It is true that when the head is rotten the whole body follow suit. In the human anatomy, the head is a vital part as it houses the cognitive membrane which serves as the director of affairs of every other parts of the body and also the one that think out the way to go for every other parts as well. It sees, ears, tastes and smells too. But, the fact that the ‘head’ has all of these amazing features does not make it the all-in-all in the anatomy of the higher mammals. As a matter of fact, it needs the neck, spine, arm, leg, and so on to stand because it is nothing without all other parts of the body. A unit is part of the whole and the whole is a combination of unit.
I do not mean to bore you with this biological breakdown of the human anatomy, quite the contrary. I was just likening the human head to the Federal Government of Nigeria who, from time immemorial, from one regime to another, have always expended a lump sum of money to service their running cost while leaving (budgeting) a meagre sum for the States, Local Governments, and well over 200 million teeming population to grabble for.
This takes us to President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria, who has set aside N 76.67 million for the payment of “Aso Rock rent”. The figure was revealed in the specifics of Buhari’s 2022 Appropriation Bill, which he presented to the National Assembly in a joint session on Thursday.
The N16.39 trillion budget contains an N6.26 trillion deficit. As is customary for this administration, they will turn to the IMF (International Monetary Fund), the Paris Club, the World Bank, China, and/or any other willing nation with money to spare for funds that will undoubtedly come back to haunt future generations in order to support the Nigerian executive arm of the government’s extravagant lifestyle.
The Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, backed up the above assertion by saying the government would seek extra loans to cover the deficit.
The cost of replacing Villa’s telecommunications infrastructure, according to the budget, will be N 400,000,000.
The Aso Rock Presidential Villa has also been allocated N5,231,101,743 for general renovation and repair of fixed assets.
According to a review of the plan, office building rehabilitation/repair will cost N 5,176,045,297, while residential building rehabilitation/repair will cost N 55,056,446 of the N 150,590,609,934 that the Presidency is projected to spend.
This goes to show that the government is truly clueless as to how to pull the nation out of the sinking sand of economic woes. I wonder if they truly have brains in their heads or their heads are simply filled up with water.
I am very sure by now that the close allies of this administration, voters, supporters and opposition alike are deeply regretting voting for this man as the head of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Nigeria has never been ‘easy’ but, it has never been this bad, never! Food prices have gone up in the quadruple. Commodities that sell for N500 eight months ago, presently, is being sold for N2000. And to make matters worse, the take-home pay of an average Nigerian keeps dwindling as against cost of refilling a cooking gas, having at least a meal on the table, and foodstuff, to mention but a few, that the prices have hit the sky on their way to outer space if nothing is done about it in a few months from now. If you are out there and you still have your job, lucky you!
Local investments are finding it hard to thrive in this dark time in the life and history of Nigeria because the living standard is no more, it is now survival living, that is, doing whatever you can, however you could to make sure you get through the day/night.
The House of Representatives, on the other hand, deferred session on Tuesday, October 12 in Abuja, citing “unbearable heat” in the chamber.
This came after a member of the House, Haruna Dederi, moved to adjourn the meeting due to the state of the chamber’s air conditioning.
He remarked these statements as he raised the order, “Sir, Order 7 of the rules of this House has given you powers to absolutely control whatever goes on here to preserve decorum. To preserve the atmosphere within which we should operate. We are suffocating because the place is extremely hot.
“In my opinion Sir, we could have a way of either adjourning the business of the day or give time so that the air conditioners can be out in proper shape. Whatever thing that you can do to save us from this physical situation in which we live.”
The Speaker stated in his response, “It is a good point and it is something I just confirmed with the deputy speaker. I think what we would do is, read your titles and go to your prayers, we put the question to debates and we try and run through this as quickly as we can because we have a couple of matters under consideration for committee of the whole, which I think we should quickly address.
“We take this one and go straight to consideration of reports, so we can leave here.”
Believe you me, anything that discomfort the head disjoints the entire body. In other words, what will bring a discomfort to the Senate would eventually affect the Nigerians (pun intended).
You can be rest assured that in some few days from now, this lingering ‘issue’ would be tackled headlong with multimillion Naira worth of contract ditched out to a (or a couple) member of the House in no time since it is the almighty Senate we are talking about.
But, when it comes to things that would improve (or at least provide a bit of a comfort) the lives of commoners such as agriculture (that is, food availability, production and distribution at a lower rate), education, healthcare, security and the likes, such a motion goes through unending plenaries that sometimes last for a while after budgetary year before being considered.
And, when finally approved, what is put forth is hardly enough to ease the suffering of the masses ,that is, if it will ever get to the populace because along the way, the other arms of the executive would pocket a share as the approved budget passes by on their desk to the next (lower) arm of the executive down to the local government who are the closest arms of government to the people.
When will the government of Nigeria realize that their actions and/or inactions are surcharging more hardship on the already problems in place that Nigerians go through everyday?
