Animal Farm

“The absurdity allows card bearing political appointees the executive enjoyment of a hot shower in a charted aircraft flying over the Atlantic Ocean with the mountains in perfect view while a side chick performs a front massage sponsored by the state! On the other hand, the university lecturer may waste his brain day and night pouring over Aristotle and Pluto for the beggarly droppings from the political desk.”

I don’t know about the temperature of your pocket, but the constancy of stress in mine leads me to the conclusion to seek immediate inclusion in political association for my own economic redemption.

My reason? Destinies of prosperity are being created all around me by people with access to power while stressful destinies of misery accompany the rest of us with no such eloquent networks. The latter are the goose that lay the golden eggs for the aggravated enjoyment of the former.

Roundabout me, l witness the transformation of common party folks into distinguished dignitaries beaming with executive splendor, charm and laughter ─ surrounded by disposable income to spare on every street ─ in addition to their general betterment of reputation and overall goodwill among all and sundry. Such is the tenor of these men of means I envy them all the way to their foreign bank accounts!

The President has been quite prolific lately in his appointment of party myrmidons to tax payer funded executive positions in the mighty name of good governance and democracy. But herein lies the atrocity ─ for .while we all pay the uncomfortable tax, the appointments are inspired by partisan considerations only ─ not by education, ability or equal opportunities. Upon such card bearing personages of little experience are the destinies of our offspring crucified, with no assurance of a resurrection!

The rest of the people ─ name them ─ university lecturers, primary school teachers, medical doctors, journalists, indeed, all whose labor is prefixed by academic qualification and hard work (other than party cards) consign their economic welfare to street protests and strikes, threats and mean sound bites, placards and red bands, withdrawal of the chalk in the case of teachers, and confinement of the syringe in the case of doctors and nurses, to compel the politicians to show a little mercy!

The ridiculous deformity of this insane arrangement is bizarre! The absurdity allows card bearing political appointees the executive enjoyment of a hot shower in a chartered aircraft flying over the Atlantic Ocean with the mountains in perfect view while a side chick performs a front massage sponsored by the state! On the other hand, the public lecturer may waste his brain day and night pouring over Aristotle and Pluto for the beggarly droppings from the political desk.

So the story of the national workhorse, the lecturer and co. would continue from one republic to the other and from one government to the other as long as democracy lives!

I advise the chancellors and registrars of the universities to commence programs of orientation for all new teaching recruits, detailing and spelling out the consequences of their choice of profession, properly defining the leanness and limitation of opportunities for largesse which is an overriding value of the office.

If Professors and teachers were rich men ─ rich like the businessman politicians ─ imagine the lethargy and fatigue that would have characterized higher education in this country! They would be too pot-belied to read Shakespeare on Sunday night, or brain- dull to read Newton’s Law of motion at dawn when confronted by other political pleasures.

Let’s orient our academic dons not to envy the politicians. Theirs is a noble profession better suited for smart bellies, slim waste line, a lot of research, and of course, a little financial discomfort. That’s how the Newtons of this world earned their name!