On-femi-gbajabiamila-300-guests-list-as-speaker-to-celebrate-mother-birthday-in-dubai-another-sad-reminder-of-nigerian-political-leaders-extravagant-lifestyles-as-against-public-interest
September 7, 2020 | News
ON FEMI GBAJABIAMILA’S 300 GUESTS LIST AS SPEAKER, TO CELEBRATE MOTHER’S BIRTHDAY IN DUBAI – ANOTHER SAD REMINDER OF NIGERIAN POLITICAL LEADERS’ EXTRAVAGANT LIFESTYLES AS AGAINST PUBLIC INTEREST
When it was recently reported that the Speaker Of Nigeria’s House Of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, took 300 Guests to Dubai (United Arab Emirates – UAE), to celebrate his mother’s 90th Birthday, which the fanfare is expected to run from March 2, 2020 to March 10, 2020 in the glittering Arab city, I could not help but conclude in my mind that, if this is true, then this country is indeed in a big trouble, and would remain in the woods as longs as we keep having such self-centered political leaders occupying sensitive seats at different levels of Government, and in every Government era/regime.
According to the report, some of Nigeria’s high and mighty, obviously including politicians that are living fat on public funds, are expected to grace the occasion. Already, reservations for guests have been made at the Conrad Hilton Hotel on Sheikh Zayed Road, Dubai, where the least room is said to cost $122 (N43,920) per night. If calculated by 300 guests, the cost for hotel accommodation alone per night will amount to $36,600 (N13,176,000). And if calculated for the eight nights that guests will be housed at the hotel, the total comes to $292,800 (N105,408,000). It was noted that the average price for round-trip flights from Nigeria to Dubai is currently $637 (N229,320). When this is calculated for 300 guests, the total expenditure for airfare falls to N68,796,000. A member of the planning team for the lavish celebration hinted in the report that some guests have been booked for special and luxurious accommodation, and that top personalities, not slotted into private jets, have already been booked for special seats on commercial airlines heading to Dubai. Mind you, this aside the costs of transportation within Dubai, the refreshments and other expenses that would be incurred by the 300 plus guests.
According to the source, Gbajabiamila could be spending well over N500m to ensure his mother, Alhaja Lateefat Olufunke Gbajabiamila, gets a befitting 90th birthday celebration going by the calibre of guests that would be gracing the occasion. The source further revealed that Alhaja Gbajabiamila played a pivotal role in her son’s foray into politics, hence the Speaker is prepared to celebrate her in a big way especially as she reaches the milestone age of 90.
While there is nothing wrong with one celebrating his or her mother’s milestone birthdays, but in this case with the Speaker, it is simply outrageous and mindless, especially coming from a public officer. This has been the latest style of Nigerian politicians and corporate organizations in recent times - whereby they export meetings and social events to Dubai. And the question we always ask is, are there not very good and luxurious five-star hotels and exquisite event centres in Nigeria, where high-profile political leaders and individuals can lavishly celebrate such social events? What happened to the Abuja Transcorp Hotel, Abuja Sheraton Hotel, Lagos Federal Palace Hotel, Lagos Eko Meridian Hotel, Lagos Sheraton Hotel, Lagos Oriental Hotel, Cross Rivers State Obudu Ranch Resort, and so many other new places that have sprang up across the country, which many are not even aware of?
These are good places in Nigeria that can comfortably host that event, without incurring the kind of cost and expenses that they will expend in Dubai. It is shameful that Nigerian politicians, technocrats, corporate organizations, Celebrities and Nigerian billionaires now export meetings, workshops, birthday/marriage ceremonies and parties to Dubai. And these are the same people, who, more often than not, would be preaching to the Nigerian masses to always patronize homemade items and activities. I will understand, if the people involved that are hosting the party, are residents in Dubai.
I recall how, just before the last general elections in the country, the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, was reported to have held a supposed strategy/brainstorming meeting with alleged over 400 members of his team in Dubai, and I criticized the said act then; asking the same questions that I am asking now, with the ruling APC party’s Speaker of the House of Representatives quest to celebrate his mother’s 90th birthday in the same Dubai.
Are these politicians not ashamed that the same Dubai, which was not known some few decades back, has now become the only choice of abode for them to have their social events, meetings and what have you? Was Dubai not built and developed by politicians like them? Are they not ashamed that they are yearly hosting social events, meetings and workshops in Dubai? Nigerian Politicians fail to realize that about Fifty years ago, Dubai was nothing but a coastal country of sea Trade and merchants. Today, Dubai has been transformed into one of the world’s leading tourist destinations with megastructures that surpasses human imagination. All of this was borne out of the vision of its political leaders. It is therefore really sad and pathetic that, while other countries’ and cities’ leaders are busy yearly mapping out visions and pursuing global greatness and economic power, our Nigerian political leaders are yearly busy wasting and lavishing public funds put under their trust, in partying and living in splendor – while the Nigerian citizenry are left to live in worsening human conditions. It is just sad.
This is a country where the unemployment rate is at the roof top. A country that is without stable power supply. A country that is without sufficient standard network of roads and reliable railway system for transportation ease. A country where majority of its citizens are living in abject poverty and deprivation. If the money Mr. Speaker Gbajabiamila has spent in all of this one event, is spent in a particular sector in Nigeria, it will greatly help to improve the nation’s economy. What is in a birthday party that is so technical, that would now require it to be exported to a foreign country? One even begins to wonder and imagine what kind of laws will this sort of a lawmaker, be enacting and passing in the Floor of the House for the good of Nigerians? Shame!!
Again, there is nothing wrong with one going on vacations in place across the world that they consider more conducive and exquisite, provided one can afford it within the one’s legitimate means of livelihood. But it is abnormal, and a very bad established culture and trend, for Nigerians to export social events, corporate meetings and what have you to Dubai, often times just to show off that they can, or to impress others. We can imagine the hundreds of Nigerians, whose lives and families would be positively transformed and touched, if such funds were channeled to address some basic needs of Nigerians. That is what these Politicians just go to Dubai to sit down and waste. It is indeed shameful.
Zik Gbemre.
March 3, 2020.
We Mobilize Others to Fight for Individual Causes As If Those Were Our Causes
When it was recently reported that the Speaker Of Nigeria’s House Of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, took 300 Guests to Dubai (United Arab Emirates – UAE), to celebrate his mother’s 90th Birthday, which the fanfare is expected to run from March 2, 2020 to March 10, 2020 in the glittering Arab city, I could not help but conclude in my mind that, if this is true, then this country is indeed in a big trouble, and would remain in the woods as longs as we keep having such self-centered political leaders occupying sensitive seats at different levels of Government, and in every Government era/regime.
According to the report, some of Nigeria’s high and mighty, obviously including politicians that are living fat on public funds, are expected to grace the occasion. Already, reservations for guests have been made at the Conrad Hilton Hotel on Sheikh Zayed Road, Dubai, where the least room is said to cost $122 (N43,920) per night. If calculated by 300 guests, the cost for hotel accommodation alone per night will amount to $36,600 (N13,176,000). And if calculated for the eight nights that guests will be housed at the hotel, the total comes to $292,800 (N105,408,000). It was noted that the average price for round-trip flights from Nigeria to Dubai is currently $637 (N229,320). When this is calculated for 300 guests, the total expenditure for airfare falls to N68,796,000. A member of the planning team for the lavish celebration hinted in the report that some guests have been booked for special and luxurious accommodation, and that top personalities, not slotted into private jets, have already been booked for special seats on commercial airlines heading to Dubai. Mind you, this aside the costs of transportation within Dubai, the refreshments and other expenses that would be incurred by the 300 plus guests.
According to the source, Gbajabiamila could be spending well over N500m to ensure his mother, Alhaja Lateefat Olufunke Gbajabiamila, gets a befitting 90th birthday celebration going by the calibre of guests that would be gracing the occasion. The source further revealed that Alhaja Gbajabiamila played a pivotal role in her son’s foray into politics, hence the Speaker is prepared to celebrate her in a big way especially as she reaches the milestone age of 90.
While there is nothing wrong with one celebrating his or her mother’s milestone birthdays, but in this case with the Speaker, it is simply outrageous and mindless, especially coming from a public officer. This has been the latest style of Nigerian politicians and corporate organizations in recent times - whereby they export meetings and social events to Dubai. And the question we always ask is, are there not very good and luxurious five-star hotels and exquisite event centres in Nigeria, where high-profile political leaders and individuals can lavishly celebrate such social events? What happened to the Abuja Transcorp Hotel, Abuja Sheraton Hotel, Lagos Federal Palace Hotel, Lagos Eko Meridian Hotel, Lagos Sheraton Hotel, Lagos Oriental Hotel, Cross Rivers State Obudu Ranch Resort, and so many other new places that have sprang up across the country, which many are not even aware of?
These are good places in Nigeria that can comfortably host that event, without incurring the kind of cost and expenses that they will expend in Dubai. It is shameful that Nigerian politicians, technocrats, corporate organizations, Celebrities and Nigerian billionaires now export meetings, workshops, birthday/marriage ceremonies and parties to Dubai. And these are the same people, who, more often than not, would be preaching to the Nigerian masses to always patronize homemade items and activities. I will understand, if the people involved that are hosting the party, are residents in Dubai.
I recall how, just before the last general elections in the country, the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, was reported to have held a supposed strategy/brainstorming meeting with alleged over 400 members of his team in Dubai, and I criticized the said act then; asking the same questions that I am asking now, with the ruling APC party’s Speaker of the House of Representatives quest to celebrate his mother’s 90th birthday in the same Dubai.
Are these politicians not ashamed that the same Dubai, which was not known some few decades back, has now become the only choice of abode for them to have their social events, meetings and what have you? Was Dubai not built and developed by politicians like them? Are they not ashamed that they are yearly hosting social events, meetings and workshops in Dubai? Nigerian Politicians fail to realize that about Fifty years ago, Dubai was nothing but a coastal country of sea Trade and merchants. Today, Dubai has been transformed into one of the world’s leading tourist destinations with megastructures that surpasses human imagination. All of this was borne out of the vision of its political leaders. It is therefore really sad and pathetic that, while other countries’ and cities’ leaders are busy yearly mapping out visions and pursuing global greatness and economic power, our Nigerian political leaders are yearly busy wasting and lavishing public funds put under their trust, in partying and living in splendor – while the Nigerian citizenry are left to live in worsening human conditions. It is just sad.
This is a country where the unemployment rate is at the roof top. A country that is without stable power supply. A country that is without sufficient standard network of roads and reliable railway system for transportation ease. A country where majority of its citizens are living in abject poverty and deprivation. If the money Mr. Speaker Gbajabiamila has spent in all of this one event, is spent in a particular sector in Nigeria, it will greatly help to improve the nation’s economy. What is in a birthday party that is so technical, that would now require it to be exported to a foreign country? One even begins to wonder and imagine what kind of laws will this sort of a lawmaker, be enacting and passing in the Floor of the House for the good of Nigerians? Shame!!
Again, there is nothing wrong with one going on vacations in place across the world that they consider more conducive and exquisite, provided one can afford it within the one’s legitimate means of livelihood. But it is abnormal, and a very bad established culture and trend, for Nigerians to export social events, corporate meetings and what have you to Dubai, often times just to show off that they can, or to impress others. We can imagine the hundreds of Nigerians, whose lives and families would be positively transformed and touched, if such funds were channeled to address some basic needs of Nigerians. That is what these Politicians just go to Dubai to sit down and waste. It is indeed shameful.
Zik Gbemre.
March 3, 2020.
We Mobilize Others to Fight for Individual Causes As If Those Were Our Causes