The video of an angry Nigerian rejecting a quarter-bag-of-rice state government’s palliative has been trending, especially on the social media. In the video, the man directly addressed the government, telling whomever was viewing not to “insult us with your palliatives.” This is because, according to him, the 10kg bag of rice he was holding was given by the government of Ogun State to be shared among citizens living in his estate of 147 households. He wondered how such a small quantity of food items would go round among these residents.
In saner climes, this video would have outraged the entire nation, for it is a true representation of the sad situation we presently find ourselves as a people. The government has thrown a handful of grains at us in the name of palliatives. The poor – who are in their tens of millions – scramble to get a share, but end up going home empty-handed and humiliated while the politicians cash out from this pyramid of rent-seeking enterprise called palliative distribution. For those who are still determined to protect their human dignity at all cost, it is tantamount to a rude slap on the face.
The Federal Government removed the subsidy on petrol, and said it was going to create measures to cushion the avalanche of adverse multiplier effects on the hapless citizens. They called it palliatives, the same word that was used to whip the poor masses during the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, at that time, some poor Nigerians died while struggling to get just a handful of them. Yet, not only were these palliatives physically hoarded, they were also digitally used to cook the books. This is why we must recognise them for what they are – a code word for political largesse shared among greedy leaders who seek out every opportunity to milk our malnourished economy.
Truth be told, palliatives and other emergency makeovers – like the three-month conditional cash transfer and the promised “wage award” – are monumental subterfuge. But, sadly, we live in a universe of lies: We lie to ourselves and we allow our leaders to lie to us with impunity. Even when their dishonesty gets so heaped that it seems the mountain of falsehood could be seen from afar, we enable them to whitewash the façade, and then start erecting another edifice of untruths. Indeed, they have finally realised that they can get away with any sin under the sun. They stopped lying in mere words; they now lie in poetry and rhyme. Sometimes, having realised that we condone their depravity, they sing and dance as they build the blocks of these structures of sophistry.
But this is not supposed to be so. The last time I checked, Nigeria is peopled with very sophisticated and cerebral Africans. It is high time we stopped bandying this word “palliative.” It is nothing but a decoy. When the politicians drive with a crown of thorns on our head, they give us a cold drink in order to momentarily divert our attention from the damage they have done. Past governments have done it; the present administration is now playing by the same text book.
President Bola Tinubu’s removal of subsidy on petrol has plunged the country into hardship. Then as part of the so-called palliatives to alleviate the suffering of the citizens, he asked the National Assembly to approve N500bn for the masses from the 2022 Supplementary Appropriation Act. The lawmakers quickly approved the release of the fund because there was something in it for them. The proposed palliative was so glaringly lop-sided. While just about 12 million indigent Nigerian families would get a monthly cash transfer of N8000 for six months, the just over 300 new lawmakers were penned to be showered with N70bn “support allowance.” Not only that, N40bn was also allocated to buy 465 sports utility vehicles and bulletproof cars for members and principal officials.
When Nigerians got wind of this injustice, there was a loud outcry. The president then suspended the implementation of the proposed palliative. He later came up with a new package of doling out N2bn to each state government to share among the citizens. This is how we got to where we are today, a comical one-man-one-grain sharing formula.
I also saw a video where a town of 20 communities was given a “Dina truck” of two hundred 25kg bags of rice to share as palliatives. I was dumbfounded watching a handful of villagers who witnessed the berthing of the truck of rice as they broke into celebratory songs. Little did they know that they might not receive up to a cup per person when the sharing begins.
The whole scenario is evocative of how deep we have sunk. Alas, these politicians must have bewitched us! For, how can we justify pretending to be asleep as they throw bones and leftovers in our direction while feasting on our commonwealth?
Meanwhile, as citizens still wait to get their handful of grains, the legislators are about to take delivery of brand new SUVs which they claim would help them carry out their duties. The saddest part of the story is that they dump local rice on us while insisting on buying foreign cars for themselves.
These politicians are not even thinking of cutting down on the cost of governance. Well, it is not only the legislators that are guilty; all our leaders have sinned. The president himself had been leading the charge from the get-go. He has been appointing ministers, right, left and centre. He has created new ministries, and split existing ones, ostensibly in a bid to accommodate his loyalists and patronise his core supporters. He seems to have settled on “big government with a big shopping list.”
Our expenses are ballooning, and the only idea they just came up with is to go to the World Bank for a $1.5bn budget support loan. Anyway, it is not bad to borrow if it would be used in national ventures that have lasting value and return on investment. But when we borrow just to buy foreign food, flashy cars and sharp apparel, then we are on a highway to the south.
Ironically, our leaders are not afraid of us – the citizens who put them in office. That is the major reason they misbehave. They know we are not going to do anything about their debauchery. Of course, they are ready with the crumbs to throw at us in order to keep us quiet. For sure, they know that once the loan comes, and they cut out a meager percentage in the name of palliatives, we shall leave them in peace to enjoy their bounty, piling up debts for our children yet unborn.
I am of the view that true palliative is supposed to have a lasting value, not just momentary oil for the stomach. For instance, the Ecological Fund was created as a palliative to cushion the impact of ecological disasters. Although the FG mismanages it, the prime objective of the initiative is to have a pool of fund that would be solely devoted to the funding of ecological projects to ameliorate serious ecological problems nationwide.
The Oxford dictionary has two definitions for the word palliative. The first is medical: Medicine or medical treatment that reduces pain without curing its cause. The second meaning is marked as “disapproving”: an action, a decision, etc. that is designed to make a difficult situation seem better without actually solving the cause of the problems. It seems our leaders have masterfully appropriated the negative connotation of the word, and it is perfectly working for them.
