TheCable

BY HARUNA MOHAMMED SALISU

This piece is informed by a story published by the Daily Trust Newspaper titled “Students starve as politicians eat fat”.

The story run by the newspaper has again reminded us of the pervasive criminality from a retardant atavistic crop of insignificantly few people, called leaders in Nigeria.

The story tells us that while a student in our unity colleges feeds on N150 per day, our president is eating N319, 444. That means a student in our unity colleges will have to stay in school for over two thousand one hundred and twenty-nine days (2129) before they will eat what the president will put in his stomach for one day. Look, the daily meal of our number one citizen is enough to feed our Unity College student from the time of admission to his graduation!

In other words, the president will gulp one hundred and sixteen million, five hundred and ninety-seven thousand and sixty naira (N116, 597,060) within one year, which is enough to feed one unity college student for seven hundred and seventy-seven thousand three hundred and thirteen years (777,313) at rate of 150 per day.

The report also states that the president’s kitchen will permanently silent the sum of 854 million naira within 365 days to put food on the table of our sick president, which is enough to feed a student for five million, six hundred and ninety-three thousand, three hundred and thirty-three days (5, 693,333) which is equivalent to fifteen thousand five hundred and ninety-eight years (15,598) if the student is to manage N150 per day.

The report went ahead to remind us that our number two citizen (The vice president) puts in his stomach a whopping sum of one hundred and forty-seven thousand two hundred and twenty-two naira (N147, 222) within 24 hours,(1 day)  which is enough to feed a student in our unity schools for a period of  twenty-three thousand, five hundred and fifty-four (23, 544) hours or 981 days.

The VP consumes food worth fifty-three million, seven hundred and thirty-six thousand and thirty naira (N53,736, 030) within a space of one year, which is enough to feed a unity college student for three hundred and fifty-eight thousand two hundred and forty years (N358,240) at the rate of N150 per day.

The kitchen of the number two citizen will spend Sixty-six million, two hundred and forty-six thousand naira (N 66,246, 000) to put food on his table within 365 days, but a poor student in one of our unity colleges has to spend four hundred and forty-one thousand six hundred and forty days (441 640 days) or one thousand two hundred and nine (1209) years to consume what our number two citizen will spend in just one year.

The report further revealed that our 109 senators at the upper legislative chamber will consume N410 million on meals and refreshment, or N10,000 will be spent daily on each lawmaker to cover their meals’ expenses. It means every senator in Nigeria will comfortably eat and go to bed a sickening sum of three million, seven hundred and sixty-one thousand four hundred and sixty-seven naira (N3, 761 467) while an innocent poor student will have to stay in school for twenty-five thousand and seventy-six years (25, 076 years) to be able to eat the same amount as his meals and refreshments. More succinctly put, a senator in Nigeria without any conscience will spend in 24 hours what a poor unity college student spends in 1,632 hours for food!

Now as a graduate doing my compulsory one-year national service, the federal government according to the report is spending N500 daily to put food on my table. By implication, I have to serve Nigeria for more than 20 years to be able to eat the equivalent of what a senator consumes in just one year as meals and refreshment or 638 years and 294 years serving Nigeria before I spend what the president and his Vice spend on food in one year.

Let us shift the goal post to our depended states governors and their law makers. The Katsina state governor though looking miserably lean compared to my state governor (Bauchi state governor) is reluctantly with the help of his deputy eating meals worth N650, 000 daily. By implication the two leaders will spend two hundred and thirty-seven million, two hundred and fifty thousand naira (N237, 250,000) to eat food in 2017 alone, while two students in boarding schools in the state will manage N65,700. It indicates that the two poor students will have to stay in school for a period of one thousand eight hundred and five years (1,805) each to eat food which equates what their state governor and his deputy eat in one year.

The 34 lawmakers of the Katsina State House of Assembly according to the report will spend an average of N13, 154 each on food daily, which depicts that, a student in the state will have to stay in school for fifty-three thousand three hundred and forty-six years (53,346) before they will eat food worth a single lawmaker in the state for one year.

I have earlier documented how 21 ex-governors and their deputies now serving senators and ministers ‘loot their economically crippled states in the name of pension’ an amount which will adequately pay all civil servants in three states in the North East at N18,000 minimum wage per worker.

This reckless spending on few individuals is happening at a time when millions of displaced IDPs have to be rescued with $ 672 million by the Oslo humanitarian conference.

This is happening at a time when ‘only one Primary school is housed with furniture (chairs) for pupils to sit’ in an entire state capital which I also unveiled last year.   Where is the mercy? Where is the sacrifice you people pledged?

These indolence and treachery from domineering, belligerent and cunningly cynical demagogues is equivalent to war crimes and crimes against humanity.

History will certainly pass a terrible judgement on us if we fail to act against these impunity and injustices in our systems. We will individually and collectively remain one of the most dogmatic, narrow-minded and weak-willed sets of human beings to ever live on planet earth for refusing to demand accountability and confront these gullible and impulsive deceits.

Within my capacity as a concerned citizen and a serving corps member, I have resolved to protest across the six geo-political zones starting from Monday 22 May 2017.  I shall hand over a protest letter to the Plateau state governor and subsequently unveil the details of the peaceful protest.

I am sincerely calling on all concerned citizens to join and support me in this movement for our collective well-being. We should as a matter of urgency, save our future, that our children from these ineptitudes.

Haruna Mohammed Salisu is a serving Corps Member in Plateau state. He can be reached at 08063180608, [email protected] or @haruna_babale