There is crisis in the land; deep economic crisis. This is the reason why though one is truly constrained to cast the above headline because of its inherent political undercurrent, we all must remember that we have a country to run. We also have an economy to manage. And now that elections have been won and lost, if the good of the country is uppermost in our minds, we must forget about party lines and partisan politics and seek solution wherever we can find it.
The stories emanating from states across the country are dire and dangerous. Most states are virtually on the verge of collapse. This is why the President and his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), need to urgently switch to emergency mode as they fashion out a belated economic agenda. They must also build in a template for the states and local government areas to thrive.
Three quick examples will suffice here to illustrate the utter hopelessness in states across the country. In Imo State, Southeast of Nigeria, the structures of governance have virtually collapsed. It is not only that different categories of workers and pensioners are owed months of pay, some do not even know what they earn anymore, as arbitrary deductions are levied each time government manages to pay.
Last Monday, doctors and medical workers in public hospitals in the state reported for work to find that the government had ambushed them. Government’s vigilance group had barricaded public hospitals and locked out workers. The hospitals had been concessioned and forcefully acquired, they learnt.
By last Monday, there were months of salary arrears; there were patients on admission requiring attention, there were patients bearing various ailments. They were all turned back. A certain concession agreement had become operational, somebody said and that ends it.
In this state, the so-called revenue yielding agencies of government had been long abandoned to ‘fend’ for themselves. The governor simple declared that “we cannot be wasting public resources on people who are not productive; I cannot continue to give them subvention.”
Is this any way to run a state? If agencies are not meeting performance expectations, are they not to be restructured for optimum results? Are they simply handed out to the so-called concessionaires or left to disintegrate?
The local government system has long collapsed and most headquarters are overgrown with bush; their monthly allocation pocketed. Adapalm, Imo Transport Company and Concorde Hotels, which were up and running, have become moribund under Governor Okorocha. Now that the civil service too has almost crashed, the state is stark and barren like a homeless orphan. Even the bailout fund is being disbursed from the governor’s pocket. Meanwhile the governor is reportedly more liquid than the state. He is said to shuttle the globe frequently in chartered jets. Official profligacy and wastefulness thrive in a state that is deep in debt and almost failing. Call anyone you know in Imo State and all you will hear are ululations and cries of sorrow and anguish.
In a recent interview, the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, (NLC) Comrade Ayuba Wabba, had this to say about Gov. Okorocha: “Look at what is happening in Imo State, the situation is very sad and depressing. Governor (Rochas) Okorocha is not only owing workers’ salary, in Imo State, pensioners have not been paid for over a year…many of them are dying of hunger. We have written several letters to Okorocha, but he has not replied us. We are not going to fold our arms while workers are suffering in the state. We are going to shut down Imo State if that is what it will take to make Okorocha listen to the voice of reason.”
In the Southwest of Nigeria and Oyo State to be precise, the state that prides itself on the agenda of free education, Governor Abiola Ajimobi has already introduced what is termed ‘development levy’ in public schools. At a recent event, the governor was recorded as saying that the N26billion bailout fund the state got was peanuts, as its outstanding wage bill was already over N21 billion.
He said as soon as his government cleared most of the arrears, it would start owing once again, “as we will start to scramble for more money.” He then reeled out the old litany: income (read federal allocation) has dropped to N3billion, monthly wage bill has shot up to N5billion and internally generated revenue (IGR) is N1billion; the state is therefore left with a monthly deficit of N1.8billion.
This is the same tale-by-moonlight we have heard from Oyo and most other states in the last four years. Oyo has 33 LGAs, what about the billions of naira accruing to them monthly? How could a state the size of Oyo deign to earn N1 billion IGR monthly? Without leaving one’s office in Lagos, one could raise N1 billion in Ibadan alone in one week.
Four years ago when minimum wage was increased to N18,000, Gov. Ajimobi had let out the same lamentations about salary bills and deficits, but that same salary bill has almost doubled since then. What measures were put in place in the last four years to expand the economic base of a large state like Oyo? We often forget that the most imposing building in Ibadan, Cocoa House, was built from the proceeds of agric produce and not oil revenues. Cocoa has not stopped thriving in the west of Nigeria; countries like Ghana and Ivory Coast still subsist largely on cocoa.
It would make interesting statistics to find out how much chicken is consumed in Oyo State daily, how much rice, how much milk, cocoa beverage, vegetable oil, tinned tomatoes, etc.? Most of these things are not produced in Oyo State; in fact most of them are smuggled from across the border. If Oyo State were a company with over five million mostly able-bodied and educated workers, would it be declaring a revenue of N1 billion monthly!
In Benue State, the former governor, Gabriel Suswam, who ruled for eight years spoke recently, justifying why he left an empty treasury. According to him, if you depended solely on revenues from the federation account, you are bound to leave an empty treasury. Wow, how profound! He met an empty treasury, according to him and he left an empty treasury plus four months’ of salary arrears and a huge debt in billions of naira. Shouldn’t we therefore conclude that he is an empty fellow?
Goodness gracious! How could a man run an entire state for eight years and all he could boast of is an empty treasury and huge debts. Benue State can feed the entire country down to the West Coast of Africa (with rice, beans, yam, potatoes, tomatoes, fruits, chicken, beef, milk, you name it) if perchance it finds a thinking governor someday.
We can go on and on in almost every state. The leakages, the pilfering and the wanton wastefulness coupled with a lack of imagination to run a state and create wealth are beyond words. Instead, most governors hold their states by the jugular and make sure their economies suffer asphyxia. In most states, the entire people are made to breathe through the nose of the governor; that is the horror template.
This column will never be tired of calling attention to the Peter Obi paradigm. And the President will do well to go beyond party politics and bring Obi to his corner. How did he do it? Anambra had less allocation than most other states, yet Obi never borrowed a dime in eight years. He left about N75 billion in cash and investment papers, he galvanised major investors to set up in the state (SABmiller, Innoson, Juhel); he invested heavily in education, health and roads.
Today, Anambra is not part of the bailout crowd. Anambra is meeting its salary and pension obligations promptly? Nigeria will need to sit Peter Obi down and ask him how he did it?
