The Absurdity of a Poor Country As Over 100 Private Jets Lands Kano Airport For Yusuf Buhari’s Wedding

By Ifeanyi Obute.

The wedding ceremony of Mr. Yusuf Buhari, the President’s son, which held in Kano yesterday, reportedly saw over a 100 private jets owned by Nigerian politicians, touch down at Kano Airport.

This is happening in a country that is regarded as the Poverty Headquarters of the world.

It has been reported that Nigeria recently overtook India as the country with the highest number of her citizens living in extreme poverty. A very dangerous trend.

This show of extreme affluence and wealth amongst the politicians/Nigerian leaders, alongside the extremely poor Nigerian masses, is a very disturbing trend that calls for urgent attention.

In a any sane clime, what happened yesterday in Kano, is supposed to plunge the country into serious sober reflections. It should not be waved under the carpets as usual.

National Bureau of Statistics has it on records that 40% of Nigerians are living in extreme poverty, ie, over 83 million Nigerians. 2021 projections, places the number at over a 90 million, ie, 45%. According to United Nations standards, to live in extreme poverty entails not having up to 1.9 USD expendable daily income. Put in other way round, it means being forced to survive with less than 1.9 dollars a day.

Not all poor persons are extremely poor, hence, by the time the normal poor Nigerians are added to the 90million that are extremely poor, then we could be seeing close to a 95% poor Nigerians; ie, over 180 million impoverished masses alongside her stupendously rich politicians. The situation is just very gloomy!

When the sayings of Nigerian politicians, like Dr. Ahmed Lawan, the current Senate President that once said that Nigeria is a very poor country that should be borrowing endlessly, is paralleled alongside the showy event of yesterday, even a very dull mind will not fail to see the absolute absurdity therein.

How can the political leaders that are directly managing the Natural Coffers be this wealthy, yet the country is very poor?

How can the politicians, who solely rely on the National Treasury be this rich, flamboyant and showy, yet the nation is continuously bleeding economically?

There is a serious disconnection that we are still yet to discover!

This mysterious disconnection is the reason why the Nigerian Senator is the most paid Lawmaker world over.

The disconnection lies in the unfathomable amount of money at the personal disposal of the Executive Officers in form of Security Votes. The extreme Poverty of the masses, which in turn enriches the few politicians in an unquantifiable magnitude, exemplifies what we witnessed yesterday in Yusuf Buhari’s wedding.

A situation whereby expensive private jets of Nigerian politicians littered Kano airport, where millions of Almajiri and out of school kids are also littering the streets.

A situation whereby a calculative quantification of the politicians excesses in Yusuf Buhari’s wedding, can reasonably take a comfortable care of the deteriorating socioeconomic ills in northern Nigeria.

A horrible monster that is starring the Nigerian masses right in our faces, yet we are urging it on, instead of making efforts to combat it.

Nobody is against the wedding of Yusuf Buhari; nobody is saying that there is anything wrong with politicians socializing and mingling with one another; nobody is bad mouthing anyone; but it is very important that we use every given opportunity to point out the Lies and Deception that has eaten deep like a malignant cancer, into the fabrics of our national profile.

How can the world be dubbing Nigeria a poor country, whilst our so called democratic leaders are living better than flamboyant self acclaimed despots/monarchs.

Why are our politicians also claiming that we are a poor country when their criminally accumulated wealth can rival the vault of World Bank?

With what happened yesterday, the claims that Nigeria is a poor country, has been yet again, proven to be a blatant lie!

Nigeria is not poor, has never been poor, instead, the corrupt politicians have been relentlessly sucking it dry.

True patriotism demands that the masses rise up to salvage the country, via any means necessary; for the politicians are anything and everything, but not true Patriots.

Arc. Ifeanyi Obute writes from Enugu. He’s a public affairs analyst, a sociopolitical commentator. He is also the South East coordinator of EDON Eyes on Democracy of Nigeria.
ifecojp@gmail.com.