Soothing News from Kwara State
In the last few weeks, our politicians have been trooping to Lagos for one award or another, celebrating humdrum achievements. All manner of awards have been designed for them -Governor of the Year, Man of the Year, Politician of the Year, Senator of the Year, Legislator of the Year, Local Government of the Year and the rest of them. Many Nigerians are also celebrating them. I am still struggling to understand the basis of these accolades and celebration. All these festivity is happening in a country subjugated by hunger, poverty, disease, malnutrition, infant and maternal mortality, decaying infrastructure, insecurity, extra-judicial killings, epileptic electricity supply, unemployment and all the other negatives you can think of. A supposedly educated woman told me this week that her governor (from one of the South-west states) is constructing three overhead bridges across the state, and so, deserves the award. What a country.
We must learn to assess, judge and interrogate our leaders based on globally accepted standards; else, this country will remain tattered. The Human Development Index (HDI) of the UNDP is the pragmatic global standard for assessment. HDI is a comparative measure of life expectancy, literacy, education, per capita income and standards of living for countries worldwide. It is a standard means of measuring well-being. HDI is used to distinguish whether a country is a developed, a developing or an underdeveloped country, and also to measure the impact of economic policies on quality of life. It evaluates development not only by economic advances but also improvements in human well-being. This should also be used to evaluate our states.
Now, let’s evaluate the states of all these governors and other politicians that many have been celebrating and you will find out that they rank very low on the HDI index. Most of the households in all our 36 states have no access to ordinary running water. Just look around and you will find public hospitals, schools and roads in tatters in these states. Even in my beloved Lagos, conservatively, 95 per cent of homes have no access to public water supply, while inner roads are begging for attention. Worse still, Lagos homes are now enveloped by waste due to the ineptitude of the waste manager called Visionscape.
Quality life remains a mirage in our dear nation. Nigeria will soon surpass India as the country with the largest number of people living in life-threatening poverty despite the fact that India’s population is almost four times that of Nigeria’s, yet, we are celebrating our leaders. Living in extreme poverty, going by the parameters set by the World Bank, means living on less than $1.90 per day, an amount that cannot guarantee even the token needs for existence. This is another insignia of disgrace that should task genuine patriots. So, what kind of dubious awards are these politicians celebrating? Singapore was like us years back but Lee Kuan Yew took her from the third world to the first in a generation. This country is in a desperate need of a Lee Kuan Yew.
On the flip side, I hope the charlatans conferring the awards and the jesters receiving them will spend quality time reading the current International Monetary Fund’s assessment of this country which clearly stated that, “Nigerians are getting poorer” and that economic reforms are urgently needed.
The news from Kwara State on the payment of pension to former governors and their deputies is inspiring. The House of Assembly has passed an amendment bill halting payment of pension to former governors, deputy governors and other officers holding new political offices after their tenure. This means that these super pensioners, who have gone on to become senators and ministers, will no longer collect annuity from the state until they leave their new jobs. It is unfortunate that we have so many former governors collecting double salaries amidst hunger in our land. Even states that owe civil servants salaries running into several months still pay the gargantuan pension of these super retiree ex-governors. I sincerely hope that this development in Kwara State would be replicated in other states.