SHOW ME YOUR FRIENDS...BY MUYIWA ADETIBA

President Jonathan

One of the few things that gladdened my heart this yuletide season was an announcement by my Parish Priest that the Lagos Arch-diocese of the Catholic Church had pledged the Christmas day second collections to helping our brothers and sisters in the North East. We were therefore enjoined to contribute generously to the project and those who wanted to do more could send personal cheques to the pool.

In an identical vein, a society called ‘friends of the needy’ arranged food packs for the poor and hungry in our midst. Each pack contained gari, beans, rice, sugar, indomie, a sachet of milk and a bottle of cooking oil; just enough to feed a small family for a day, and asked parishioners to buy as many packs as they could conveniently afford.

These are causes for which I have empathy because they go directly to the needy. These are causes I wish more Nigerians would identify with because the gap between the rich and the poor is widening every day and is fast becoming a chasm. We all have got to do something fast before it becomes ‘they’ versus ‘us’.

You would shed a tear or two unless your heart had been turned into stone, or worse, a politician’s heart. And if you loathed to go that far, just ask your cleaner how she survives on the money you pay her and the many mouths she has to feed. Find out what happens to her household when it rains and what access she has to drinkable water, then think of the many millions who are unemployed.It was a cause for concern some five years ago when global statistics showed that the extreme poverty ratio in Nigeria, that is those who cannot afford two dollars a day, had reached 60% of the populace. Today, that figure has climbed up to over 80% and I am not sure the full effect of the devastation in the North east has been included. If you are sceptical, just leave your comfort zone and go into the slums where the truly poor live.

And now, by acts of omission or commission, a whole zone, the North East, has become impoverished. Worse, it has become a war zone. Industries and businesses have been wiped out; settlements have wiped out; families have been wiped out and whatever is left is fragmented. The Governor of Borno State said the other day that over a million people have migrated; many to Chad and other neighbouring countries.

The refugee camps are bursting at the seams; the figures of internally displaced persons are rising every day; yet they don’t tell the whole story because a lot of displaced people are being accommodated by good Samaritans and compassionate households many of whom cannot really afford the extra mouths they are having to feed. Many are finding their ways to cities not so much to find jobs but to stay alive. Even roads are fraught with danger as bandits and Boko Haram roam freely.

A young female friend told me a pathetic but increasingly common story. She was approached by a junior staff in a company where she works and begged to find a home for his niece whose home in a village not too far from Maiduguri had been incessantly raided and ravaged by you know who. My young friend has just given birth and decided to bring the girl in as a nanny. Money was not even a bone of contention as the junior staff said that could be ironed out later. He just wanted her safe. This was two weeks ago. At the time of writing this, the poor girl has not been able to transport herself to Lagos as many routes have been blocked off either by Boko Haram or Nigerian soldiers. Every day she is entrapped in the enclave is a day too long. What we read in the papers does not tell half the story of the humanitarian disasters that have taken place and are taking place in the zone.

It is against this backdrop that I want to see the 21 billion naira that was raised in ONE NIGHT by the friends of President Goodluck Jonathan for the coming elections. Among those who dropped billions are State Governors who are finding it difficult to pay salaries. Think of what a billion naira genuinely spent can do to uplift a state hospital or health care system. Among them are briefcase businessmen who don’t have up to 50 people on their pay roll. Among them are people who had fingers in the petrol subsidy scam. Among them are names that are forever mentioned along the corridors of government but who add very little value to the society.

Many concerned people have commented on the huge donations in relation to the electoral laws. But even if the donation was legit, how much tax do these people pay? What is the level of their CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility.) How many have contributed anything meaningful to the cause of displaced people in the country? If this is the company that the President keeps, is it any wonder that the fight against corruption has been tepid? I want to remind us at this point of the timeless words of Confucius the philosopher ‘In a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of’.

It is a shame that our politicians don’t feel the level of poverty that is ravaging the country. Otherwise those at that venue on that day should be ashamed and embarrassed by the display of wealth. If the ostentatious display embarrassed the President, he did a good job at masking it. He could have won hearts, if not votes if he had touched on the humanitarian situation in parts of the country and pledged a percentage towards the facilities in the camps. He did nothing of the sort.

While I was still trying to digest the insensitivity of our politicians and a government that is losing touch with its people, I read on line that the presidency has put the purchase of another plane in its 2015 budget—possibly the fourth in about eight years. This is in spite of the declining economic situation in the country and the worsening poverty level. I can only hope the report is untrue. Otherwise, we are dealing with a leadership that has either completely lost it or just doesn’t give a damn.