Senate SUVs and Nigeria’s smash-and grab democracy

It is only a mad man that acquires what he does not need, and we should really start examining our leaders’ mental capacity for correctness. There are senators that are there for their fourth term or third term. Each four years, these guys buy themselves these luxury cars, and the not-so-luxury ones as pool cars. […]

It is only a mad man that acquires what he does not need, and we should really start examining our leaders’ mental capacity for correctness. There are senators that are there for their fourth term or third term. Each four years, these guys buy themselves these luxury cars, and the not-so-luxury ones as pool cars. The Nigeria legislature – as well as the executive and even judiciary – looks like some gathering of vultures to despoil the cadaver called Nigeria. So, these people who have been buying these cars, what have they done with them?  We know our senators and reps are exceedingly rich people – all of them. Why do they need more of these cars?
My former friend Mr, sorry Otunba Dino Melaye, alone has at least 20 luxury cars, ranging from these same Landcruiser to Rolls Royce, en route Bentleys, Lamborghinis and Ferraris. Please what does Dino need another car – worth N37million at the expense of dying Nigerian paupers – for? Ditto for the others.
My heart is broken because the onus to show direction and display that it is a new day, rests squarely with Baba. Yes, he is fighting corruption – especially that perpetrated by PDP – but I don’t think he did enough in showing examples about how frugal we should now be. All his ministers are reveling in the same open display of luxury. Baba never even mentioned – unlike Obasanjo, Yar’adua and Jonathan – that they should not use sirens. So we find, in an era of #change, that we are still pursued off the road and into gutters, by people we elected or appointed to ‘serve’ us, by rows of cars and convoys bought with the people’s blood, sweat and tears?
My thinking is that no one should aspire near the seat of a senator if they don’t have a functional, serviceable car or two. Desperadoes seeking to get rich from political positions and without a conscience whether it cripples the nation, cannot be senators, or advisers, or ministers. Politics should not even be a full time job.
Let me conclude this by telling us about a place called London. We all visit London. Some of the senators have their breakfasts in London, lunch in New York, and dinner in Indonesia when they are on a roll. London has 8million people living within its territory. Its annual budget is over N6trillion equivalent (GBP12billion). With this budget, the Greater London Authority  – being anything like a state government here – takes care of just a few things; it pays its staff, tidies up the environment, does policing and provides subsidized transport for its people through trains, buses and ferry.  London has no oil or natural resource. The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, earns 127,000 Pound Sterling as salary and another 491,000 pounds from writing articles for newspapers. His taxes per year, is 247,000. He therefore pays twice his salary as taxes! He seems infinitely satisfied with the 340,000 pounds he is left with and the sacrifice he is making for his country.
He is the governor of London, where our big men rush for to for their medicals, for tourism, and for education for their children.
Whereas we may not be able to muster the sense of humanity or refinement to fully emulate London – I mean that sense of higher responsibility to society that stems from an apparently higher level of Intelligence Quotient and Emotional Intelligence –  it doesn’t seem like we are even trying.  I found out that in the US, every level of government prepares and publishes what is known as Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR), which is as detailed as any publicly quoted company should be about its financial affairs. The USA, as old a democracy as it is, does not take the people’s money and taxpayers sweat, for granted. How many government officials studied in the USA and why did they not suggest this innovation? Why can we not properly institute frugality and transparency?
But back to this SUV business and the manner in which we shout to the world that we are yet to fully evolve – not as a democracy, but as human beings.  Recall Mayor Boris Johnson. There is a video on Youtube where a reporter accosted Boris on the streets of London and was asking him about #Panamagate. They wanted to know his views but he wasn’t going to give one. The next thing we saw was that he went inside a tube (train) station, tapped in his oyster card like every other passenger, and proceeded into the train to sit like every normal person. If he went in at rush hour and there was no seat, he will have to stand in the train!
Nigerians, Nigerians, Nigerians, especially the men, especially the politicians and men of power and money, you people are not living right. You are not setting the right examples. You are not preparing a good country for your children unborn. You are living like Neanderthals, or at best, like the corrupt, dirty and decadent Byzantines, who ran Constantinople aground in the Dark Ages, gorging themselves of food, wine, sex and disease, and banishing the acquisition of knowledge. Nigerian politicians and big men are more interested in the Towers and monuments of self-condemnation and abomination they build for themselves. They ignore their environments and watch their people starve. They backslap and gallivant. They look at themselves in the mirror, turn left and right and nod their heads in approval of their prowess. You are merely being foolish, says the Lord.
Reuben Abati recently wrote an Insightful article titled “Who Governs Nigeria”. He told of how once in you can’t get out; how governance in Nigeria is all about ceremony, fear of the powerful and all that. He asked why Nigerian leaders cannot be ordinary people. He mentioned how the Prime Minister of Netherlands still functions as part-time lecturer in a university. Before Abati, Segun Adeniyi had documented his experience. Between the two of them, we can see the futility of trying to ‘serve’ in government, at least for now. It’s just not worth it. Except our political attitude changes.
So on balance, between a people like the Londoners who prudently conserve and manage N6trillion annually, and assiduously provide public services for their 8 million people, and another set of people who go ballistic with the same N6trillion, acquiring everything exotic that moves, at the expense of their 170 million people who are falling dead in the street; of heat, hunger, disease, stress and despair, which one will make progress into a glorious tomorrow? Your guess is as good as mine. I know what you will say next; ‘God will do it’. If it was in the days of Moses, he will smite you where you stand!
This car issue brings up the fact that NO ONE is ready to sacrifice for Nigeria. The ministers, Special Assistants and so on are not sacrificing. So the Senate asks ‘why us first’? This is pathetic. All of them should be made to sacrifice. Mr President, are you listening? This is your call. What is going on is not what we expected. Nigeria is meant to be broke, but some government appointees and politicians are still largessing like money is going out of circulation.