IS THERE NO END TO THE CULTURE OF WASTE IN NIGERIA?
They say “a fool at 40 is a fool forever”. One must then wonder what fate awaits a fool at 50.The Federal Government of Nigeria, through the Central Bank, has decided to produce new 50 Naira notes to commemorate the 50th anniversary of our independence. Nigerians are yet again made to wonder what exactly we are supposed to be celebrating. Some have called it 50 years of failure, others insist that the country has had steady growth in the past half century, the winning group however, is yet to be determined.
The greatest outcry against the celebrations came when the government rolled out plans to spend 10 Billion Naira on the festivities. An entirely understandable reaction considering that a majority of Nigerian are either jobless or grossly underpaid, children are found begging on the streets and some still go to bed hungry, the minimum wage in the country is nothing to encourage any prospective civil servant, and yet our government comes up with yet another money-guzzling idea. This waste, coming in the face of mass poverty and want, is insensitive and totally negates the concept of a government for the people, by the people.
Commemorative bank notes are fairly common in the west, notably in European monarchies, but the Nigerian economy is not ready for such acts, certainly not when the last edition of bank notes just settled into circulation. Our new Central Bank Governor, swept bank CEOs out of plush offices and into jail cells in a bid to sanitize the banking sector and safeguard the monies of the masses. Yet one must wonder if this latest act is not contrary to his preaching.
Nigerians are waiting, we will soon be given the bill for this latest act of “National Building”. It will run undoubtedly into Billions, and Nigerians will just grumble a bit more and return to their “habitudes quotidiennes”, after all, we are the happiest people on earth.
