Economic Confidential, August, 2009

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Jumbo pays for politicians & our slavish mentality

By Harry Agina

Considering the present economic rot in Nigeria, there is no question whatsoever that the remuneration packages of our political office holders are outrageously insane. We have allowed our politicians to make the political offices criminally attractive, no wonder they often kill one another for those positions.

I recently read a very disturbing article on this subject titled “Councilors Get 735% Slash in Remunerations,” which was written by McDonald Koiki of the Economic Confidential Group. Fraught with slavish mentality, the article is a swipe at the recent attempt by Nigeria’s Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission to bring some sanity into our remuneration policy for political offices in Nigeria.

Until now, I have always enjoyed reading commentaries from the stables of the Economic Confidential Group. I have to strongly disagree with Mr. Koiki’s commentary this time, and I will systematically respond to some specific issues in his condemnation of the slash in the remuneration packages of local government councilors. Mr. Koiki sure sounds like a councilor, or a man with special interest in the ‘booty’ of the councilors. “One would begin to wonder the rationale behind the action of the Fiscal Commission,” says Mr. Koiki.

Well, the rationale is very easy to comprehend, but I can understand that some people may need special explanation. Hopefully, I will be able to explain “the rationale” to Mr. Koiki. The gist of it is that our politicians are living in heaven with our money while they put the rest of us in a gigantic dungeon called Nigeria, and, it is high time we said no! Sadly, Koiki believes that, “they (councilors) should be given some substantial benefits that will keep them away from corrupt practices, mediocrity and possible clashes with the ‘chairmen’ of their Local Government Areas.”

What a crock! Every Nigerian knows that jumbo remuneration packages for our political officers will never stop corrupt practices or political mediocrity in Nigeria. Rather, the more our leaders get, the greedier they become. If you give them one billion naira monthly package today, they immediately start scheming for one trillion naira per week.

And, as for mediocrity, every Dick and Harry, including this Harry, knows that we only have a few leaders who are truly qualified to be in office. We are all aware that our leadership positions are mostly filled by undeserving people who are installed against our wish by political godfathers and their deadly thugs. So far, the jumbo pays have done nothing about the fact that many of our councilors can hardly spell their own names, not to talk of making rational decisions for the progress of their communities.

I am truly offended when anybody tries to justify the atrocious jumbo pay of our leaders. I especially feel insulted when some apologists try to make some sense out of the nonsensical gap in remuneration between our educationists and our political officers. It should actually be treasonable that our leaders are systematically killing our education system and everything else in the society, and we are stupidly defending their jumbo remuneration packages. I probably would not feel so miffed by Mr. Koiki’s commentary if he did not make the bad judgment to belittle the significance of our educationists in his distasteful comparison to the councilors.

The implication of his commentary is that it is okay to starve our teachers and destroy our entire education system, while we allow our councilors to live in luxury like gods. According to him, and I quote: “the responsibilities of the university dons in the long term are more far-reaching than those of the Local Government Councilors. But in the immediate term, the responsibilities of the Local Government Councilors have more effects than those of the university dons.”

I wonder how Mr. Koiki came up with his long and short term impact analysis! The spontaneous questions that many sensible Nigerians ask him include: what “effects” do Nigerian councilors have in the society? What is it that councilors do other than loot our treasury? I do visit Nigeria, and I am yet to see anything that the councilors are doing to add value to the lives of Nigerians. All I see are their various designs to extort the public every day in order to attain the godly comfort that Mr. Koiki wants for them, while the rest of us remain in the rot that their greed has immersed us.

Mr. Koiki believes that: “In order to effectively carry out their duties, this group of public office holders (i.e. councilors) requires certain level of comfort, they are not robots, they can forget things, and they can get tired, hence they need assistants. Why should their aides be scrapped? Who will help them take notes or remind them of appointments or projects? Why should their newspaper/ periodicals allowance be scrapped? Should they buy dailies and periodicals from the slashed resources? How would they get information? Why should they not be given car loans? How can they move around knowing the kind of rugged terrains that some of them may have to work in?”

I ask Mr. Koiki once again—what duties do the councilors “carry out” that justify all their million-dollar allowances and “certain level of comfort,” while the rest of us must worship them and die in penury? I have news for Koiki; some of the councilors cannot even read the newspapers that he wants us to buy for them. Commentaries such as Mr. Koiki’s have a way of destroying and debasing our society. We are gradually but surely indoctrinating our youths that it is okay to drop out of school and join a political party as thugs. And, as long as they are in the right place at the right time, probably by committing some major atrocities for some political godfathers, they may start living larger than gods in the nearest future. What shameful sense of values!

Indeed, I did hear of a secondary school drop-out who was living in a one-bedroom apartment with his parents until his recent ‘selection’ as councilor. Typically, thanks to the “certain level of comfort” advocated for the councilors by Mr. Koiki and his likes, the young man has already acquired a parcel, or parcels of land, and he is erecting one or more mansions for himself. Meanwhile, however, he still lives in his parents’ one-bedroom apartment, and he is collecting all the allowances for housemaids, aides and cooks that do not even exist.

“Perhaps some of us are completely unaware of the challenges posed by the terrains in which some of these councilors operate,” says Mr. Koiki. Then he tries to educate us with his nonsensical examples. “For instance,” he says “some of these rural areas do not have motorable roads, electricity and telephone services. Hence, such councilors should be entitled to vehicles designed for rough terrains.”

What slavish bullshit! Mr. Koiki does recognize in his commentary that the councilors embezzle the funds allocated for making our roads motorable in the first place, but he still tells us that we have to pity the same almighty councilors for having to ply the same bad roads with the rest of us. He wants us to give them “vehicles designed for rough terrain.”

No offence, but if you ask me, and even if nobody asks me I still say that somebody is getting paid to propagate such nonsensical argument in a society with millions of intelligent people. Mr. Koiki seems to forget that we all live in those terrible terrains, too, and, the councilors put us all in those terrains. If the councilors want smooth movement, then they must fix the roads for all of us. They have no right to create special heaven for themselves with our collective money while the rest of us suffer. The rest of us have no electricity, but Mr. Koiki believes that his almighty councilors must have “24-hour supply of electricity and satellite phone—Thuraya.” What slavish mentality hogwash! Nigerians should force the councilors and other so-called leaders to live like the rest of us who suffer every day due to their failure in governance. We are not their slaves, for crying out loud!

Our educationists have been in a very long battle to improve their welfare, as well as improve the deplorable conditions in our schools, but our politicians refuse to budge. They are comfortable to allocate jumbo pays to themselves, but not to or education system. They do not give a damn that our education system is completely shut down because they educate their children abroad with our money, so that they will continue to dominate and rule us like their slaves. Yet, commentators such as Mr. Koiki do not see anything wrong with the entire bullshit. Let’s face it, a nation that belittles the import of education is a very sick nation…No Bullshitting!

Agina writes from USA

harryagina@yahoo.com

Read the Original Article: Councillors Allowances