Passionate appeal to our governors

Despite the hardship in the land, there is a group of people that are not doing badly at all – the politicians. Did I hear you say that they have never done badly in Nigeria? But, now there is a problem. The recent comments by former Governor Orji Uzor Kalu cause for concern.

Speaking to state house correspondents after a meeting with the vice president, Kalu said: “Most of the governors are even living in Abuja now, they don’t even live in their states, honestly. If you look at the books very well, in each trip they make, they will take travel allowance of N35 million, which is unheard of.”

The former governor went on to tell us how well governors are living. I won’t be surprised if some governors start denying Kalu’s accusation. Besides, it doesn’t matter where these money are gotten from, whether from security votes or not, it is tax payers’ money, as it were. As an analyst, I take Kalu’s accusation very seriously because he is someone who should know what he’s talking about, by virtue of his status in the country. Also, I presume these allowances could also be drawn for some local trips.

When you compare this to what MEPs, Members of European Parliament, get for travel allowance, you will weep for Nigeria. MEPs, who have to travel the whole Europe and abroad, because of the nature of their work, have an annual budget of about €4,320 (N972,000) for travels. To claim this budget, the European finance office requires receipts, an itinerary, and other supporting documents.

How did I get this information? Expenses, monthly and weekly allowances of MPs, for example, are on the internet, on the UK Parliament’s website. As long as we don’t have this kind of transparency in our Senate and state governments, some people will never take the county’s anti-corruption fight seriously.

Allowances of public servants, such as estacodes and other weekly and monthly reimbursements, would have to be published on a regular basis, just as it is obtainable in other climes. Tax payers should demand for accountability.

Though, Buhari should be commended for the transparency he intends to bring in the award and execution of contracts, the state governments should follow suit. For now the governors are Lords of the Manor – they write the rules and decide what the expense budget should be in their states.

Some informed columnists such as Wale Fatade and O’Femi Kolawole, both of TheCable newspaper, have been beaming their searchlights on the states and the Senate, respectively. I suspect they won’t be surprised with the recent revelation by former Governor Kalu.

I would like to use this medium to encourage Wale and O’Femi to keep sensitizing the public. Sometimes, it could be very discouraging to be a journalist in Africa because the more you talk about the ills in the society the more the ills keep increasing.

Kalu opined that most states do not need bail-outs. The finance minister actually said they won’t get any, though. Kalu believes if they manage their finances, they will be able to meet most of their financial obligations. They should be able to pay pensioners, civil servants – whose salaries are nothing to write home about. I agree with the businessman and politician. We should not be distracted from Kalu’s intervention by those who might want to attack his stewardship in Abia State, in order to discredit the former governor’s thesis. How well or how badly he ruled Abia has nothing to do with the accusation he has just made. Even if you argue that he is trying to divert attention from his case with the EFCC, his recent intervention should be treated on its own merit.

If our governors continue to live like kings, in these austere times, I have no other option than to say that some of them want us dead. There have been reported cases of pensioners who have died because their pensions weren’t forthcoming. Not only that some states have not paid salaries in the last three months, prices of staple food have gone up – even tomatoes is scarce and very expensive, these days.

I would love to remind some of our governors of one of John Maynard Keynes’s famous quotes: ‘’In the long run we are all dead’’. Since we will all be dead, what shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul?