Of Proudly Injudicious Lawyers Being Ministers And $7000 Beds For The Poor
Peregrino Brimah
I am really not following the ministerial screening so I am not that piqued by much and not going to comment on much. I, as many, am not yet going to bombard the new government with criticism for its occasional lies and failures, both civilian and military, but will give it a chance as we did for a lot of the 16 years of PDP. But there are a few comments I must make for posterity.
Firstly, it is with shame to me that Ngige is on the list. I am not saying he doesn’t know his job; the same aversion goes to some more on the list who certainly likewise know their job, but… Ngige went to Okija shrine with its dead and doomed and this was publicly known. He made oaths there while he was governor that are in violation of our constitution in addition to being in violation of our social morality and sanity. Chris Ngige could be a good or great man and technocrat for all I know but I am sick and tired of depending on the tarnished politicians among us when Anambra state has 4 million human beings left, half of which likely do not have such tarnished public records.
It is politics, they say. I bet now you know why second to my hatred for corruption is my hatred for western democracy and politicians. *puke!
So here goes my topic and question today. Of all 170 million Nigerians, did Buhari really have to choose the many there like Ngige who have pee stains on their bodies? While we have accepted that “Youth” may have lost its meaning and sanctity, with the likes of the National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS, sanctioning wanted suspected drug baron Buruji Kashamu, and former president and world record holder in “leading-a-lootocracy,” Goodluck entered politics according to his formal age as a “youth,” I ask how about a “New/Next generation?”
I believe the work that we the next generation of Nigeria did for Buhari can never be over regarded. How many next generation Nigerians have you seen in the list? Is what you see there mostly lousy politicians and the old and beaten? How then does this government intend to approach 2019 if it fails to honor and regard the 95% who made it? Can these politicians and elderly men and women get the work done as we the next generation who made this government desire? Do they know what we and our future needs? Can they be committed to seeking it, laying foundations for an advanced future for us…not building ugly and meaningless BRT block slab partitions along our roads with Dangote cement, to cement Nigeria into backwardness as we have in Lagos. I do hope so, I hope they can deliver us and this is why I have refrained from commenting. Mind you, I am not talking about merely providing power, water, roads and trains. I am talking about founding father plans to not just remedy but pioneer Nigeria and make it a #1 nation to be read of in history books. To build dynamic foundations that can molt and adapt as times change.
Now to some more specifics: Relating with our poverty.
Fashola and Fayemi come to mind. These are politicians and experienced administrators. I hope they get the job done. But let us be honest here. Can they relate with us? How well can they get the job done when they do not know what it is to struggle for money?
Fayemi rightly said as many of us have pointed out, that poverty is not the issue, the real problem is the disparity. Yet he slept on $7000 beds as he himself admitted. Do you sleep on $7000 beds ‘cuz I don’t? These are people in their own world. And while I am not a hater of the rich, wealthy or career politicians who can do nothing else and apply themselves in no other way in life than to wait and hustle for jobs from “their government” or criticize the other government till their turn comes around once again; I am worried when I look through the list and compare the numbers of people like us to the people like them. And then, personally, Fayemi should have fought for the Ekiti that he lost/was cheated of. I would have preferred Falana take that space. But Fayemi continues to enjoy privilege.
Fashola hit the nail on the head. He said, I am a lawyer, I do not know what websites cost. It is a response from a seat of intoxicating privilege. I guess his same defense goes for his $250,000 dollar a pop boreholes. “I am a lawyer, not a construction agent or engineer, I do not know what it costs to build a borehole.” But as a lawyer, does he not know that it borders on illegality for Lagos government to be providing water this 21st century through boreholes and not by establishing the municipal pipe-borne system, if we can accept that he does not know that for the cost of each hole he sank we could get 20-40 boreholes? As a lawyer, does he at least know that if we accept that he doesn’t know the cost of websites, he should know that since TundeFashola.com was built with Lagos’ money (N78 million for renewal and Lord knows how much was the initial cost), by now he should have handed over the site software and apps to the State to rename and utilize for the tax payer owners, and walked only with his stripped domain name if/and only if he actually bought that with his own money? So if as he defended himself, he is a lawyer with no idea of sensible estimates then should he not go to work in court and not at the head of our ministries.
And then other things in the list I cannot wrap my mind around no matter how hard I try are like: how we have chosen career politicians like Lokpobiri who actually campaigned for Jonathan! Can you beat that?
I respect these men and see how they may be useful in a Buhari cabinet. But while we appreciate the great changes we fought for and that Nigeria is now finally at +30 from where we were at -270 the past 16 PDP years and PDP godfather 14 years before that, as we wait for 2019 to complete “Change” and get Nigeria to +100 like the UAE, America and other developed societies and possibly to +200, surpassing these, perhaps we need raise a few points of order.
Buhari Should Give Buhari A Chance
Let’s be honest here. We all know how we wanted Buhari to be our president, but how many people on his lists are like Buhari? How many of his nominees are as anticorrupt, of extremes of age, austere, atypical and apolitical as he is/was?
Clearly the second list was much better than the first. I wonder what processes brought about the two lists.
We would hope in his appointments, Buhari focuses on some of these things for at least a good half of his nominees:
Not those who have done good things, but particularly those, who have not done terrible things.
Not the meaninglessly spendthrift and indifferent about it, but the financially austere, like Buhari.
Not only the wealthy, but the poor, like Buhari.
Not only the old, but also the young, as Buhari was given his chance in spite of his age extreme.
Not only career politicians and political position dependents, but non politicians and anti-politicians.
Not only professors and doctors but ordinary degree holders and less.
I am just asking that Buhari select more from the millions of over-capable among the 95% that put him there, ‘cuz I believe this natural good will bring true development, and hey…2019 come soon.
