The danger of ‘stomach infrastructure’

During the Ekiti  2014 governorship election in June this year, Governor Fayose won  over the incumbent governor, Kayode  Fayemi, largely due to food items he gave out to people to entice them to elect him. The food items are therefore referred to as  ‘stomach infrastructure’, to the detriment of development, which is believed people will […]

During the Ekiti  2014 governorship election in June this year, Governor Fayose won  over the incumbent governor, Kayode  Fayemi, largely due to food items he gave out to people to entice them to elect him. The food items are therefore referred to as  ‘stomach infrastructure’, to the detriment of development, which is believed people will not eat.
 In fact during his inauguration, Governor  Fayose said he would appoint a Special Adviser on ‘stomach infrastructure’ to enable him continue with his welfare policy to the people of the state.
“Today I declare full stomach infrastructure and there will be a Special Adviser on stomach infrastructure,”  he said in his speech shortly after taking the oath of office at Ado Ekiti stadium.
 “I am already grooming your Christmas chicken and your bags of rice are coming,” he added.
However, looking at the term critically it is not a ‘laughing matter’, rather it is a reflection of how politicians look down on people and how they exploit them without qualms, knowing that ours is a society without accountability.
Even though during elections it is given that politicians give food items, money and cloths to get people’s votes, now the so-called stomach infrastructure has formalised the buying of votes in the guise of ‘gifts’.
And this is at a time when women and youth are urged not to trade their votes, but just to vote for the best candidate, to bring sanity into our politics that has become a business of sort.
But the very concept of stomach infrastructure is an insult to say the least; it shows callousness and total disregard for human dignity. It relegates human beings to the same realm with animals, that if they eat they don’t have other problems.
But instead of taking advantage of people living in poverty, the politicians should be ashamed of themselves that their people’s votes can be bought with a small amount of rice, soap, salt and so on, while they themselves live in stupendous luxury, mostly at the expense of the poor people they claim to represent.
If indeed they are not gaining from the poor, they themselves wouldn’t be so eager to buy people’s votes and acceptance.
In any case, people think kind of people that give them money or food items, and this is why they   hold in high esteem politicians or other people that give gifts to hundreds of people in communities, not minding the source of the wealth.
Pathetically some gleefully collect the gift, saying that even if the politician gets elected that is the only thing they would get anyway, so they might as well collect their dividends of democracy.
You hear every now and then politicians in elected office complaining that when they go home, people are worrying them, that they go to them to collect money and make other demands.  Well, people are aware of jumbo salary, and other largess of political office, probably that is why.
The acceptance of an anomaly called stomach infrastructure will encourage squander mania in government where funds for infrastructure such as schools and hospitals are spent to buy food for the people, the food items that may not even last a week in many cases.
Besides, the belittling of political office to such level may make ignorant and poor people to vote for the politicians that deride them by throwing food at them, so to say, instead of for those that have vision and want to work for the good of the state, like providing roads, and so on.
In  place  of stomach infrastructure, why can’t Governor Ayo Fayose and his like come up with programmes to empower people so that they would be able to provide their own food themselves, instead of losing their dignity by scrambling for grains?
By doing that such politicians would have alleviated poverty and restore the human dignity of their people, as everyone deserves.
As the 2015 general election draws near people deserve to be taken more seriously than to be relegated to the status of only wanting food. There are pressing issues such as joblessness, insecurity, poor roads and so on to make light of things.