The heated debate over unpaid workers’ salaries in 23 out of the 36 states of the federation, at the same time that lawmakers in the country are carting home unjustifiable jumbo pay package, rubbishes the claim that democracy as a system of government in Nigeria is ‘for the people’. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The reward and payment structure in our dysfunctional polity is obscenely skewed in favour of public officeholders.
In our questionable rental state, political office is the ‘be all and end all’ of economic sustenance. It is indeed a key to the doors of wanton wealth. Little wonder our politicians literally ‘kill’ themselves to get elected or selected into plum positions of authority. And the high cost of accessing political offices is partly responsible for the current sorry pass.
This sad and saddening scenario triggers some burning questions: What happened to the trillions of naira disbursed from the federation account to the affected states over the past four years? What about their Internally Generated Revenue (IGR)? What huge capital projects did they embark on that caused the sudden cash squeeze? What magic wand did the other 13 states employ to keep their workers from the pangs of hunger? It is curious that within the same period salaries were unpaid, the debt profile of a good number of the states that owe their workers rose to the roof, isn’t it? And also the lifestyle of not a few of such governors has been all but austere.
We, concerned Nigerians, seek credible answers to these troubling questions in line with the accountability and transparency mantra of the Buhari-led administration. No meaningful change could be achieved if the pilots of our ship of state continue to steer our affairs into stormy economic waters.
Much as one would support the call for bailout in the form of loans by the Federal Government to put a smile on the faces of the helpless workers, if this trend is not probed and halted it would rear its ugly head again. Good enough, this syndrome of unpaid salaries cuts across political party lines. No state governor would therefore cry foul alleging any form of political witch-hunt.
Ordinarily, public sector workers serve as catalysts for enabling government policies and programmes see the light of day. They carry out significant day-to-day functions with their sweat and tears that oil the machinery of economic growth and sustenance. Without them, there may be no billions of taxpayers’ money to plunder and pillage, all to satisfy the epicurean tastes of the ‘ogas at the top’. It is a collective insult on Nigeria’s psyche and soul that workers should be treated as slaves in a country that preaches but hardly practices an egalitarian society.
The questions remain. In which other democratic state do we have governors going cap-in-hand every month end to receive so-called allocations from the central government? Does it happen in the United States from which we copied our presidential system? Of course, not. But the unitary system persists because it is a carry-over system from the long years of military rule.
That explains why some of us who brand ourselves as public affairs analysts insist that we go back to fiscal federalism. If the late Obafemi Awolowo-led government of the old Western Region could fund free education, durable roads, the first television station on the continent and a robust agricultural development with cocoa revenue, how come our state governors are finding it a Herculean task to pay their workers from crude oil sales? That is food for thought.
As the Holy Bible admonishes, ‘every labourer is deserving of his wage’ and ‘wisdom lies in prudence’. Also, as late President Umar Yar’Adua once said, politics must be seen as selfless service. This master-slave relationship must stop.
Ayo Oyoze Baje
Baje is a Lagos-based media consultant.
