By Dan Onwukwe
Every passing day, reports about Nigeria and its political leaders, have become astonishingly revolting. It draws tears. While the economy is on a cliffhanger, the rate of poverty in the country is frighteningly rising. With poor Nigerians facing extremely difficult times, and most parents unable to afford to pay their children’s school fees, another class of Nigerians seem to be living in a completely different world, behaving like overfed, drunken sailors, living in denial, oblivious of the raging storms. And while the government has continued in its borrowing binge, cost of governance is soaring. It’s all about breathing down the necks of the poor to take care of the rich at the expense of the already lean public treasury.
Never
in my adult life have I seen this class of freewheeling, impudent,
profligate, reckless, selfish, self-serving politicians to whom shame has
become a passé. To borrow the words of former minister, Dr Oby
Ezekwesili, who last week described our federal lawmakers as an ‘incorrigible
bunch of lawbreakers who rigged themselves into office, and felt entitled to an
indulgent life funded by the miserable public treasury’. The truth is, nobody
who steals political power uses it to benefit people. That’s the heart of
Ezekwesili’s message. Moreover, if corruption were a disqualifying
offence, almost all politicians in Nigeria would be out of work, and perhaps
half of them would have been in jail. But this is Nigeria. What a country!
It
raises pertinent questions: Who can save Nigeria from this desperate, selfish
politicians? Is Nigeria jinxed on the leadership index? Why is our present
class of politicians far worse than the previous ones? Is our leadership
recruitment process to blame? Why is it that what works in other democracies
don’t work in Nigeria? How did we come to this sorry state, where nothing works
and our lawmakers have become more of freewheelers and rent-seekers than
lawmakers. For want of a fitting description, with little exception, most
of our present politicians have become open sores to the country? Frankly, any
of these questions you attempt to answer, leads inexorably to another, more
troubling ones. Who did this to us? Is Nigeria cursed, or are we the
cause? We need some reminders, one of which is that, nothing
happens to a country that is not a reflection of the character and temperament
of the politicians in that country.
This
is in line with the saying that every country is its own laboratory of
democracy. Look around: It’s not hard to gauge the mood of Nigerians
since Bola Tinubu was declared President by the Independent National Electoral
Commission (INEC) on that unforgettable wee hours of Wednesday morning, March
1, 2023. Nigeria’s skylines have been painted in worst colours. They are
colours of despair, pain, disillusionment and profound frustrations never seen
since the present democratic dispensation, 24 years ago. If you have
observed closely, you possibly have noticed what could be called the emergence
of blood -and- thunder politicians who believe only in “their way- or -the
highway” kind of politics.
These
are a bunch of politicians, who are in politics purely for personal
aggrandisement, to enrich themselves at public expense. They have little
tolerance for prudence, transparency and accountability. They have no real
agenda other than to dominate other people. The pain of the poor has become
their luxury. And you ask: Why do the worst set of people rise to power in some
countries? That was the question posed by Brian Paul Klass, a young
American scientist and author of the Corruptible, and co-author of, How to
Rig an Election. Look at the idiocy that is happening at both chambers of the
National Assembly. Their riotous habits remain unchanged, even when the
citizens they claim to represent groan under the terrible burden of hunger and
misery unleashed by the Tinubu administration.
The
danger signal to the present reckless behaviour of the federal lawmakers
began so early after the inauguration of the 10th National Assembly. According
to Business Day Report of June 27, barely one week after Godswill
Akpabio was inaugurated as President of the Senate, his security aides were
seen riding expensive, exotic power bikes as part of his convoy. All over
Abuja, the convoys of politicians have become obscene spectacle in a country
where over 133 million Nigerians are multidimensionality poor.
Few days ago, the lid was blown open of the purchase of 360 Prado Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs) for all the members of the House of Representatives at cost estimated at N57.6bn or N130 million each. Some reports put the cost of each of the SUV at N160 million each. The House spokesperson, Akin Rotimi tried to fool Nigerians when he said that the amount was a “bit exaggerated”. He admitted that the SUVs will be distributed to the legislators, but “not for personal use”. Did you hear that?
That was a remarkably
ineffectual job, a briefcase of excuses of rebutting a collosal waste of public
money. Fudging facts has never been in short supply with Nigerian
politicians. Who says our politics and politicians are not a fun to follow?
This is happening at a time when our universities, hospitals are grossly
underfunded, and our roads have become deathtraps, insecurity still squeezing
everybody to a corner, and organised labour asking for salary increase amid
soaring cost of living as a result of rising inflation, unemployment and
general decline in standard of living index. And government stonewalling to
grant the request of workers.
All
of this is happening as the salaries and perks of political office holders are
on the rise and constantly under review. As of 2018, Sen. Shehu Sani revealed
that a senator was paid N13.5 million per month as salary, and N750,000 as
‘running cost’ every month. According to recent estimates, the 48 ministers
appointed by President Tinubu will cost the country a hefty N8.6bn in four
years as emoluments. This is coming when the Tinubu administration is set to
borrow a fresh $1.5 billion from the World Bank to support the 2024 budget.
Recall that the Debt Management Office DMO had cautioned against further
borrowing. At this profligate rate, it’s too early to know whether there will
be anything left in the treasury in the next four years.
Right
now, those who should know say that Nigeria’s financial balance sheet looks
grim like a limited liability company under receivership. Bankruptcy is
imminent. Why not, when over 96 percent of revenue is spent on debt servicing,
yet our lawmakers are living a life of obscene revelry in a sinking Titanic.
Never in recent memory has Nigeria drifted off so dangerously in every index of
human measurements as it is now. The lose of confidence in government and
politicians is at all-time high. It’s destroying the social, economic and
political fabric of the country. The future is bleak, yet the political
leadership is unperturbed.
Make no mistakes about it: what the APC administration has made of Nigeria and Nigerians in the last 8 years(and counting), is unimaginable. It is like a virus that has infested all facets of our lives. As already said, it’s an open sore, an existential threat that strikes at the very heart and soul of our national will to coexist as one nation in diversity. The facts are there. Whatever APC inherited from the PDP in 2015, it has virtually destroyed all. What Buhari made worse, Tinubu has made worst in just five months as President. Take a few samplers: In 2015, the Naira exchanged at N200/$1. As of last weekend, it was N1,100/$.
Our foreign reserves was $35.25bn in May, 2015, today, it is less than $23trn. National debt profile was N18.89trn in 2015, today, it is more than N87trn. In 2015, inflation rate was 13 percent, today it’s 26.7 percent, representing 18- year high, according to the latest data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). A litre of fuel was N95 in 2015, today, it’s over N630 depending on the location. A bag of 50kg of Rice was sold at N8,000, today, it’s over N48,000. The question is: Are you better off today than you were in 2015?
This is what Robert Allan Caro, a renowned American journalist and author of many biographies of U.S. political figures wrote about the likes of Nigerian politicians: “What leaders do while they are trying to get power is not necessarily what they do after they have it”.
It’s all about the complexity of ambition, and the delusional forgetfulness by some politicians that, in the end, power is transient. As Lord Acton said, ‘power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely’. What does that tell us? Certainly, there will be life after politics. Is what Tinubu doing now what he said when he was campaigning for the office of the President?
Where is the “Renewed Hope” that he promised? Hope has given way to pessimism. Is he paying attention to the cry of Nigerians over worsening hunger in the land? I have read Caro’s observation many times, and situating it to the context of Nigerian politicians, especially the ones strutting the political stage now, the message sinks in. One sad reality is that, to paraphrase Caro, without a vision beyond their own advancement, leaders are almost paralyzed once the goal of acquiring power has been achieved.
*Onwukwe is a commentator on public issues
