The bloat continues

More evidence of the effect of excessive numbers of political office-holders.

In the northeast, Borno State, one of the poorest states in the federal republic, is spending =N=400 million (US$2.7 million) to build two new houses for the speaker and deputy-speaker of the State Assembly (that is about US$1.35 million per house). The state will also spend =N=250 million (US$1.7 million) buying new cars for Emirs in the state. I am 100%, nay, 110% supportive of sustaining our traditional/cultural institutions, but we need to rationalize and consolidate here as much as anywhere else. Bear in mind, Borno State Governor Ali Modu Sheriff (as noted on this blog) has actually INCREASED the number of emirates by creating newer, "fake" emirates to award political associates (and apparently his father) with emir titles.

And in the southwest, Ondo State has appropriated =N=866 million (US$5.8 million) to address the backlog in payments of "entitlements" to former political office-holders (from the 1999-2007 period) at the local government area level in the state. These former office-holders will draw these "entitlements" for the rest of their lives, as will current LGA office-holders and future LGA office-holders. There are 774 atomized LGAs in Nigeria (where no more than 72 districts are necessary) generating a large turnover of officials entitled to suck resources from the public treasury in perpetuity.

Speaking of local government areas, the recently-held 2010 LGA council elections in Bayelsa (home to Governor Timipre "98% of the vote" Sylva) were accompanied by the murders of 6 people in Ekeremor LGA. The state police command claim it was a clash of two rival cults that had nothing to do with politics, but apparently (this being the Fourth Republic) there is bad blood between Timpre Sylva and his deputy who hails from Ekeremor. Democracy in action? God spare us.