BY KUNLE FADIPE
When I was growing up, agood education was everybody’s ultimate goal. We were told that with sound education, we could look forward to a bright and secure future. In school, members of my generation were always addressed as ‘leaders of tomorrow’.
At the time, the odds that stood between us and a promising future were enormous. The path to success and fulfillment, no doubt, was strewn with rocks and thorns. But, most of us trudged on fearlessly.
I chose to study law and after a few years of hard work, finally qualified as a lawyer. Yet, my struggle to impact positively on society gradually paled into insignificance, as the country remained in the grip of wicked, self-centred, and clueless leaders for many years.
These so-called leaders would not provide the tools that I needed to succeed, including an enabling environment and a fearless and upright judiciary.
By the time I started practising as a lawyer, court procedures were no longer what they used to be. Traditionally, the rules require all the things I need to do in court to have been concluded in the legal chambers.
They require that my argument must be written down and attached to the court processes that I need to file in order to plead my client’s case. And that includes the evidence provided by all the witnesses that I want to call, as well as the list of exhibits that I want to rely upon.
In short, anything I want to do must be in writing, notwithstanding the length. But it was not the procedure at the time I took to the trade.
The procedure was that I filed my processes and come to court with my witness to give evidence. I didn’t have to reduce their evidence into writing. I was also not expected to compress my argument into writing, I was expected to stand up in court and make my submission orally. This is what is known as advocacy.
The biggest problem is the poor and inadequate infrastructure. I need constant electricity to power my computer, to typeset addresses and witnesses’ deposition, since typewriter is rather old fashioned, and to make photocopies of the processes.
Unfortunately, dreaming of constant power supply is increasingly becoming a futile exercise. Imagine that in the last 10 days, I have not had electricity in my office. Yet, I have an obligation to my client, which I am officially and morally bound to fulfil.
Insufficient power supply has somewhat become a recurrent decimal. For many days at a stretch, the situation could be so bad that I would be unable to finish a great deal of work in my office.
Since I am obliged to my clients, I have to rely on a generator. In spite of the huge cost, I have no other choice than to depend on this alternative source of electricity. I spend a lot on fuel. Recently, I took stock of how much I spent on fuelling the generator in the last two weeks and found out that I had spent about N27,000.
The truth is that any business that spends so much on generating its own power will end up collapsing. What about those youths that the economic team advised to think of how to set up businesses of their own instead of looking for paid employment?
Can the young men operate in this kind of scenario? Can a new entrepreneur afford to spend N20,000 on fuel in two weeks? Will his business not collapse if he is to meet the expectations of his customers?
Those who fuel subsidy removal would only affect vehicle owners have forgotten that Nigeria is not like the developed countries where basic infrastructure are in place.
In the heat of the argument on fuel subsidy removal, apologists of the government forgot the role that fuel plays in the sustenance of private businesses. They forgot that fuel means a lot to every Nigerian, whether or not he owns a car.
The amount of fuel that vehicles consume is probably not as much as what generators consume. In the developed countries, you don’t need self generated electricity. And there are alternative means of transport for those who find the cost of fuelling their vehicles prohibitive. Do we have that in Nigeria?
There is danger in importing personnel from overseas to run our affairs. Such so-called experts often end up making the mistake of comparing the equal with the unequal.
It becomes all the more painful and mind-boggling when one considers how our money is squandered. Our treasuries are daily looted by unscrupulous government officials. It is sad when we see opulence and profligacy in high places, even when we are told there is no money to make life more abundant for ordinary Nigerians.
Anytime there is a probe, you hear of billions of naira that have been pocketed by few individuals. If you investigate those who are doing the probing, you will also find huge sums of money stashed away in their closets.
- Kunle Fadipe is a Legal Practitioner.
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