By Dr. Tonye Clinton Jaja
Yesterday, I was physically present at the Ministry of Finance of the Kingdom of Lesotho to perform a certain administrative task. Within two hours, it was completed, I was then referred to the Ministry of Law and Justice (which is the Ministry that engaged my services as a legal consultant), no hardcopy paper was given to me by the Ministry of Finance to go with to the officials of the Ministry of Law and Justice. Everything was captured electronically and transmitted electronically to the Ministry of Law and Justice.
I recall a somewhat similar experience in the year 2018, the Legal Services Directorate of the National Assembly of Nigeria had engaged my services as a legal consultant to provide both training and books on legislative drafting. I supplied said services and books in the year 2018, however, the payment only came in the year 2022 (for the first time). Between 2018 to the year 2022, I expended so much money on both transportation and courier services to the office of the Directorate of Finance of the National Assembly. One minute they are asking you to submit documents that you had previously submitted.
“OGA is not on seat”, “we are working on it” etc. are some of the cliches and platitudes that one has to hear whenever you go to government offices in Nigeria.
On a different note, I noticed that unlike in Nigeria, the majority of the citizens of Lesotho plan for funerals by registering for and making monthly payments to funeral planners and insurance companies.
There are so many funeral planners and insurance companies in the capital city of the Kingdom of Lesotho. Citizens get registered with them and make a monthly payment so that in the event of a death in the family, the said funeral planners can cover the costs of the said funeral.
This takes the burden or minimises the burden.
I have recently been involved in the planning for the funeral of my aunt in Nigeria. Let’s just say that, we have spent twice of the normal amount that it was supposed to cost. I won’t go into details!!!
Dr. Tonye Clinton Jaja is the Executive Director,
Nigerian Law Society (NLS)
