Look at the way they carry themselves in public. They are “gods”. They are untouchables. They are the privileged. They have power of life and death and they constantly exercise it and remind us of their immortality. They forget, or perhaps, chose to ignore the fact that power, and indeed, life itself is transient. And in so doing, they forget there is a Greater Supreme Being than them. It is as if their tenure in power will never end.
In a way, I can’t blame them; it is an African thing, an African disease. Centuries of feudalism will be very difficult to replace with true western-style democracy. But we should still try. We must let them know we are living in the 21st Century and not in the Dark Ages, and we have examples we can emulate properly. We do not have to re-invent the wheel.
We can also jettison what will not work in Western-style democracy and our own African culture and tradition and ways of life and amalgamate the ones that can work to make our societies better. In order words, let’s fashion out what mode of government is best for us.
Are we going to survive? Your guess is as good as mine. Election 2011 will come and go, and Nigeria will remain. If we fail with that election, we will moan and shout, but the eternal optimists that we are, we shall be looking forward to a better election in 2015.
If we succeed with this election and we get the right person (but with Babangida, Atiku, Gusau, Saraki and others of their ilk vying to become President, forget that optimism) then perhaps Nigeria would have come of democratic age. And perhaps there is a chance that the future of our children would be secured.
Finally, let me borrow the words of Gbola Bowale X (one of my Facebook friends) “We have a CHOICE in OUR GENERATION to either continue dealing with the SYMPTOMS of our multifarious and entrenched challenges or we can make a VERY BOLD attempt at dealing with the ROOT CAUSES of OUR COMMON CHALLENGES! Until and unless we do what is NEEDFUL and not what is CONVENIENT; my folks, the wahala (problem) will continue to stare us in the face koro koro (forcefully) and we can continue to "blow" girama! (Grammar!).”
Let the truth be said always.
For someone like me, a man who is convinced that all we need is a “Few Good Men and Women” to change Nigeria, I see all these hopes evaporating away on a daily basis.
It is a fact that while some Nigerians are doing better, most Nigerians are not faring well at all. The society as a whole is doing far worse, and whose fault is it?
The Yorubas have a saying (and I am sure other tribes have too) that “we should do things the way they should be done, so that the result will be what we want or expect”. What kind of nation do we have if, after all we have been through, and all we know, and all we have, we still refuse to do what is right for ourselves, or rather, our so-called leaders refuse to do what is right? How far more can we expect to carry on without doing the right things before we implode? These are questions that must be answered now.
There is more urgency now in doing the right things because the world economy is getting worse, but our leaders are either ignorant of this fact, or ignorant of the consequences, or they just don’t care what happens to us and the future they will leave behind. Actually, I do not expect an ex-convict or ex-policeman or ex-soldier-turned State Governor, Senator or other law-makers to be able to grasp the complexities of world economy and political issues to be able to determine what is good for their people. Even their so-called erudite advisers (read hangers-on, sycophants and spongers) are just there for the money, so what can they teach their “ogas”? Especially now that we do not have the money anymore to get things done, because we have wasted the money and the opportunities.
Compatriots, we are in very deep shit (pardon my language) in this country. We keep on shouting, threatening, begging these evil people ruling us, and they never listen to us.
I am very sure that Nigeria runs about the most expensive, profligate and wasteful democracy in the world. Look at it this way:
• The presidency and state governors appoint a despicable number of aides, mostly useless and as we know, they are just saying “thank you” to these aides, whose contribution to the well-being of this country is at best, spurious and undefined. One state governor, I heard, had almost 700 special assistants, special advisers, etc
• Governors are awarded almost 80 million Naira a month in what is called Security Votes, which they don’t have to account for. Beside this largesse, they still loot the treasury, demand and receive massive bribes, neglect the people and waste our money.
• Our lawmakers, federal, state and local governments practically laugh all the way to the banks without any iota of work or service to show for what they are paid to do, and what they steal. Their service to the nation is hardly commensurate to the huge sums they allocate to themselves as salaries, allowance and perks; yet you still see them rushing about for government contracts. They want to have it all.
• Election time is drawing near, and most elected (or should I say, selected), officials have abandoned their employment and duty of governance and are spending public funds on getting themselves re-elected (or re-selected, as it may be)
• State Governors seeking second terms have bought hundreds of vehicles to campaign for re-election (I am really having problems with this election or selection, but please where you read election in this article, think selection) and hardly attend to the functions of governance. I don’t have to tell you that funds for re-election campaigns do not come from their personal pockets; it is state money, yours and mine.
• Those governors not seeking a second term because the Constitution, fortunately for us, does not allow for a third term, are now busy tying up loose ends, destroying evidence of corruption, murder, etc and still looting the treasury.
(These are money that should have gone into providing healthcare, good urban roads, schools and the attendance education of our future generation, potable water, electricity, railways, clean environment, etc.)
• The Presidency recently bought 3 presidential jets in addition to the ones already on the fleet. Each president or ruler of Nigeria always buys jets when they are in power. I don’t know how much these cost, but I can bet it will go a long way to do some overdue repairs on certain motor-ways in the country.
• The Presidency of Goodluck Jonathan, despite its very bright, promising and brilliant start when he took over from the late Yar ‘Adua, has become distracted and disoriented because of his ambition to contest for election next year. He has abandoned all his promises and is concentrating all his energies into staying in power.
(Huh, huh, I am not saying he doesn’t have the right, but look at it this way: he has never contested any election on his own in his life, yet he rose from being a Deputy Governor to being President of Nigeria. Now at the pinnacle of any man’s political career without lifting a finger, he now wants to “test” himself with an election when he’s already at the top. What he’s saying is that God has not done enough for him! I personally don’t think he should run; he should be the referee in a credible, free and fair election, that we hope will produce the right person to lead us and change Nigeria, then we will carve Jonathan’s name in stone)
• Then the 50th Birthday celebrations came and went, federal, states and local governments spent billions to celebrate, and they told us that the next 50 years will be better. Hardly one month into the next 50 years, there is no sign that things will change.
• As if these are not enough, former Nigerian Presidents, Heads of State, Heads of Federal Legislative Houses and Chief Justices of the Federation, whose exact successes as public servants of this potentially great but moribund country is very suspect, lacklustre, undefined and unproductive, have been awarded scandalous pensions which even takes care of their wives, children and some other relatives, even when the record of the individual’s performance does not justify such privileges.
I recently drove my 80 year old mother to the Secretariat in Ibadan because the Government wanted to “screen” the pensioners. She was on her feet for almost 8 hours in the hot sun, because the seats provided did not go around and just a small tent was provided. This “screening” exercise has been going on for the past 20 years without end. Some pensioners have died without being able to collect their pensions, yet, the pensions and entitlements to these people, who truly worked for Nigeria, are being withheld by dubious leaders and useless and corrupt civil servants. Ghost pensioners abound, some civil servants collecting the pensions of the dead. My uncle died 5 years ago, without collecting his pension, but we discovered that his name was still on the list and somebody had been collecting his pension.
But we are going to pay Gowon, Shagari, Obasanjo, Babangida, Buhari, Abdulsalaam, and even Shonekan and their families, awesome pensions for life. And what about the families of Tafawa-Balewa, Aguiyi-Ironsi, Abacha and Umar Yar ‘Adua? Are they going to get their late fathers’ pensions too? I am not even talking of the Chief Justices and the others who they say are entitled to this pension.
As the respected Reuben Abari wrote in his piece, “Scandalous pension benefits for former leaders”, The Guardian, Friday, 05 November 2010 “We run an economy that services the privileges of the already over-privileged, an economy that promotes waste and inefficiency with little consideration for the poor and the aggrieved. In a season where the world economies are making austere plans; with the UK shaving off expenses and benefits and the USA saying loudly to the President through the mid-term election verdict that the economy cannot wait much longer for the economic prosperity promised; this action can be nothing more than insensitive”.
Insensitive? No Dr Abati that is the mildest word to express our anger. It is a show of utter disregard for the people who put this set of people into power. It is a show of absolute power of life and death over 150 million people. It is a statement that “We own you; we own Nigeria; Nigeria is ours to do what we like with”. It is a statement of blatant inconsideration for the plight of 150 million Nigerians. It is profligacy at its best, or worst. It shows you that we are being ruled by thoughtless, brainless morons who couldn’t care less if 150 million Nigerians die.
The impact of most of these people have always been negative, otherwise if they are successful, Nigeria will not find itself in such big problems as we have today. They did not even try to change things. They did very little to impact on our lives. They pretended they want to serve, yet they serve only themselves and some other selfish sectional, tribal or religious interests. And they have never, ever been accountable to their people. In fact they shun accountability. They have never ever been responsible for their people.
Every day in the newspapers, it is one corruption scandal or the other, yet, nobody is ever held to account. What this tells us is that some people are above the law in Nigeria and can do whatever they like with impunity and immunity. What it tells us is that all the law enforcement agencies, including the EFCC and ICPC which were especially created to fight corruption are nothing but toothless tooth dogs at best, or as camouflage by the government itself at worst. Even recent pronouncement by Government officials on the list of corrupt politicians that the EFCC was seeking to bar from contesting elections tells us how insincere the fight against corruption is, from the perspective of the government itself.
Look at the waste of all these monies and resources, wasted opportunities; wasted individual and collective brilliance; wasted generations.
How many of our governors embark on aggressive revenue drive to supplement shortfalls from their allocation? None! They all wait on the monthly allocation, and even when that comes, profligacy, corruption and mismanagement begins. Half of the money disappears into private bank accounts, leaving capital projects devoid of funding, hence the roads are bad, the schools are poor, healthcare is poor, etc, and Nigerians are dying unnecessarily.
One of the problems with our democracy is that people (s)elected into public office do not regard themselves as servants of the public who elected them and is paying their salaries. They regard governance as a right for them to do as they like with public money; with our lives. They regard the governed as their servants and slaves, and their states and boundaries as fiefdoms. The reason might be because we do not have a truly representative democracy where credible, free and fair elections are conducted. Most of these vagabonds in power (VIP) lied, rigged, murdered, raped and looted their way into positions of power; so what should we expect of a brigand and rogue to deliver when he/she becomes someone with authority?
Read the newly published Wale Adedayo’s book “Micro-seconds Away From Death” and you will understand how base, evil and depraved our so-called democratic rulers have descended. And for what? Money, power and recognition.
Look at the way they carry themselves in public. They are “gods”. They are untouchables. They are the privileged. They have power of life and death and they constantly exercise it and remind us of their immortality. They forget, or perhaps, chose to ignore the fact that power, and indeed, life itself is transient. And in so doing, they forget there is a Greater Supreme Being than them. It is as if their tenure in power will never end.
In a way, I can’t blame them; it is an African thing, an African disease. Centuries of feudalism will be very difficult to replace with true western-style democracy. But we should still try. We must let them know we are living in the 21st Century and not in the Dark Ages, and we have examples we can emulate properly. We do not have to re-invent the wheel.
We can also jettison what will not work in Western-style democracy and our own African culture and tradition and ways of life and amalgamate the ones that can work to make our societies better. In order words, let’s fashion out what mode of government is best for us.
Are we going to survive? Your guess is as good as mine. Election 2011 will come and go, and Nigeria will remain. If we fail with that election, we will moan and shout, but the eternal optimists that we are, we shall be looking forward to a better election in 2015.
If we succeed with this election and we get the right person (but with Babangida, Atiku, Gusau, Saraki and others of their ilk vying to become President, forget that optimism) then perhaps Nigeria would have come of democratic age. And perhaps there is a chance that the future of our children would be secured.
Finally, let me borrow the words of Gbola Bowale X (one of my Facebook friends) “We have a CHOICE in OUR GENERATION to either continue dealing with the SYMPTOMS of our multifarious and entrenched challenges or we can make a VERY BOLD attempt at dealing with the ROOT CAUSES of OUR COMMON CHALLENGES! Until and unless we do what is NEEDFUL and not what is CONVENIENT; my folks, the wahala (problem) will continue to stare us in the face koro koro (forcefully) and we can continue to "blow" girama! (Grammar!).”
Let the truth be said always.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)