Does anyone have any idea what it costs, in monetary terms, to move a President or Governor from point A to point B?
If you did, you may wish to reconsider the frequent reports of the President or Governors ‘attending’ every innocuous event they are invited to.
However, what gives Nigerians and moral ground for questioning the movement of their leaders when the people themselves, firstly, have no idea what the associated costs are and also do not or avoid paying taxes to government.
It works like this.
Governments, at any level, need to raise money to provide services for the people. Government cannot continuosly go aborrowing thereby plunging the state into further debt by mortgaging its future.
Governments will require the people to pay taxes to fund projects and the delivery of services. The people shall pay taxes. The people shall then have rights to querry the use of such taxes and demand of government where they feel they have been short-changed.
The process continues with modifications here and there to infity and beyond as Buzz Lightyear would say.
However, this is Nigeria and the story and methodology is always so different. Throw out your text books from the best institutions. Get a plain board or piece of paper. Rewrite the entire script.
To move a President or Governor must be quite expensive. An entourage of at least 30 people and an awful lot of planning and prepping time. Therefore, it should be expected that when a President or Governor moves, it is for their prescribed duties and not to the detriment of the people or the state’s purse.
There is nothing saying that a President or Governor cannot move with a full entourage at anytime and for non-official duties or activities. In this instance and under a watchful and transparent democracy, such movement is subject to scrutiny by the people who may well ajudge such to be wasteful.
This logical assessment of the relationship between a government and its people is based on the assumption that the people have rights in the first instance.
The people assume any such rights firstly by having participated in the democratic process to bring the leader to power and secondly by meeting the demands of government for funding through taxation. You pay for what you get.
The people shall not be averse to a President or Governor going on private visits here and there. Where the people may get weary of the expense is with the frequency, amounts and significance of such visits at the state’s expense.
This right is accorded the people only where the people themselves have a platform or basis for protest.
Nigerians will get away with anything if you allow them. The people will not make their statutory payments yet demand development and services. Democracy to the ordinary Nigerian means a lifetime of social welfare from government at no expense to the people.
The state does not need to inform or even answer to the people. The state is free to use state funds, borrowed or generated, as it wishes and free of any challenges or accountability to the people.
The cycle goes on.
What would the American people or even those in developed democracies, say if their leaders attended every Naming Ceremony, Church Revival Service, Burial Ceremony, Conferment of Chieftaincy Titles, Birthday Party, Wedding of Friends’ Offspring or Road Commissioning. Invitations to such land on the leader’s desk each morning.
What is the essence of having a plethora of Ministers, Commissioners or Special Assistants, when the leader has to attend all these functions in person? The operational bill can be greatly reduced by getting rid of all these excess bagge and doing it all himself or herself.
In developed countries where more efficient governments run and greater achievements are regular features of governance and at much larger costs, it is rarely reported that leaders in government personally attend any of these functions including those that result from their own achievements.
The Prime Minister of Britain has never been known to commission the shortest portion of the magnificent M25 Circular Highway that has just been patched up with a few dabs of tar. He or she did not make an appearance when the grand network of roads was first launched anyway.
Whena huge network of water supply tracks and pipes and purification centres to reverse the effects of the damage caused by a natural disaster in the depths of Alabama or Louisiana is ready for commissioning, the President of the United States does not abandon the serious work of government in Washington to cut a tape in such places.
Only on rare occasions would Governors actually participate in such things even in their own states.
We tend to cloud issues in Nigeria and for convenience. We refer to a dated culture and very unmodern tradition when we want to make excuses for our profligacy and corruption.
What we have successfully done is dimish the offices of leadership and brought into disrepute such positions that should be revered.
The President who walked the streets yesterday is no longer your ‘mate’ or personal friend from the moment he or she assumes office.
Everyone in Nigeria thinks different because being pals with a leader suddenly gives credence to claims of importance.
A firm and accountable structure or operation of correct protocols does not diminish the value of whatever friendships existed before the assumption of office.
Personal friends still get invited to meet the leader in privacy. The leader still makes frequent contact with old friends and neighbours. What the leader does not do is be seen to gallivant all over the place in the name of spreading the dividends of democracy.
The leaders themselves have their reasons using the culture and tradition argument.
A total rubbish if you ask me, if the President or Governor who has paid representatives cannot make an appearance by proxy.
Until the President or Governor leaves office, he or she is not your mate or friend. He or she is there to work for you and you will be lucky if indeed he or she has time to waste selecting which head-tie matches the required attire as designated on your invitation card.
We in Nigeria are very happy to support waste as long as we can calim the credit that we made the leader move an entire bunch of individuals and machines at our behest. We need to splash the pictures everywhere to show off our closeness to leadership.
If any function is not furthering the overall objective of encouraging the people, the state or the nation to move forward, then it must be considered a waste of public funds and resources.
Whilst there are functions and events that qualify as useful to the overall objective, I am not sure how a burial, naming ceremony or conferment of chieftaincy title qualifies as a State Function.
What then can the ordinary Nigerian do? Demand that we practice an open and transparent system of governance to meet the required demands backed by the taxes paid by the people.
Want to launch your latest borehole in your backyard because the tenants of your apartment block no longer need to trudge all the way down flights of stairs to fetch water from the well?
Send an invite and let’s get the President and/or a few Governors to come round at everyone’s expense. After all, it gets them closer to the people.
Just what constitutes legitimate expenditure in government these days? Every and Any thing? Even if we knew such costs, do we have a moral right to ask and be answered?
What do you think?
