I was scanning through the radio airwaves this evening and I made an unusual stop over at the Kada FM station. And it was a Hausa program SIYASAR MU A YAU. I heard the PDP chairman of zone 2 hailing PIY over money distribution at Igabi. The chairman explained that the money distribution has become necessary to cut down on the excruciating poverty ravaging the populace.
And I wondered so loudly how on earth could the government led by someone who prides himself as the most experienced governor stoop so low to reduce governance to that. It goes to say in bold terms that this government have ran out of idea on how to turn around the economy. How does Yakowa think he can build an egalitarian society by sharing cash to some select few? I grew up to know government collecting monies in form taxes from it’s citizen, even from the poorest to provide infrastructure and fix public utilities for the benefit of the general public.
PIY would have been justified if he had done this in an election year since our democracy has remain stunted-growth after 13 years and still runs on patronage. How long will the money last before the people are hungry again? Will he continue to dish out the fish every month? And how many people were beneficiaries? On what criteria was the money shared? Did people from other political parties enjoyed the loot? How much does PIY have to resort to this money sharing policy? Could Gov. Fashola have considered a policy as this even in the face of pressure from his principals?
And the irony is that the same government does join other focused government to cry over paucity of funds to execute needful projects. The roads are still bad. The hospitals are under-staffed and lack essential drugs. In some remote areas, pregnant mothers are still conveyed in open coffins to so-called health clinics 10s of kilometers away. The public water supply is erratic and not fit for drinking when available. For want of options people have resorted to buying unwholesome water from hawkers for table and domestic use. Children of school going age still loiter around during school hours. School teachers are barely literate particularly in our rural areas. Classes still hold under the mango trees, in Mai-anguwa’s parlors, church holds, etc.
Why would the government of PIY not be rated below average when he has loaded his government with people who have little or nothing to offer? The government is filled with persons whose generation have brought Nigeria to its present predicament and do not believe Nigeria has any future after their generation. These people most of whom have lost touch with reality are old and tired and so cannot grasp with today’s complex need of the society in which we live. In a knowledge economy in which cost of governance is been cut down through the applications of Information and Communication Technologies the government cannot but under-perform giving the calibre of personnel PIY has invited to run the government. As a technocrat PIY should know better why retirement age was made a part of condition of service. There most be critical reasons why a tired and perhaps expired hand should be recalled from retirement to serve when young men and women bustling with energy and innovations are kept at bay.
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