The proposal to purchase exotic Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs) for 360 federal lawmakers started as a rumour until the House of Representatives itself confirmed it recently.
Amid the uproar generated by the report, especially the cost which has foreign exchange implications, gave out the lawmakers as a people who are insensitive to the plight of the people and the state of the economy.
The denial by the spokesperson of the House, Akin Rotimi (APC, Ekiti), in a statement, that each of the vehicles would cost taxpayers N200 million, has not assuaged the angst that Nigerians feel about this resort to concupiscence.
He claimed that the report on the price was “exaggerated” just as he failed to give a definite figure nor type of the vehicle to be bought.
Hon Rotimi, nonetheless, confirmed that the procurement process is ongoing as was the routine in previous sessions of the Assembly.
The lawmaker further confirmed that what he described as “operational vehicles” would be distributed to lawmakers over the coming weeks and months.
As if to make Nigerians feel better, he rationalised the purchase of the vehicles by saying that appointees of the executive arm and other high-level civil servants also have their official vehicles and added “this development is in accordance with extant procurement laws and has been the practice in previous sessions as if the law is cast on marble and must be adhered to in all situations regardless if the viability of the economy or its strength.
As a newspaper, we are persuaded to point out that this indulgence is not peculiar to the Legislature, as unelected government officials in the Executive arm of government from the Assistant Director level and above, in most cases, have official vehicles attached to their office. And all must be brand new.
360 Reps Members To Get Official Vehicles In Coming Weeks
In the case of the House, reports have since emerged that each car would cost an estimated N160 million, a total of which is N57.6 billion. This figure is yet to be refuted by the National Assembly. Also, the vehicles are to be imported from a foreign country as has been the practice.
In our opinion, the unfolding saga on the vehicles’ purchase says all there is to know about the average public servant in Nigeria. All they care about is the preservation of their crass selfish interests, steeped in obnoxious waste and over-bloated lifestyle all at state expense.
The palpable feeling among Nigerians is that they do not matter in the order of priority of the ruling elite who they perceive as only concerned about their own welfare completely oblivious of the circumstances of those who defied all hardship to elect them into office in the first place.
It may also be argued that there is no problem with buying new cars for lawmakers or office holders for that matter.
However, the concern is that at a time the government is admonishing the people to bear the hardship as a result of the downturn in the economy, they, in turn, are carrying on as if they ought not to be part of the measures to get the nation back on its feet.
The thought, in our view, of purchasing vehicles, especially at such humongous cost, would have been the least thing on the minds of many an elected or appointed government official if good governance and ultimate wellbeing of the majority were the driving force that motivated them to seek to serve.
It’s even more insulting to the collective intelligence of Nigerians that this is the same government that keeps pleading with Nigerians to bear with it after the removal of subsidy on petroleum products.
For a government that is pleading with Labour not to go on strike because of its policies that have somewhat increased the pains in the polity, the need to purchase cars for 360 people at that cost is mind boggling.
Of course, they would feel justified in their bid to pamper themselves having doled out palliative funds to states, a continuation of the pauperisation policy of the immediate past administration. Even now, the palliative measure is not any different from what obtained in the recent past as most Nigerians perceive it as money for the boys meant to settle political debts.
More so, the defense by the lawmakers that appointed officers also get new luxury cars is as old as it is well-worn. It smacks of gross hypocrisy and an insult on the intelligence of Nigerians.
The National Assembly oversees the management of the nation’s purse by way of its constitutional appropriation powers and through its oversight duties. To that extent, Nigerians expect them to be considerate while making such financial allocations to themselves.
Also, the suggestion that the purchase of operational vehicles is an age-long practice domiciled in the procurement act does not mean that the National Assembly cannot be rational and sensitive to the times especially when it has the powers to make a change.
That the lawmakers, over the years, have failed to apply reason and discretion in the face of obvious possibilities, is a sad commentary on their moral standing as leaders in their own rights. This seeming license to waste national resources is becoming not only daring but also unfortunate.
Like many have argued, if at all the purchase of cars should be made at this time, why should it be imported? Why not patronise the local manufacturers of vehicles in Nigeria? How else can locally manufactured goods grow if government officials look down on them as beneath their class and taste?
Sadly, in our opinion, this argument is not new. It has largely been ignored by governments.
The political class needs to start paying attention to the plight of the people in words and deeds for the good and security of all. The dearth of empathy among the political elite towards Nigerians is a security risk in itself. We wait to hear what they will say to Labour when next they call out their members in protest. This spendthrift just has to stop.
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