An unfortunate reality around the African continent is that much of the major problems faced by Africans is a result of our leadership. It would not be incorrect to state that in many cases around the continent, African politicians have largely failed in their duties since Independence. Nowhere is that reality more evident than in Nigeria. The amount of corruption present in Nigeria’s governing institutions is unique even within an African context.
In Nigeria, politician’s first mandate is always to themselves. Not to their constituents or to our nation. The biggest priority of most of Nigeria’s political class is how they can best exploit our governing bodies to their benefit. Unlike in other places around the world where people with high ideals get into politics because they believe they have the ability to effect real change that would improve the lives of the citizens within their country. Such characters are few and far between among Nigeria’s political class.
Despite the high levels of destitution experienced all around Nigeria, our politicians are always among the wealthiest people in the country. The high salaries earned by politicians in addition to all the perks that along with being in office mean that our political class is often completely detached from the experiences of the average Nigerian. Before we even talk about the high levels of corruption that take place, we would only have to look at the salaries and perks that come along with public office to see how public funds are misused.
It is the norm across the country for politicians across the country to earn exorbitantly high salaries. The salaries earned by politicians are often many times the salaries earned by their constituents. This is despite the widespread poverty experienced by Nigerians all over the country. In 2023, the Guardian Nigeria reported that 13 senators currently serving in the Nigerian senate were set to earn around 5.6 billion Naira from ex-governors pensions. How can these politicians justify earning such high salaries when so many of the people in their states do not even know where their next meal is coming from?
The Guardian Nigeria reported that on average former governors earn around 100 million Naira in pension from their states. It also reported that around 24 states within Nigeria have life-time pensions for their ex-governors. In addition to these salaries, governors can expect to receive all sorts of other perks such as new cars, drivers, their own security details, free healthcare and much more. These sorts of benefits would also extend to members of their families as well.
This kind of ridiculous exorbitant spending is not uncommon within Nigeria, it even goes all the way up to the presidency. Last year President Tinubu approved a supplementary budget using Nigerian public funds to buy a presidential yacht worth around 6.1 millions US Dollars. Likewise the president allocated funding towards purchasing SUVs and houses for the president, his wife and other public officials.
It is obviously infuriating hearing about this and it should be. While the government officials misusing public funds in this manner may not be ‘breaking the law,’ it is still just as bad. Keep in mind Tinubu’s administration passed these budget allocations during one of the biggest economic catastrophes that has been experienced by Nigeria. This economic downturn had been spurred by Tinubu’s administration’s removal of the fuel subsidy that had been in place for decades. And it comes amid the rapid loss in value experienced by the Naira, making it the worst performing currency globally.
So at the same time the government states it does not have money to continue the fuel subsidy, it is allocating billions of Naira towards a presidential yacht. The unfortunate thing, that I am sure most Nigerians have already come to terms with at this stage, is that our government does not work for us. The first and foremost thing on the mind of most of Nigeria’s politicians is discovering ways they can personally enrich themselves. The millions of Nigerians living in poverty be damned.
I have not even mentioned government corruption and all of the dirty deals that happen without our knowledge behind the scenes. Which we know there are a lot of. The focus of this article is on the wasting of public funds that is done out in the open in front of our own eyes.
This self-serving nature of Nigeria’s government officials comes at the cost of our country’s infrastructure. Nigerians are not able to rely on the government or any kind of centralised electricity or water treatment infrastructure. If you want access to such, you would have to invest in a generator and/ or digging up a borehole where you can collect water from, because of the lack of investment in our country’s critical infrastructure. We recently even saw another nationwide blackout as a result of the failure of the national electricity grid.
Nigeria obviously is not an outlier in the African continent. Such actions by government officials is sadly the norm around the continent. When the coups that had taken place across West Africa over the last few years, you did not see any people coming out into the streets calling for a return of the civilian government. In fact quite the contrary, the reaction we saw were scenes of jubilation at the fall of the civilian government.
That’s because people were obviously fed up with governments that don’t work in the interest of their constituents. They were fed up with government officials who use public office only to enrich themselves. The truth is that if a military coup were to happen in Nigeria today, we would likely see similar scenes around the country.
The reality is that the current way our government system works is not sustainable and it benefits no one but the politicians enriching themselves with public funds. That is the reason why we have seen so many Nigerians continuing to leave the country at the first chance they get. However, there are over 200 million Nigerians we cannot possibly all leave. Moreover, countries all around the world are increasingly becoming more hostile towards migrants.
Fixing this system is not something that would happen overnight. In fact, it would likely take many years before we are to see any real change to the system. However, it is imporant that Nigerians become much more political engaged in order to force out these politicians, who think it is acceptable to use the public purse for their own benefit, while their constituents suffer. This is our country at the end of the day, we cannot allow our futures to continue being stolen from us by a corrupt and self-seving political class.