Nigeria: The relative cost of our democracy is unsustainable

This is too dear

I have written many times about the exorbitant and probably prohibitively unsustainable cost of the democratic experiment in Nigeria and there are many reasons to be concerned for how much we pay our lawmakers on average. [Nigeria: Our Exorbitant Government]

The graph below published by the Economist is more than just an eye-opener but it is also revelatory about how political office is a parasitic drain on the national resources since politicians cannot be considered part of the economic engine of a country.

What makes this graph worthy of the most righteous indignation begging for public insurrection is not so much about what the politicians earn, but the gap in earning capacity between the citizen and the representative lawmaker.

The comparisons

Australian lawmakers earn the most at $201,200 followed by Nigeria at $189,500 and then Italy with $182,000 and the United States at $174,000 all compared to the people they represent, we find that Australian and American lawmakers earn less than 4 times the average economic activity of their countries divided by their populations (GDP per capita), Italians just about double that and Nigerian lawmakers earn 116 times that.

The World Bank, the IMF, the CIA and the University of Pennsylvania all put the GDP per capita of Nigeria at between $2,661 ranking 137^th in the world out of 180 countries, $2,720 ranking 143/187, $2,800 ranking 148/194 and $1,716 ranking 152/185 respectively.

By comparison Australia is in the top 10 thrice, Italy in the top 30 twice and then the top 35 and the United States of America 4 times in the top 10, it goes without saying that Nigeria has no business paying its legislators in what is purportedly a representative democracy these atrocious amounts of cash that bilk and milk the country without contributing anything to its economic growth.

The consequences of expensive democracies

Worse still, it creates a competition for political office where the rewards far outweigh the commensurate perspiration leading to many situations where power-grabs by every means possible warps every notion of free and fair elections, talk less of representative democracy – it is utterly bad for Nigeria apart from the fact that it is unsustainable.

Looking at the chart again, you also wonder why Sub-Saharan African nations that hog the bottom third of GDP per capita tables are the ones that take the lead by far in the discrepancies between elected and elector besides the fact that only Ghana has consistently rewarded its electorate with the will of its people, Kenya did not in the penultimate election which has the current leadership indicted for crimes against humanity and Nigeria is a travesty in everything but name.

Nigeria is awash with oil money in the wrong hands which is used in acquisitive, ostentatious, hedonistic and wanton display of power, wealth, influence and mischief, it exacerbates a pressure cooker of ethno-religious and regional tensions, none of which the leadership have had the wherewithal to grapple with or understand that the consequences as it holds together with threadbare allegiances of snouts in trough might well be dire for the 2015 election year.

Enough is just enough

In my humble opinion, this democracy is neither representative nor working if the people we choose to represent us are so far removed from the reality of the citizenry that they literally live in a parallel universe, there ought to be no reason for Nigeria, Kenya and Ghana to be democratic outliers compared to the economic activity within their regions in comparison to their people, it calls for reform and this must be urgent, radical, far-reaching and deeply examining of the culture of corruption and influence-peddling we have allowed to become the raison d'être of political life.

This is the one time when the chorus from the village to the city and from the homes to the marketplaces of the country should ring loud – Enough is just enough.

Other reading

Nigeria: Our politically immature systems

Nigeria: Percentage Allowance Legislators

Nigeria: Rightfully pouring scorn on Nigeria @ 50

Not surprised at all

I was quite amused to read that foreign firms operating in Nigeria had not responded to requests [1] to sponsor the Nigeria @ 50 celebrations.

In what might well read as sour grapes the Director-General of the organising committee for the celebration of Nigeria’s Golden Jubilee celebration somewhat narrated his ordeal on the day that the so-called celebrations were to commence.

I for one would not blame the foreign firms in any way for refusing to put their face or money behind this jamboree for so many reasons that we have not honestly recognised about their reticence.

A failure of priorities and importance

A well organised setup would have had the preparations for such an auspicious occasion well underway, probably a year before regardless of the time of flux that accompanied the illness of President Umaru Yar’Adua; Nigeria was going to be 50 regardless.

If the ship of state had not been serving the intents and purposes of people who were out for their own gain rather than for the progress of the country, the plans the country had for these celebrations would probably have impressed the foreign firms enough to engage them to be interested and be willing to contribute to the events.

No change still

I wrote at the end of July [2] that there was a lack of preparedness for the celebrations and apart from the money that has been doled out by the government which might well end up in the pockets of rogues, everywhere else seems to be well into organising something apart from the government itself.

Just under 3 weeks to the celebrations, we still cannot find a web presence of the celebrations being organised by the government or its organs of publicity.

It is with utter shame that I recall that Ghana had their website up months before their celebrations in March 2007 and catalogued a complete year of events just to celebrate their coming of age.

Typically Nigerian

Nigeria however wallows in its penchant for bumbling and unpreparedness with some official crying foul when in fact they have nothing to show for their ability to manage, organised and persuade, expecting miracles to happen and fate to rain success on their parades.

I am glad the foreign firms have occupied themselves with other activities rather then read the beggarly missive they received in March, they should have gone further in pouring scorn on the whole project, if only to awaken a sense of urgency and responsibility.

It is a shame that the official does not seem to have realised that a clear message was being sent to his committee and the government that if they cannot see signs of organisation, professionalism, seriousness, determination and probity, not one cent would escape their grasp to that fiesta of the debauched.

Nothing to salvage but shame

One can only contemn the organisers who after realising their difficulty in raising funds did not raise this matter earlier and find ways to appeal to the better elements of our society to prevail on these firms but allowed for this to drag on until the very eve of the events at which time literally nothing can be salvaged of the generosity of the firms or the reputations of the organisers and the government.

Hopefully, Nigerians would see beyond the rueful cry and have in mind the very fundamental saying, “If you fail to prepare, you prepare to fail.”

They might just pull it off but it all could have been better done but in Nigeria of who little is expected, much less is desired – we would celebrate in spite of the government and their representatives.

Sources

[1] How foreign firms scorned Nigeria @ 50, by Kaigama « Vanguard (Nigeria)

[2] Akin: Nigeria: Utter unpreparedness for the golden jubilee

[3] Ghana@50 - Official Website For The 50th Independence Anniversary Celebration Of Ghana

Nigeria: Utter unpreparedness for the golden jubilee

Oblivious of the masses

If there is need for a clear indication of the disconnect between the ruling classes of Nigeria and its citizenry, it has become evident in the preparations for the 50^th independence anniversary of the country.

The Presidency has first earmarked NGN 16.7 billion with a detailed prospectus of spending allocations and that drew criticism from all sensible quarters of reason that they did well to trim that budget down to NGN 9.48 billion and presented it to the National Assembly that has now approved a NGN 17.195 billion allocation [1] for the same event without any of the detail that first accompanied the request from the executive.

There is no doubt that the Nigerian democratic experiment is expensive and probably the most lucrative job prospect for anyone who deigns to be a politician, over 2 years ago, I analysed the list of allowances [2] on offer to our legislators and found they enjoyed in addition to their huge salaries perks coming to 1,260% of their basic salaries; all that has been improved upon.

I would contend there is no other job in the world that offers this level of emoluments, but these people sitting cosy and well pampered are so removed from their electorate that they must have been completely deaf and inured to the common-sense arguments that were made against that egregious extravagance.

The unpreparedness defies explanation

The last year has been a difficult one for Nigeria with the uncertainties in government due to the illness and subsequent death of President Yar’Adua but it should not have impacted on our ability to prepare for the celebrations if there were anything to celebrate – everyone knew 2010 would mark the 50^th year.

What beggars belief that it would be celebrated on the 1^st of October and the budget for the celebrations have only been approved in the 3^rd week of July.

I doubt any well-to-do Nigerian would leave the full planning and budgeting for a 50^th birthday to within just 9 weeks to the celebration.

Can this be done?

However, in that time, the carpets at the International Conference Centre need to be replaced (considered the tendering, selection, bidding, approval, award process and then the execution of the contract).

The Abuja international airport will be renovated with the provision of additional parking, (one wonders if the invitations have yet been sent and if there is any clue of who will be attending or an estimate of the expected or unexpected guests).

The Nigeria @ 50 logo [3] was only launched in June, less than 4 months to the event and the website which should already be live with information about the celebrations is still being built, I believe because I can find no reference to a government supported website.

Everything but the people

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will get an allocation to distribute to the Nigerian missions abroad if they already have advanced plans for those celebrations and the Information & Communication Ministry will publish special reports in national and international media, there is no assuming those have already been done and dusted with someone having proofread the copy.

Somehow, in all this the people themselves seem to have been forgotten because none of this spend is for anything other than window-dressing for visitors, photo opportunities for contrived compassion to deprived children and a jamboree to burnish vacuous successes of the few as the general lot of the country.

Other countries at 50

If I remember correctly, Malaysia celebrated its 50^th independence anniversary in August 2007 and from January they had already launched a government sponsored EXPO: “Malaysia's 50 Years Achievement” [4] and international media agencies had notices and advertisements for the event, for business opportunities, for tourism and more for months before and a whole year after.

Ghana that celebrated its own 50^th independence anniversary on the 6^th of March 2007 had a whole year of events from January through to December indicating a lot of planning had gone into celebrating the event and it goes without saying that Ghana does leave Nigeria in the shade.

With the Link Diagnosis 2.0 toolkit [5], the What is Ghana at 50 webpage [6] was published as early as the 20^th of November 2007, almost 4 months before the anniversary.

Sadly, we have the technocrat Finance Minister defend this splurge with the statement, “Rather than fault the budget, people should ask, what is the money being spent on?” I think we are mostly agreed that it is being spent on the wrong things, but woe betide a Nigerian politician that dares to do the rightful thing when there is money to burn.

Sources

[1] Lawmakers approve N17b for independence anniversary | 234Next.com

[2] Nigeria: Percentage Allowance Legislators [akin.blog-city.com]

[3] allAfrica.com: Nigeria: At 50 Logo - Jonathan Pays Tribute to Founding Fathers

[4] Expo: “Malaysia's 50 Years Achievement”

[5] Link Diagnosis - examine your link competition

[6] Ghana@50 - Official Website For The 50th Independence Anniversary Celebration Of Ghana

Thought Picnic: Cometh the moment

Unable because he could not

When Yakubu Aiyegbeni missed that shot [1] for an open goal in the Nigeria v South Korea World Cup march, I believe I was one of the few who could really understand what had really happened.

It was not that Mr. Aiyegbeni was not a fantastic footballer but that the unfortunate and inevitable ravages of the length of existence on earth had impacted on his agility and reflexes when opportunity demanded of them most.

For a sportsman, Mr. Aiyegbeni is extremely fit for his age and quite a envy of any of his real peers but between the reality and the legality of what he portends to be, he can attract both sympathy and derision – on that day, the moment came for the man to be there but he could not be there to seize it.

Unable because he did not

Yesterday, the hopes of the whole of Africa fell on the ability of Ghana to make history in their game against Uruguay.

Regardless of the dishonest activities of the Uruguayan player, they were presented with the golden opportunity in the dying minutes of the game to seize the moment, a penalty following the sending off of a player for handling a ball that was destined for the goal.

A cool and collected player knowing what was at stake could have shrugged off the weight of expectation and done what is usually expected of a penalty kick – sink it into the back of the net and receive the laurels of glory from that day henceforth.

Asamoah Gyan stepped up [2] to take the last kick of the march and sent it to the bar, bad luck, tough luck or lacking a sense of the moment – the rest is history, Uruguay went on to take the march in a penalty shoot-out.

That was not the moment

Mr. Gyan, who eventually scored a penalty during the shoot-out must have thought he had redeemed himself but really when the moment came, he was not there and having another opportunity is not necessarily passing the test of the original moment.

It then the makes you wonder how the moment came for the continent of Africa to host the World Cup and 6 African countries had the moments of their footballing representation to send the word out that we had arrived.

It would appear Africa had just been hired to host the World Cup jamboree and we are nowhere near where recognition can have its due significance matched with results.

On reflection with sadness

It saddens me to recall a few lines from what Lord Lugard said of Africans [3] almost 90 years ago in his book, The Dual Mandate - His thoughts are concentrated on the events and feelings of the moment, and he suffers little from the apprehension for the future or grief for the past … He lacks the power of organization, and is conspicuously deficient in the management and control alike of men or business; he loves the display of power, but fails to realize its responsibility; he will work hard with a less incentive than most races … He has the courage of the fighting animal, an instinct rather than a moral virtue.

In conclusion, this is what was probably the most interesting - Perhaps the two traits which have impressed me as those most characteristic of the African native are his lack of apprehension and his lack of ability to visualize the future.

Cometh the moment...

Without contention, some teams really did put their backs in it with very little reward for their pains, a football team requires most of all, organisation; the coach can only do so much from the side-lines, the team must work as one.

Did Ghana not exhibit the courage of a fighting animal but somewhere in the scheme of things which might have included not practising spot kicks, the future was not visualised and when the moment came, history was made for entirely the wrong reasons.

There are many perspectives to these events and this might be one of the least charitable of them all, but well, that is just the way things are – these thoughts were inspired by a conversation with a friend.

Cometh the moment but where is the man?

Sources

[1] YouTube - Nigeria vs. South Korea- Yakubu Aiyegbeni misses shot, makes penalty kick

[2] Asamoah Gyan will never forget his missed penalty in the World Cup for Ghana | The Sun

[3] Introducing the Apes Obey! Series [akin.blog-city.com]

Nigeria: The Senate Health Bill is rejected

A retreat in retreat

The Senate Committee for Health headed by Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello presented their National Health Bill to the Senate where the quality and standard of the bill was panned such that the deputy Chairman of the committee had to withdraw the bill.

You will remember, the committee was given N10 million from the illegally disbursed N300 million that the Ministry of Health should have returned to the treasury on the orders of the President.

Committee apparently went on retreat to Ghana to discuss this bill and finalise what they were to present to the Senate, the developments now show that the retreat achieved none of the objectives to make the bill suitable for presentation.

It sounds like a bad school report to have a results that indicate in the words of the Senate officials your work has irregularities.

The profile of the Health Committee

I am really saddened that this committee headed by someone who holds a PhD in some health delivery field, albeit veterinarian and was once a state health commissioner failed to grasp the remit of her brief.

However, when you see that the committee also includes that instigator of the indecent dressing bill (Senator Eme Ufot-Ekaette), the quality might have been dampened by ideas of someone given to frivolities. As a pharmacist, she seems to have no medicine for Nigeria’s health needs; she chairs the Women and Youth Committee.

The quality of the presentation does not seem to have exhibited the presumed talents of Senator Chris N. Anyanwu who as a journalist suffered incarceration for her profession. She is the vice-chairman - Committee on Defence & Army

One senator and former governor refused to put his name to the bill that was Senator Chimaroke Nnamani of Enugu State who seems to be preoccupied with causing ructions in his old state.

Senator Mohammed I. Ahmed was a senator in the last legislative session, so should be conversant with senate procedures, he was once a Secretary to the Kwara State government and holds the coveted title of Member of the National Institute.

He also chairs the Establishment & Public Service Committee; in a position like that, he should have known better not to accept money from a ministry that his committee oversees, maybe he knows nothing about possible conflicts of interest.

Senator George Akume was once the governor of Benue State, a Director General and Permanent Secretary; he holds degrees in Library Science and chairs the Integration & Cooperation Committee.

Senator Adego Erhiawarie Eferakeya holds a PhD in Pharmacy (1975) and is a Doctor of Medicine (1977), he was Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Benin, and he is the vice-chairman of the Ethics & Petition Committee.

Senator Adeleke Olorunnimbe Mamora is a medical practitioner and the vice-chairman of the Federal Character & Inter-Governmental Affairs Committee.

Senator Umaru Dahiru is a legal practitioner, he was a Senator in the last legislative term and is now the chairman of the Judiciary Committee.

Senator Hassan Gusau was a member of the last legislative term and is the vice-chairman of the Employment, Labour & Productivity Committee.

Senator Mujitaba Mohammed Mallam holds a degree in educational biology and chemistry and he was once the commissioner for health of Jigawa State, he is the vice-chairman of the Housing Committee.

Senator Manzo G. Anthony is the vice-chairman of the Information & Media Committee.

Senator Gyang Dalyop Dantong was a member of the House of Representatives from 1999 to 2003 and a Senator since 2003, he is the vice-chairman of the Health Committee, he presented the bill and voluntarily withdrew it after the criticism of the quality and standard of the bill - he should at least know how things are done in the Nigerian legislature, one would think.

It beggars belief

This committee has 5 people who are either highly qualified health practitioners or have held positions of state health commissioner, it has 5 chairmen of Senate committees and 7 vice-chairmen of Senate committes, 2 were governors, 3 were Senators in the last legislative term, they all must have been involved in report preparations either academically or professionally.

This was no committee of nonentities, they were probably the best qualified of all senators to produce a bill of the standard that really addresses the health problems of Nigeria.

We have record numbers of people dying from malaria, religious organisations impeding their adherents from using health delivery programmes, sub-standard drugs are found in our teaching hospitals, Ministers of Health do not seem to have the right priorities and we do not have any institution in the country to treat our President when he has an allergic reaction and we end up with a bill for a junket in Ghana and no sound bill on health.

It is a disgrace.

Address the issue objectively

The Chairman in the person of Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello has responsibilities to manage, if her personal troubles are getting in the way of performing her duties with dispatch she should honourably resign her chairmanship and allow the committee to deliver without being hindered by these external factors.

I am disappointed that some political movements have failed to address the issue of the problems that Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello is having with her business dealings and indictments as completely separate from other matters that concern the activities of the regime of General Olusegun Obasanjo (Rtd.) the erstwhile President of Nigeria, who happens to be her father.

One is not surprised because from my observation Nigerians have a tendency to forget the issues and get carried away with peripheral subjective matters such that all objectivity necessary to address and scrutinise the real issue is lost.

If indeed Senator Iyabo Obasanjo-Bello is answerable to any charges, she should be dealt with as an individual in her own right and she be accorded all the means and courtesies to defend herself vigorously in any chosen forum of accusation, rebuttal, consideration and judgment.

The daughter is not the ex-President

She however should never be used as a conduit to get at her father who obviously has many enemies but is looking like a Teflon demi-god – if no one can legally and confidently indict General Obasanjo as an individual or head of a past government that is presumed to have been less than scrupulous, then he should be left alone to live out his years in pseudo-retirement.

This lack of objective focus on the issues allows the Senator to plead that she is being victimised and suggest that her life is in danger; it helps generate unnecessary sympathy for what should be a straight-forward legal issue whilst exciting commentary that could lead to exonerating her long before her cases are properly tried and proven.

It does no serve us well at all and it skews our criminal justice system.

Teenage mules caught in Ghana

Girls being girls?

News that two 16-year old girls of British citizenship but of foreign descent were arrested in Ghana for attempting to traffic cocaine to Britain has been greeted with interest and interesting commentary.

However, before we get carried away on the deception of the moment we need to examine this case deeper than the superficial.

The words of the girls are a damning indictment of either the youth in general or the circle of friends that these girls might keep and none of it is good.

The words

"There were basically two boys over here who gave us two bags and told us ... it was an empty bag.

"We never thought anything bad was inside ... and they told us to go to the UK and drop it off to some boy ... at the airport."

"It was basically like a set-up. They didn't tell us nothing, we didn't think nothing, because basically we are innocent.

"We don't know nothing about this drugs and stuff."

Having the time of their lives

Now these are two girls of 16 who were offered £3,000 to travel to Ghana, their accommodation was paid for by two Ghanaian men who presumably then gave them two "empty" laptop bags with £300,000 of cocaine to carry through Ghanaian customs and then U.K. customs to give to some other boy in the U.K. - 5% tops investment to cart the goods to the market.

These girls were having the time of their lives as they dreamed of what they would do with £3,000 where many know the price of everything but the value of nothing.

Anyone who has finished secondary school and is about to start A-Levels should have been aware in some way that West Africa was now the drop-off point for mules to bring drugs into Europe - in fact, some of this was in the news only too recently, if the youth could ever deign to be weaned off their PlayStations and iPods to find out what is going on in their world.

The protestations recorded on the phone of their innocence are bunkum for all I care, innocent, my foot; these girls were willing to take large sums of money, deceive their guardians or parents that they were off to France when they were really off to Ghana and they cared nothing for the fact that they might have ended up in the hands of even more unscrupulous people who could have sexually abused them amongst other unprintable things.

Confide and confidence

One would expect when children of that age are met with such serious situations, they would intimate their parents or relations who should be close enough to confide in about what could turn out really nasty.

Their language of expression was appalling to say the least, double negatives do not make positives in English language - in place of 'nothing' they should have used 'anything', if they could ever muster any sensible expression in their distress.

One cannot say if the girls were just plain naïve or exercising brazen bravado in willingly allowing themselves to be used in this rotten scheme and deception.

If they succeeded

But one thing is clear, if these girls had succeeded they would have had to explain to their parents where they got money for their new kit from - more lies, how their passports got to have visa stamps of Ghana - even more lies, they might have persuaded other colleagues and friends to get involved in this racket and they probably would have repeated the unassuming offence again and again.

Meanwhile, all the boys - the givers and the collectors would have now gone to ground without an iota of conscience for the trouble they have gotten the girls into - that is business; an occupational hazard for them and lives destroyed for the girls.

Let me correct that, it was the love of money, the root of all evil that consumed the girls that they allowed themselves to be easily deceived and lured into this deception of their parents to acquire unwarranted riches.

Raising kids properly

What do kids get taught at school today? No dignity in labour, no honesty in the acquisition of wealth, no knowledge of ensuring that the art of making money should be transparent, above board, auditable and worthy of example. Am I being just utterly old-fashioned here?

One does feel a tinge of sympathy for the girls, but the fact that they were caught would hopefully alert others to the danger of this get-rich-quick scheme.

Meanwhile the girls, who were told nothing, thought nothing and knew nothing would be on a crash course of learning something pretty damn quickly - never trust men who offer you riches for "nothing".