by Dayo Israel

How can you expect a Governor who have never led a single Organisation in his entire life but gets His political party ticket on the platter of Gold because His Father is an Elder Statement – to perform in office. What does he want to perform than to do the bidding of His Godfathers.

Suwa, ain’t you tired of writing proposals and looking for funding for your very illustrious visionary projects, I said, looking serious but jokingly. So what do you have in mind she replied. How about I offer you an House of Assembly ticket to become the next honorable from your constituency. What state are you from again? I asked.

‘Oh I’m from Delta,’ she replied. Errm, that’s not a hard nut. Okay House of Assembly ticket with full sponsorship for your campaign and in return you give me 80% of your salary for your whole first term in office, and 60% during your 2nd term. ‘Oh and in addition,’ I added, ‘40% of your constituency project contracts must be awarded to my choice company.’ ‘Don’t worry, we’ll deliver the job, we wont even inflate the price like others do, we just must be the one to deliver the project, I added.

She opened her mouth in amazement, with mixed emotion, ‘Is he serious… is he kidding?’ Before uttering “Dayo you cant be serious …80% ? That’s inhumane, how would I manage 20%”. With a look as if to say ‘you can’t be serious’, I asked her: Please what do you earn at the moment, ‘Almost nothing’ was the obvious answer. ‘Do you have a car? No, Do you live in a house of your own, NO. “So I’m offering you an opportunity to move from “Nothing” to become “My Honorable” overnight and you are complaining about 80%”. “How do you even reason”, I asked. “100% of nothing over 20% of something.”

Still shocked, amused and confused, she wasn’t sure if I was joking or serious, while at the same time was also disgusted at my condition of 20%. Trying to entice her more, I added “Let me make two things clear to you. 1. Even with the 20% you can do a lot. Suddenly you become “My Honorable”, you might even become the First female Speaker of Delta with a special plate number “Speaker of the Delta State House of Assembly” with other cars in your convoy as “DTHA 01”. Today you are writing letters to ministries to sponsor your youth conference, if you take this offer, the table would turn for your good. You begin to get invitation from NGO’s, churches etc to become special guest at their event. You get gifts of cows and turkey during the holidays and I don’t want a share of that. Think about this well I added.

And while she was still pondering on that I interjected again, “Suwa I’m surprised you are finding it hard to let go of 80%, with this spirit I don’t think you pay tithe or first-fruit oo. You have to give unto Caesar what belongs to Caesar. Ain’t you tired of being the one writing proposals for your event when as Honorable those programs would now be funded by your constituency allowance.

“But 80% Dayo, that’s too much” she said. I couldn’t believe she didn’t see what I was seeing so I tried to explain to her further. “Maybe you don’t know, your account balance is less than N3,000 according to you, so you don’t even have the resources for campaign. My people would fund your campaign, we would spend every kobo to get you not just the ticket but the seat. All you have to do is to spend time designing your action plan while in office and showing up at rallies. Throughout your tenure, we would continue to spend to ensure stakeholders in your community are pleased with you and give you all the support you need”.

Do you know how much that would cost us ? I asked. We have to settle all the traditional rulers in your constituency, and God help you one of them is a Grade A ruler, then that’s a minimum of N250,000 per seed. Don’t you even think that’s all, we have to settle all the youth associations, widows union, spiritual leaders, community groups, and most importantly the various party stakeholders in the State. And by party stakeholders, I mean the Party Chairman and Executives in the Local Government in your constituency and in the state. They have to be “mobilised” frequently so their machinery can be available to us. How much do you think that would cost us, I asked her.

At this stage, she began to see reason and asked “Ok, can I give you someone else”?, Who ?, My brother she replied. Your Brother ? But why, at this stage she expressed her fear about politics and violence. “I don’t want to be a target. I don’t want to be killed”.

Oh, don’t worry, you can’t be killed. With your 80% also comes Protective Security. You wear bulletproof under your Ankara throughout the campaign. It would be ensured that you have permanent thugs that deals with your opponents frequently. You would be highly feared because just even before you get your ticket, all your opponents would be paid off and the stubborn ones would be kidnapped to surrender, and as a result you would hear news like “24 House of Assembly aspirants steps down for Suwa.”

She was confused the more so I thought to free her from the misery. “Suwa, I was just kidding”. “You see, my sister, that is what Nigerian politics have become. We shop for incompetent candidate for selfish reasons, putting our pocket above national interest. We have placed ourselves and money over human lives and the development of our Nation.”

Compatriots, as funny and ludicrous as the above sounds, that is the current state of our polity. That is the situation in our Public Service as well as Civil Service.

The case of accidental public servant is one of the root of the problems of this country. So many people are in positions they do not deserve or do not have the ability to manage and yet we expect them to perform. How can you expect a governor who have never led a single organisation in his entire life but gets His political party ticket on the platter of Gold because His Father is an Elder Statement – to perform in office. What does he want to perform than to do the bidding of his Godfathers.

We have them across government parastatals, in our civil service and military, even in the Private Sector and Academic Institutions. I once asked an acquaintance of mine how she got into the military, “I didn’t apply ooo, I just got a call from my uncle that he wants me to resume in the Service. I didn’t fill any form, I didn’t submit any application, I was just called,” she explained. Such people would continue to get promotion through such support (for personal gain) and would one day become the Chief of Defence Staff or Chief of Army Staff yet be unable to tackle menaces such as the Boko Haram challenge.

We can never put an end to the corruption if we dont tackle one of the major root cause that fuels public service corruption – Unreasonable demands of politicians and the citizens. How do we explain the outrageous price of party ticket to run for political offices, or the numbers of stakeholders that has to be mobilised continuously from Party Leaders to Women Organisations, widows etc.

An average public office holder gets an invitation from organisations, associations or Faith groups in their community inviting them as Guest Launchers at a community hall or town hall fundraising – usually a N50 million or more fundraising to repaint the town hall or the king’s palace. How do you expect such public office holder especially sometimes a legislature without a budget (unlike some executives who can still mop out something from their miscellaneous budget) but allowance for personal upkeep to finance such projects. God help you, you are a Senator or House of Reps member with various Local Government and towns in your constituency, the moment you renovate the palace of the Igwe here, the Obi in the other community would send you a letter to do the same in his community. That is why our beloved Aso Rock stable needs to be upgraded with millions of Naira. The truth is someone somewhere want to chop contract – my people will say.

I was once having a conversation with a friend who wondered what Legislatures do with their “fat” allowance and I sat him down to explain that the current state of our nation – the cultures and the norm makes these jumbo pay even insufficient most times.

A legislature in Lagos can get away with a lot but not the ones in Ondo, Ekiti, Abia and Benue. You must be from their village to secure the ticket to run and usually you have a family house where everyday when you wake up is crowded with constituents who have come with one problem or the other. School fees request, employment request, hospital bills request, thats aside the various bags of rice and cows you share to constituent during Christmas, Sallah, Easter etc. That model of tackling poverty isn’t working – however our people are not genuine about the change they seek.

If change indeed must arise in Nigeria – it must start from our values and our ideals like Governor Fashola recently said in His Thanksgiving Service speech.

My question today is how are you fuelling Public Service Corruption – Are you one of those who would prefer they share the appropriation than repair the road in your community.

Nigeria would rise.

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Dayo Israel (LLB (Hons), MA International Relations – London) is an astute motivational speaker and advisor to many world leaders, business executive, politicians, young entrepreneur and sports professionals. He is also an internationally recognized personality with over 13years of professional experience in international development having worked with organisations such as The United Nations, British Council, Save the Children UK, UNICEF and has appeared on the CNN.

 

Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.