Another committee, this time on hunger

Yemi Osinbajo

Vice President of Nigeria

When a friend or family member gets into office, the next thing after

felicitations, is how to benefit from him or her.

This is a pressure every office holder faces.

Another pressure is having foregone a particular means of livelihood to get into office and in some cases having spent so much to get there, the next thing is how to make hay.

Our social safety net is so weak, every one in a position has several dependants.

This explains why public office holders are light fingered. It also explains why several unnecessary positions are created.

One of them is the latest committee on hunger. New faces as secretaries and personal assistants to maintain a Secretariat to arrange meetings and meet costs.

Contracts would be awarded and money spent and misspent all to no avail.

A committee on hunger. Really?

To what end? 

The causes of hunger in Nigeria are mainly subsistent farming and seasonal output.

Can the committee ameliorate these? 

Do we need a federal government committee to tackle hunger in the villages and urban centres.

Meanwhile, let me congratulate members of the committee. I hear soon their phone lines will change, except that new lines are not being registered now.

Until then, I expect it will be business as usual. New deals being initiated on how to help suffering friends and relatives and opportunity for the appointees to feather their nest.

No doubt there is a hunger problem but the committee is not about hunger for all but addressing particular needs.

Other problems exist, so expect other committees but not what you expect but for other reasons.

For things to change, there has to be accountability. Other committees have to defend and justify their existence and not explain their failures. 

Until then expect new committees and zero result.