Two weeks ago, the Punch newspaper published a story that catalogued the cruelty of those in position of authority. Ironically, no one seems to bother about the sad incident.
Mrs. Nkechi Ikpeazu, Abia State fi rst lady launched her free meal programme for school pupils in a primary school in Amaetiti Asaga in Ohafi a local government area. During an interactive session that followed the formalities, Mrs. Maryleen Ezichi, the headmistress of the school told her venerable guest that teachers were owed several months’ salaries and allowances, and that they were no longer able to feed their families, pay their children’s school fees or settle medical bills.
Th e headmistress reportedly pleaded with the fi rst lady to use her good offi ce to help teachers by ensuring the settlement of the outstanding salary arrears. Th e story was silent on Mrs. Ikpeazu’s response to the request. But the pathetic part of it is that two days after her encounter with the fi rst lady, Mrs. Ezichi was whisked away to Umuahia, the state capital, and handed a letter transferring her to a school in Ukwa-East LGA, 140 kilometers from her community.
She was demoted to a classroom teacher and ordered to report for duties at her new post the next day. Mrs. Ezichi’s crime was that she acted with “impunity and lack of respect for constituted authority” by begging for her salary. Th e irony of Mrs. Ezichi’s punishment is that Okezie Ikpeazu, Nkechi’s husband and governor of Abia State appealed to the emotions of voters with his story as a helpless son of a retired teacher.
Ikpeazu successfully whipped up that sentiment when Justice Okon Abang of a Federal High Court in Abuja dethroned him last year in a ruling that the Court of Appeal later described as an embarrassment to the judiciary. Two weeks ago, offi cials of Abia State Ministry of Education handed down a cruel punishment on an impoverished colleague of Ikpeazu’s father for the ‘crime’ of begging for her salary arrears and the teacher’s son in power could not lift a fi nger in protest. From the picture painted in the story, the headmistress did not insult the fi rst lady.
She did not use derogatory words that most creditors use on chronic debtors like the governor of Abia State and his colleagues in other states.
She merely appealed to the fi rst lady as a mother and housewife to plead with her husband to lift the impoverished teachers of Abia State out of quandary. It is not clear whether Mrs. Ikpeazu was instrumental to the decision to demote the headmistress and transfer her to an area where she would live as a beggar after being deprived of her salary for seven months.
However, the fact that the decision to summon her to Umuahia came two days after her encounter with the fi rst lady suggests a measure of consultation. It is possible that those who handed down the cruel punishment were desperate to pacify someone who felt embarrassed by the headmistress’ request.
No matter the motive behind the action, the decision to punish an impoverished creditor for begging her affl uent debtor to pay her debt boils down to cruelty of the highest order. Mrs. Ikpeazu as wife of the governor of a state that owes teachers several months’ salary arrears is simply the wife of a debtor.
Her husband’s creditors have the right to tell her to persuade her husband to realign his priorities and pay those who are starving because of his indebtedness. Th e governor of Abia state, like his counterparts in other parts of the federation, is fed by public funds.
His huge salary is paid regularly. Unfortunately, those who collect less than one per cent of his monthly pay are owed several months’ salaries and allowances. Unlike the governor who is fed by the public, the teachers he is indebted to, feed themselves and their families.
Nigeria has a very inhuman record of weakening the weak to strengthen the strong. Government allocates the largest chunk of public resources to the welfare of less than one per cent of the population who rule the land.
Th ere are claims that a total of 108 former governors and their deputies currently collect close to N600 billion annually as pension for services they rendered in four or eight years to their state. Th e civil servants who toiled for their fatherland for 35 years cannot get the pittance allocated to them as monthly pension. Ikpeazu would collect well over N300 million as severance pay for four years of service to his state as governor.
Besides, he would be entitled to something close to his current salary as monthly pension. He will get it regularly. Ironically, Mrs. Ezichi who was demoted and transferred for begging for her salary arrears may never get her severance pay or monthly pittance that comes as pension.
Th ousands of her retired colleagues are dragged around in wheel chairs to centres meant for endless verifi cation of pensioners’ list. Many die in the process without getting their entitlements. Th ose who punished Mrs. Ezichi for begging the fi rst lady for her salary should remember that the reward for tyranny and cruelty would be obtained right here on earth.
