Your Excellencies,
REQUEST FOR IMMEDIATE ESTABLISHMENT OF MINISTRY OF SOCIAL SERVICES IN YOUR RESPECTIVE STATES.
In recent times, there has been an explosion in the number of Committee of Friends invitation the average person receives every blessed month.
This exponential, geometric and astronomical rise in such CoF invitation has become evidently untenable and absolutely unsustainable.
Drastic action taken recently by your respective governments to curb and indeed ban exploitative and unnecessary pre-nursery, nursery, primary and secondary school graduations, has helped parents and guardians to heave a big sigh of relief! And Your Excellencies are called upon once again to take similar drastic measures with regard to this CoF issue which has palpably gotten out of control.
Event-planning has always been part of human culture from ancient times..
In ancient Greek culture, the Olympic games for instance required elaborate planning. This included theatrical performances and gladiator fights.
The planners needed to coordinate logistics and manage venues and crowd-control.
They were also responsible for managing athlete accommodations and events scheduling.
Communal life and elaborate event-planning, has been an integral part of Igbo culture from time immemorial; that is why, in many Igbo communities, when a person is bereaved, his neighbours would gather and offer as much help as possible, including digging the grave, cooking and other chores, etc etc. 
The whole concept of CoF is therefore admittedly an integral part of Igbo culture, however it has gotten out of control as stated earlier and has actually become a menace.
There has been an erosion of original intent, resulting in burnout and foisting the dire principles Goodhart’s Law on the populace.
The primary role of government is the security and welfare of the masses, therefore government must step in, in situations like these, when the metric suddenly becomes the target.
It is therefore my humble suggestion and recommendation that CoF be totally banned and/or outlawed in the Southeast.
Laws should be swiftly passed, making it a crime to set up a WhatsApp group (or such similar group in any other social media/online platform) or convening physical CoF meetings were contributions or donations are made.
A situation where a civil servant earning a monthly salary of roughly 80 or 100k a month, is invited to 10 COFs, wherein he or she is expected to contribute at least 5k per CoF, is unreasonable and actually leads civil and public servants into all manner of corrupt practices, just to meet up. The otherwise harmless concept of CoF has become a menace indeed and cannot be allowed to continue unchecked. That is why I’m trying to bell the cat.
In its stead, a Ministry of Social Services should be quickly set up in your respective States to screen and render assistance to applicants with respect to their social engagements, especially as it relates to burials.
A minimum of ₦2m and maximum of ₦4m can be earmarked for applications in cases of bereavement; while a flat rate of 500k can be earmarked in cases of marriages.
The Laws can be further fleshed out and fine-tuned according to the financial capacity of each State but the point is that it’s high time we said goodbye to Committee of Friends in the Southeast.
Thanks and God bless.
S.U.Nwankwo Esq. (Steve Sun) writes from Abakaliki, Ebonyi State and can be reached on 08037747039.
OPEN LETTER TO SOUTHEAST GOVERNORS
