Opinion: Between the “Discovery” of palliatives and criminality

By Oluwadele Bolutife

I could barely wrap my head around the ‘discovery’ of the first warehouse in Lagos, where food items supposedly donated by the private sector were hoarded in.

And before one could bleep an eyelid, more discoveries were made in other places.

As if that was not enough, I heard the most unintelligent argument in my entire life: the Governors’ Forum or whatever body claimed that it had ‘reserved’ the food items in anticipation of the second wave of COVID-19 infections in the country.

Here are some questions that the situation provoked in me: What were the roles of civil servants in the hoarding enterprises?

What if a lot of the people do not make it to the ‘second wave’, wouldn’t it have been better if they were given access to what they needed earlier?

Was anyone mindful of the shelf life of the products that were hoarded? Was the storing arrangement conducive to preserving the items?

Was there any disclosure about arrangements pertaining to the food items before the ‘discovery’?

How did some of the items get into private hands, such that a lot of them were slated for distribution as birthday gifts of some persons?

As earlier mentioned, it is on record that the whole lot of food items were donations from the organised private sector to the government.

As such, why would the government, which failed to help people through the difficulties of the COVID-19 lockdown earlier in the year, now justify hoarding what was provided by a third party?

In an unfortunate twist of events, the business people who made the donations have become victims of the reckless looting of what they sweated for.

How will these people be compensated? Now that many state governors have shamelessly acknowledged hoarding the items, what will be the consequences of their actions?

If civil servants were involved in the process, why was there no whistleblowing before the ‘discovery’?

All the same, many thanks to the Mungo Parks who finally ‘discovered’ the warehouses.

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However, those looting private warehouses should be considered for what they are as criminals, as those were not part of the palliative ‘discoveries.’

Where there is no accountability, the rules of the jungle subsist.

Let us stop all this wickedness against ourselves even if we think we can argue it away through flowery language.

What’s not good can never become good through any form of distorted logic.