A lot has been written about the “Change begins with me” campaign recently launched by the Federal Government. The mantra “Change begins with me” which is meant to articulate the ideology that rebuilding the nation is a concerted effort, has attracted torrents of criticisms already. Aside from the rather embarrassing aspect of plagiarism which haunts the campaign right from the outset, many Nigerians have derided the initiative as a mere buck-passing – they construe it as an attempt by the Establishment to shift the burden! A kind of Tu quo que rationalisation meant to exculpate the government in the event of non-actualisation of the dividends of “Change”
There is nothing really bad in government attempting to recruit the entire citizenry to a campaign for national transformation, but the leaders must also put their house firmly in order to eliminate insinuation of hypocrisy.
Nobody doubts the sincerity of Buhari government to fight corruption, however, the corruption in Nigeria is systemic and requires multifaceted battle strategy. Leaving a flank unattended to while plunging headlong into the thick of the battle is potentially dangerous.
The cynicism of Nigerians to “Change begins with me” campaign is not unfounded, it is based on barely disguised corrupt practices at high level.
To start with, the remunerations and emoluments of top political figures do not reflect the status of a country undergoing a recession. Nigeria still retains the membership of the exclusive league of nations that have the highest paid legislators in the world!
A recent report by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) has it that no fewer than 2,570 aides are engaged by the 469 members of the 8th National Assembly. It was stated that 700 aides work for lawmakers in the Senate, while the remaining 1, 870 are engaged by House of Representatives members.
Our extant National Assembly Act allows each lawmaker, excluding principal officers, to have five aides – one senior legislative aide, two legislative aides, a personal assistant and a secretary.
The President of the Senate is entitled to 45 aides, his deputy, 30, and 20 each for principal officers.
Similarly, Speaker of the House of Representatives has 35 assistants, Deputy Speaker, 15 and 10 each for the six principal officers.
The emolument of these hordes of aides, were said to range between N75, 000 and N180, 000 and all the aides are paid from the treasury of the assembly! To make the matter worse, some lawmakers would not even get these aides and still claim all these funds from our exchequer atop their already humongous series of remunerations and matrices of allowances!
Added to this fact is the another revelation by the media that not less than 21 ex-governors and deputy governors currently serving as senators are still receiving outrageous pensions and humongous remunerative packages from their respective state’ coffers on account of having previously served as State Governors or Deputy Governors while simultaneously collecting full remunerations from the Federal Government as lawmakers! The same thing is true of ex governors who are now serving as Ministers.
How can a system that claims it cannot afford basic things of life to its impoverished masses still be able to engage in this kind of prodigality?
What all these means is that the system still legally recognises and sanctions corruption. The victims of all these wastages, leakages and unconscionable siphoning from the system are the poor hapless Nigerians majority of whom live on less than a dollar a day.
Personally, I would not mind the change to begin with me, but the Government owes all the citizens a duty to ensure some sacred cow are not allowed to deride and make mockery of the system by flaunting blatant profligacy in the midst of the famished majority.
Elitist profligacy in the full glare of famished populace breeds distrust, apathy and anger.
If we state that our national minimum wage is just N18, 000, then our political representatives in all offices must not be given pay that is a million times out of alignment with that calculation!
If they manage the country well and the nation is buoyant, then nobody would begrudge them any fat or even obese remunerations, but until then, the political office holders must be reminded they are Nigerians, and not from Mars, and therefore not entitled to callously fantastic remunerations Nigerian can ill-afford.
Our previous governments had shouted to high heavens their resolve to fight corruption, but there was ostensible want of synch between what had been preached and practised, and since Nigerians are not deficient in wits, they see through the hypocrisy.
The present government must not fall into the same trap, therefore the convenient point to for the change to begin is for the government to fix the system by removing all the parasites feeding fat on our commonwealth.
After that, Nigerians will voluntarily unite behind the government and its campaign. Change will not begin with the citizens when profligacy begins with the leaders!
KAYODE KETFE may be followed on twitter @Ketesco
