Disturbing matters arising

With our poor sense of mathematics it illustrates when we add it up – one of the richest countries in the world which recently pulled itself out of a debt profile has pulled itself back into the quagmire and is sinking faster into it. Aside petrol, which puts us on the sixth ranking globally, there […]

With our poor sense of mathematics it illustrates when we add it up – one of the richest countries in the world which recently pulled itself out of a debt profile has pulled itself back into the quagmire and is sinking faster into it. Aside petrol, which puts us on the sixth ranking globally, there are of other solid minerals left in the hands of pirates who mine for their own benefit and whose profits are untaxed. These are the credentials that qualify Jonathan for a term of his own and make the quest a fait accompli.

Jonathan is buying three jets for $155 million. Pray, how much of that amount would have put the railways back on track? I don’t have an idea, but perhaps there is someone knowledgeable enough to do the mathematics. And why do we need to do the sum? Because we want to see how much our rulers value the human lives they claim to serve. A train running, even on the old colonial tracks would save us from the carnage on our roads; help lug the tones of cement which the trailer on A.Y.A junction was carrying without endangering the lives of the people it crushed on its ill-fated journey. Those people are Nigerians with potential to contribute their quota to the development of our dear nation. If half of them are breadwinners; that mean scores of persons thrown not just into mourning, but into poverty and uncertainty – those are figures that should count. But when was the last time that money captured in the budget for railways has led to the tracks being used or ones budgeted for the roads led to durability? Find the answers.

Mr. President deserves planes and functional ones for that matter, after all, he is number one primus inter parres, which means that his life is not any more sanctimonious than anybody else’s. The last time the president flew to Kampala his plane developed a fault and had to be grounded for a night, yes. But what did our president go to do in Uganda, to attend an OAU summit which has brought absolutely nothing to the Nigerian economy or benefitted the people. These junkets and jamborees have been sustained over the years but its economic or social value is hardly felt. In essence, they are good for what they are – jamborees providing estacode for a few corrupt officials who go to the venues to shop till they drop and hardly making any quotable contribution – the people they claim to represent wallow in abject poverty.

Let’s do the numbers. The cement-laden trailer was not the first such mishap along Abuja-Keffi Road, that week alone; no less than twenty people were crushed cumulatively by other freight trucks losing their traction. Now rulers are talking about making alternate routes for trailers including blocking them from travelling at peak hours. This will only increase crashes because unwary drivers would crash into them or they would constitute a nuisance wherever they park haphazardly. We have leaders who think with their fingers in their purses; their minds on their bank accounts and their thoughts backing the people and the nation.

Nigerians should ask their president and his officials to stop travelling. The British Prime Minister and his officials use British Airways or available public flights, yet Britain colonized Nigeria and is a global power. Incidentally, the Nigerian Foreign Affairs ministry has some of the best brains in the diplomatic world with shining examples like Ibrahim Gambari and scores of others making waves across the globe. With due respect, except Mr. President wants to earn air miles for his retirement and do tourism, he does not need to jet out of this country more than a few times in a year. He should delegate his functions and make his ministers fly business class to global functions with only essential entourage. Nigeria needs to do the figures of what it costs its tax-payers each time the presidential jet is airborne for one frivolous trip or another. Jetting across the globe at every invitation is an indictment of the hard-working envoys that we pay to keep across the globe; classically they represent the president and the nation and are accorded the same respect – stay at home Mr. President, stay at home.

Postcript: Nigeria is spending close to N100 billion to get a voter’s register. The money kept climbing because we have added a profit margin of 30%, that makes contracting one of the most lucrative in a country where official prices are sometimes 300% higher than market figures. And all that will lead to one thing – endorsement of a PDP candidate. Why do we spend so much money trying to convince ourselves we practice democracy when all that is needed is to endorse whoever the PDP chooses as its flag bearer and save the nation unnecessary expenditure? As for Prof Jega’s reputation…there it goes!