I have spent the greater part, amounting to about 6weeks, of my compulsory holiday from school in a town or rather, a village called Ayegbaju-Ekiti. It is a town actually, based on my secondary school geography where I learnt that a town should have a minimum population of 1000, among other things, which Ayegbaju has. I decided to call it a 'village' because: there is only ONE tarred road in the whole village; NO bank or banking facility whatsoever; only ONE filling station that does not have fuel most of the time; ONE market place that has specific days set aside for trading; almost non-existent electricity supply; just ONE commercial viewing center for watching football matches (yes! I love football). I could go on and on as the list is virtually endless. Even Obafemi Awolowo University which happens to be my school has ONE filling station and several tarred roads. As always, I'm only stating my own opinion because for all I know, my fellow residents may be satisfied with the situation of the town.
One might then ask; why did I single out Ayegbaju? Since that is the reality of most 'towns' and 'villages' in Ekiti state and Nigeria at large. In fact some towns/villages have it worse. To its credit, Ayegbaju is a peaceful quiet town, with some hills and vegetation that coalesce to create a beautiful landscape. Back to my question; WHY AYEGBAJU? To answer, I will have to go back to the electricity supply which has been absent for more than a week now and tell a short story to explain the reason behind it.
As part of the Obasanjo administration's policy of 'DEREGULATION' which is still being carried out by its successors, some of the nation's public enterprises were marked for privatization; a process that led to the demise of several functioning federal corporations e.g. Nigeria Airways, NITEL/MTEL and recently, NEPA now known as PHCN. Since the sale and take-over of the successor companies of the PHCN is as good as done, payment of bills to PHCN has been suspended temporarily. As was customary with PHCN, they carried out their usual house to house trips where they ask for your bill, ask you to pay if you have outstanding bills to settle under the imminent threat of disconnection. It was while on a tour as this that the 'youths' in Ayegbaju had a clash with them citing as cheating the collection of fees by these 'PHCN staff'. The PHCN staffs were obviously outnumbered and were soundly beaten. Long story short, the whole 'town' has being disconnected and deprived of the little electricity we had, including people like my family that have simply paid the money requested, until these 'youths' have paid for their 'sin'.
I don't think beating them was the best course of action because it is a criminal offense named in the law 'assault', 'battery' etc.; rather, they could simply have refused to pay and then restrain them from cutting the wires. I also think the action of those involved in the disconnection is shameful and disappointing in the extreme since it has led to 'law-abiding' citizens such as my family being deprived of our rights to the electricity we paid for. This event is just an example of an unsettling trend in Nigeria where people wield power and authority to oppress other people and/or aggrandize themselves e.g the policeman who cooks up a charge just to force you into greasing his palms or the public official who expects some 'kola' before he serves you while forgetting that it's his job in the first place; the list goes on and on.... If people in these 'low places' behave like this, can we expect better if they make their way to the 'high places'? NO! We can only expect worse. "HE WHO IS NOT FAITHFUL WITH THE LITTLE HE HAS BEEN GIVEN CANNOT BE EXPECTED TO BE FAITHFUL IF HE IS ENTRUSTED WITH MUCH". When you see the senator, on the road blasting his sirens, forcing you into the ditch so he can pass as though he is going to take the road along with him, or the governor doing the same with his entourage, ask yourself this: WHAT DID/WILL I DO WITH THE LITTLE POWER OR AUTHORITY I WAS/WILL BE ENTRUSTED WITH?
In The End of an Assignment In Nigeria, Tim Newman wrote that "Nigeria is probably the only
ReplyDeletegenuinely classless society" he has ever come across. He also categorically states that the "I want more money, and I'll do absolutely anything to get it" behaviour was identical across all strata of our social structure. This explains the acts of the PHCN staff, in your write-up, who were seeking more money, and that of the irate youths who didn't want to lose any.