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COVID-19 and executive hunger

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Hardball

THE theme of ravaging hunger, as opposition rally or ever-present grim reality, has reverberated since 1999, just as it did all through the short-lived 2nd Republic (1979-1983) — and even during the intervening periods.

Mass hunger, you would recall, was one of the complaints Audu Ogbeh, then national chairman of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), listed in his memo to then President Olusegun Obasanjo.  For his effrontery, Ogbeh lost his job — and the opposition, back then, broke into a racket to ensure everyone knew!

You will recall too, that the late Alhaji Umaru Dikko, chief chef in 2nd Republic President Shehu Shagari’s kitchen cabinet, became virtual public enemy No. 1, at least in impassioned Nigerian opposition partisan camps, when he declared he didn’t believe Nigerians were hungry, since none yet was eating from the trash.

What followed Dikko’s quip was virtual thunder and Armageddon, in mass ire!

Still, it took the COVID-19 federal lockdown of Lagos, Ogun and FCT for executive hunger to strut, crowing and bristling, in all its entitlement glory, in some Lagos neighborhoods, following bedlam over the sharing of COVID-19 rations.

Allegations abound — many of them not unreasonable — of ration-“editing” down the line, when sole household packages, some alleged, become the palliative fare for whole streets, as local government and sundry officials, saddled with this all-crucial emergency duty, somewhat sabotaged the process, no thanks to alleged personal greed.

That has prompted Governor Jide Sanwo-Olu to make an official statement and promise a revamp.  Joe Igbokwe, a special adviser to the governor, practically confirmed this allegation in a Facebook pictorial post, showing the government package, contrasted to shrivelled beneficiary packs, in some local government areas, that provoked the denizens to utter rage.  Those involved in this racket should be identified and punished.

Still, not even all these should justify cases of “executive hunger” — and anger — in some localities.  A prominent Lagos politician, as part of his own COVID-19 intervention, branded his gifts — loaves of bread: Agege bread for his Agege constituents — for onward distribution among the area’s poor.

But viola, came the anger of the executive hungry!  The ration was too measly, the rabble cried, and in rabble-fit, white and holy, turned the loaves into contemptible street football!  Gosh!  Are those with biting executive hunger rich and strong enough to indulge in wilful waste of food — even if it is Agege bread?

Then, the case of an unnamed citizen, going out of her way to package jollof rice in disposable packs, for distribution to needy neighbours.

But again, the haughty spirit of executive hunger homed: the beneficiaries scornfully turned on their benefactor, complaining the pack came with just one measly meat, even a ponmo!  Phew, does the palate of executive hunger shun ponmo, measly hide?

Our people’s sense of entitlement is really, really horrible!

It has taken the COVID-19 emergency and the glad-handing by the ruling authorities and some private individuals to bring out the worst in many folks.  That is to be utterly condemned.

Thanks to COVID-19, we know the entire fault doesn’t lie with the government alone, the reflex popular scapegoat.  The people too, among them society’s most vulnerable, do have own blame.

Let COVID-19 open the eyes of all: executive hunger is as repulsive as elite arrogance. Both must give way, if the country must make progress.

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