Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), has called on all of Nigeria’s public officials to give half of their salary for one year towards ameliorating the suffering of our unemployed youth.
Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), has called on all of Nigeria’s public officials to give half of their salary for one year towards ameliorating the suffering of our unemployed youth.
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He said, “I want to make a suggestion…that probably if all political office holders, both elected and appointed, will give half of their salaries for one year and put it in a dedicated account for the poor and let men and women of integrity run that account, it will build confidence in the society.”
The Pastor made his intervention at the National Christian Centre in Abuja, at an event which marked National Day.
I have not heard Pastor Oritsejafor refer to his suggestion since then. Nor do I think he has heard from any official of any coloration wishing to volunteer heart or cheque. He will not, because in Nigeria, it is about taking, not giving, and as a rule, taker never take enough to give away. We help the poor by nurturing poverty. Unemployed? Awwww…sorry!
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Seeking public office? You lie, cheat and steal. You look deeply into the eyes of prospective voters and tell them whatever you think they want to hear. Once they have voted for you, the joke is on them.
It is common knowledge that some Ministerial nominees collude with legislators for confirmation, and that some Ministers and commissioners collude with legislators about mutually-beneficial budget allocations. Ministers often collude with bank officials and contractors. Some Governors are in a perpetual game of converting public funds into private estates. It is the business of Lazarus if he starves to death in his squalor.
In some Nigerian States where the governor is decent, the public interest is being served and development is may be seen to be taking shape. Where the governor is a greedy one, however, he is the State, in the manner of Louis XIV.
But things may be changing: Take Delta State, where angry Isoko youth showed up during a meeting of chieftains of the Peoples Democratic Party in Idheze last week. Brandishing dangerous weapons, they chased the bigwigs into the street, some of them jumping over obstacles like Senator Iyabo Obasanjo fleeing from the EFCC.
The charge: “All of them you see are 419 [fraudsters],” one of the youth said. “After elections they will abandon us and once another election is getting close you see them coming around again and we said this time around it will not…This time around it will not work we shall resist and fight with the last drop of our blood.”
Pay attention to the b-word: blood.
In Kaduna, blood was in fact shed when a pro-Jonathan political rally of the Northern Youth Forum ended in violence, with several people carried off bleeding. It is not even election year, yet.
The rally was reported to have been funded by a governor from the South-south who was speculated to have laid out N500 million towards boosting Mr. Jonathan’s acceptance in the North.
The following day, we were to see a glimpse of the future when the Kaduna State Commissioner of Police, one Olufemi Adenaike, a military era relic, seized the microphone and declared: "Henceforth, no individual, groups or associations shall hold meetings, rallies or assemblies without the prior consent of the police Command.”
Mr. Adenaike had clearly not availed himself of a copy of the constitution.
Citizens’ groups immediately rejected the order, the Center for Development and Rights Advocacy dismissing it as “a gross infringement of citizenry fundamental human rights, freedom of speech, association and rightful assembly in tandem with principles of democracy and also other international conventions and treaties which Nigeria is a signatory.”
Kaduna, by the way, is the fragile State where issues of transparency have become very prominent. In June, trainee-Governor Mukhtar Ramalan Yero was accused by the House of Assembly of embezzling N560 million of the state’s Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P) funds. Earlier, some citizens had written to the EFCC alleging that local government chairmen and members of the House were sharing the funds among themselves.
SURE-P, born of the nationwide public protests of January 2012, is one of those initiatives for which Mr. Jonathan receives some credit, although sadly not for its implementation.
In fact, the former Action Congress of Nigeria said in April that SURE-P funds were being converted into election campaign funds nationwide. Specifically, in Lagos, the party accused PDP members of looting the funds.
In view of Kaduna’s paranoia over public rallies, the SURE-P situation forecasts a scary future because it suggests that men like Adenaike could gun down innocent citizens simply for expressing rights given to them in the constitution.
This is particularly important in view of the several protests underway, or on the way. The Academic Staff Union of Universities strike is now three and a half months old. That situation was compounded last week when the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics began its own strike.
The issues are the same: a government that does not honour its obligations. The unions cite poor or inexistent infrastructure, underfunding, terrible teaching conditions, mismanagement, and underpayment.
But the government is not paying attention to the teachers. It does not seem to be paying much attention to the States, either, with governors complaining about not receiving due allocations not from the centre.
How long will civil service workers stomach not being paid, should that come? How long will students sit at home before they sit in the streets? In the corruption-soaked oil sector, there have been threats of strike action.
The credibility of the government continues to disappear: Boko Haram, supposedly shot to death after three States were sacrificed to a state of emergency, seems to be flourishing in the citizen-slaughtering business.
And no arm of the government seems to know what the other is doing. One says Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau is dead; another says he is not. Jonathan says he does not know whether the man is alive or dead. Kidnappers kidnap on, and policemen collect bribes.
Speaking of credibility, Mr. Jonathan says that corruption in Nigeria is “exaggerated.” This settles any argument as to why such friends of his as Ministers Diezani Alison-Madueke, Stella Oduah and Mohamed Adoke continue to hold their jobs.
It does not matter what they are accused of: exaggerated. It does not matter that a plane falls out of the sky while the Aviation Minister is alleged to be collecting bribes from anyone who walks past Aviation’s doors: exaggerated. Real leaders confront corruption by smell, long before it is seen, but Nigeria’s leader implies it is a rumour, thereby empowering impunity.
It is unlikely that all of this can happen, and continue to happen without repercussions, with Nigeria’s youth looking on. This is why the road to 2015 becomes a minefield, and not simply of political explosives.
This is why privileged people like Pastor Oritsejafor must readjust their glasses. Our people do not deserve to be “assisted” with personal resources, certainly not by people who, if they only applied one-tenth of their efforts and our resources, would be heroes in our eyes.
What Nigerian youth desire—and deserve—is what belongs to them: justice, not alms. And that is because Nigeria needs surgery, not treatment.
This is the time for us to be honest about what is at stake, and to cry loudly in the streets while there is time. Otherwise, our critically-unemployed may well come for what is theirs.
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