This talk isn’t cheap

Talk is supposed to be cheap, but this conference beats all records. Although the purpose is not clear and the modalities have not yet been perfected, the approximately 500 people who have been assembled to talk will cost the nation a minimum of 7 billion naira. The powers that be have decided that every delegate […]

Talk is supposed to be cheap, but this conference beats all records. Although the purpose is not clear and the modalities have not yet been perfected, the approximately 500 people who have been assembled to talk will cost the nation a minimum of 7 billion naira. The powers that be have decided that every delegate should be paid the princely sum of 12 Million Naira to cover expenses for three months duration. This sum is not tied to having any input, output or significant role to play in proceedings. It is not tied to talking, to attendance or to doing anything other than providing a bank account into which money can be paid. The saddest aspect of all the money about to be expended on the conference is that those currently causing the problems in Nigeria are not going to be present.  There is no slot for civil servants who continuously defraud the nation through corrupt practices, no slot for those who steal our oil, and no slot for those causing the killings and mayhem in the north-east parts of the nation.
The Nigerian public is about to be entertained by the spectacle of aged delegates well past their intellectual prime being paid for sleeping on live television.  Several of these selected geriatrics used the inauguration ceremony to get in some public sleeping practice! Supporters of the Conference tell us that discussing pay-ments to delegates is “an irrelevancy” and we should not get “bogged down” in technicalities. But they are wrong. Every expenditure has an opportunity cost and 7 billion naira would go a long way to solving some very basic problems which ordinary Nigerians encounter on a daily basis. To put the proposed payments into true perspective and understand the entrenchment of inequality in our nation, we must place the 12 million naira side by side with the eighteen thousand the Federal Government approved as the minimum wage on which a working citizen is supposed to be able to survive. A working man on minimum wage would need approximately fifty-five years (more than one working life) to earn the amount government is will pay each individual delegate for three months “work”.  
This talk is certainly not cheap!
 There is justifiable indignation throughout the populace and questions must be asked. If delegates cannot wilfully and freely give of their time and expertise to help the nation, then are they the sort of people needed? Many appointed delegates are former political office holders belonging to the class of millionaires and billionaires who caused of our problems and have formed the habit of living off the nation. Most are incapable of mending their ways and have never believed in sacrificing for change. It has been claimed, though not proven, that a collection of them could have financed the jamboree from their petty cash accounts! Even delegates from civil liberties organizations and other supposedly pro-masses movements have clammed up in the face of this cash bonanza. Some delegates in an apparent show of conscience have said they will not take the lucre. As commendable as this stance may seem, it indicates little appreciation of the prevailing environment and the way government works. Those who refuse to collect money should not think for one moment that their actions will make the conference cheaper. Given the antecedents of fraud in government finances the likelihood is that their share of the loot will be paid out into another bank account supposedly in their name. At best the money will be swallowed up by “logistics and publicity”. If there is one thing we can all be certain of it’s that nobody is going to see any final accounts of the conference expenses.
Delegates who know the payment is unjustifiable and want to reject the “free money” should ask themselves whether or not they have relations or staff who they could benefit from the money. Could they not have donated the money to a worthwhile charity or built a school block in their community? Could they not have carried out a project which would put over-inflated constituency projects to shame? Besides which the whole idea of “returning” the money to the source is not possible because nobody knows where the money came from in the first place! It just has to be spent! The truth is that the obscene amount was agreed upon because this is the same manner in which our politicians fleece the nation through excessive allowances and expenses. If the delegates were paid a “normal” amount it would be impossible to justify the huge sums paid to political appointees and members of the National Assembly.  This is why the first action of those who understand what the jamboree is all about was, naturally, to enquire about allowances for their aides and personal staff!  In their opinion they deserve additional money because members of the National Assembly also get money for aides and personal staff. Many observers have queried the rationale behind every delegate being paid the same amount. This automatically means that some will be making more of a “sacrifice” than others. Why should those who live in their own houses in Abuja be paid accommodation allowances? The general consensus is that government could not ask delegates if they have accommodation in Abuja because those who do are those who previously enriched themselves in public office and escaped the attentions of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).  If each delegate had been asked to project their expenses and submit claims, or alternatively asked to attend first and claim later, would any of them dared to have submitted a claim for 12 million naira? The main reason government is so costly in Nigeria is because regrettably the whole concept of monetization has degenerated into settlement of excessive claims for approximated expenses.