Some stories are best told straight. In a season of the absurd, Delta State joined the inglorious band of perfidy following reports that the entire Delta State House of Assembly, to which was added an unknown number of aides and hangers-on, including mistresses, abandoned the business for which they were elected and were sojourning in California, USA. The trip by the 30 legislators was, to say the least, needless and wasteful. It is insensitive, callous, shameful and indefensible; and yet another embarrassing example of the profligacy by public officials that has bloated the cost of governance and rendered the country’s democracy unproductive. As an entity laying claim to progressive administration, the lawmakers should have resisted the temptation to expend public funds on such a project with no redeeming value to the people of Delta State.
The special training program, which held at the University of California, Goldman School of Public Policy, was euphemistically called “capacity building leadership course” ostensibly to enable the lawmakers hone their leadership skills and learn the art of legislative business. As is the practice with such visits, the lawmakers reportedly spiced up the trip with a shopping spree. According to conservative estimates, the trip consumed an estimated N150 million ($1 million) of taxpayers’ money.
Little surprise, the Anioma Voice Worldwide; an umbrella group representing the North Delta Senatorial zone was not amused by the reckless profligacy of the lawmakers. In a statement issued by its Chief Messenger, Comrade Akamesike Emmanuel Okonne (UK) and Comrade Smart Ajaja, International Public Relations Messenger (USA), the Board of Trustees and entire members of Anioma voice worldwide are seeking clarifications as to the viability of the training course and its benefits to the average Delta citizen who continues to wallow in abject poverty and misery.
“While we acknowledge the fact that some kind of capacity building, leadership training and/or refresher courses are sometimes necessary for lawmakers in the course of carrying on their official responsibilities… we are shocked that all nine representatives would leave their seats in the state assembly at the same time, thereby leaving their constituencies unrepresented only to indulge in such a wasteful venture with our limited resources,” the statement read in part.
As holders of the trust of the people of Delta North Senatorial zone, Anioma frowned at the fact that the objectives of the course and its relevance to the people remained unclear, and wants clarifications from the lawmakers on “…the value of the course to the average Anioma citizen…the reason why the course if actually necessary was not held anywhere in the country, the resources being expended on this course, and the reason why the notice for the adventure of the course was not published for public knowledge. We see this off-shore training course as a needless jamboree and a waste of our funds that could have been better used to uplift the welfare of the people of our constituency,” the group said.
Although the circumstances surrounding the trip may not exactly fit into illegality; it nevertheless leaves much to be desired in terms of public morality and typifies a classic official abuse of office by public officials and the trust reposed on them by ordinary citizens. The trip was the latest, in what has become fashionable; ego-boosting visits abroad by public officials, for obviously ridiculous reasons with no benefit to the people. By their sheer number, frequency and obtuse routines, the plethora of overseas trips have become generally superfluous and labyrinthine, and therefore, gravely inconsequential to any of their intended purposes.
The visit to America is clearly an abuse of office by the lawmakers; and an affront on the collective sensibility of the people of Delta State, who ultimately have to bear the brunt of their leadership ineptitude and lack of moral character. No matter how anyone tries to rationalize it, the trip was an act of financial recklessness at a time a majority of Delta citizens are struggling to survive. How would a capacity building leadership course reduce poverty in Delta State? If governance is about acting in the people’s interest; how does squandering public resources enhance that purpose; and the interest of the ordinary Delta citizen, on whose behalf these “legislooters” (for want of a better word) claimed they made the trip?
Democracy has become an unbearable burden to Nigerians. Since 1999 the political class as a whole has shown impetuous and irresponsible behavior at the expense of the people. Legislators have become law unto themselves and are wasting public resources without any commensurate input into the quality of governance. As a result, the cost of governance in Nigeria is arguably the highest in the world. This profligacy consumes a quarter of the national budget. The prodigal pattern of conspicuous consumption is replicated to an extreme degree in the 36 states of the federation and in the 774 local governments.
The looting and the waste going on in Nigeria in the name of governance has no parallel anywhere else and is responsible for the breeding of an angry and alienated citizenry who see no dividend in the pernicious enterprise called democracy. It has been argued that collectively, the subterranean spoils of office in the executive, legislature and judiciary and the abuse of office among public officials in quantum far exceed the trillions of naira regularly reported as stolen in Nigeria. Long-suffering Nigerians have been waiting for the sanitization of the system but it gets worse all the time.
For a trip that adds no value to the people, this jamboree in Delta State which claims to be No. 1 in the fight against poverty in Nigeria is inexcusable. Is it surprising that international donors do not take Nigerian officials seriously when they approach them with a begging bowl? The prodigal lifestyle of Nigerian public officials gives the lie to their request. Regretfully in Nigeria today, everyone does what he likes with no restraint. Public officials, whether in government or opposition, appear not to have guidelines on acceptable conduct and discipline. This aberration should serve as a warning to other State legislators who might be tempted to copy Delta State, to ask themselves; if and when they ever heard that lawmakers in any country outside Africa had embarked on an inter-continental tour to learn leadership and capacity building.
Nigerians of any classification are free to go abroad for whatever tickles their fancy, but they must do so with their own money. Expending public funds for frivolous trips is an insult on the electorate who are ultimately the source of all power in a democracy. Nigerian leaders must scrupulously guard against conveying the impression that they do not care about what the people feel or think. Ultimately, it will depend on the moral courage and political will of President Goodluck Jonathan to end this madness!
