By
Fenny Fwa
Fellow compatriots a lot of folks disparage me that I’m just being an armchair critic when i raise issues on structural defects in governance and the need to correct them for good governance to flourish.
People like Odenigbo Chidi Anyaeche will always remind me that we brought this government in being as a nember of the APC. That is not far from the truth; infact I directly participated in the primary election of PBAT because I was a national delegate at the convention that elected him as the presidential Candidate. I still maintain my position that given the circumstances and based on my assessment( I may be wrong)he was my best option.
I want to ask Chidi let him look around in his Biafra enclave. Gombe state was created in 1996 while Abia in 1991, yet you can’t compare them development wise. While Abia remains a glorified village infrastructurally, Gombe has been modernized by APC led Administration compared to PDP that held Abia captive until the coming of Alex Otti who is changing the state for good. Until the election of Peter Obi as the Governor of Anambra state, Anambra funds was ATM to the Uba brothers to the extent that salaries, pension and gratuities were not paid. There was decay of infrastructures and social amenities in Anambra at time PDP held sway.
Please chidi jettison the notion of APC is all bad because I can mention some APC states that are doing well. performance in governance is therefore a function of the personalities governing not a only a party affair. For instance if a different personality had won US presidential election under the democratic party and not Bidan, its possible that the man could have done better than Biden.
When I therefore raised issues of structural imbalance in governance is not only applicable to APC, but to all public office holders that their policies are not yielding the desired results and therefore the need for a total review. What im now going to raise is expensive nature of NASS and the need to review its expensive conspicuous consumption at the expense of productivity and the Green and red chambers are populated by all parties, including Biafrans.Let just take 4 items.
1. Constituency projects that all members of both the red and Green Chambers are entitled to. Let me not calculate the N500m the principal officers are entitled to and the billions that the 2 principal officers are included in the budget. N200m X 469 members of NASS gives you N93.800b.
2. Car purchased to all members, including bullet proof cars for principal officers amounting to N57b.
3. Running cost of N13.5m and N14.5m for house of reps and senate respectively and this is captured in their N150b annually recurrent expenditure of NASS. This excludes their salaries that is paid outside the running cost.
The 3 above doesn’t capture budget padding of MDAS which is a deal that will benefit them corruptly and the MDAS are involved.
My fellow compatriots will our prostrate economy continue to harbour these rapaciousness and luxurious life style of the political class. If we continue like this our unproductive, weak economy will enter a deep depression that it may take decades to recover. Zambia is already there. Chinese have taken the management of their electricity, water, railways etc because it cannot pay their external loans. Ours will be worse because it will be compounded by our security challenges that have manifested in insurgency, kidnapping, armed banditry etc.
Fenny Fwa is a retired permanent secretary in Adamawa State
