A video clip of Governor Lawal Dare of Zamfara State shows him in the company of one other person discussing a brand new BMW 7 Serie. In the video clip, which is circulating on social media, it was said that the car was recently purchased by the governor at the staggering cost of N300 million. The price elicited double takes from yours sincerely because of the harsh, hard and hostile times that most Nigerian citizens are facing.
By Abdu Labaran
When someone saw the same video clip and commented that Lawal grew up with the love, and in possession, of fancy expensive cars, I, along with others, reminded him that Lawal’s penchant for ‘fancy expensive cars’ like the BMW 7 Serie was not sponsored by the proceeds of sweat and toil. The guess was that it was sponsored by proceeds ‘made’ from the Commonwealth.
Judging by his accent, Governor Lawal must have grown up a pampered son who attended foreign lands for his education or the very expensive foreign schools in the country. He is also a typical Northerner who prefers to build himself and his immediate family rather than his society and people, from whose Commonwealth the money was ‘made’ since he has denied that he was stupendously rich.
Their type can be found at weekends in Abuja organising racing matches just for fun, and the fact that they have the expensive toys (cars) like the BMW 7 Serie to play with, bought (without any iota of doubt) with the proceeds of graft by the parents, some of who may work as Presidents, Vice Presidents, ministers, principal officers in the National Assembly (NASS) or other top federal government appointees. The ‘racers’ have one thing in common; they are all pampered children of retired or serving government officials.
If people like Aliko Dangote, AbdusSamadu Isyaku Rabi’u, Mike Adenuga, Dahiru Mangal, Athur Eze, Tonny Elumelu, TY Danjuma. Bola Shagaya and the likes bought a BMW 7 Serie or even the company producing the car, no one would take a second breath if they heard about, or saw it. They are business people entitled to spend their money how they deem fit. But a public office holder does not have such a privilege, except one who illegally commits for his own personal use what belongs to the people of his constituency.
Zamfara state is notorious for banditry, with allegations from many quarters that it was financed and supported by powerful politicians from the state and their local and foreign collaborators. The bandits are alleged to be employed to sack or do whatever they please with the ordinary citizens, to forcefully take their lands under which are buried tremendous treasures in mineral wealth, which include precious metals and stones. It explains the intense activities of the bandits in the states of Zamfara and the neighbouring Sokoto and Katsina.
The state is also home to millions of beggars, which include School age going children and women. The N300 million spent by the governor of the state on BMW 7 Serie is enough to feed many of them for months, or repair and equip a few dilapidated primary schools in the state.
Zamfara state is also bustling with illegal airports for shipment of illegally mined precious materials to foreign markets for disposal without questions asked. A couple of years ago, a gold shipment said to be worth N8 billion was caught in an airport in Akra, Ghana, and the consignment was alleged to belong to a former governor of the state.
Some months ago, the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state made an allegation against the administration of Governor Lawal, accusing him of paying a ‘settlement’ to a group of bandits, some media individuals, and a powerful online media organisation. The allegation was of course, vehemently denied by the Zamfara state government.
According to the Zamfara State APC, a few weeks later, a far-reaching reorganisation was effected in the civil service of the state, with the office of the Accountant General most affected. The reason being that the exercise was carried out to rid the government of ‘whistleblowers’, so claimed the opposition party, saying that it was vindicated.
The senseless purchase of an N300 million car in a state battling with the menace of the bandits, with teeming beggars of both added and gender, battling with illegal mines of precious minerals, and the illegal operation of an airport for the secret conveyance of the illegally mined minerals to foreign lands, is similar to what is happening in the neighbouring state of Sokoto.
In Sokoto state, the present administration would claim to have spent some billions of naira in the execution of a project, but the actual cost (with all the variables factored into it) may not exceed a few million. These cases readily come to mind. The case of the repair of 25 boreholes, for which the sum of N1.2 was said to have been spent, the case of constructing five roundabouts in the state capital at the cost of N1.2 billion, and the erecting of a wire fence in the state capital at a staggering sum of N5 billions.
Yet Sokoto state, not unlike its neighbouring state of Zamfara, is battling with bandits and the menace of a teeming population of beggars, which it ‘exports’ in large numbers to other northern states, especially the neighbouring states of Zamfara and Katsina.
In Katsina, which is my state, heads of secondary schools, who are soon to undertake an examination to access their qualification to be principals of their respective schools, blamed the state government for the collapse of education in the state.
According to a programme on Germany Radio, some school principals who spoke anonymously claimed that the government was not giving them money on time, and enough of it to spend on the students. One of the principals alleged that there was a time when two and a half terms passed before they were given payment for one term at N7,000 per student. He further alleged that the amount was supposed to cover EVERYTHING the student would require, including feeding, medication (where the need arises), books for teachers and students, blackboard dusters writing materials, and such items as required by the students.
There is also an allegation made by an indigene and a constant commentator on the affairs in the country at large, and the Katsina state in particular. He alleged that many retired permanent secretaries were brought back into the state civil service as salaried and pensionable employees, despite having already collected their pension benefits.
In an unhealthy and unpopular development, a video is currently widely trending on social media showing the wedding ceremony of the daughter of a very important person in the north. During the ceremony, money in many currencies was strewn on the ground beneath the feet of the bride and the groom, in what is called ‘spraying’. And spraying of money is outlawed in the country, with violators eligible for a prison term of not less than six months. A so-called ‘socialite’ from the southern part of the country was jailed for breaking the law. The important person was a governor and minister, and now a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
He is also, like many northerners, a person who ‘made’ his huge fortune working in governments at both state and federal levels and continues to ‘make’ more money from his office as a Nigerian Senator. As a senior Senator, the amount he must be ‘making’ every month would be best imagined. The northern big people are only good at building themselves and their immediate families. As for the ordinary people, their usefulness can only come when it is election time, the time when the senseless poor person would be used for a stipend, some drug and or alcohol and (maybe) some pasta.
May God save us from the people who would use and abandon us, only for them to return to us when they want to use us again. Such as some of our so-called leaders in the country.
Labaran wrote from Katsina.
