I see this as the highest display of insensitivity to the plight of the people their husbands govern. Their husbands keep telling us to adjust to the dire economic situation in the country, and why they cannot pay salaries or execute crucial projects, while their families are living large, and spending recklessly.
I woke up to two sad stories today. The passage of boxing legend Muhammad Ali and a report on the visit of the wives of Northern state governors to Malaysia to attend “the first PERMATA international conference.”
According to the report, the wife of the president, said to be invited by the Malaysian Prime Minister, delegated the wife of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mrs. Gimbiya Dogara, to lead the team.
Other members of the team included Dr. Hajo Sani (SSA to the wife of the president) and wives of Kaduna, Gombe, Sokoto and Nassarawa State governors. Also in attendance at the ongoing conference, the report says, is the wife of a former governor of Bayelsa State, Timipre Sylva.
Now consider the vague theme of the conference: “Children Beyond Tomorrow”. One smart Alec from Nigeria, posing as a “foreign expert” might be behind the jamboree to fleece the governors’ wives.
But the theme of the “conference” should have been appropriately been “Shopping Beyond Tomorrow”. I know it will be shopping unlimited!
While access to forex for legitimate ventures is a nightmare in the country, I suspect members of this delegation were allowed to dip their beautifully hennaed claws into the forex bullion.
I really don’t know how many people were in each governor’s wife suite, but I know that no governor’s wife travels outside or inside the country alone. And no governor’s wife travels without estacode and some perks – all at the expense of the state treasury.
I see this as the highest display of insensitivity to the plight of the people their husbands govern. Their husbands keep telling us to adjust to the dire economic situation in the country, and why they cannot pay salaries or execute crucial projects, while their families are living large, and spending recklessly.
The question here is what value will the PERMATA (whatever that means!) conference add to the lives of ordinary Nigerian citizen? How many loaves of bread would spending millions of public funds on spouses’ junket put on the common man’s table?
While the common man, whose money is being misused, groans under hard economic condition today, the governors and their families have never adjusted their lifestyles to reflect our current realities.
Sad.
