Do not allow them fool you. Civil/public servants, military/para military people, chief executives of oil/gas companies, chief executives of banks and Insurance companies and political appointees are the real thieves who leave office with their loots intact and live to the fullest while most elected politicians die of poverty related illnesses after leaving office.
I believe if EFCC and ICPC will beam more of their search lights in the direction of civil/public servants, the top military brass and chief executives in the private sector, when they leave office, former elected governors may be found to be less culpable.This is a topic for another day.
Suffice it to say here that I know the reasons why most elected politicians die of poverty related illnesses. I have listed some here but the list is not exhaustive.
- Most elected politicians come to office from a lower income class
If an elected person entered an office and meet higher income that they never expected, he/she cannot sustain the income after their tenure and will therefore revert to the lower income position they were.
The reason is simple. Wealth is sustained only through time and prolonged efforts. With no background experience in making money through prolonged efforts, politicians who steal money while in office hardly sustain the sudden wealth they acquire while in office. This is more common at the lower office level of LGA Councillor, chairman and members of state House of Assembly. To accumulate wealth, efforts have to be made over time, through savings and investment. Any money that did not meat another money, may not stay. As the Fulani would say, ‘cede to tawai godde joɗata’.
- Predetermined income is usually spent before it comes.
Not only politicians. Salary earners know this fact. ‘Ma’anar ‘albashi shine biyan bashi’. Many elected politicians do not realise that even if one’s take home pay is more than N10, 000,000/ a month, it is usually spent before it comes.
Thus before the month ends, such money is spent on frivolous purchases of items, sometimes upfront. Creditors happily open doors for elected politicians to purchase anything they want, of course, on credit and at exorbitant prices.
To look good in their newly acquired status, elected politicians take latest yards of Babban riga, wrist watches, shoes, etc, all on credit. Wife or wives may do the same. ‘Aso’ebi’ is their middle name and so is ‘spray’ at parties. Show off is the name of the game. Girlfriends do so in your name. Once the month ended, politicians are again in debit but still go for more.
- Increased income changes taste.
Taste in dressing, cars to drive, house to live in; taste to go abroad on vacations and for religious pilgrimages, including one’s taste and number of how many wives to marry and then, unarguably, the number and type of girlfriends to date. This increases cost and erodes earnings and ability to save and/or invest.
- Demand on resources.
This is the major difference between civil/public servants and elected office holders. Once in office, electorates, friends and relatives demand a share in the resources accruable to elected politicians. For electorates, no problem about this, since they take part in securing the office from which the moneys are made. But demands could be reasonable or unreasonable.
Daily and all year round, it is always ‘pay’ back time for elected office holders. They pay for Christmas, trip to Jerusalem, pay church offerings and tithe, church building and beautification. During Ramadan and the two Sallahs they also pay. Just as they pay for Hajj, Umra, Maulid Nabiy celebrations and Qur’anic recitation competitions, elected office holders also pay for ‘wa’azin ƙasa’ and mosque building.
Elected politicians pay for tractor hiring, purchase seeds/fertilizers for raining and dry seasons farming and pay during harvest.
In fact elected politicians pay from cradle to the grave of supporters. They pay wedding expenses of electorates, pay hospital expenses of the wife of a supporter and if she deliveres they pay for naming ceremonies, pay hospital bills when the child gets sick, purchase coffin when he/she dies, transport the dead body to the village and expend on burials. These things suck.
- Second term or ‘tazarce’.
that second term bid or next term bid is that urge to go for more. This comes at the end of every tenure. It is more expensive than cost of the first or previous tenures. If a politician loses re-election after a tenure, it sucks. It sucks not only resources saved or sometimes borrowed, but at times sucks life out of him or her. If he feels or is actually cheated and goes to court and loses, as it often happens, the judges (civil servants) and lawyers (private sector people) equally suck his money.
- Swearing on Holly Books
This is not an economic reason but for those who believe it, and I am one of them, taking oath by swearing on Bible or the Qur’an make elected politicians poorer after office. For both Christians and Muslims ‘promise and fail’ after being sworn in attracts the wrath of God on promissor’s wealth. As most politicians swear holding holy books, they say, it is worse.
We shall examine the suggestions I will offer as solutions tomorrow Inshaa Allah.
To be continued…
Dasin is a former member of the House of Representatives from Adamawa State.
