Dino Melaye, recession and life expectancy

If you are within Nigeria’s political class – a class which claims to be serving the poor masses – this recession might really not have any impact on your life expectancy. After all, Senator Dino Melaye — a senator who is currently on government’s payroll and has no ‘big’ business directly associated with him – implied, in a recent interview with The Punch Newspaper that he had no apologies owning, and probably ordering for some new luxury vehicles.

Dino Melaye says he loves cars, just like a former petroleum minister loved diamonds. There is nothing wrong with this. But as the Sultan encouraged Nigerians to interrogate their leaders, it would be nice if Nigerians compel Melaye to publish his tax returns. (I understand a civil society group, CSNAC, has petitioned the EFCC, questioning the source of the senator’s wealth.)

It is not enough to tell Nigerians that his wealth is divine and comes from heaven. For someone who is on government’s payroll – at a period his fellow countrymen are passing through hell – one expected some modesty from him. And from other politicians, by extension.

Today, most Nigerians are struggling with the increasing cost of staples, not to talk of the cost of drugs. For instance, Folic acid which used to be sold at N200 is now N1500; Paracetamol which used to be sold at N20 is now well over N50.

And if you are like some of us who have aged parents, you would have noticed that the cost of managing hypertension – a disease which is prevalent in Nigeria and cannot be cured – has risen from N10, 000 to about N40, 000 a month. (This cost is for the low income earners who rely on cheap generic drugs from India.)

Little wonder that the WHO, in May 2016, reported that Nigeria has the lowest life expectancy in Africa – 55 years for females and 54 years for males. With the avalanche of avoidable deaths everywhere, this statistic does not come as a surprise.

It is common knowledge that most illness can be avoided with a healthy lifestyle. It is not surprising that Nigeria is one of the six countries that contributes to 60 percent of the world’s tuberculosis burden. Obviously, the country is not working for most Nigerians.

But it is working for folks like Dino Melaye. The senator agrees that the juicy committee he is chairing in the senate was as a result of his loyalty to the senate president. (Melaye is chairing the senate committee on FCT.)

And this is bane of Nigerian society. Most public institutions employ workers based on nepotism. Unlike other countries, where the best and the brightest are encouraged to join the civil service, Nigeria’s civil service is polluted with people who know ‘someone’ – especially at the bottom of the pyramid.

This leads to a fundamental question: Do we really have a competent civil service to implement the government’s change mantra? Who are the people going to manage the government’s $30 billion loan being sought for?

The senator believes that selling his luxury cars will not take Nigeria out of recession. This is true, but he has sent another bad signal – or rather bad message.

Just like former Governor Peter Obi said, the main cause of our economic problems is the luxury lifestyle of our public officers and politicians – which many believe is serviced from the government’s coffers.

There is nothing wrong in being rich, but a public servant should not be seen to be living in opulence while his countrymen are dying of hunger and disease. Especially when the source of his or her income has not been proven beyond reasonable doubt to come from other sources.

For a country that cannot boast of a functional cancer treatment machine and constant power supply in its public hospitals, such comments from a senator are unfortunate.

It is high time the senator changed his rhetoric and lifestyle.