It is a tough time to be a governor in Nigeria. Many lost the April 11 election because they could not pay salaries. Those still in office are scratching their heads trying to think up a way to pay to save themselves from embarrassing strikes and the bad press surrounding their insolvency.
A number of governors have blamed their inability to pay on the dwindling amounts they receive from the Federation Account. Their internally generated revenue (IGR) is miniscule – leaving them between a rock and a hard place.
So you would think the rank of the debtors would be filled mostly by the ‘poorest’ states. Amazingly, some that receive the highest amounts from Abuja and have fairly high IGR are on the list of debtors – the likes of Akwa Ibom and Rivers!
Meanwhile, some states that receive the lowest amounts from the Federation Account have been meeting their obligations to workers faithfully. It just goes to show that life’s not about what you have but what you do with what you have.
So what did the debtor governors do with have they have received in their time in office? There are those that can point to physical developments, while others have only ill-thought out and abandoned white elephant projects to show.
One often heard plaint is that after paying salaries they have very little left to fund development activities. In other words most states are not viable. If they were business entities they would have long filed for bankruptcy.
In spite of this stark reality the 7th Senate spent valuable recommending the creation of more states who expect to survive on the handouts from the Federation Account. But this is no longer a sustainable model for doing government business.
Governance is more than just receiving a cheque from Abuja and sharing it among workers as salaries. It takes more than that to be a governor. That high office requires its occupants also to come up with creative solutions and when necessary take tough decisions – even those that come with a political cost.
Governors now know that not paying your workers is a killer. But continuing to carry a bloated civil service is equally a crushing burden. They also know that the federal cheque would never be enough to meet their needs.
Many may have to bite the bullet and reduce their workforce. If they don’t have factories to provide jobs for the unemployed, there’s always the land. Some of the richest countries in the world got where they are simply by prioritising agriculture. When this alternative economic path kicks in it would open possibilities for widening the taxation net for more revenue.