Sensational media reports that, Abiola Kola-Daisy, daughter of Oyo state governor, Abiola Ajimobi, wore a dress that cost a whopping three million naira ($16,900) to attend the British Fashion Awards in London is an aberration that is insensitive, callous, shameful and inexcusable. The egregious and wasteful extravagance is simply mind-boggling; a real eyesore and bad advertisement for the governor, who should be hiding his head in shame. This was a distasteful case of daddy’s girl gone wild that illustrates the profligacy by public officials and their families and the disrespect with which governors treat their electorate and shows their predilection to turn their states into private estates. Governor Ajimobi and his daughter owe the people of Oyo State and all Nigerians an explanation, as the action reinforced Nigeria’s outsized reputation as a nepotistic, graft-ridden poster child of abusive patronage and clientelism.
Embarrassing as it is to the person of the governor, the situation may be particularly brazen but it is hardly unique. Her story is a rare window into the tragic kleptocratic narrative by the children and family members of public officials that has become synonymous with governance at all levels in Nigeria. That the governor’s daughter saw nothing wrong in buying such an expensive dress was brazen provocation that constituted a rude assault on the sensibility of Nigerians. It speaks directly to the grotesque sense of priorities among the children of Nigeria’s political elite who squander the spoils of office on luxury cars, trinkets and other trivialities that tickle their fancy, while the majority of the people go hungry.
This kind of behavior should never be allowed to repeat itself, but the posers are obvious: where in the world did the she get the money to buy such a dress? What are her values that make her so prone to primitive accumulation and conspicuous consumption? Where did she learn such bad manners? What is it about the children of Nigeria’s ruling elite that makes them addicted to such materialistic woolliness and self-centered pedestrianism? What does Abiola Kola-Daisy do for a living? Does she have any legitimate business activities? Even if she does; is buying a dress for $16,900 the best way to spend her money, no matter how she made it? There is little doubt that the N3 million-dress was bought with the spoils of office, even as the majority of Oyo people continue to wallow in poverty and misery. Three million naira is a staggering sum that a governor’s daughter from a poor country like Nigeria can afford to spend on a single dress. Such outrageous extravagance is greed, avarice, and plain wickedness that points to a flamboyant imaginary self-concept, deeply rooted in moral degeneracy and selfishness.
Shockingly, this is not the first time elected officials and their family members in Oyo will be in the news for the wrong reasons. Before, there was the jamboree by 32 wives of Oyo legislators who spent eight days in London to learn how to cook for their husbands who as legislators now apparently deserve a better fare than the local Nigerian food that they have hitherto been used to. Led by the Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Mrs. Monsurat Sunmonu, the needless and wasteful trip was yet another clear example of the profligacy on the part of government that has bloated cost of governance and rendered the country’s democracy unproductive. The 32 wives, to which was added an unknown number of aides and principal House officers, underwent a special training in Custom House Hotel, euphemistically dubbed “Husband Support”. The Speaker reportedly spiced up the trip by leading the women on a shopping spree in Peckham. At 10 nights per person, conservative estimates put the trip at N50 million of taxpayers’ money.
It should be noted that the London trip came hot on the heels of another trip by Oyo state legislators who had just returned from a “working tour” of South Africa. For trips that added no value to the people of Oyo state, this squandermania in a disaster prone region is inexcusable. Last year, 100 persons died in flood waters and at the same time as the merry wives of legislators were emplaning in London, another heavy rain destroyed bridges and roads in Ibadan, the State capital. A wooden bridge in Apete, Ido Local Government Area, was washed away, cutting off whole communities. Governor Ajimobi rushed to Abuja to appeal to the World Bank for succor. As an administrator laying claim to progressive administration, he should have resisted the temptation to expend public funds on projects with no benefit to his people.
The arrival of democracy is fast becoming an unbearable burden to the people of this country. Since 1999 the political class as a whole has shown impetuous and irresponsible behavior at the expense of the people. Elected officials and their family members and other political sinecures are wasting the resources of the nation 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 prodigal pattern of 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 breeding an angry and alienated citizenry who see no dividend in this 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.
The flagrant impunities and imperiousness that reign in governance in Nigeria is driven by a conquest mentality on the part of elected officials. This, sadly, is the story of Nigerians in the hands of their governors. Having “won” the office, the people stay conquered as governors serve themselves and their cronies. From the President right down to local council chairman, elected officials and their family members enjoy luxury lifestyles, and clearly do not see themselves facing the vicissitudes of ordinary life in Nigeria. There is an urgent need for President Jonathan to put an end to these excesses which have been taken to ridiculous levels of absurdity. The actions of the governor’s daughter have indeed challenged sundry observers to query the meaning of politics in Nigeria. The Nigerian democratic process has been debased enough and the President cannot continue looking the other way in the face of this national embarrassment. Governance is about the people and not about the privileges and personal preferences of public officials. This should be the agenda of politicians who truly intend to transform Nigeria.
