By Tochukwu Ezukanma<\/p>\n
The former American Secretary of State, Mrs. Hillary Clinton, once
\nsummed up the follies of the Nigerian power elite, \u201cThey have
\nsquandered their oil wealth, they have allowed corruption to fester and
\nnow they are losing control of parts of their territory because they
\nwon\u2019t make hard choices\u201d. Despite his much-hyped incorruptibility
\nand moral courage, President Buhari, like earlier Nigerian presidents,
\nhas failed to make hard choices.<\/p>\n
Consequently, political power continues to be wielded as an enemy of the
\npeople by self-absorbed power elite, and a shady, spooky, self-seeking
\ncabal continues to pull its oligarchic strings from behind the fa\u00e7ade
\nof democracy. Power exercised as an enemy of the people ignores the
\nlegitimate aspirations of the people and subverts equity and social
\njustice. It steals from the people and panders to the avarice of an
\nelite few. It promotes the unjustifiable affluence of the political
\nclass and their cronies and relegates the generality of the people to
\nhard poverty and insufferable misery.<\/p>\n
While Nigerian legislators are the highest paid in the world, Nigerian
\nworkers live on the lowest minimum wage in the world. The income per
\ncapita in America is twenty times that of Nigeria, but Nigerian senators
\nearn nearly three times as much as American senators and more than the
\nAmerican president. Is this not, in essence, robbery, robbery colorfully
\nfestooned as legislative remuneration? In addition to their legitimized
\nrobbery, the legislators still splurge excessive amounts of money on
\nother perks of office, for example, the spending of N5.6billion for the
\npurchase of new SUV for senators. In the 2021 budget, the feeding and
\ntravel allowances for the president and vice president are N3.97billion.
\nIt rends the heart and boggles the mind when the greed and extravagance
\nof our rulers are considered against the backdrop that Nigeria has the
\ngreatest concentration of extreme poverty in the world.<\/p>\n
With government institutions bloated and wasteful, a preponderant
\npercentage of the budget is spent on recurrent expenditure and debt
\nservicing. The total expenditure for the 2021 budget is 13.58 trillion
\nnaira, with a deficit of 5.2 trillion naira. The deficit will be
\nfinanced by loans from the World Bank, Islamic Development Bank, and
\ncountries like Brazil, and sales and concessions of none-oil assets.
\nBorrowing to invest in public infrastructure, health, education, and law
\nenforcement is laudable economics, but borrowing to service debts and
\nsustain bloated and wasteful institutions is woeful economics. In the
\n2021 budget, only 30.4 percent of the total budget is for capital
\nexpenditure. The percentage of the budget devoted to education, health,
\nand the police is distressingly low. For example, Nigeria has high
\nmalaria burden and mortality rate, but only N297million was budgeted to
\nfight malaria in 2021.<\/p>\n
Despite Buhari\u2019s claptrap about fighting corruption, Nigeria remains
\none of the most corrupt countries in the world. The toll of corruption
\non the country is terrifyingly evident. For example, it enervates the
\nwar against crimes, like kidnapping and banditry, and the war against
\nterror. With the resources already committed to the war against terror,
\nBoko Haram should have been defeated, or severely weakened to the point
\nof not constituting a major military threat. Paradoxically, it remains a
\npotent military force; striking at civilian and military targets at
\nwill, and overrunning sections of the country. This is because some
\npowerful interests are benefiting, financially, from the endless war. An
\nendless war necessitates endless budgeting of endless billions of
\ndollars for the war and the endless sharing and salting them away into
\nthe private pockets of the military hierarchy, politicians, and other
\ngovernment officials.<\/p>\n
The refusal to make hard choices explains the intractable problem of
\ninadequate electric generation in Nigeria. The \u201cspending\u201d of
\nsignificant amounts of money to increase power generation with nothing
\nto show for it continues under the Buhari administration. Does common
\nsense not dictate that to entrust the responsibility to revamp power
\ngeneration on those that gain from lack of power is fantastic absurdity?
\nThose that benefit from the inexplicable trillions of naira paid to oil
\nmarketers for nonexistent subsidies; importers of refined fuel that fuel
\nprivate generation of power; and importers of generators cannot solve
\nthe problem of power generation. Not surprisingly, darkness holds sway
\nover Nigeria.<\/p>\n
The president is unable to subordinate his nepotism, tribalism, and
\ncommitment to Fulani expansionism to the peace of the country; his
\nadministration encourages the murderous binge of Fulani herdsmen across
\ncentral and southern Nigeria. Under the pretext of seeking grazing area,
\nFulani herdsmen have been raping women; killing innocent men, women, and
\nchildren; and razing, seizing, and renaming peoples\u2019 villages. It is
\nblindingly clear that these have nothing to do with grazing, but the
\nadvancement of Fulani irredentism. By emboldening Fulani terrorists and
\nencouraging Fulani blood-soaked expansionism, President Buhari is
\nnudging Nigeria towards a civil war.<\/p>\n
Making hard choices is challenging. It demands courage, principles, and
\nthe resolve to subordinate selfish, cliquish, oligarchic, nepotistic,
\nand tribal interests to the collective good of the country. In addition,
\nit demands genuineness, transparency, and accountability. The Buhari
\nadministration cannot meet these demands because Buhari is laden with
\nall the vices of previous Nigerian rulers. As such, like previous
\nadministrations, his administration cannot make the hard choices.<\/p>\n
Tochukwu Ezukanma writes from Lagos, Nigeria<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Tochukwu Ezukanma The former American Secretary of State, Mrs. Hillary Clinton, once summed up the follies of the Nigerian power elite, \u201cThey have squandered their oil wealth, they have…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":77525,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"\n