Abuse of knowledge and greed of the elites

Those familiar with Amicral Cabral Ideological Class or other notable Ideological Classes will easily dissect the current travails of our dear Country, pensive on Marcus Garvey definition of education that states that; to be educated is to be learned in all that is worthwhile knowing, not to be crammed with the subject matter of books […]

Those familiar with Amicral Cabral Ideological Class or other notable Ideological Classes will easily dissect the current travails of our dear Country, pensive on Marcus Garvey definition of education that states that; to be educated is to be learned in all that is worthwhile knowing, not to be crammed with the subject matter of books of the classroom, but to store away in your head such facts as you may need for daily application of life, so that you may be better in all things.
Exemplary leadership is not just a product of good conscience but also sound knowledge of the nitty-gritty of responsibilities of government to citizens to guarantee a fulfillment of the true essence of government on the people. A thorough appraisal of governance in Nigeria in the last few months clearly reflects the greed of the ruling class whose preoccupations are mere political relevance and control at the expense of the poor state of welfares of citizenry.
The ruling class with no exemption treats the masses as beggars deserving only peanuts or nothing for survival, under a worried state of economy that portends serious dangers for trades and investments considering all indices on ground. The ruling classes are so greedy to the extent of pursuing increase of tariffs and taxes on goods and services to rake resources for government to pursue policies not driven from peoples aspirations.
Without undertaking a polemical measure or sampling to gauge the scale of preference of the subjects to make informed decisions on the needs of the people, some acclaimed experts with no sense of honour rather fraudulent tendencies, already misled the government to exhibit abuse of knowledge going by the bogus nature of the contents of the 2016 Federal Budgets submitted by the Presidency to the National Assembly.
The revelations that emanated from the handling of the budget clearly portrays the Presidency as filled with insensitive aides incapable of guaranteeing the success of Mr President with the burden to deliver on his promise of better lives for Nigerians. To the polemists that will sharply disagree with this assertion, how will the provision of biscuits for 30 million School Children improve the dysfunctional Public Schools, just to take the least of the pretentious actions of the government patronizing the helpless masses.
If the normal procedure for budget preparation is for Ministries and Agencies to submit their budgets to the Federal Ministry of Finance for adjustments, before submission to the Presidency for proper scrutiny in line with the targets of Mr President to fulfill the obligations of government on the people of the Country, the perpetrators of the flaws contained in the budgets must be relieved of their responsibilities by Mr President or he takes full responsibilities for those erroneous and unsuitable quotations contained in the budget submitted to the National Assembly.
A Federal Budget stand as a direct pointer to the priorities of government, it is really unfortunate to observe that the budget is silent on new initiatives to add meaningful values to the people and most painful is the lack of priority for increment of wages and salaries or any incentives for teachers in the bid of government to improve the standard of education, which is the fulcrum of intellectual tools required for social reorientation among young people towards abating of criminalities and modeling of good citizens.
The Federal Government seems carried away in wishful thoughts of impressing the electorates to sustain their earned confidence and desperate to perform exemplarily through their policy convictions now at variance with realities. The masses opposed to corruption expected speedy prosecution of obvious looters in their multitudes to retrieve the ill-gotten wealth and debar them from assessing positions in government again, but serious constraints already surfaced as the notorious looters seeks acquittals hampering on the inadequacies of our judicial system coupled with existence of sacred cows  among looters.      
There are several controversies surrounding the activities of this government, but topical among them are the spate of insecurity, Supreme Courts/Tribunal Judgments on Elections, prosecution of erring public officers by EFCC/Code of Conduct Tribunal and issues from INEC conducts in Kogi and Bayelsa States. If the Presidency will summon the courage to undertake a serious appraisal of these controversies, with the target to understand mentalities of Nigerians and motives of heads and high ranking officers of these agencies, the revelations will be sterling enough to set positive direction for this government.
On the spate of insecurity, the security agencies shows no sign of remorse to correct unabated indiscipline in the agencies, Officers of Nigeria Police Force, Federal Road Safety Corps, Nigeria Customs Services and Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps still exhibits nefarious tendencies in handling  their duties as bribery and corruption still prevails in their activities, an albatross to the sanctity of human lives and prevalence of law and orderliness in the polity. The enforcement of discipline among security agencies should be the first hurdle for the government to surpass in abating criminalities in Nigeria.
The verdicts of Tribunals and Supreme Courts on elections is a clear manifestations of flaws in our electoral processes, if the conducts of election truly aligns with the free and fair standard we claim, most of the revelations from tribunals expose the insincerity in our claims and should serve as a preference for better preparations by Political Parties and Electoral Umpires. We cannot continue to allow a continuation of self-glorification by INEC, new initiatives must be injected into the operations of INEC to improve the operations of the agency.
I seriously wonder how Mr President arrived at the decision to appoint the new INEC Chairman, a personality who has previously served in government agencies like Universal Basic Education Commission and Tertiary Education Trust Fund without remarkable achievements in those agencies, how would a personality who has enjoyed unholy romance with political class and an astute lobbyist himself supervise an independent agency with the task to conduct free and fair election, the handling of Kogi and Bayelsa States Election under his watch should be enough to predict future eventualities under his watch. 
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and Code of Conduct Tribunal with mandates to prosecute erring public officers are battling with confrontations from the high and mighty under prosecution, owing to varied circumstances and twist of laws to suppress the agencies through legal luminaries abusing their knowledge to sustain the greed of the ruling class hiring them for hatchet jobs of escaping due judgments. It is onus on Mr President to eschew flippancy and throw the full weight of the Presidency on the much-touted prosecution of looters and ensures no sacred cow exist in the anti-corruption crusade.
The perpetrators of the abuse of knowledge discovered in the grey areas contained in the budgets must not enjoy the protection of Mr President, they must be exposed and relieved of their duties for embarrassing the Country with those unsuitable contents in the Federal Budget, without this, the anti-corruption crusade will become a mirage, illusionistic and the greed of the ruling class with underlining motives of milking the common wealth remains a continuum, a great insult to the sensibilities of all adherents of the change mantra that chased away the last administration.
With no regrets yet in the hearts of the fans of Mr President, any failure to ensure outstanding conducts of his appointees portends serious damage to his integrity as his government is yet to impress the populace at any front and this reality must acknowledge  before this administration goes awry like previous administrations.

AbdulRahman Agboola wrote this piece from Abuja [email protected];  08032813279