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<\/figure>\n\n\n\n\u201cThe Speaker, his family and a few friends were in Dubai to\ncelebrate the 90th birthday anniversary of Alhaja Lateefat Olufunke\nGbajabiamila, the Speaker\u2019s mother.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFor the records, this event was strictly for family members\nand a few childhood friends, for which no public funds were appropriated or\nexpended. Indeed, not a single politician or a legislator was present at the\nevent.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The report had alleged that the \u201cfanfare and lavish\ncelebration\u201d to mark the woman\u2019s birthday was expected to run from March 2 to\n10 in the glittering Arab city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The report included the fact that Gbajabiamila could be\nspending \u201cwell over N500 million\u201d on the celebration, \u201cgoing by the calibre of\nguests that would be gracing the occasion.\u201d These are not good facts about\nNigeria\u2019s public officers at this time that we are the poverty capital of the\nworld.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Without mincing words, Gbajabiamila\u2019s conduct gives credence\nto the wide perception that the country is not working, otherwise, why is it\nthat the Speaker could not find one good location in the entire country where\nhe could celebrate his mother\u2019s birthday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We need tourism in Nigeria. There are notable tourist\nattractions in different parts of Nigeria, which people like Gbajabiamila could\npromote using occasion such as mother\u2019s birthday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Going out of the country for something that could be done\nlocally is a disservice to the country. All the money that could have been\nexpended to boost our economy and enhance employment is carelessly spent in\nanother country. It is apparent from the sordid event that what we are dealing\nwith are small minds in high places. We are dealing with people who have no\nvalue for the country. All that they know is to milk the country and leave it\nforlorn. These people diminish Nigeria with reckless abandon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is also sad that offshore celebrations are becoming a\ncompetition of some sort among the power elite. While a private citizen, who\nchooses to indulge in the unbecoming culture, may be excused, for a government\nofficial, who ought to represent people\u2019s cherished values, it is immoral.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dubai, which privileged Nigerians are rushing to was built\nby people. Rather, than use their privileged position to develop and make\nNigeria work, our political elite prefer to own houses in Dubai and celebrate\nexpensive parties there. This is worrisome and condemnable. It is unfortunate\nthat political parties that should be watchdogs over their products in office\nhave been quite about all these obscenities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is why this kind of story cannot be swept under the carpet: Nigeria\u2019s Speaker of the House of Representatives, the country\u2019s Number Four citizen should have checked the prevailing conditions around him before embarking on this reproach. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It is also curious that he didn\u2019t chose to be a role model at this time. This newspaper had last week decried absence of role models in this country. We expect exemplary behaviour from him. It is adult delinquency for political elite to be staging extravagant birthday and wedding parties in Dubai and elsewhere. The message being passed to the world is that we are a people that have no value for our own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n How many times have we spotted foreign public officials\nmarking birthdays here? Hardly would a Speaker of a foreign parliament descend\nso low to denigrate their country this way. \nIt is also unfortunate that our Speaker could not see reason to learn a\nlesson from our recent comment on a governor who gave out his daughter in\nMauritius recently. We condemned the act as quite unbecoming of a Nigeria\u2019s\npublic officer. Our public officers should note that their explanation that\nthey use their private fund to organise these obscenities is not acceptable. While\nin office, they are our brand ambassadors. So, we expect them to represent us\nthe way they want others to respect us, as the leader of the black race.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Editorial Board Guardian Newspaper Despite the denial of a report that he sponsored 300 guests with public funds to mark his mother\u2019s 90thbirthday in Dubai, in United Arabs Emirate (UAE) the mere fact that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":750,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[188,187],"class_list":["post-749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-polity-politics-governance","tag-dubai-birthday","tag-gbajabiamila"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/towncryyers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Gbajabiamila-and-Buhari-1280x720-1.jpeg?fit=1024%2C576&ssl=1\")
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