By Nik Ogbulie
The evolving Bettagate looks like a wake up call for deeper insight into the cost of political appointments in Nigeria. It is beginning to explain to us that political appointments come at great cost, to the extent that a beneficiary must start immediately to gather all available fund within his budget to be able to pay back all he borrowed to fund his nomination, screening and posting. I understand that the process needs huge borrowing which if you fail to begin to steal monies early enough, you will remain Indebted forever and the shylocks in the money market won’t allow you to sleep. Otherwise how does one explain the speed employed by Betta to gather such huge amounts in just six months for a job that will last for four years?
Mathematically put, Betta would be stealing about N10 billion each year and would return to her village with some N40 billion from just a project in her ministry. For a ministry with many money-spashing programmes the looth would be about four times more. If she can steal this much from a budget she met on appointment it also means that when she starts her own budget it will be very huge and enough to rival Abacha.
This development leaves one with the impression that there is very huge financial burden hanging around the neck of ministers for which they are under pressure to offload. Nobody seems to be talking about this because it is one of the secret notes that come with their nomination which may have its root from party structure or the Presidency and his retinue of house officers. The moment Betta and her gang began to let loose some of these hidden notes the better for the Nigerian polity.
The cost of ministerial appointments may continue to remain quite unspoken and this could be why ministers have failed to perform without the fear of any sanction. If one must pay as much as N1 billion to be made a minister there is also the drive to convert our commonwealth to his at very short space. This is a serious racket that has the entire power components of the party and their other alliances involved and that is why a minister who failed to impress an audience during a screening session can easily be asked to take a bow. Betta took a bow without saying much and people were deceived by her fabled record in Cross River where she functioned as a health commissioner in a situation where the Covid palliative were never distributed under her watch. The much speech about Gender Equality has offered so many gullible women a cover to start acting like superstars. There are many Battas in the Nigerian system to the extent that even very credible people have vacated the space for them and they erroneously see the space as sign of ingenuity. It is worse within the feminine circle. It is only in the corporate world that the real strong and knowledgeable women can be found in word and deed. The political space is filled with charlatans of politicians who have gone further to sell their shame .
It could do our polity a lot more good if we can establish the cost of these political appointments so that political parties must be blamed for placing banana peels before gullible appointees who have been put under pressure.
Some years ago the issue of budget padding between ministers and other political office holders and party was discussed in hush tones until a Senate President and a minister of education were caught and forced to leave. That made obvious the very popular corruption trend but unfortunately the government couldn’t progress beyond that one sanction to reinvent a better condition, indicating its alliance with budget padding ministers.
Betta is obviously not alone in this trade. To explain how empty our system could be, nobody should be surprised if no other minister will be caught .
I really feel that Betta is hard enough to execute this wonderful act when I recall her mercantile nature during the election and brash inhuman actions that questioned if her darkest part of her anatomy is really feminine. When Betta denied being aware of a lady nearly maimed by political touts during Peter Obi’s visit to Lagos, i really felt there was a missing moral character in her education, family and character ; now i can see it. As a woman leader I expected Betta to express pity to the poor woman but she was busy brandishing her red lips and bare body.
Moreover, the handing in of such a ministry to someone that has no record of deep and bold family commitment known to mankindcould have been a serious error and that is why people are feeling that immoral exchanges played a part in her nomination, screening and posting.. Empathy for humanity starts from an organised home and not the floors of cozy hotels and conferences.
If I have my way I will advise the President to offer the humanitarian post to his wife .
