Aborting Nigeria’s Disgrace
In the last four weeks, I have been on vacation in Nigeria and in Kiev, Ukraine. That is why it appeared as if I had become “out of circulation.” It was a well deserved holiday, though. As we speak, I am compiling the reports of my observations in those countries and very soon they will be made public.
Just as I was about to leave Ukraine for London, I learnt that Nigeria’s President Buhari had an interactive session with journalists in Aso Rock, the Presidential Villa. Many of us, Nigerian journalists in the Diaspora, had anticipated such an interaction with the incumbent President after former President Jonathan confessed that one of the mistakes he regretted making was his neglect of the use of the media to inform Nigerians of what he was doing or not doing, and why. Indeed, President Buhari could not have missed seeing the great necessity of fraternising with journalists in Nigeria at a time like this.
The President seized that opportunity to lament the inability of previous governments to at-least pay Nigerian workers their normal salaries. He is quoted as saying he thinks Nigeria should be in a position to pay its workers. “So, this bad management (of the national economy) that we find ourselves in....with state workers and even federal workers not paid their salaries is such a disgrace for Nigeria.”
I made the observation sometime ago, that I have never heard Nigerian politicians mention the place of family in any of their political campaigns. Here in the UK, for instance, the welfare of British families is normally the fundamental preoccupation of British politicians. No British politician plays with that. They know all the families in their constituencies one by one. They take interest in how they are faring. Not just the rich and influential because the doors of a British parliamentarian are open to members of his constituency for consultations at-least two days in the week. If he is not there, his secretary will be there to book an appointment for him on the day he can discuss the problem with his constituent.
Nigerian politicians need to borrow some ideas from their British counterparts. They need to place greater emphasis on the welfare of families in their constituencies. They need to know most of these families one by one. They need to ask after their welfare. They need to make an all-inclusive list of the families in their constituencies and ask after their welfare from time to time. They need to get closer to the people whose votes gave them the place of trust they occupy as their representatives. They need to fish out “troubled families” and give them the support they need, be it financial or psychological. That is the road that will lead the country to true democracy.
Over the years since independence in 1960, subsequent Nigerian governments have made it a routine to owe working class families arrears of salaries that run into months. This criminal negligence of working class families has often led parents to send their teenage children out on the streets to hawk commodities that range from moi-moi, akara, banana to pure water, soft drinks and fried plantains etc. In the process, these Nigerian children are exposed to much hazard such as accidents and rape, and as we recently knew from the case of Sarah Ibikunle who ran into the bullets of armed bank robbers while hawking fried fish on the streets of Lagos, stray bullets.
Yet, ironically, whenever a new government is inaugurated, the first thing it does is for Mr President to mount the roof top to announce his determination to rid the nation of the cancerous and endemic cankerworm called “corruption”, the ailment that has eaten so deeply into the socio-political fabric of the nation. But at the end of the day, each new government leaves the nation more deeply wounded, more mercilessly brutalised and more profusely bleeding than it was before that government came into power.
It is soothing to note that President Buhari, like others before him, is willing to rid the nation of corruption. At-least, he realises from the onset the need to pay workers their salaries. But paying salaries alone is not the issue here. The main challenge is that workers are paid as at and when due, much in the same way as they are paid in the developed countries. Nigeria has got the money to do this. What is lacking, perhaps, is the political will.
Be that as it may, there is no gainsaying that in this dispensation, unless President Buhari presents an executive bill requesting the National Assembly to endorse the law that will make it a criminal offence, punishable by law, for employers of labour at all levels, and in all sectors – be they private or public – who fail to pay their workers as at, and when due, every effort the APC will make to rid the nation of official corruption will go the way other governments before it went. This is the hard fact that will make the difference and create one change in the system which Nigerians have yearned for all these years.
It is obvious that Nigeria’s politicians know all this. Some of them studied abroad. Most of their families live abroad, in the UK, the USA, Canada and other European nations. They know how these things work. They know that the only meaningful and sustainable way to fight against corruption is to start by paying every category of worker on the day he or she should be paid. That they have criminally refused to even table such a motion in the National Assembly is, to put it mildly, most irresponsible. It seems to suggest that there is a gang-up of those in authority to ensure that Nigerians will never come out the woods or see the true light of day.
Come to think of it! Why do Nigerian politicians lack the political will to pass laws that will stabilise their country? It is so unimpressive, and yet so suggestive.
It is encouraging to note, however, that President Buhari has started with the first leg in the right direction. The reduction of the number of ministries (and ministers) to a manageable size is commendable. The PDP government may have put all that number of inconsequential ministries in place in an attempt to pay off its numerous beneficiaries or in an attempt to increase the number of its admirers, at the expense of proper management of the national economy. Now President Buhari has discovered the conduit pipe from which the PDP government was siphoning the nation’s finances. He wants to plug the hole and if you ask me, that is a good thing for the nation and a step in the right direction for the APC government.
One more step Buhari has to take as a matter of political expediency is to bring back sanity among Nigerian road users. Most Nigerian roads need to be properly marked, with proper speed limit and other relevant road signs. Traffic lights ought to be installed along all the roads to moderate traffic flow and cameras need to be put in place to monitor traffic offenders. The Federal Road Safety Commission must continue to send its staff to other developed countries to learn and update their techniques and skills.
Talking about nation-wide installation of traffic lights, some of my associates argue that with no regular electricity, it cannot work. Then I ask them: “how do operations at the toll gates in Ikeja and parts of Lagos which former Lagos governor, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, put in place work?” If the toll gates are working every day and every night, nonstop, then the same principle can be applied to get the traffic lights and the cameras working until such a time that Nigerian politicians can develop the political will to ensure a 24/7 uninterrupted electricity in every nook and cranny of the country. Once this is done and a Special Force from the FRSC to monitor and issue tickets to offenders is put in place, Nigerians will begin to behave like normal people. Discipline will begin to return to the country and among the people. The idea of living life rather than forever struggling to survive it will take sway among the people. Life will gradually but steadily return. The value of life will become more appreciated among Nigerians. And Nigerians can look forward to a brighter, more meaningful future.
President Buhari can get all this done during his first tenure of four years. But he needs to take one step at a time. Or this time, two giant steps that will lay the foundation of a very fundamental aspect of the democratic evolution – the total revamping of the Nigerian psyche. A lot will indeed be achieved if President Buhari can take up the issue of prompt payment of workers’ salaries and proper marking and use of Nigerian roads with the National Assembly. As a matter of political expediency, he must do everything within his purview to abort the Nigerian disgrace.
* Mr Asinugo is a London-based journalist and social commentator