Pussy cat, pussy cat, 
Where have you been?
“I’ve been to London to 
Look at the Queen.”

Pussy cat, pussy cat, 
What did you there?
“I frightened a little mouse 
Under the chair.”

This has been the age-long rhyme that I was taught while growing up. However, I found it expedient to think of it differently after Mr Femi Adesina, the Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, wrote an article about his visit to the President, who has been on medical leave for a while. We have to think about the economic implications of being in London and other destinations across the globe, which enrich the Queens and Kings of other countries.

As explained by Mr. Adesina, the trip was on British Airways. The airline industry in Nigeria is almost dead. The Nigerian Airways is moribund; domestic airlines are facing various challenges, such as a Jet A1 shortage, bankruptcy, and low patronage. It is saddening that Nigerians do not believe in the domestic airline industry, let alone embark on long-distance travel on any of these airlines. Right from the heart of Abuja, we have made the Queen richer.

Medical tourism is on the rise in Nigeria. I am not saying that people should not go for medicals overseas, but my plea is that basic facilities that we need at the Primary Health Centres and the tertiary institutions should be made available to commoners. As a matter of fact, many foreign hospitals come to ‘poach’ patients from Nigeria; many of our medical doctors have left the country for greener pastures because our hospitals are poorly equipped, and they are also equally unemployed despite the years spent in school.

It is obvious that the fastest way to change your life is to seek a political office. Our legislators and other political officeholders have not helped the situation either. Our political officeholders use their diplomatic passports as the gateway to frequent travels at the taxpayer’s expense. They all travel in troupes on these unnecessary trips they engage in; they see it as their right. They, in fact, expend funds lavishly during these trips. They are either on a chartered plane or in business class. We need to look inward first if we need to grow our country, which is dying daily.

The campaign to support Made in Nigeria goods has been ongoing for a while, with advocacy from different quarters. However, I saw a recent Facebook post that reads thus: “This IVM SUV belongs to Senator Ben Bruce of ‘I Just want to make Common Sense’ fame.” I learnt from a reliable source that he is the only Senator of the Federal Republic who uses a partly Made-in-Nigeria car in the entire National Assembly. Exotic variants of Toyota, Honda, Mercedes-Benz, Ford, Rovers & other wholly foreign-made cars line the vast parking lot. Sen. Bruce’s Common Sense’ philosophy indeed makes sense. Imagine the number of young men & women Innoson, the Nnewi-based maker, Mr. Innocent Ifediaso Chukwuma, could employ if every Senator, House of Assembly lawmaker & the entire federal civil service were to buy their cars from Innoson!” Who are we making richer?

Currently, one of the best ways to show affluence is by hosting international weddings, birthdays, and other events. This can be called ‘Owanbe Tourism’. The mix varies: either a traditional marriage in Nigeria and a Church wedding on another continent, or a wedding abroad and a thanksgiving service in Nigeria; birthday ceremonies on another continent and the Nigerian leg of the party. Unfortunately, their media aides are not helping the matter; they assume it is a way of promoting their Bosses by showcasing it in the dailies, whereas it is one of the ways of inciting the populace to know what to do with their votes in the coming elections. Have we not enriched the Queen?

We woke up to the news that Diezani and other political office holders would lose assets in Dubai to the Federal Government of Nigeria. The forfeiture is not my major concern, but the way the country is being milked dry and other nations are enriched through investment in real estate. This brings to mind the saying of Ivan Lewis, a Member of Parliament (MP) and Shadow Secretary for International Development, that Nigeria is too rich for its people to live in “extreme poverty” and deprivation. Nigeria has abundant resources and the potential to be one of the richest nations in the world, and attributes the country’s acute poverty to “corruption and exploitation.” We need not enrich other Kings and Queens.

In the area of education, the Academic Staff Union of Nigeria Universities (ASUU) is currently on a nationwide strike, in vengeance, the Chairman of the University of Ibadan branch said it is the children of corrupt civil servants that can attend a private university in Nigeria. Conversely, the political class tells us, with all sense of pride, that they can send their children overseas to school because they can afford it, and that their children should be allowed to go to school abroad because of socio-cultural exchanges, which, I guess, the children of the middle class need to be exempted from. We really need to think about how to improve our country, not about enhancing the lives of other nations by offering flimsy excuses.

Recently, the Joint Admission Matriculation Board (JAMB) announced that the cut-off mark for universities is 120. This will not attract the attention of the Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions and TETFund, led by Senator Jibrin Barau, to the need to put in place legislation that will significantly improve tertiary education in Nigeria. Our legislators, who are largely trained in Nigeria, would not think of improving the standard of education here to sink, but they want the children of the electorates to serve their children. This is another way in which the Queen is being enriched.

We need to review our ideologies if truly we want Nigeria to be richer than her current state; we need to get our priorities right. We need to find a way of creating a level playing ground for all the citizens. We need new set of nationalists that would strive for the common goal of the nation as a whole. We cannot keep glamourizing situations that we should all frown at because of our pockets. Who are the Queens and Kings that we are enriching at the expense of our nation?

Olutayo Irantiola is a PR Specialist, Atọ́kùn, Yorùbá Lákọ̀tun, Book Reviewer, Creative Writer, Cultural Advocate, Poet, Citizen Journalist

25^th August 2017

1:39pm