Ayo Oyoze Baje
“We are the children of the poor
Born without our mothers’ consent
Tortured without a protest
Buried without a name”
-Ayo Oyoze Baje ( poem of the same title, published by the Nigerian Herald, July 1988 )
When we blame our youths for the escalating wave of sundry crimes such as armed robbery, kidnapping for ransom, rape and terrorism, we hardly ask ourselves if we, as their parents, guardians and elders, have been there for them, or playing our parts. Yet, the pertinent questions remain: Do the perpetrators of these heinous crimes appear from Planet Mars or Jupiter? Don’t they have parents, teachers, pastors or Imams as their guiding moral compass? Have the governments (local, state and federal) acted as the father-figure to provide for their welfare and protect them against social and food insecurity as aptly enshrined in Section 14, Subsection 2(b) of the 1999 Constitution,(as amended)? The answer is obvious.
These were similar questions yours truly raised through an article titled: ‘ What type of future are we leaving for our children?’ as serially published on October 12, 2017. But has the sordid situation improved as of this day? Not at all. It has worsened, as parents groan with the highest inflation ever, characterised by soaring costs of food items, electricity tariff, rent, and school fees, all triggered by the sudden removal of fuel subsidy back in May 2023. Yet, while some 133 million citizens grapple with survival mode, the children of the rich political helmsmen live large, openly displaying their frivolous lifestyle to satisfy their epicurean taste as if they were elected along with their parents into office. As if that was not insulting enough, turning our democracy into an oligarchy, recently, the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission, RMAFC, came out proposing to increase the pay packages of the Lords of the Manor by over 100%! Outrageous, is it not? Of course, it is like adding salt to the people’s injury.
In response, the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, has described it as “insensitive, unjust and inequitable”.On his part, renowned human rights advocate and lawyer, Femi Falana, has raised alarm over it, warning that the economic situation is in dire straits and the RMAFC, which is proposing for the second time in two years, ought to have considered giving a listening ear to the cries of the long-suffering, marginalised masses. In fact, methinks, this should be a moment for sober reflection.
What we need is leadership by example- a selfless service to the people. Now is the time for them to make the much-needed sacrifice, instead of turning our democratic culture to that of plutocracy, which is a government of the rich, by the rich, and to reward the supporters of the political pilots. Indeed, they should borrow a fresh leaf from some past political leaders of some other countries, such as Italy and Uruguay, when their nations were faced with a harsh economic situation, as we currently battle with.
It would be recalled that between 2010 and 2015, when
President Jose Mujica (now of blessed memory) piloted the affairs of Uruguay; he shunned the luxurious house that the Uruguayan state provided for its leaders. He opted instead to stay at his wife’s farmhouse, off a dirt road outside the capital, Montevideo.
The president and his wife worked the land themselves, growing flowers. They had only two cars. This austere lifestyle – and the fact that Mujica donated about 90% of his monthly salary, equivalent to $12,000 (£7,500), to charity – led him to be labelled the “poorest president in the world”.
In a similar vein, it was reported in May 2021 that Italy’s Prime Minister, known as ‘Super Mario’ waived his entire £100,000 salary to ‘show solidarity with his nation hit by recession’. Leadership by example was what the two men with the sweet milk of human kindness demonstrated when their two countries were caught in the web of economic recession, not an obscene lifestyle.
It is the best of times for our own political leaders- from the local government chairmen, through the lawmakers at all levels, to the state governors and the federal executive,
to climb down from their high horses of ego tripping to wear the tattered shoes of the common man and do the needful. Lest we forget, the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF and the Economist Magazine published in the United Kingdom (UK warned
back in 2010 that the humongous salaries of our politicians in office ranked amongst the highest in the world then, while the people stew in persisting, preventable poverty. Unfortunately, their words of admonition fell on stone – deaf ears.
Let us, for a moment, consider the mind-boggling and humungous sums of public funds serially siphoned to feather the nests of members of the political class ever since independence in 1960. Couldn’t that have facilitated providing quality education, sustainable food security, sound healthcare delivery and the enabling infrastructural environment to provide mass employment for the youths?
Another source of serious concern is the inability of some state governments to pay the minimum wage, up to the moment, as agreed.
We should recall that President Bola Tinubu signed the new minimum wage into law on July 29, 2024, after meeting with leaders of the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria. Yet, despite the monthly allocations from the Federation Account and their Internally Generated Revenue, IGR, some civil servants and their dependents are left in misery.
Indeed, one’s increasing fear about the nature and texture of the future that the current crop of Nigeria’s political leaders is bequeathing to our rudderless youths is predicated on the prevailing poverty and hunger in the land. Consider the scary scenario where instilling the Fear Factor on a hapless, hungry citizenry through well-calculated punitive measures is meted out on the voices of courage and truth who dare criticise the government’s policies? What do we make of the sudden swerve of defections, especially by some state governors who are afraid of being investigated for one case of corruption or the other, all in the bid to hang on to political power come the next election? All these, in addition to the evils of vote trading- selling and buying -are antithetical to democratic norms. Our leaders should be worried about the moral lessons they are teaching our children, who have to grow up daily in hunger and misery, in a thorny, political jungle where might is right. What we need is the deployment of our best brains, including eggheads on the economy, to come up with pro-people policies with the enabling environment for businesses to thrive. We have abundant natural resources to get Nigerians out of the ignoble pit of poverty with the right leadership policies driving the economy. Not the time for the poor to tighten their belts to keep satisfying the insatiable political elite, as the RMAFC wants to do with increased pay packages
