“They are afraid of counting kobo!” a senior public service worker
exclaimed derisively at break time during a change management workshop
for his agency. Someone had asked why politicians who had served terms
as governors automatically sought election to the Senate.
“They are not
used to thinking about paying rent or buying diesel anymore!” someone
said.
The listeners shared a laugh. Others nodded in agreement. Even more
shook their heads sadly. “They should sit down and allow someone else
to go,” someone else said. “They have chopped enough.”
I listened, and after the workshop had ended, I contemplated the
matter. Who can tell us why this is the trend?
There could be many reasons why a politician would keep seeking elected
office in one capacity or another when his or her current mandate is
expiring. Some are career politicians – serving the public is an
occupation. Another could be that they are extremely civic-minded. Very
few of the people that I talked to were convinced by those arguments.
“They are afraid of counting kobo.” Could it really be a matter of
cash? “They should come and live real life like the rest of us!” The
courageous “What is real life like for ‘the rest of us’?” I asked.
It
is a life of struggling to make ends meet, husbanding resources,
worrying about expenses, being at the mercy of the electricity company,
the water corporation, tax authorities, and government in general. It
is sacrificing to send one’s children to a good school, taking
harassment from one’s wife when ‘housekeeping’ money is not
forthcoming, putting up with abuse from one’s husband when the
pressures of work, rent, and financial demands from family and friends
are too much for him to carry and he needs someone to shout at. Real
life is having to make choices between what we need, and often forgoing
what we want. It could be a choice between buying diesel or buying
provisions. It could also be a choice between living in a 3-bedroom
flat or sending one’s child to a good school.
Yet this same real life
is what we all look forward to as young adults. We can’t wait to grow
up and lead our own lives, pay our own bills, be responsible for our
own choices. The trade-off between financial ability and lifestyle
choices is natural and common sense. No one needs to tell young
newlyweds about where they should look for a house, whether or not they
will have a car, whether the car will be new or used. Most take public
transport and the lucky few arrange their commute with colleagues or
friends who have cars. In looking for work they consider whether they
can both afford to be self-employed or search for paid employment. They
decide whether they will be going out for drinks or to the clubs with
their single friends at weekends, or have people visit them for a home
cooked meal instead. They choose whether they will have a small
electricity generator or not, and if so, if it will be on all night or
only until midnight; and if it will go off at 8am or at 10am in the
morning. Even the choice of buying food in the shops or in the markets,
buying clothes in boutiques or from tailors…that is REAL LIFE! Life
without hangers-on
Are politicians really afraid of having to balance their cheque books
once again, and ‘cutting their coats according to their reduced size?’
Is it a case of not being able to cope with the loss of ‘big man’ and
‘big woman’ status from being able to dash money freely to family and
friends, and make huge personal donations and gifts to charities and at
fundraisers? Perhaps they cannot imagine life without the escort cars
and police aides who they treat more as personal assistants.
Who
wouldn’t like to have the power to keep an aircraft full of passengers
waiting until you arrive? Whose head wouldn’t be turned by that sense
of self-importance that comes from all the bowing and scraping to your
position as governor, councillor, or senator? Status that is presently
not earned through sweat or by serving one’s constituents, but acquired
by drawing illegally on the huge pot of taxpayer money that is placed
in their safekeeping.
Prudence is a virtue
Unless they lose reelection or do not receive their party’s mandate it
is rare for any of them to return to their previous occupations. Some
notable ones become well-known for haunting the corridors of power
seeking contracts and political appointments to ministries, agencies,
and embassies. Others become facilitators and power brokers for big
business seeking access to state and federal executives. They charge a
fee for the introduction and cut themselves into the deal itself if
they can. Off the top of my head, I can’t think of even one who has
returned to practice accounting, law, architecture, or to running their
own businesses. Not having to count kobo is the same as teaching a
child that there are no consequences for their actions. Why would a
person learn prudence, discipline, and judgment if there are always
more ‘kobo’ where that came from? “In January this
year, four months to
the political handover, some legislators who were dropped as candidates
by
their parties are already panicking about their finances.
Even though,
according to media reports, they will collect approx N150m or $1m in
salary and
allowances before they have to quit office, it already seems
insufficient. If
counting N150m naira in
five months is not
enough to make them feel secure, then there is no way they can
contemplate
counting kobo with us.
