PUNCH
With elected officials choosing comfort over sacrifice, DIRISU YAKUBU interrogates the recent procurement of exotic vehicles for federal lawmakers
For the advocates of prudent management of resources, given Nigeria’s dwindling revenues, the past few weeks must have been very troubling. In the past decade, life has been nothing short of Thomas Hobbes’s prediction of a state of nature where a man’s life is brutish, nasty and short.
In the later part of President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration and the entirety of the eight years of ex-President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari’s (retd.) regime, Nigerians suffered untold hardship, ranging from inability to afford the necessities of life to an increase in violent campaigns by bandits, terrorists, kidnappers, leading to loss of thousands of lives and property.
Not surprisingly, Nigerians celebrated the end of Buhari’s tenure, as many of them looked up with optimism to a new era of possibilities. Although not all Nigerians were pleased with the outcome of the February 25 presidential election, millions of citizens expected a paradigm shift in the administration of President Bola Tinubu particularly as it concerns the conduct of elected office holders.
A few weeks after taking over from his predecessor, President Tinubu announced the removal of subsidy on the Premium Motor Spirit popularly known as petrol, urging Nigerians to bear the pain of its outcome, which he said, would guarantee a better life. Since June 2023 when the policy commenced, motorists have purchased petrol for various amounts ranging from N534 per litre to about N630 per litre as of the time of filing this report.
But the N640 per litre price is only for residents of cities like Abuja and Lagos as elsewhere, consumers of the product pay as much as N750; a development that has made living hellish in the country. In fairness to the Tinubu-led administration, several palliatives have been rolled out but commuting from home to places of work remains a huge challenge in the Federal Capital Territory and some states of the federation.
Aware of the effect of industrial action, President Tinubu approved a raise in the monthly earnings of civil servants but with a double-digit inflation in the economy; that intervention appears at best a drop in the ocean. One would have therefore expected that a government that called on citizens to bear the brunt of its policies in the interim would show leadership by example by exhibiting sacrificial conduct in its service to the nation.
Only recently, the media was awash with reports of lawmakers on the verge of receiving brand new 2023 models of Toyota Land Cruiser and Prado Sports Utility Vehicles that will cost the nation at least N57.6bn in total.
As criticisms trail the development, the Chairman, Committee on Senate Services, Sunday Karimi, reminded Nigerians that ministers had more cars than legislators, saying, “Somebody that is a minister has more than three Land Cruisers, Prado and other vehicles and you are not asking them questions: why us?
“These vehicles that you see ply Nigerian roads today. If I go home once; my senatorial district, I come back spending a lot on my vehicles because our roads are bad. I said the decision that we took on using Land Cruiser is the cost and durability. It is not the decision of the senators alone; we analyzed arriving at Land Cruisers. It was based on a comparative analysis of the cost of technical issues and durability on Nigerian roads, are you getting me?
