Nelson Ekujimi
Nigeria, April 17, 2016 – If there is one area of concern bedevilling the Nigerian state for some time now, it is the unconscienceable way, we as a people, politicize and trivialize issues of national importance and humanitarian misfortune.
Infact, the situation had become so disturbing that at most times, one is left in a quandary as to what has become of our sense of humanity because we just seem to not to be provoked or moved by the human condition any more.
A few instances will suffice to explain this worrisome development that we owe it as a duty to draw our attention as a people to in order to save our society from this insanity which is an assault on our humanity and must be confronted frontally.
If we all recollect, sometime last year, news broke of how a distinguished Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, by name Ben Murray Bruce who is popularly known for his political mantra of, I just want to make “common sense” decided to mock and make a political capital of the suffering of humanity by assaulting the sensibilities of the Nigerian people when he offered to donate half of his controversial ward robe allowance to the workers of a state who were being owed salaries by the state government.
This was at a time when over 18 states in the federation were owing workers salaries for over 3 months and above, until the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari at the centre, responsibly and humanely came to the aid of the debtor states through a renegotiation of their debts portfolio in what has come to be known as the bailout funds.
In response, millions of Nigerians, patriotically and with utmost concern for the human condition, responded in anger to this assault and irresponsibility by condemning the politicization of the pains of the Nigerian workers by this common sense crooner who is noted more for social media fantasizing than responsible legislative contributions to ameliorate the human conditions of the Nigerian people in the hallowed chambers of the Senate.
The reason for the anger by the Nigerian people was because they could see clearly that this Senator who is noted for, I just want to make “common sense” was only politicizing and ridiculing the economic plight of the workers of the state because they belonged to a state government controlled by a political party other than that of our distinguished senator and not because he cared.
And just recently, our sense of humanity was assaulted when the governor of Ekiti state, Mr. Ayodele Fayose at a public event, declared that the missing Chibok school girls issue was a hoax that was used as a political tool to defeat former President Goodluck Jonathan at the 2015 general elections. Infact, the statement by governor Fayose stands condemned because it clearly depicts how low we have sunk as a people with regard to human condition, of which we have become used to making fun and political capital of.
However, one was shocked and pained to read in the papers recently, of the logjam between the work force of Bayelsa state which is Senator Ben Bruce primary constituency and the state government over unpaid wages of over four months and the silence of the, I just want to make common sense crooner on this matter in his home state and primary constituency. Or are we safe to assume that the distinguished Senator is helpless to the situation on ground because of the absence of any controversial allowance at this point in time?
One indisputable fact that has emerged from the scenario in Bayelsa state is that, it has once again exposed Senator Ben Murray Bruce as someone whose idea of common sense only makes sense with regards to politics and interest and not about issues and consideration for the human condition which is his primary responsibility in the Senate and as a human being. Surely, if we go by the political mantra of Senator Ben Bruce and what it represents, it is very clear that the plight of workers who are owed over four months salaries in Bayelsa state, does not make sense.
Nelson Ekujumi is a public affairs analyst.
