Though he is one Minister one
would do well not to take too seriously, Maku has acquired
some queer notoriety for the absurd in the way he goes about
his job as Information Minister. It is either he is churning
out invectives on critics of the government or mouthing
fictitious statistics to prove some non-existent strides of
this government. And now he has delved into an odyssey which
hitherto would have evoked derision if not anger from the
public. As an Information Minister he now goes about with a
retinue of journalists and aides, 120 of them, from
state-to-state, looking for something to ‘inform’ the public
about!
By the way the performance or
otherwise of any State Governor is not stargazing and does not
require some explorer with a pair of binoculars to detect. It
does not require a jamboree by an apparently idle Minister for
the people of the state to know, for instance,that the roads
in the state are good. What on earth are the Minister and his
news-for-cash journalists going to see in one or two days,
that the millions of indigenes of the state who are resident
in the state all their life won’t see?
Amazingly, in their ignorance and
shallow zeal to be in the ‘good books’ of the Presidency, some
State Governors are falling heels over each other to host this
‘busybody’ delegation and would even go extra miles to please
the Minister through financial pecks so as to get a ‘good
report’. It is against this background that I commend the
courage of Comrade Oshiomole for calling off Maku’s bluff.
Thanks to Comrade Oshiomole, for
refusing to pay for this wasteful jamboree and thereby
exposing the scam, without which one would not have known that
Maku uses this tour to milk the states dry of their lean
resources. With Oshiomole’s revelation, if a state is to
provide accommodation, flight tickets, feeding and probably
honorarium for each of the 120 delegates, one can reasonably
estimate the cost of the visit per state to somewhere in the
range of N120 Million. This translates to about N 4.3Billion
to cover the 36 States of the Federation! The obvious question
is; of what benefit to the Nation is such a huge expenditure?
N4.3billion is a lot of money which could be put to better
uses that will be of common good to the public, like road
rehabilitation, water supply and education.
The other question is why should
it take a Maku, to report on the performance of State
Governors? What brief did Jonathan give this man when he
became minister? Where in the Nigerian constitution did he
derive these ‘touring’ powers? Was he appointed by Jonathan or
by the Nigerian Governors Forum to report their activities?
Have the State Governors sought his help to publicize their
work?
Has the Presidency or the Federal
Government become so idle that the Federal Minister of
Information now has no work to do and so he now has to
scavenge the states for something to do? If so why not just
resign?
I am told that the Ministry of
information Headquarters in Abuja where Maku holds sway does
not even have functional toilets and staffs of the Ministry
have to resort to use of nearby fast-food joints to answer the
call of nature. If Maku cannot provide good governance to his
staff, what a mockery is he making of himself with is ‘Good
Governance’ tour?
There is a fundamental problem
with the thinking that the Federal Government is a supervisor
of the federating states. As far as the Nigerian Constitution
is concerned, the Federal Government cannot supervise, assess,
evaluate, reward or punish a State Governors’ performance or
lack of it. The State Governors are accountable to the people
of their States through their respective Houses of Assembly
which have the sole authority to remove a non-performing
governor.
Even if we assume the tour is for
Federal Government projects, one would still expect the works
to speak for themselves. A smooth ride from Benin to Lagos by
the citizens is a more eloquent testimony of good governance
than televised half-hearted rhetoric, video clips and pictures
of the Lagos-Benin Highway. Maku’s tour is therefore
uncalled-for and whatever outcome there from, of no worth
whatsoever.
The tour is just another trick in the bag of the current PDP
led Federal government to extort money from the State
Governors and also arm-twist them to line up behind Jonathan
in 2015. This is the most wasteful government Nigeria has been
unfortunate to have in her checkered history. The PDP has
evolved into one of the biggest power cult and savage monster
in Africa. The party constitutes the greatest impediment to
development, prosperity and happiness of this great nation.
Nigerians must unite in 2015 to chase out this gang of
deceitful leaders or remain perpetually under servitude.