EKITI: How not to do Social Security - Tola Olaiya

The All Progressive Congress (APC) government of Dr. Kayode Fayemi in Ekiti State has singled out its social security programme in the state as a major dividend of democracy to the people. The Governor during his recent visit to some local government headquarters claimed that the social security programme was part of his campaign promises to the electorate and that no other state in the federation has done this for its aged and the needy.

This set me thinking; what is the social security programme of the APC led government of all about? According to the state government, It is designed for aged people of 65 years and above, whose children can not take care of or who have no dependant relatives who can take care of them; and who are also not on pension, or have any sustainable means of livelihood. Simply put, the programme is meant for people who have no responsible children, as well as people who did not train their children to become gainfully employed or become successful men and women. It is therefore for those who did not plan their future but whose sympathy for the APC as a party and the government of Dr. Kayode Fayemi have made worthy beneficiaries of tax payers money. Any so selected old man or woman periodically collects #5000 (five thousand naira only). It is therefore important to note that the much talked about social security programme of Dr. Fayemi is conceived and contrived to reward aged members and sympathisers of the APC or defunct Action Congress Of Nigeria (ACN), particularly the layabouts. Going by its design and implementation, the Fayemi social security programme is certainly not aimed at improving the lives of the aged in the state, rather it is to reward partisanship and promote indolence, laziness and mediocrity.

The irony of it is that the amount budgetted for the Fayemi social security is not made public and the mode of selecting the  beneficiaries remains a top secret just as the list of beneficiaries. Only few members of Governor Fayemi's kitchen cabinet are involved in the modus operandi of this clandestine policy. The actual number of beneficiaries in the 16 local government areas and 177 wards in the aggrarian state tagged fountain of knowledge populated with about 3million people is not known. What is not hidden about the social security programme however are paid documentaries laced with sponsored complimentary remarks. It is also apparent that the amount expended on adverts and sponsored commentaries by the Fayemi government on the much publicised social security is much more than the totality of the paltry sum being doled out to a negligible number of aged citizens in the state. This jaundiced social security programme is undoubtedly having dire consequences on the lean pulse of the state and it is nothing but a plitical gimmick fashioned out to further impoverish the poor innocent people of the state, who have once again been deceived by political absentee landlords. The good news however is that very many of these innocent and hitherto unsuspecting people of Ekiti State have seen the gimmick called social security programme and have vowed never to be deceived again. To these discerning group, once beaten they say, twice shy. This programme, which has gulped several undisclosed millions of naira raised through multiple taxation and loans obtained with impunity has plunged the state into untold financial mess that is better imagined. Essential services that are of immense direct benefit to the people of the state have been abandoned under the guise of taking care of the aged. Hmmm...the aged indeed!

It is pertinent to stress that this much talked about project of the Fayemi government is exclusively for the few admirers and sychophants of the state government and is never extended to anybody related to or having anything to do with its perceived enemies; I mean those suspected to have sympathy for Hon. Michael Opeyemi Bamidele (MOB) or any other opposition leader in the state. Recently, the Ado Ekiti Local Government Caretaker Boss, simply known and called Tugere dehumanised a woman who hitherto was known to have benefited from the social security fund but wore a T-shirt with the inscription of "MOB". She was beaten black and blue on the streets of the state capital while the name of the “sinner” was subsequently removed from the list of authentic beneficiaries of the Fayemi largesse. Such is the manner of implementing a discriminatary social security programme in Ekiti by a pseudo-democrat in the government house.

While the Fayemi government continues to make so much noise about a programme riddled with series of anomalies, youth unemployment assummed a dangerous dimension even as public hospitals lack resuscitating oxygen and ordinary reagents. The State University Teaching Hospital that was in top shape during the government of Chief Segun Oni is currently in dearth of doctors and nurses. Today, this Teaching Hospital that once boasted of a world class eye centre as well as other government hospitals around the state have become mere consulting clinics where hapless patients are subjected to expensive registration fees only to be given drug prescriptions. Civil servants who have been interviewed for their long overdue promtions are yet to be promoted, just as vacant positions in the public service are yet to be filled. Only recently did kidnapping and killing of innocent people came about in a state that prides itself as the land of Honour. Even with his "Dagrin", Vigilante groups and Peace Corps,  JKF has failed to secure the lives and properties of Ekiti people. This is never heard of and unprecedented in the annals of Ekiti State, yet, the outgoing government is carrying on with impunity as if all is well.

One begins to therefore wonder why the Fayemi government is making so much hulla-baloo about a social security programme that has failed to secure the governed and which impact is only felt on the state radio and television and not in the lives of the aged people that it was designed for. Even the selected beneficiaries of the N5000 are spending a greater percentage of the stipend to settle their huge hospital bills and feed their unemployed graduate children and wards while the government uses this fake social security programme as another conduit pipe to further milk Ekiti dry. Come to think of it, N5, 000 per month for an aged amounts to  N166 per day. What will N166 buy per day? How much is a loaf of bread today? How much is a gallon of kerosene or even a stack of firewood in a local setting like ours? It has never been this bad in Ekiti State, my fatherland.

The other noticeable dangerous effect of this ignoble programme is that the senior citizens who tilled and toiled hard to train their children are automatically disqualified from benefitting. This, according to the state government is because they have responsible children in both public and private sectors who can afford to feed them. This implies that the Fayemi government is unwittingly supporting laziness and indolence and encouraging parents not to see education of their children and wards as priority. This to me, is counter productive for a government that claims to be serious about advancing education which is the only industry the state has always been noted for.

In sane climes from where Fayemi borrowed his modified social security programme, it is designed transparently such that partisanship and premordial factors are not given consideration. Everything follows due process. Would-be beneficiaries are never subjected to rigours of politics or nepotism, they are not asked to produce the membership card of the government in power before they benefit. The social security programme of Governor Fayemi is however quite different from what obtains in the civilzed world. His social security programme is nothing but one aimed at hoodwinking unsuspecting voters as well as a reward for political patronage. Much as I agree that the concept of social security is desirable, its design, focus, target and implementation should be devoid of acrimonious politics. A government policy programme should not be for the exclusive preserve of identified party loyalists or government apologists. Afterall it is a democratic government that should be of the people, by the people and for the people. This being the case, the social security programme of Governor Fayemi has failed woefully. Within the short time frame it has left, the government can still correct these identified anomalies and rework this programme to make it impactful and truly beneficial to Ekiti people. Issues of unemployment and payment of outstanding emoluments of pensioners must also be addressed without further delay just as infrastructural decay in the state should be taken care of. For his inability to pay pensioners who are being owed several months' salaries and teachers who are not paid as at when due plus local government staff who daily groan in pains, Governor John Kayode Fayemi has surreptitiously renounced the oath he swore to and has instead mortgaged Ekiti till 2018. No wonder he is desperately seeking a second term of office to cover up his tracks and pay up the huge debts his government has incurred. The "Eyi Yato" governor has borrowed huge sums of monies with an unpalatable arrangement that will ensure a monthly compulsory  repayment of about 400m and another N53 repayment on some fictitious agriculture based loan. There is already a standing payment order directly to the bank from the federal allocation and it is instructive to note that none of these loans, the repayment of which is deductible at source, is being deployed to any regenerative venture. Instead, Governor Fayemi is busy spending these monies to build new governor's house, civic centre, new governr's office and embarking on grandiose vehicle purchases that lack tact as well as settling thugs to fight his government's perceived political enemies. Any wonder he was named "best customer of the year" by Coscharis Motors, the suppliers of the Ford vehicles he gave out, the same way he was once named the "Samsung best governor of the year" in "recognition" of his loyalty and "faithfulness" to Samsung as its partner in crime in some shady laptop deals.   

I challenge this government to be more prudent in its spending. Am equally compelled to ask what has become of the beautification programme of the Fayemi government? It is now obvious that the government is not taking seriously the warning from the Fiscal Responsibilities Commission which warned it against obtaining more facility from the capital market. The Fayemi government will be endeared to the people if it could change from its current politics of deceit, vendetta and discrimination. The people are simply fed up!

Tola Olaiya, a public analyst wrote in from Ado Ekiti