Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Love

Our leaders stand accused and guilty of all the woes in Africa today. These woes are by no means limited to corruption and decay in infrastructural development; they encroach unwittingly into issues bothering closely on morality and collective existence of Africans. A non African reading this on the prisms of his/her society, may be tempted to call it balderdash, but the oppressed amidst the world would rather I continue.

Love, you will agree with me is complicated. Even though there exist in the dictionary, definitions of it, we still feel what we feel about it. And sadly, these feelings are very difficult to capture in words. Some see it in the context of shared perspectives, others in chemistry, and some even assess their partners in terms of physics. In Africa, it use to be so, but nowadays, it’s simply co-existence for the sake of it, and nothing more.

In Africa today, there exists deliberate clogs placed against the identification and/or expression of true love! Couples are so strange and lovers so stiff, to such extent that love is expressed only in the context of the “expected”, the “normal”, etc. Have you ever stopped to wonder why lovers no longer express their feelings for each other openly, be it in the confines of their four walls? Or ponder on why newlyweds are not on honeymoon in Africa? It’s quite simply; they are busy thinking of their tomorrow, which tastes and feels so sour and bland today. This is not in any way unconnected with our governments’ complacency about the welfare of its citizens. Everywhere you go; Africans are busy thinking of the mundane, fighting to catch up with what other nations have ceased thinking about. – Lack of food, shelter, security, jobs, rule of law, wars, etc. All this has eaten deep into the space that Africans have to exude love. How sad.

Rather than the high profile approach to governance, enunciating policies that will end up in shelves, African governments should worry itself more with issues that will enhance the living standard of its peoples. Such activities that will bring pride and ownership to Africans should be the immediate concern of the leadership. Africans no longer believe in their continent, our proclamation of the words “black and proud”, “proudly African”, “black is beauty”, etc were made when we still look onto Africa and the leadership with hope. We have waited so long and so much, and the tiny fuse has blown. If you hear Africans alter these words, they are done in search of identity or as a whitewash against their adversaries to enable them gain an upper hand. They truly don’t believe in it deep down. In Africa it’s all about denials, even for love.

This might sound fatalistic, but the fact still stands that most Africans today, even if desired, have been denied the expression of true love. We have been so weighed down with bags filled with woes, leaving little chance for love and ultimately, activities that leads to self actualization.

Our leaders, please wake up before it’s too late. As the saying goes, “govern well”, to help your citizens realize their dreams.

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Corruption! Why Not?

The sing song in Nigeria today, is corruption; it has assumed such an important place in the national discourse, such that all tabloids in the country, like a religion, must give it a mention on daily basis no matter how small. To demonstrate how much hate it has garnered, it’s commentator go to the painful length of qualifying it with scary adjectives such as “endemic”, “crippling”, “deep-rooted”, “pervasive”, wide-spread”, etc. This is with a view to conveying the degree of its infestation. – But what is the point, if all the efforts will only end in mere talk without commensurate ‘will’ to act?

Like several issues in Nigeria, that has attained notorious heights in national discourse, policy makers response to them is simply to join the fray, their actions have never gone passed the display of eloquence and public show of disdain for such vices.

These vices, such as corruption, have been widely condemned by every Nigerian, yet it won’t go away. Keen watchers of activities in Nigeria will ponder why, but the reasons are not far fetched. – Our leaders inaction is not informed by ignorance, or want of ideas, rather it is a deliberate ploy to protect a cartel that ensures free and easy access to stupendous wealth. Else, tell me why very few live in absolute affluence, and the majority subjected to a life of hardship and pain?

How does one explain a situation where very few are unimaginably rich, and the majority walk around in penury? How do we explain a situation where about $47 billion is stashed away in foreign reserve, yet majority go on empty stomach. Or better put, using a very recent example, how does one explain a situation where an ex-president, just three months after leaving office bought a $33 m worth private jet, yet his kinsmen are starved of basic necessities of life, such as electricity, clean water, security, food etc.?

Rather than repair the roads, government officials and their cohorts, resolved to buying Hommer jeeps, SUVs, and high utility vehicles to help them cushion the effects of the ditches on our roads, leaving the majority with the only option of plying the roads in unserviceable vehicles and killing themselves in the process through road accidents resulting partly from bad roads and partly from decrepit vehicles. Last month alone, two very annoying accidents were widely reported in the national dailies, several go unreported, because they are no longer news. The first was about a Trailer that attempted dodging a ditch in the middle of the road and in the process smashed an 18 sitter bus, killing all the passengers on board. The second, also similar to the first, but this time the “Tanker” killed 33 people. The government never saw anything wrong in all these. Millions of people are killed in Nigeria yearly through this insensate carelessness.

If the government does nothing, except protect themselves with Jeeps and SUVs, rather than fix the roads; as an ordinary Nigerian, if you have the opportunity to steal money through corruption to protect yourself and your family, will you still be flying the flag of anti-corruption? Your take is as good as mine.

The flipside of these sordid corruption perpetuation tendencies is the “wage freeze” policy. Inflation figures in Nigeria since the 80s, has being on an upward spiral, yet remuneration system is treated with kid’s gloves. Average “Minimum Wage” across states in the country is about N3,500, meaning a civil servant on Grade Level 1 Step 1 will earn about N3,500 monthly in salary. This is absurd. Many have insinuated that the policy was shove down our throats by the IMF and World Bank. Agreed!! But are our leaders daft? Cant they see that the civil servants are losing their heads because their take home pay, stops at the first turn from their offices!!!

To help shade more light on this issue, let me give a real life account of a School Principal who is a friend of mine; he kindly availed me the data used in this write up.

Alhaji Kabir Gimba (name not real) has being in government service for 35 years. A graduate of Economics, who rose through the ranks to the position of a Senior Secondary School Principal 6 years ago, on Level 16 step 6. Level 16 is about the last level except for special levels, wherefrom retirement is eminent. Alh Gimba is due to retire in 8 months.

At level 16 step 6 Alh Gimba’s total monthly salary is N49,500 ($390). He has a wife with six children and three depends from deceased siblings. Alh Gimba and his family live in a government quarters and drives a 1983 model of Peugeot 504. Based on this data, I computed Alh Gimba’s salary that will qualify for a living wage as thus:

Details Total
Feeding at N10,000 per person per month x 11 people                              N110,000
School fees at N20,000 per child per quarter x 6 children
= N120,000 per quarter ÷ 3 months
(to arrive at the amount payable monthly)                                                        N40,000
House rent on his official Quarters N20,000
Medical bills at N5,000 per person per month x 11                                        N55,000
Transportation for the entire family per month                                                 N15,000
Clothing at N2,000 per person per month                                                        N22,000
Utility bills at N7,000 per month                                                                         N7,000
Socialization for the 2 parents (not quantified) -
Demands from extended families (not quantified) -
General maintenance and repairs (not quantified) -
Purchase of security and payment for collateral damages (not quantified) -
Several other attendant monetary request by the family (not quantified) -
                                                                                                                        --------------------
                                                                                       Total                             N269,000

From the rough estimations above of what Alh Gimba’s real income should look like, a total of N269,000 was conservatively arrived at, as semblance of what should bring some degree of comfort to him and his family. But unfortunately, when this amount is considered against the backdrop of what he currently earns, a gulf of N219,500 will be left on filled.

As the Principal of a Senior Secondary School, Alh Gimba is the accounting officer of the school in charge of about N60 million school fees which he collects from the 4,700 students in the school quarterly and is expected to remit to the ministry of education on receipt.

Even if Alh Gimba chooses to be a saint, he will still be saddled with the responsibility of his family’s upkeep, and to function as the Principal, he needs to put in 100% of his time into the job. How is he expected to make up the balance between the N49,500 he receives currently as monthly salary, and N269,000 which is a close approximation of the real income he needs. Like every human, the options open to him will be to either ‘indulge’ himself with the school takings, or drench in a cesspool of misery. Most Nigerians, and am sure almost all sane beings, will choose the short route. Onlookers will call such action corruption, but I call it the after effect of insensate leaders.

Nations with near corruption free societies, placed priceless values on their citizens, the government of Nigeria cannot continue to debase its civil servants and expect them to be patriotic. Respect they say, is earned, the government should live up to its expectations by considering its citizens as important piece in the puzzle, only that way can it expect them to shun corruption. A hungry man, they say, is an angry man.

Corruption in all its ramifications, have motives, majority of such motives in Nigeria stemmed from implausible poor governance leading to decay in infrastructure, rule of law and security. Pay people well and fix these aforementioned problems and corruption will go away, you don’t need to fight it or give it demonic names. Corruption in Nigeria is simply a response to bad governance. Nigerians are law abiding sets, but like every human being they have needs.

This piece is meant as a wakeup call to those concerned and not to encourage corruption, please.

Monday, October 8, 2007

A sick nation

I think this country is sick. Why is this country saddled with leaders such as those currently stirring its ship? Why?? A panel was set up to investigate an allegation bordering on corruption, the House of Reps. that constituted the panel, has not even had time to sit over the report, yet some loud mouth in a very high position of authority, has already passed a clean bill of health on the accused, and even have the audacity of commanding the Honorable members not to impeach the accused, if not, he will sanction them. That speaks million to the kind of democracy operating in Nigeria. How nice!!!

I think we should all shut up and stop deceiving ourselves about fighting corruption, because with people like the PDP chairman (Ahmadu Ali) still playing key roles in the affairs of this country, we will all be losing at both ends. Corruption is a booming business for them, and they will spare no one who dared to rise against it. Else can anyone explain his vituperations on the Honorable Members? He even threatened to force their constituencies to recall them should they attempt impeaching the Speaker who is accused of underhand contract awards, amounting to about N628m? Where in the whole wide world can this show of shame, ever happen, except for this God forsaken country called Nigeria?

Mr. Chairman sir!, I am trying very hard to understand your stand, are you for this country or against it? Why would you not allow your so much acclaimed "due process" to take its full course in this matter, why are you trying to truncate the only last hope of the defenseless Nigerians - JUSTICE - why?

Nigerians we must rise! Rise must we today, if not for ourselves, for our children yet unborn. This guys that called themselves our leaders are up to no good, they will milk us all dry. A stitch in time, they say saves nine.

Thursday, October 4, 2007

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Friday, September 28, 2007

Worries

Yesterday, like several other days, I went to bed without electricity; but that particularly is not the angle where the pain is most. It's in having to look around me and seeing, a sizeable few moving around in total affluence, while majority wallow in penury. The other day, our madam speaker was reported to have requested for a N98 million body messaging machine, to be paid for from the government coffers. Though she was denied, but the intention was made. That is the stuff our leaders are made of.

How many of such unholy intentions were actualized at the expense of majority of Nigerians screaming for basic necessities of life? I was speaking the other day with a friend from Atlanta about the gory state of "lack" that Nigerians found themselves, and he just could not understand why we have not risen to challenge the status quo. Could it be that simple? In a situation where the rule of law is just another word as several, sitting in the Nigerian Constitution, with little regard to its implementation? Political assassinations, banditry and police brutality has become part of life.

To the majority of poor Nigerians, the most important factor is food. We've been reduced to wild animals, forced to act first and think afterwards, so long as such actions will bring food. Haven't anyone yet pause to think why all these vices reported against Nigerians continued unabated? Hunger is the driving force; some needed the money to pay for security and other necessities of life.

In such a savagery situation, how does one begin to mobilize people to rise against this decay? Wouldn’t it have been best for the government to live up to its expectations even by half, by providing basic necessities, such as electricity, water, good roads, rule of law, etc? By so doing, it will win over the patriotism of its national and by extension bring them to justices when they erred.

As a Nigerian, I love this country, but even love itself has limit. No love will subsist on an empty stomach; and all loves require a fertile land to be nurtured on; a State filled with rancor and lawlessness cannot expect love to thrive in it.

Nigerians out there, can we join forces to better this country please. Contributing your views or misgivings with the state of affairs, this can also help in creating awareness amongst us, which will possibly move us into action.