“There is only one thing more precious than time, and that is who we spend it on”— Leo Christopher.
I sat through a discussion involving a few villagers from parts of eastern Kaduna State and western Katsina State in my home town, Zaria, last week. A respected elder has been ill, and he is the type who would encourage a free flow of conversation. The one hour I spent listening to discussions around conditions and circumstances under which villagers in parts of rural North live was profoundly numbing. For an urban-based member of the elite like me, issues of urgent concern have been abundant in the media and are causing pained retrospection over the quality of our democratic system and the disposition of our leaders towards issues and challenges with which the poor live.
My world had been engrossed with the lethargy that was behind the delayed release of our airmen and plane from Burkina Faso authorities. The saga involving Alhaji Aliko Dangote and a public servant had taken much space in loud debates regarding diminishing levels of accountability and the powers of the wealthy in a country where poverty alone is a crime. On the very day under discussion, President of the Senate was shown on television conveying the request of federal legislators to President Bola Tinubu to reconsider the directive on withdrawing police escorts from our representatives, because they may not be able to visit constituencies for the festive season without the protection traditionally offered by policemen.
One of the villagers had mentioned that three weddings in his village have had to be postponed owing to poor preparations caused by the drastic crash of prices of grains, especially maize. This is the season of marriages, a good time to spend and invest and save from harvests. Sadly, it has been a very lean season. Fertilizer and other inputs have remained very expensive, while the rush to sell local produce and large imports of foreign harvests have severely crashed prices.
In many areas where bandits have asserted their influence over farming communities, peasants have had to part with harvests either to reclaim kidnapped relations or to appease the bandit in spite of pacts which gave some respite to plant and cultivate. For peasants in Katsina State who have been told peace deals have been reached with the bandits, the pain has been compounded by the insistence of many Fulani bandits that their produce must be harvested first. Others spoke of many indignities and helplessness such as brides-to-be ‘borrowed’ by bandits; the total absence of any form of justice or protection; vigilante that will not fight any longer because it is routinely sold out or out-gunned and neighbours who sneak away in the night to unknown places.
The few of us who listened in awe as fellow citizens narrated genuine versions of the wretchedness of their existence and the seeming impotence of the Nigerian state to help them, spoke in subdued tones to each other in posh vehicles plying roads to other worlds far from these sad stories. We lamented the exposure of a peasantry which asked the state only for protection. For a century, this peasantry had fed the nation’s stomach and factories, paid taxes and stayed out of the way of the rich and the powerful. Now they answer to rustic, unlettered former herders who bear arms and rule massive territory. Government and its agents are too far away, so villagers make do with slippery justice and a life without the prospects of change. The indignation that our representatives are begging for police protection to visit home spoke of the levels of contempt for those who voted them and enabled many of them to move to Abuja and escape the indignities under which the poor live. The murmured lamentations of our legislators over unpaid constituency contracts contrasted sharply with the deepening poverty of rural populations, but no one should bet that the former will notice this.
In elevated, more comfortable circles, discussions centered on the places of integrity and accountability in the scandal just breaking around the alterations of the tax reform bill. President Tinubu had stirred faster than usual in firing a key public functionary in the oil sector who had crossed swords with Dangote. Whether this will be a slap on the wrist or the first step towards thorough scrutiny of this behemoth remains to be seen. President Tinubu ended the career of a public servant. He now has to allow an established process to reveal if he had done justice, or he needs to do more.
The tax bill alteration scandal, on the other hand, represents a monumental challenge to the battered integrity of the legislature, and neither the Presidency nor our representatives have assured us that our concerns will be addressed. This bill had been long in the making, and touted as the most profound signature of Tinubu on the economy since becoming President. Even as draft, it reeked of suspicion and distrust from many quarters. Having gone through some meticulous scrutiny, its approved and printed version is being held up as an audacious insult to the fundamentals of constitutionalism and an affront and contempt for public opinion by a maximum leadership.
This scandal desperately needs a thorough investigation and a firm response. It is basically the call of the legislature which now has an excellent opportunity to reclaim some modicum of credibility and respectability by insisting on its actual decisions and commencing a process of sanctioning whoever is responsible for changing them. Better still, it should use this attempted abuse as an opportunity to revisit the entire bill and show higher levels of respect for credible opinions offered against it. Given its levels of intimacy with the executive administration, it may look towards Tinubu for an approving nod. Whether it gets one or not, it is important that the two arms realize that this is one battle they will not win. Nigerians now know that we have lived with three annual budget circles, a damaging maneuver on the margins of legality and a near-perfect evidence that our annual budgets are elaborate works of fiction in formal language and figures. Our federal legislature is more than complicit in this outrage. It is an active partner in obfuscation of transparency and accountability in the management of the economy.
It is legitimate to ask whether the absence of security as a defining element of our lives, rising levels of poverty, declining levels of trust in the leadership, crippling levels of lethargy in decision-making and impunity which challenges reason combine to worry an administration desperate to win an election that will be held in a little over a year from now. What designs does the ruling party have beyond eating up most of the opposition’s politicians, to convince Nigerians that it deserves their confidence to run the country until 2031? There are precedents of ruling parties bursting with wealth, clout and politicians losing elections in Nigeria. There is also history of attempts by incumbent administrations to tamper with popular will to retain power. This administration has a huge job ahead of it. It must convince enough Nigerians to vote for it in a credible election in 2027. It has huge numbers of politicians without organic links with the population. Still, miracles happen.
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