It is very unfortunate that today Nigeria’s governors are competing with each other for embellishing their cities with construction of multi-billion flyover bridges that are said to have been meant to tame the menace of traffic congestions and traps in their commercial cities. This lucrative infrastructural revolution distances the majority of the governors from making the right decision, prioritising the greatly desired developmental projects and providing the much-needed dividends of democracy for the masses.
The wave of banditry, climate crisis and other forms of insecurity have pushed thousands of women into widowhood across the northern part of the country and it also banned most farmers from accessing their farms.
Instead of wasting funds on frivolous projects and policies, it is imperative for Nigeria’s governors to provide an oxygen of better life for these weak and helpless women and make them productive citizens in their societies, communities and future life.
Nigeria’s governors should help remember that there are millions of starving and despairing out-of-school children roaming the streets of the northern region and begging for food to survive. Some of them are orphans. I am certain that when these depressed children grow up they will be asking about what our today’s leaders did or didn’t do for building their future when they will be living with the worst consequences of grave delinquency and bad governance of our today’s leaders.
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Therefore, Nigeria’s governors are expected to use their golden opportunity to do all they can to do their part thereby improving the miserable lives of millions of the country’s pessimistic out-of-school children in their states in order to make sure that they put them on a pedestal.
Amidst flyovers bridges there are millions of retirees and their families facing untold plight as a result of non-payment of their retirement benefits for so many months or a year. These retired civil servants who dedicated their lives for serving their states and many bedridden, hinge their lives on the pension. Non-payment of their entitlements worsens their health challenges resulting in the demise of many of them.
Given the complexity of the abovementioned conundrums and cumbersome challenges confronting the masses and vulnerable citizens, Nigeria’s governors are expected to move away their attention from the ongoing competition of building unwarranted infrastructure such as flyovers and beautification of cities and focus all their attentions to human capacity building, improving people’s living standards, quality education, quality healthcare for all, job creation and security.
To build a brighter future for our younger and unborn generations, Nigeria’s governors have a key role to play in throwing their weight behind some Sustainable Development Goals of the UN, particularly from goal 1 to 8. It is disheartening seeing how state governments are turning away from investing in human capacity building.
Ultimately, it is incumbent upon the governors to pull out all the stops and act like God-sent messiahs capable of salvaging our tetraplegic democracy of the country bred by growing public disillusionment, pessimism and despondency by addressing soaring poverty, its genesis and all its dimensions. These nail-biting menaces are raising the alarm for future security of their states. I remember the philosophical words of the former president of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, who said, “As long as poverty, injustice and gross inequality persist in our world, none of us can truly rest”.
Mustapha Baba Azare, Bauchi State