It is no more news that the Federal Government is planning to buy two planes for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his Vice, Kashim Shettima. Given the opaque nature of government and its activities, especially those that border on public funds, it will not be a surprise if the Federal Government has purchased these planes, despite the harsh criticisms that have trailed the plan.
Reasons for the desirability of the planes are hinged on, among others, national prestige, exigencies and safety of Nigeria’s First and Second citizens. Though Nigeria has about 10 presidential planes, the one currently used by Mr. President is 19 years old, prone to faults, with attendant huge cost of maintenance, so we were told.
What is news, however, is that Nigerians are very hungry as Senate President, Godswill Akpabio admitted. According to him, though Nigerians are hungry, President Tinubu deserves a plane, because his life is more important now than that of ordinary Nigerians.
The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria states unambiguously that the first duty of government is to protect lives and property of its citizens. For clarity, these lives and property include not only those of the President and his Vice but that of ALL Nigerians.
With the never-ending terrorism, banditry, armed robbery scourge, cultists mayhem, accidents on death-trap roads across the country, hunger of the majority in the midst of plenty in a country blessed with abundant natural and human resources and other vices that pervade Nigeria’s landscape, it is debatable if government has lived to this onerous responsibilities of protecting the lives and properties, and ensuring the wellbeing of common Nigerians.
Ironically, while most Nigerians complain about their neglect by the government, the safety and comfort of Nigeria’s political and ruling elites is, no doubt, very important to the present administration. The purchase of N160 million and N130 million bullet proof SUVs for Senators and House of Representative members, respectively, their huge salaries and allowances, are attestations to this fact.
It must be stated clearly that, while the lives and welfare of this class of Nigerians are important to the present administration, those of ordinary citizens should also be of topmost priority to it. After all, Nigeria’s adage says that, as the head of an elephant is heavy to it, so it is for an ant.
It has been stated for the umpteenth time that since the removal of fuel subsidy on May 29, 2023, life for the average Nigerian is now close to what prevailed in the Hobbesian state of nature where it was nasty, brutish, short and poor. A litre of petrol is now over N750; a litre of diesel is over N1500; a kg of cooking gas is over N1000; a bag of rice is beyond N80,000; a bag of cement is over N8000, etc. It is in the midst of these daily soaring prices of all goods and services and economic hardship for most Nigerians that a selected few, funded by taxpayers’ monies, live like lords, not swayed by the sufferings of the majority of Nigerians who ‘voted’ them into power.
A government that truly cares for its citizens, in which the third citizen admitted that the people are hungry, cannot continue to openly display lifestyles of opulence, corruption and non-accountability, especially when it cannot afford to pay living wage to its workers and most citizens find it difficult to feed or meet basic necessities of life.
Nigeria’s political and ruling elites must realize that current hardship and hunger in the country are real, not imaginary, now than ever before in the history of this country, except during the civil war, 1967-1970. The reality is that a hungry person is an angry person. Most times, it is not easily fathomable what is in the mind of an angry person. This is what Kenyan youths recently expressed in the East
African country. Same for Parisians in the French Revolution that abolished the monarchical system led by King Louis XVI in 1789. Same with the Arab Spring that sparked off in Tunisia in 2010, with the self immolation by Mohammed Bouazizi. History has told us that throughout the world, when people are pushed to the wall, they have a way of resisting.
It is expected that Nigerian politicians must have learnt lessons from its past and rule with the fear of God and for the benefit of all or the majority. Sadly, this is not the case. What is obvious is that some of Nigeria’s political and ruling elites are in competition among themselves in the privatization of our collective patrimony.
For ordinary Nigerians, they must realize that if the self-centeredness of some of their political and ruling elites continue, judging from history, their socio-economic conditions may not improve significantly in the future, if we are to take Rev. Martin Luther King Jr seriously. Writing from the Birmingham City Jail in Alabama, USA, in 1963, he said: ‘history is the long tragic story of the fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily.’
Ordinary peoples of Nigeria must be ready to take their destinies in their own hands. We should listen to Franz Fanon who said: ‘every generation must out of relative obscurity discover its mission or betray it.’
Political consciousness should be re-awakened among them that their strength and betterment is in their voting power, which must be exercised at whatever level whenever the opportunity comes.
In addition, Nigerians, especially lecturers, students unions, civil society organizations, workers and all well-meaning people, irrespective of tribe and religion should continuously conscientise the masses that Nigeria’s wealth belongs to us all. They, especially the youths, should be told in clear terms that their sufferings, lack, deprivation, are consequences of bad leadership, deliberately foisted on them by Nigeria’s ruling and political elites and not the laziness as told by former President, Mohammadu Buhari.
Uwadia, a columnist and administrator, writes from Benin City
