Gov’s bonanza for Yobe bachelors!   
Written by Ochereome Nnanna     
Thursday, 19 February 2009 

WHEN  I started reading the story in the Sunday, February 15, 2009 edition of The Guardian, I thought the reporter must have taken a comment made in jest out of context.
But on going deeper, I realised with shock that this actually took place: The new Governor of Yobe State, Alhaji Ibrahim Geidam (who assumed office about three weeks ago after the burial of the late Governor Mamman Ali) has decided to pay bride prices for all indigent eligible bachelors!

Let me summarise the story because we are going to pick issues with Geidam over this strange offer of questionable relevance, especially at this period of economic meltdown when every other governor is frantically groping for ways of surviving it.

The story, written by the newspaper’s Njadvara Musa, said the only condition attached to the offer was for the wedding to be fixed at the Damaturu Central Mosque. I quote the story: “This initiative, according to Geidam, is to discourage Yobe men from immoral acts and related social vices fuelled by their state of singleness”.

According to the story, after last week Friday’s Jumat prayers which Geidam and his officials attended, it was announced by the Imam, Ustaz Hudu Mohammed, that a wedding was to take place, and that the Governor out of his sheer magnanimity, had paid the bride price on behalf of the groom.

It was not stated whether the beneficiary actually solicited for this favour, pleading financial destitution.

The question that comes to my mind now is this: Did Governor Geidam consult with anybody before he announced this gesture? Is this bonanza for bachelors an official policy of the Yobe State Government? For it to be an official state government policy funded with taxpayers’ money, due process would be involved.

The Governor would need to bring a memo on this subject to a meeting of his cabinet. It would be debated, its merits and demerits examined.

If found worthwhile, a proposal would be tabled before the State House of Assembly to make a law governing the policy, or at least it would be part of items in the state appropriation bill which, if passed by the legislature, comes into force as a statutory policy of government.

From the look of things, there was no way that Geidam could have satisfied these procedures in his three weeks in office. And it could not have been a continuation of a policy put in place by the late Mamman Ali regime.

If that is so, where is Geidam getting the money to pay the bride prices? From his pocket? Let him tell us. If it is from the state treasury without being in the budget, then it will amount to misappropriation of public funds.

It is clearly a question of the reckless impunity with which most governors spend public money entrusted to their care. Geidam must have impulsively and without thinking through it, made up his mind on the spot to create sensation.

If he had thought through it, he would have seen the so many inadequacies in the gesture that, had it passed through some quality thinking, would have disqualified it as an issue worthy of government bother.

For instance, what is the population of eligible “indigent” bachelors in the state, based on which the probable annual cost of this venture would be computed? Secondly, the criterion for eligibility is the choosing of the Damaturu Central Mosque as the venue of the wedding.

Why? There are thousands of mosques in the state. What makes Damaturu Central Mosque more special than, say, Potiskum Central Mosque or Biu Central Mosque, where marriages also take place and indigent bachelors also obviously worship in?

Thirdly, Geidam’s offer assumes either that only Muslims are indigenous to Yobe State or that only Muslims in Damaturu, nay Yobe State, can be “indigent”. Since this is clearly not the case, this policy is discriminatory not only to the non-Damaturu-resident Muslim population of Yobe State, but also to non-Muslim Nigerian citizens of Yobe extraction in whose name Geidam and his officials come to Abuja every month to collect the federal allocation money that he is frittering away on a narrow-minded flight of fancy.

If Governor Geidam had tabled this issue for discussion, someone would have pointed out to him that in this period of economic meltdown, the only sensible spending that sensible governments are settling for are those that are liable to grow or restore the economy. I do not see how payment of bride prices for indigent bachelors will perform this function.

If you pay the bride price, are you also going to pay the food bill, maternity bill, education bill and other bills that inevitably come with the establishment of a new family unit?

Since Governor Geidam is obviously not going to pay these subsequent bills, his gesture, if carried to the letter, will only end up incubating greater poverty by encouraging the upsurge of procreation among populations that are already super-poor.

Rather than pay the bride prices of indigent bachelors, why doesn’t Geidam consider creating gainful employment that will transport the young, eligible bachelors out of poverty and launch them into the club of eligible and able husbands-to-be?

In my own part of the world, eligibility is not measured in terms of a man having matured to put a woman in the family way. Eligibility means you have reached a point in your life where you are now willing and able to carry the onerous burden of establishing your own family.

Eligibility is not often a function of buoyancy of the pocket. Anybody, irrespective of his financial standing, can get married. It is a matter of decision and determination to embrace the venture: in other words, willingness and ability to assert your manhood.

I do not think that many women or even other people in society would respect a man who could not even pay his own bride price. Maybe I am talking glibly because bride price in my native Abiriba is only symbolic – six naira fifty kobo, paid in coins, even today!

The fact remains, however, that many people who started the journey into the institution of marriage started on an empty pocket. Yours sincerely was one of them, and when he eventually wedded a year later, it was the biggest society wedding in town in 1998.

Those who decided to marry will tell you that God always turns up when you make the decision.
Our man in Yobe has taken a very inferior first step forward. Those close to him who really love him should rally round him immediately and bring him back from the bush into which he has strayed so early in the day.

Beware whom you choose as your governor. And beware even more whom you choose as your deputy governor. He may run into power by accident and fail, just like Governor Geidam, to recognise what it really means!

http://www.vanguardngr.com/content/view/29059/89/

No wonder they've run the country straight into the gutters.
And to think that these folks marry multiple wives , all that at the expense of the state with money from the Niger Delta.
Do these people reason with their anuses?
Isn't it more profitable to have Mohammed Salisu learn a  trade and establish a business than pay for his marriage of one ,two,three or four (mostly) underaged   wives and churn out almajiris like cockroaches.

The former Governor died a few weeks ago and a new governor comes in and his most important plan for his residents is to make sure there are no hymen left in the state of Yobe.
And we're talking about people whose women become ripe for marriage at the age of 6
Why do I have to share the same country with these people?

@osisi
why are you writing crap like an ignorant person.cant you take culture into consideration? secondly, this is probably a stupid story thats not true and if he's doing that for real then im sure it'll be from his pocket not govt money. and if its govt money,im sure it will have to pass the state assembley and if it does then the state sees this as a solid policy for preventing social vice (in their opinion) so what are you talking about?
look not all northerners have multiple wives, as a matter of fact,many northerners have only one wife so the stereotype you're working with is completely fallacious, No wonder these people ran the country into the gutter?what? las time i checked,corruption was a nigerian problem not a hausa one or northern one.
i ask you to stop embarassing yourself with your utterly disgusting,outdated,worn out and ignorant stereotyping,you cant lump 70 million people into one ideology,there are many christian northerners and different people with extremely diverse world views and even cultures.why dont you concern yourself with governors from the south who are busy packing millions.northern this northern that.seriously give up already!!your stereotypes are worn out,over used and out dated.is it not enough for you to say the gov is spending govt. money for an illegitimate cause? why do you have to add "no wonder THESE PEOPLE" ran the country into the gutter" please open your mind.haba

@topic

hahaha i no fit shout

gadogado:

@osisi
why are you writing crap like an ignorant person.cant you take culture into consideration? secondly, this is probably a stupid story thats not true and if he's doing that for real then im sure it'll be from his pocket not govt money. and if its govt money,im sure it will have to pass the state assembley and if it does then the state sees this as a solid policy for preventing social vice (in their opinion) so what are you talking about?
look not all northerners have multiple wives, as a matter of fact,many northerners have only one wife so the stereotype you're working with is completely fallacious, No wonder these people ran the country into the gutter?what? las time i checked,corruption was a nigerian problem not a hausa one or northern one.
i ask you to stop embarassing yourself with your utterly disgusting,outdated,worn out and ignorant stereotyping,you cant lump 70 million people into one ideology,there are many christian northerners and different people with extremely diverse world views and even cultures.why dont you concern yourself with governors from the south who are busy packing millions.northern this northern that.seriously give up already!!your stereotypes are worn out,over used and out dated.is it not enough for you to say the gov is spending govt. money for an illegitimate cause? why do you have to add "no wonder THESE PEOPLE" ran the country into the gutter" please open your mind.haba

I would have hailed your post but for the emboldened part. That an act is cultural doesn't justify its correctitude.
So no. You can't take culture into consideration.