It is annoying and unfair that a government which refuses to remunerate university teachers adequately, and which has acted irrationally to the cries of ASUP members for salary increase and good welfare package, can afford to pay selected prominent Nigerians millions in just three months for just discussing their fatherland. Again, the minimum wage at present is a paltry N18,000. Several states of the federation are paying their employees something less than that, and some had had to retrench in order to pay (in the case of Abia State by Gov. T. A. Orji). Hence, it looks like Jonathan’s government is indirectly robbing the poor to settle the rich. The list of delegates contains a sizeable percentage of retired soldiers and expired politicians who, through senseless corruption and indiscipline, contributed to the sordid socio-economic state of affairs in the country right now. What is the sense in rewarding some of the very people responsible for our arrested development with millions of naira for doing nothing? At any rate, why is the federal and state government wasting over N10 billion to host a mere a discussion fiesta, when previous conferences had been egregious waste of time and resources? What is the rationale for paying a select group of Nigerians N12million each for “serving” their country, most of who already have posh houses in Abuja or can comfortably pay the bills charged by any hotel of their choice? Did President Jonathan and the vicious cabal ruling Nigeria think deeply before coming up with the idea of a national conference as the answer to the vexed national question? The way I see it, the current exercise, like the previous ones before it, is an unreasonable waste of money, based on a simplistic assumption that mere discussion without radical change in the immature attitude of the ruling class to public service will solve our problems. Thus, even if the conference comes up with a geopolitical arrangement more viable than what we have now, it still requires men and women of vision, integrity and commitment to our national interests to make it work. There is no good reason why Nigerians should have high hopes and expectations from the conference, because over the years members of the ruling elite, instead of working for the people, have been preoccupied with preserving the status quo for their own selfish interests, with sharing and eating the “national cake” to satisfy their bulimic appetite- they are not interested in baking enough of it that can get to the poor as well. That is why, according to media reports, some delegates still consider the monthly honorarium of N4million insufficient. This shows that for such people the conference is a money-making venture. Tunde Bakare and Olisa Agbakoba have rejected the money on principle. Their stance is commendable; it demonstrates that some Nigerians can rise above the temptation of easy money from a spendthrift government. That said, I think President Jonathan, just like one of his predecessors, Olusegun Obasanjo, is insensitive to the feelings of poorly paid Nigerians who are toiling daily to eke out a living. Of course, there are men and women of substance and integrity among the conferees. But what can they really achieve in the midst of carpetbaggers and Machiavellian opportunists for whom the conference is a golden opportunity to resurrect whatever is left of their drooping political relevance? Most probably, the well-considered opinions of the likes of Prof. Anya O. Anya, Femi Falana, Olisa Agbakoba and others will be swallowed up by the cacophonous voices of incendiary ethnic jingoists desperate to promote ethnic agenda to the detriment of other Nigerians. And those of you hoping on the present league of squandermanians led by Tinubu (with the exclusion of Buhari) to bail out Nigeria had better looked elsewhere! After all, the so-called opposition party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), is both in substance and in ideological stance a mutant of the ruling party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Thus, APC is not a genuine alternative to the PDP. Still, if president Jonathan continues mishandling the country’s resources, he will be remembered as a failed leader who presided over one of the most corruption-friendly government in Nigeria. No sensible person would want to be associated with such a damning verdict. I rest my case!
Posted on: Thu, 24 Jul 2014 10:08:21 +0000
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