Election and the state of our 36 states

It was basically certain that yesterday’s elections held. There was no evidence that Professor Mahmoud Yakubu had reasons to take us on a second ride to electoral no man’s land. Alhamdulillah. If Festus Keyamo had read my friend and colleague, Olusegun Adeniyi’s The Verdict last Thursday he would have suggested that the DSS pick him up and put him away for a very long time. But the man has picked his wig having successfully suggested the arrest of loquacious Buba Galadima. It was obvious reading the piece that Mr. Adeniyi (whose friendship I am reviewing for the sake of my sanity) is one of those writers paid to tarnish the colourful image of our Shangri-La.

That piece should not have been published by any editor worth his kwa. Rather than blame the cabal for the sorry state in which our 36 states have been reduced, Adeniyi went into great lengths, obviously with data from Russia-backed labour, the NLC to show why yesterday’s elections was a waste.

According to his statistics, only five states were worthy of being called states. States do not derive their raison d’etre by constitutional classification. States that are unable to meet their financial obligations are failed states, pun intended. States used to have the traditional role of the traditional father, who provided for his family, protected them against the elements by putting a roof over their heads. The old-style father shielded his family from attacks, ranging from ravaging lions to slithering pythons and marauding bandits.

But domestic leadership has changed roles with fathers hardly bringing anything to the table. Ask your neighbour who takes the credit for their progress in life. Check the diary of mothers whose side hustles are the only guarantee for their children’s dinner and protection against being driven out of school.

Adeniyi’s piece exposed guarded secrets that America should not know. Secrets that deafening sirens and gun totting security shield our governors and state actors from answering. Exposing the damning statistics of months and years of unpaid salaries and forgotten gratuities would make someone think that the bubble is burst. It’s not difficult to do the maths; human life has lost value here. Anyone with the capacity to unleash havoc does so for fun using the weapon of their choice – from broken bottles to knives and guns of every make or model though citizens are not allowed to carry unlicensed arms. Last week, it was reported that a teacher strangled his own student. Here no background checks of people before they are admitted into professions where their untreated psychosis makes them disasters waiting to happen.

Thank God for the kind of low-level illiteracy that produces 28 common entrance candidates for Zamfara and the gross insouciance that makes the parents of the 24k Lagosians who qualified to remain unruffled by Adeniyi’s writings. Imagine INEC wasting all that money and the time only for yesterday’s elections to have been boycotted. Adeniyi was saying there was no need trying to change the shadow when the substance it mirrors remains the same. Those who hate our Eldorado might be wondering why Ogun people rewarded Ibikunle Amosun with a sinnate seat when he was in competition with Yahaya Bello’s Kogi as the most rundown debtor state in the nation. Those who ponder over such incongruities should be kept away from pen and paper just like Segun Adeniyi.

Basically our voters dodged the bullet by voting yesterday. If they were conscious citizens, they’d have noticed that Adeniyi’s article did not allege that governors were among the people whose salary or emoluments were not paid. Nowhere did it say that the heavily indebted states had no money to fuel the long convoys of governors to Abuja or cash to keep moribund liaison offices running. Nowhere did it say that some of the governors refused to travel abroad or even locally in first-class cabins with a retinue of aides earning dollar per diem for doing nothing. It was not stated, because it did not happen.

Zamfara, whose outgoing governor presides over the poorest and most indebted state in the federation, would cry for losing the chairmanship of the gangup of governors as he moves to the sinnate. While the people of Zamfara were under the siege of armed bandits, Governor Yari hired a plane in dollars to perform the lesser hajj and recently offered to pay N1 million for every returned AK47. Imagine if someone had an AK47 or two, they’ll definitely return it, claim the ransom and buy themselves semi-automatic replacements. Yari was one of those whose protests led to the postponement of the last election. He did not want anything to stop his handpicked successor in yesterday’s polls.

Naija people are pretty satisfied with the status of their states and their opulent governors. I know because there are citizens sleeping on their timelines making enemies of fellow sufferers. They want to impress the tormentors who are oblivious of their existence and unfazed by their suffering. I can bet my last ten Naira that among those to be declared winners of yesterday’s polls would be governors with no plans to either make their states work or pull their states out of indebtedness. A people deserve the leadership it gets.