Nigerian leaders in festival of money and power

The Nigerian power elite now lives in a complete bubble, in their world where everything seems merry and bright. They are buying yachts and exotic cars. They are parading jets and doing everything that catches their fancy, totally oblivious to the increasing level of poverty and discontent in the country.

No one can tell how long their dance in the sun would last with the bubble bursting in their faces, but that day of reckoning shall come, and there shall be an end to this wanton Odun Owo (Festival of money), as Chief Commander, Ebenezer Obey sang in one of his evergreen tracks.

In the track, the Miliki brand of juju music creator talks about a young man who turns the world upside down after accidentally falling on money. From that moment, this young man considers himself infallible and becomes unapproachable.

Like every other person, his parents become rags that he steps on at will as he now considers himself to be all-wise. He gets so swollen-headed that he informs his father about his decision to institute a special day to celebrate money. He dismisses the father’s attempt to counsel otherwise as the ranting of a poor man. And to put the old man in his place, he designates him as the drummer for the day.

As the wealthy young man mounts a horse on D-Day, the father’s talking drum signals that everything in life has a repercussion. Not too long after, the affluent man falls off the horse to his death, and there ends the short but oppressive era of the rich young man.

This song and its many lessons came to my mind as I saw Senator Godwill Akpabio sprint around the massive stadium named after him in Uyo, the capital of Akwa Ibom State, on Saturday. It was his 61st birthday and he brought Uyo to a standstill. It was a carnival where the who-is-who in Nigeria visited, and many citizens who could not tell where their next meals would come from were mobilised to watch their former governor exhibit his clout.

It is not out of place for people to celebrate their birthdays as elaborately as they want. That is even more so when they do that with their private funds. Of course, there is no evidence that the senate president deployed public funds for the elaborate celebration so that event would have been appropriate, but for the reasons.

The first is that Akpabio, the number three man in Nigeria’s governance structure, knows fully well that these are not the best times for the Nigerian economy. Inflation is at an all-time high, and more Nigerians fall into the poverty bracket by the day, just as social services continue to dim, and the people become increasingly despondent.

Although Akpabio has been caught making snide remarks, which tend to mock the poverty of the more significant number of Nigerians, events like his 61st birthday presented an opportunity to identify with the people, empathise and register a commitment to their wellbeing. But the contrary happened.

The second reason is that this birthday was no milestone. So, it should not attract the obscenity the former Governor exposed Nigerians to on Saturday. That fact will be driven home better when you imagine what Akpabio’s landmark 60th birthday looked like last year. At that time, he had no political office, having been relieved of his appointment as Minister of the Niger Delta by former President Muhammadu Buhari.

According to reports, the crew of an Air Peace flight from Abuja recognised Akpabio as the man who constructed the Uyo Airport. That elicited applauds from other passengers.

He reportedly joined the Christmas Carol Service of St. John Paul II College, Shelter Afrique Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, with his family. There was also a medical outreach, visits to orphanages, hospitals, and the Nigerian Correctional Centre, Ikot Ekpene, a road walk by the youths, and a football tournament. That was the much about it.

The online publication, saharareporters.com, in fact published a report entitled: “Reality check: Why the political class boycotted Akpabio’s 60th birthday.” At the time he turned 60 last year, Akpabio was not so much of a political factor, but as senate president, one year later, he has all the power you can imagine and must make up for last year’s obscurity.

In Nigeria, access to political power is an automatic licence to wealth, and those with access explore it to the hilt. They flaunt their wealth before the general populace, whom their avarice and selfishness continue to impoverish. This was precisely what Akpabio I did on Saturday when he gathered hundreds of people over whom he was Governor for eight years. Although he prides himself as an uncommon achiever in office, and there are a few pieces of evidence of physical structure that he built during his tenure, it is on record that four months after he left office, Akpabio was flown abroad for treatment for a car accident even though he claimed to have spent a whopping N30b on building a specialist hospital. So much about transformative governance.

On Saturday, he reminded the people of their poverty of and gloated over his return to political prominence and unrestrained access to state resources. It is totally insensitive and disrespectful of the longsuffering people of Akwa Ibom State, which the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) credited with the second highest national unemployment rate of 45.2 percent, as of the fourth quarter of 2022. How more can a leader take the people for granted?

That scenario plays out in Rivers State, where the immediate past Governor, Nyesom Wike, breathes down on incumbent Siminalayi Fubara.

Fubara is also not lying low. A good student of the totalitarian politics that has become the state, he recently took the most shocking decision to demolish the state house of assembly complex to impede the ability of Wike’s supporters to take control of the state. Shortly after, he presented his 2024 budget proposal to his four remaining loyalists in the state house of assembly! Although his government explained the demolition of the assembly away as part of the process of rebuilding, but should a state government even take such decisions without consulting the people who own the property, and whose resources would fund the reconstruction?

Wike has reigned supreme in that state for the past eight years. Disregarding the essential requirement for accountability and the fact that the people are the ultimate authority in a democracy, the former Governor lorded it over the state, dictated who became what and even saying it to our faces!

Members of the Rivers state house of assembly, to whom the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (1999 as amended) bestows the powers to check and balance the excesses of the executive, have also become pawns in the hands of the executive. Rather than follow the constitution and do justice in the electorate’s interest, legislators’ loyalty lies with the highest bidder. Pecuniary interests rather than the wellbeing and welfare of the people who elected them now drive legislators at the state and federal levels. If it is not the purchase of exotic vehicles that eats deep into the pockets of the state while bolstering the egos of these men and women; it is the acquisition of contracts that lay down eternal pipelines of wealth for themselves and their families. This is the executive recklessness that politicians in Nigeria perpetrate. And the malady transcends party divides. The interests of politicians are now so identical that party lines are blurry. It is all about personal aggrandisement.

In the interim, the people are suffering, and the country bleeding. Poverty now lives with the people who also grapple with the erosion of values. Because our leaders now make it obvious that big money is the only way to survive in Nigeria, there is a new craze for riches wherein everyone, especially the young ones, would do anything to make money. From ritual killing to internet fraud, kidnapping and drug dealing, you can no longer put anything past Nigerians in the crave to match up and live a good life.

Earlier this week, the Ogun state governor, Dapo Abiodun, accused some traditional rulers of colluding with non-indigenes to destroy state plantations and plant “cannabis sativa there”. These leaders see evidence of their irresponsibility manifesting by the day, yet they are nonchalant. They capitalise on the people’s misery and mock them, taunting them with the reckless display of wealth amid lack. The question then is can this go on forever?

Certainty not. One day, the monkey will go to the market and not return home. One day, Nigerians will see through the shenanigans of politicians and turn their anger on them. The clouds are gathering, and ominous signs are evident. One only hopes that the political class is not too overfed to see looming danger and mend their ways expeditiously.

Adedokun can be reached via X @niranadedokun