Those who accuse the leadership of Nigeria of being excessively wasteful and insensitive to the deplorable condition of the citizenry are not only right, they once again found vindication in the recent wedding of President Muhammadu Buhari’s son, Yusuf Buhari to Zahra Nasir Bayero, the niece of the Emir of Kano, one of Nigeria’s most prominent Islamic leaders. Embarrassing as it is to Mr. President, besides being a super spreader event for the deadly Delta variant of the Covid-19 virus, the conspicuous consumption and materialistic wooliness on display in Kano last Friday was an aberration that is simply insensitive, callous, shameful and inexcusable. The egregious and distasteful extravagance is simply mind-boggling; a real eyesore and bad advertisement that illustrates the profligacy by public officials and their families and the disrespect with which the political elite treat their electorate. The wedding between the presidential and royal families reinforced Nigeria’s outsized reputation as a nepotistic, graft-ridden poster child of abusive patronage and ethnic-inspired clientelism. What should worry Nigerian politicians is that they could wittingly or unwittingly be setting a wrong precedence that does little to their hard earned reputation as poster children for the republic of greed.
Thousands attended the event at the palace of the Emir of Bichi in Kano. No fewer than 20 private jets conveying prominent personalities reportedly filled the runway at the Aminu Kano International Airport in Kano as Nigeria’s political and economic elite and West African dignitaries flew in for the wedding of Yusuf 27, to Zahra 19, who met at the University of Surrey in England. Every 5-star hotel in the state was fully booked. Top politicians and traditional rulers flew in, including several opposition figures. Among them were former President Goodluck Jonathan; Vice President Yemi Osinbajo; former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and Senate President, Ahmad Lawan. Other dignitaries include Governors Atiku Bagudu (Kebbi), Aminu Tambuwal (Sokoto), Abdullahi Ganduje (Kano), Babagana Zulum (Borno) and Bello Matawalle (Zamfara). Sen Sani Yerima, Sen Ali Ndume, Ambassador Bashir Yuguda and Mallam Nuhu Ribadu among other lawmakers and government personalities were also present. Gambia’s First Lady Fatoumata Bah Barrow and former president of neighboring Niger, Muhammadu Issoufu, were among the foreign guests.
The couple was joined together as husband and wife by the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Ali Isa Pantami, a qualified Imam at Bichi Central Mosque. Buhari’s nephew, Maman Daura, received the bride on behalf of the President, while prominent businessman, Alhadji Aminu Dantata, gave out the bride on behalf of the Bayero family. According to the BBC, the groom’s family paid 500,000 naira (£900) as bride price – about 10 times the average amount in northern Nigeria. Despite the sheer scale of the celebrations, it is understood to have been a scaled down because of Covid-19 pandemic. There was heavy security at the wedding ceremony, with police and soldiers guarding the palace and stationed at strategic locations in the city. If any proof was needed of the transactional nature of this unprecedented marriage between the presidential and royal families, the next day, on Saturday, the bride’s father Nasir Ado Bayero was officially crowned as the Emir of Bichi; his brother is the Emir of Kano. Nigeria’s first lady Aisha Buhari tweeted some photos of the new couple, poignantly captioning one image: “All is set to welcome and receive our new daughter into the family.”
The no-expense-spared wedding provoked a furious reaction from some of the poverty-stricken Kano residents given the levels of deprivation in the area. Worse even, the guests were observed to have shunned Covid-19 social distancing guidelines and many of them did not wear facemasks. The event also attracted national and international condemnation with the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) expressing worry over such large gatherings with participants shunning public health protocols. NMA General Secretary, Philips Ekpe said: “We are very worried; one thing we must make clear is that Covid-19 is still with us. We are also worried about the Delta variant. We have been studying to know whether it thrives in the midst of fully vaccinated people.” The Joint Health Sector Union (JOHESU) said the disregard for Covid-19 protocols at the wedding of Buhari’s son was lamentable. JOHESU’s spokesman, Olumide Akintayo, told reporters it was indeed unfortunate that Buhari, who signed the Covid-19 guidelines into law, could not enforce strict compliance to safety protocols at his son’s wedding. Akintayo said: “Ours is a society where those who lead us never set the right examples, it is always the case of ‘do what I say and not necessarily do what I do… It was President Buhari who signed the law that made it punishable for anybody not to obey Covid-19 protocols, yet it is the cream of his officials who are not making use of facemasks and are not observing social distancing.”
This situation may be particularly brazen but it is hardly unique. Yusuf Buhari’s 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 President’s son and Emir’s daughter saw nothing wrong in organizing such an expensive wedding 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 bride and groom get the money to organize such a sumptuous wedding? What are their values that make them so prone to primitive accumulation and conspicuous consumption? Where did they 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 Yusuf and Zahra do for a living? Do they have any legitimate business activities? Even if they do; is organizing a fairy-tale wedding the best way to spend money, no matter how they made it? There is little doubt that the event was underwritten with the spoils of office, even as the majority of the Nigerian people continue to wallow in poverty and misery. Such outrageous extravagance is greed, avarice, and plain wickedness that points to a flamboyant imaginary self-concept, deeply rooted in moral bankruptcy and selfishness.
Shockingly, this is not the first time Nigerian public officials and their family members are in the news for the wrong reasons. There are countless examples of squander mania by public officials and their kids indulging in needless and wasteful expenditure that exemplifies the profligacy that has bloated the cost of governance and rendered Nigerian democracy unproductive. Since 1999, the arrival of democracy has become an unbearable burden to the Nigerian people. The political class 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. As a result, the cost of governance in Nigeria is arguably the highest in the world.
This 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 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 elected and appointed leaders. Having “won” the office, the people stay conquered as politicians 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. Some time ago, Nigerians learnt with shock and consternation that ladies recruited into the Ushering Department of Akwa Ibom State government were only disguising as ushers when they were in fact recruited to engage in extreme sexual indiscretions ranging from corporate prostitution and gangbanging to lesbianism, an ex-member of the group revealed.
There is an urgent need for President Buhari to end these excesses which have been taken to ridiculous levels of absurdity. The royal-presidential wedding has 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. It seems indeed, with Buhari and the APC; things have gone from bad to worse. The leaders of yesteryears did not steal as callously, ferociously, brazenly and irresponsibly as the present crop of politicians do. 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 and change Nigeria.
