SPEND ON INFRASTRUCTURE NOT ON COMMISSIONING CEREMONIES
Will you please get the projects you are elected and paid to accomplish done instead of elaborate ceremonies each time a road, bridge, salary or pension arrears is done. Some of us are just getting sick and tired of looking at governors on television, hearing them on radio and newspapers about paying salary and pension people are entitled to and a right of duty turn into grand wasteful ceremonies for praise singers.
It is enough insult on our sensibilities to collect tolls as regressive new tax on roads and bridges built with paid taxes and incomes from resources that cannot be replenished. Calling upon us to thank and praise a governor for opening a stall is another form of aggrandizement while at the same time banning fools that spray looted funds. Both are close enough to call our attention to the generous deeds of some “good Samaritan”.
It used to be parties all over the places on weekends where streets are closed. We are now moving on to halls and hotels. As for some of us, there is no change because we have never had a party beyond our living rooms or if we have bigger space, within our compounds. Nobody that is, nobody can prevent us from enjoying ourselves within the sanity of our homes. There is so much misery, when we have our little money to celebrate and temporary get a relief, we will.
However, getting celebrated for building conspicuous roads and infrastructures that are essential to daily personal and commercial activities is another form of getting high on drugs at tax payers’ expense. If you want to get high or drunk, do it within the confine of your home with your salary, not with our money on major bridge, road or in front of senior pensioners some of whom have died waiting for their hard earned money.
There was this friend of ours that have gotten lost in London that we used to call “mayor” in those days. As we were driving around, this could be Ibadan, Enugu, Lagos or Zaria; the road was closed, blocks ahead. People were singing and dancing. Some were even in the same attires. He immediately wanted to crash the party thinking it was one of those freebies before he left home.
When we found out that it was the governor that was having one of his natural highs asking people to praise and thank him for his mercies for creating a project in the city, he could not believe that block parties have turned into state ceremonies. We could not even see the governor as he was mobbed by praise singers, police and grateful party members. Well, this is Nigeria, love it or leave it!
If you think that is grand, wait until the President is called upon to open the new town hall. What is even more disturbing is that most of these projects used foreign labor at the middle and top of the echelon. By the time the project is completed, it could have been awarded two times. One awarded by the previous government, another by the new administration. In the process, the cost must have increased to take care of cronies.
The cost of the ceremony is another budget entirely, enough to make a difference to inner roads. In some cases, there are lost work hours, small and big businesses around the area are closed for the governor’s party. In other cases, those businesses around the area are asked to contribute or make some goodwill gesture for the betterment of their environment. It could be in form of decorations, painting or extortion from party thugs.
A case in point was the anguish of bridge cleaners that were not paid for the day because their pay was used to buy food and drinks on the day the bridge was opened. Wait, they thought when they started sweeping the bridge after they were hired, the bridge was already opened. Oh no, the governor had not declared it opened. Whatever was done before the arrival of his majesty was unofficial!
One must expect the master of ceremonies of these “august” occasions to claim that is how it is done all over the world. They will tell you to go to Europe and certain locations and streets to show you how the Queen of England did the same ceremony. Their point is if it was good enough in England, it must be good for Africa.
Their problem is we do not respect our governors and President enough. These are projects they pledged in the campaign and they must draw attention of the people to the fact that they are fulfilling their promises. In other words, Africans are hard to please no matter what the politicians do. Their opponents, working for the other party are always ready to pounce on them for criticisms. It costs more to build roads in Nigeria.
You see, in a country of the blind the one eye man is always the king. If Okorocha, Fashola or Lamido is performing so much while the others are falling asleep on their oars, we must praise them. Do not forget that most of these so called performing governors also look for the most conspicuous areas to perform their aggrandizing ceremonies. The inner roads where most of the people are concentrated are ignored.
Nevertheless, every human needs some form of encouragement. We have to look far beyond immediate and personal gratifications if our accomplishments are genuine and durable. Most Nigerians may not be able to nominate who get the awards but they will ever be grateful to Mbakwe, Jakande and Balarabe Musa in their different ways of uplifting contributions to the people and their environment.
Though lasting contributions by different people in our towns and villages may not get awards at Abuja, they do get remembered from one generation to the next. People may be hungry at any moment, they may sing and dance to get for daily bread but they also know and appreciate legacies and who the real heroes were. Those block parties on the bridges, roads and areas are good for the moments. But it is their substance that last longer.
Surviving pensioners that missed payment for years, should be grateful they are not dead, abi?
Written By Farouk Martins Aresa