For days now, one piece written by KAA, the host of KAA Podcast, has been making the rounds on social media platforms. He used the Niger State landmass, which statistically is bigger than the entire five States in the South East, as a demarketing strategy, pulling the trigger to shoot pointedly on what I have chosen to call The Wastefulness, Greed, and Chronic Expression of Financial Indiscipline among our governors.
He was quick to pull the trigger of landmass but very reluctant to engage the button of population explosion in the five South East States.
Niger State landmass stands at 76,363km while that of the entire five States in South East stands at 29,388 km. the gap unarguably is very yawning.
What about the population difference? Niger State has a population of 6.7 million while Abia is 4.1 million. Anambra stands at 5.95. Ebonyi is 2.9million. Enugu is 4.4 million and Imo State is 5.5 million. You can fact-check these figures.
What KAA was in a hurry to forget are the basic factors that guide the distribution of monthly allocation, which landmass isn’t in the list. He forgot to realise that a mansion of 100 rooms with 20 occupants spends less compared to a 5-bedroom apartment that has over a hundred occupants.
Inasmuch as I don’t agree with his landmass analysis as basis to assess the productivity level of South East governors, who have more allocations, with comparatively small landmass but performing below the development threshold of their Niger State counterpart, the truth which is immutable, is the obvious imbalance between what the South East governors get every month and the development on ground.
More like eating very well-cooked food, sufficient in nutrients, but with a scraggy-looking body frame. This body frame of malnourished stature isn’t peculiar to South East States. The North are no better.
I served in the North for one year as a Corps member. They are no better in infrastructure. If you read my book “The Triangle,” you would understand the level of high-class underdevelopment many parts of the North are experiencing. The same thing that is biting the poor masses in the five States of the South East is biting the majority of the States in the North.
Same greed and overly extravagant lifestyle and drought of commensurate infrastructural development that are hanging on the neck of South East States are choking the Northern States too.
Local Government in some parts of the North function once or twice every month. They come when allocation comes and go back to their farms or other personal business concerns after the sharing.
Alimanjiri, Boko Haram etc are pointed expression of lack of good governance and leadership values in the North. If 50% of the money each governor of Northern extraction receives monthly is judiciously used and managed, North would be an ideal place for honey and milk.
I say this because of those that are sharing and reposting KAA PODCAST Piece to laugh at the South East and their lacklustre governors. What is in Sokoto is equally in Shokoto. The poor masses from East and West, North and South are the same endangered species, being raped daily by those they empowered with their votes and their mandate entrusted unto them to lead, instead, they loot for their unborn generation.
It is unimaginable and very sad that each month the allocation each of the South East governors receives is used for everything but upscaling the living conditions of the masses.
Abia State is recently enjoying the rays of the sun of good governance by accountability, transformation, resource maximisation for efficiency and empowerment.
Imagine what Abia State would have become since its creation if on her leadership seat an Alex Otti has been sitting with courage, vision, creativity, purpose and clear road map of where the promised land is situated.
Abia may have been a bit liberated from the jaws of bad leadership structures and greedy governors, would one say same thing about other States in the South East?
With the kind of money that each governor receives every month and their monthly revenue generation strength, no State in the Southeast should have bad roads. Security network and prompt response to security emergencies and concerns should be with naval precision. Health care system should be top-notch..Education is very affordable, water and power are very available and affordable.
The truth is, it is not a Southeast custom-made problem. Put on your halogen bulb touch and flash on other states, the cry of frustration, hopelessness, dejection and hunger by the poor masses may be more shrieking than the sound from South East axis.
Our governors, with the exception of a staggering few, are wolves feeding fat from the blood and flesh of the lamb under their care. Succinctly, one could call them Higher-Way Robbers. They are already gathering for 2027 election. The masses, instead of being willing hands to get nuts from the furnace for them, should rather hold them accountable, no matter whose ox is gored.
Jarlathuche@gmail.com
