Opinion
Public Office Holders’ Accountability
It was Abraham Lincoln who defined democracy as a government of the people, by the people and for the people. That definition of democracy is popular throughout the world. Since this definition was propounded by the former United States of America (USA) president, no one has attempted to define it differently. But recently in Nigeria, that definition has taken a primitive concept.
As Nigerians yearn for dividends of democracy, the governments at all tiers remain as effective tools to enrich those who control it. Those who want to get to the root of worsening poverty, decrepit infrastructure and poor delivery of social services, must note that the larger chunk of the nation’s oil-based revenue has consistently been siphoned as salaries and emoluments to a handful of people in government.
Nigeria has been on the path of perdition because recurrent expenditure has consistently gulped more than 80 per cent of the budget, leaving too little for development. Modernisation and development programmes have been sacrificed on the altar of an ever-expanding government. Some of us who thought the present government, by pledging to uphold the rule of law, would make a difference have been thoroughly disappointed.
The bogus, clumsy and inefficient apparatus of government has become more bloated and sluggish under the current administration. State enterprises are still under corrupt government control. Those that have been used severally, who are bereft of ideas, are still being recycled as ministers and CEOs of state-owned enterprises.
The greed of our lawmakers has castrated the fine features that make democracy a virtue. Budget allocations are randomly increased for selfish reasons. For instance, President Yar’Adua allocated N67 billion for the operation of a 469-member National Assembly in the 2008 appropriation bill. The legislators promptly kicked against it and threw it away. Those whom the people have delegated to check financial recklessness and curb profligacy, later sat down and appropriated a whopping sum of N140 billon for themselves. When broken down, the cost per member was put at N298.5 million. In a similar act of profligacy and flagrant disregard for the monetization policy, a 360-member House of Representatives lavished N2.3 billion on the purchase of 380 Peugeot cars and went ahead to spend another N1.3 billion to purchase bullet-proof cars for its leadership.
Though some members of the House have tried to justify the profligate spending, we know that many public office holders have never hesitated to utilize political power as a veritable pathway to wealth. The oversight duties of these legislators have been abandoned and reduced to infantile probes and impotent investigations.
Is it not ironical that lawmakers allow public funds to be looted or mismanaged and later conduct expensive probes into rampant plunder of the till? The failure of democratic checks and balances is equally pronounced at State level. Several legislators engage party stalwarts in frivolous appointments. Others embark on fruitless oversea tours. Indeed, the legislature at various levels is no more than a rubber stamp in the hand of the executive. Contract inflation and fraudulent procurements have always been used by corrupt officials to rape public purse and enrich themselves.
The day of reckoning is already here with us. The fluctuation in the oil price is an indication in that regard. Let us see how the government will keep financing its bogus machinery. Let’s wait and see how the bloated apparatus of patronage erected over the years will not collapse under the weight of declining oil revenues. How will State governors implement the various budgets that rely almost solely on oil handouts from the centre? How will they deliver the basic social services which they failed to produce during the boom period?
The task before the people, therefore, is to rise and call lazy governments at all tiers to order. The civil society should move to hold public office holders to account. The legislature should be pressured to improve the integrity of public expenditure.
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Quote: “Rivers State must move beyond merely producing gas to building a gas-utilising economy that delivers cleaner transportation, new jobs and a healthier environment for its people.”
As a Rivers woman, an engineer and an environmental professional, I have often reflected on the contradiction we live with. Rivers State is richly blessed with oil and gas, yet our people continue to bear environmental and health consequences associated with conventional fuels and poor environmental practices. We do not need anyone to explain what pollution feels like; we live with it. For years, our communities have endured black soot, industrial emissions, gas flaring, vehicle exhaust and other forms of air pollution. Anyone who has stood beside a smoking commercial bus or Keke in Port Harcourt traffic knows how unpleasant it is to breathe in those fumes. Across busy junctions, motor parks and markets, ageing petrol and diesel vehicles release exhaust fumes directly into the air. This is why the conversation about Compressed Natural Gas, commonly known as CNG, goes beyond energy. It is also about our health, environment, economy and how Rivers State can put its abundant natural gas resources to better use.
CNG is primarily methane stored under high pressure and used as fuel, particularly for vehicles. A petrol-powered vehicle can be professionally converted to run on CNG while retaining the option of using petrol, known as a bi-fuel system. Compared with petrol and diesel, CNG generally burns more cleanly and produces less particulate matter and fewer harmful exhaust pollutants. This can mean less visible smoke and cleaner combustion. Imagine replacing the smoky exhaust from some buses, taxis and Keke with properly converted and maintained vehicles running on a cleaner fuel. For a state that has suffered serious air-quality problems, this is a benefit we should take seriously. CNG matters to Rivers State because it is one of Nigeria’s leading oil and gas-producing states. We should not be interested only in producing gas; we should also ask how that gas can improve the daily lives of our people.
Transportation is one area where CNG can make a real difference. The cost of transportation affects almost everything. When it becomes more expensive to move people and goods, the additional cost eventually shows up in food prices, services and other necessities. Wider adoption of CNG can provide motorists and transport operators with an alternative fuel while reducing dependence on petrol and diesel. It can also support vehicle conversion, refuelling, equipment supply, maintenance and technical training. For Rivers State, therefore, CNG offers both an energy and economic opportunity. Another advantage is its potential effect on engine performance and maintenance. As a natural gas, CNG produces fewer carbon deposits and combustion residues than conventional liquid fuels, potentially reducing some maintenance burdens.
When a vehicle is properly converted and maintained, cleaner combustion can reduce engine-oil contamination and deposits on certain engine components. Over time, this may help reduce engine wear and some maintenance requirements. However, these benefits depend on the quality of the conversion, the vehicle’s condition and adherence to recommended maintenance schedules. The words “properly converted” are important. CNG is stored under high pressure, so cylinders, valves, pipes, regulators and other components must meet approved safety and technical standards. Conversion must be carried out by trained professionals at authorised centres. Improvised conversion is dangerous and must never be encouraged. Affordability must not come at the expense of safety.
The benefits of CNG should not end with motorists. A well-developed CNG economy can create opportunities for young engineers, technicians, mechanics, entrepreneurs and investors. Rivers State will need trained conversion technicians, authorised conversion centres, properly located refuelling facilities, equipment suppliers, maintenance personnel, safety inspectors and emergency-response teams. People must be trained to install, operate, inspect and maintain these systems safely. This can create skills, businesses and employment opportunities while helping the state make better use of a resource it already possesses in abundance. Properly developed, the CNG value chain can give young people access to technical careers while enabling local businesses to participate in a growing domestic gas economy.
In this spirit of energy transition, environmental governance remains key. Moving towards a cleaner fuel does not mean setting aside our environmental responsibilities. CNG facilities must be properly located, with environmental and social safeguards duly followed. Required safety distances and applicable technical standards must be respected. Operators must be trained, and facilities inspected regularly. We cannot afford to solve one problem only to create another environmental or safety crisis. Environmental governance means ensuring that development takes place within rules and systems that protect people, property and the environment. This principle is at the heart of the argument I made in my book, The Blue-Green Continuum: An Integrated Framework for Sustainable Development.
Economic development and environmental protection are not enemies. We can develop our natural resources while protecting our environment. Sustainable development requires us to do both. The time is ripe for Rivers State to move from merely being a gas-producing state to becoming a gas-utilising state. For decades, Rivers State has played a major role in Nigeria’s petroleum industry. The next stage should focus on how our natural gas resources can support better living conditions, cleaner transportation, new businesses and meaningful economic opportunities. CNG will not solve every energy or environmental problem; it is still a fossil fuel and must be managed responsibly. However, it offers a practical transition option as we work towards a cleaner and more diversified energy system.
As a Rivers-born professional who has witnessed the environmental challenges confronting our people, this writer looks forward to a time when the sight and smell of heavy exhaust fumes from poorly maintained vehicles become increasingly uncommon on our roads; a future where Rivers’ abundant gas resources do more than leave her shores, and where her young people are equipped with valuable technical skills and supported businesses built around a cleaner domestic gas economy. It should be a future in which energy development and environmental protection move forward together. For Rivers State, energy transition should mean turning the resources we already possess into cleaner energy, lower operating costs, new economic opportunities and a healthier environment. We have been a gas-producing state for decades. The next step is to ensure that our people experience the benefits of a gas-utilising economy. It is time to move from being merely resource-rich to becoming resource-smart.
Engr. Owhonda, Juliet Nkeiruka, PhD, is a petroleum engineer, environmental safeguard specialist and gas policy strategist. She is the author of The Blue-Green Continuum: An Integrated Framework for Sustainable Development. She writes from Port Harcourt.
Quote: “The greatest inheritance we can give our children is not the wealth we accumulate for them, but the wisdom, discipline and courage to create wealth when the inheritance is gone.”
In many Nigerian families, a parent’s greatest dream is simple: “My children must not suffer the way I suffered.” So, a father works for decades to build a house. A mother saves painstakingly to educate her children. Parents acquire plots of land, establish businesses, invest in farms, build shops and make sacrifices so their children can begin life from a better position. There is nothing wrong with that dream. In fact, it is one of the most beautiful expressions of parental love. But there is a danger we must confront: when parents succeed in removing hardship from their children’s lives without replacing it with responsibility, they may unknowingly raise beneficiaries who lack the capacity to preserve what they inherit. This is where the old saying, “Shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations,” becomes relevant. It describes a familiar cycle in which one generation struggles to build wealth, the next inherits and enjoys it, while a later generation, increasingly disconnected from the sacrifices that created the fortune, gradually loses it.
The saying should not be regarded as a curse or an inevitable law. It is a warning. It reminds us that wealth can be inherited, but the wisdom to manage wealth must be deliberately taught. The first generation is usually the builder. This is the Nigerian parent who may have started with very little but worked tirelessly to create something meaningful. Perhaps it was a civil servant who built a family house gradually from his salary, a trader who expanded a small business, a farmer who acquired land, or a professional who invested carefully over the years. Such people understand the value of money because they remember when there was very little of it. They know what it means to postpone gratification, save instead of spend and reinvest profit rather than consume everything earned. Their wealth is built not merely with money, but with discipline, sacrifice, perseverance and experience. Then comes the second generation—the children who inherit the fruits of those sacrifices. They may inherit houses, land, businesses, vehicles, investments or educational opportunities. They have not necessarily experienced the hardship of their parents, but they can still be taught to appreciate the journey.
The real danger begins when inheritance becomes entitlement. A young Nigerian who grows up in a comfortable home may have access to good education, transportation, technology, family connections and financial support. These are privileges, but privileges should never become substitutes for competence, character and hard work.
Parents sometimes make the mistake of giving their children everything except responsibility. They pay their school fees, provide accommodation, buy cars, finance businesses and solve every problem. Yet they may never teach them how the family wealth was created, how to manage money, how to withstand failure or how to rebuild after a setback. That is a dangerous inheritance. A child can inherit a house without knowing how to build one. A business can be inherited without understanding how to run it. Land can be inherited without knowing how to invest wisely. Money can be inherited without understanding how to make it grow.
This is why succession is much more than transferring assets. It is the transfer of knowledge, values, responsibility and vision. Parents who have built something meaningful should involve their children gradually. Let them understand the family business. Teach them budgeting, saving and investment. Let them see both profit and loss. Give them responsibilities appropriate to their age. Above all, encourage them to develop independent careers, skills and enterprises. The objective is not to make children suffer unnecessarily. Rather, it is to ensure that comfort does not make them helpless. This lesson applies even to families that do not consider themselves wealthy. A family house, farm, shop, professional practice, piece of land or small business can constitute generational capital. The question is not only, “What will I leave my children?” but also, “What will I leave in my children?”
Nigeria urgently needs families that understand this distinction. We should not measure parental success only by the size of the inheritance we leave behind. We should also measure it by the quality of people we raise to manage that inheritance. Indeed, money can preserve a family’s comfort for a while, but character preserves its future. Education creates capacity. Discipline protects resources. Unity prevents needless disputes. Financial literacy encourages wise decisions. Hard work ensures that each generation can contribute rather than merely consume. Every generation should therefore add something to what it receives. The first generation may build the foundation. The second should strengthen it. The third should innovate and expand it. Those who come after should inherit with gratitude while accepting the responsibility to create something new.
This is how Nigerian families can break the shirtsleeves cycle. The goal should not be to raise children who never experience difficulty. It should be to raise children who possess the competence and character to confront difficulty successfully. A fortune can disappear in a generation. A house can be sold. A business can collapse. Land can be squandered. But wisdom, discipline, education and a strong work ethic can continue producing value long after the original inheritance is gone. The greatest legacy, therefore, is not simply what parents leave for their children, but what they leave in them. When privilege is matched with responsibility, inheritance becomes more than consumption. It becomes a foundation for greater achievement. And when every generation accepts the responsibility to preserve, improve and create, family prosperity can become a legacy rather than a temporary advantage.We should not merely raise heirs. We should raise builders.
By: Sylvia ThankGod-Amadi
Quote:”For those whose parents have passed away, honour can still be expressed by preserving the values they taught, caring for the family they left behind and becoming the kind of parent, grandparent or community member whose life blesses others”
Longevity is one of humanity’s oldest desires. Across generations, people have searched for the secret of living long, healthy and meaningful lives. Some have looked to medicine, others to healthy diets, exercise, wealth and modern technology. While these are important ingredients for a healthy life, Scripture presents another powerful principle that is sometimes overlooked: honour your parents.The Bible does not present honouring parents merely as a social obligation. It connects this virtue directly with the blessing of longevity. In Exodus 20:12, God commands, “Honour thy father and thy mother,” and immediately attaches a promise: “that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.” The same principle is repeated in Ephesians 6:2-3, where Apostle Paul describes it as “the first commandment with promise.”
This raises an important question: What does it mean to honour our parents, and why would God connect it with long life? Honour begins with respect. Parents may not be perfect, and children may sometimes disagree with their decisions, but their position in the family deserves recognition. To honour parents is to treat them with dignity, speak to them respectfully and acknowledge the sacrifices they made in raising their children. In a society where the elderly can sometimes be regarded as burdens, this biblical command is particularly relevant. Modern life can make people so preoccupied with careers, financial responsibilities and personal ambitions that they forget those who nurtured them when they had nothing to offer in return. Honour is not merely expressed through words. It is demonstrated through actions. A child who checks on an ageing parent, provides food and medicine when necessary, listens patiently and offers companionship is demonstrating honour.
Sometimes, the greatest gift an ageing parent needs is not money but the assurance that he or she has not been forgotten.Honouring parents also involves gratitude. Nobody chooses the circumstances into which he or she is born, and not every family story is perfect. Yet, where parents have genuinely sacrificed, protected, taught and provided for their children, those efforts should not be taken for granted. There is also a lesson here for parents. While children are commanded to honour their parents, parents are equally instructed to raise their children responsibly. Ephesians 6:4 warns fathers not to provoke their children to wrath but to bring them up “in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” Honour is therefore best sustained in an atmosphere of love, discipline, understanding and mutual respect. The promise of long life, however, should not be interpreted as a guarantee that everyone who honours his parents will never experience illness, hardship or an early death.
Scripture contains many righteous people who experienced suffering and difficult circumstances. Rather, the command reveals a divine principle: a life characterised by respect, obedience, gratitude and responsible relationships is generally a healthier and more orderly way to live. Indeed, honouring parents can protect people from many destructive behaviours. Children who grow up learning respect for authority, gratitude and responsibility may be less inclined to embrace recklessness, violence, substance abuse and other behaviours that can shorten life. In this sense, the biblical command has both spiritual and practical wisdom. Longevity is also about the quality of the years we live, not merely the number of years we accumulate. A person may live to an advanced age but leave behind a legacy of bitterness and broken relationships.
Another may live fewer years but touch countless lives through love, service and kindness. The real blessing is to live long enough—and well enough—to make our years meaningful. Honouring parents can therefore become part of a broader recipe for longevity: faith in God, respect for parents, moderation in lifestyle, healthy relationships, purposeful work, compassion and responsible living. Medical science can help us understand how to protect our bodies, but Scripture reminds us that the wellbeing of the whole person involves more than physical health. For those whose parents are still alive, there is no better time to demonstrate honour than now. Call them. Visit them. Listen to their stories. Assist them when they are weak. Forgive where forgiveness is needed. Do not wait until a funeral before expressing appreciation that should have been spoken while they were alive.
For those whose parents have passed away, honour can still be expressed by preserving the values they taught, caring for the family they left behind and becoming the kind of parent, grandparent or community member whose life blesses others.The recipe for longevity, therefore, may contain more than good food, exercise and medical care. It also contains a quality of heart that God values deeply. Honour your father and your mother. It is not merely an ancient command. It is a timeless principle of gratitude, family responsibility and godly living—and Scripture attaches to it a remarkable promise: “that thy days may be long.
Sylvia ThankGod-Amadi
