Last week, this column pushed the argument for a national upgrade to electronic voting, as an important legacy,for the incoming administration.
So, I was excited when I subsequently read an interview bythe President-elect, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari,where he promoted the fundamental connection between votes, security and the economy.
In the president-elect’s interview,published by The Nation on Friday, April 17, the General said: “If Nigerians have the confidence that their votes counts, then they will mind their business and I assure you that there will be much security in the country. But when people feel that they are abandoned, then they will resist.”
The import of the assertion by the incoming President on accountability of votes, is that electoral brigandage is substantially at the root of the insecurity in the country, and I guess the majority of Nigerians will agree with him. Indeed, when votes fail to count as a routine, we have the entrenchment of the undesirable. Many who have the competence and capacity to serve, take the back seats, out of fear, arising from the recurrent insecurity that pervade electoral malfeasance. So, electoral violence ensures that those with requisite competence are relegated to the background, while those with the capacity for violence are promoted, as they are found useful during every election cycle.
Pushing the argument further, where electoral brigands hold sway, best-class Nigerians do not have the opportunity to serve, as they will not get elected. As footballer pundits willsay, the second or third elevenis allowed to play, at the expense of the first 11. So,those who get foisted on the people, are officials with limited capacity; who will concentrate all their time and energyon protecting and expanding political privileges, rather than growing and expanding the human and economic capital, that aggregates to improvement, in the quality of life of the people,and the society.
Furthermore, with a limited world-view, the charlatans thrown-up through electoral sleaze, find it difficult to appreciate the far reaching consequences of their actions. So, whether as law makers or members of the executive branch, electoral malfeasance throw-up those who would rather make laws to increase their welfare packages, even when there is not enough money in the state or national coffer. That perhaps explains the incredible appropriation of nearly all the resources of the nation for recurrent expenditure. As rightly observed by the President-elect, “There must be more money available for infrastructure, for investment in getting the factories back, employment and getting goods and services for the population”.
Accordingly the General in that interview, said: “I think the worst thing is the lack of accountability and the terrible budgetary system. Imagine that over 90 per cent of Nigerian budget is on recurrent. How can you sustain development in a developing country like Nigeria with only 10 per cent of your income?” Of course, it is important to remember that the present federal government, led by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), had offered similar lamentations, about the sheer absurdity of having nearly all the national resources eaten-up by human termites, masquerading as leaders; but failed to effect the necessary changes.
So, the president-elect must watch out, for an unwilling or aided regression to that to era of good ideas, without the will to effect thenecessary changes. While it is urgently important to plug all the loopholes, through which our national economy haemorrhages, it also abundantly important that the national economy is expanded and grown, to accommodate the high expectations of Nigerians. Of course, the greatest hindrance to an expanded national economy is poor supply of energy, which include electricity and other forms of fuel. Resolving the Nigerian energy quagmire, will perhaps be the greatest challenge for the in-coming administration, and it is of utmost importance, that,it does all in its power, to get it right.
General Buhari in that interview, also lamented the dearth of national economic engines, like the Nigeria Railway, Nigeria Airways, and Nigeria Shipping Line among others. He argued that “some big companies that employ a lot of Nigerians and give them training facilities” have suffered similar faith as the crude oil which “rose to about $140 and has crashed to about $50 now”. He noted that “the important thing in a country with a huge population of youths, with more than 60 per cent of them under the age of 30 who are unemployed, is job creation”. For the General, “you need these institutions to give jobs and training to Nigerians”.
While there will be arguments whether or not, we need to recreate mega state-monopolies, as in the past; there is no doubt that we need such economic expansion, as the president-elect envisages, to gain employment opportunities, for our teeming unemployed youths.
Part of the obvious strategy which the All Progressive Congress (APC) government, must as of urgent necessity adopt, is to grant legal empowerment to states, to exploit the minerals and other natural resources within their geographical areas. The insane status-quo, where many states endowed with natural resources operate as poor church-rats, because a law incongruous with federalism, has placed all the mineral resources in the country, in the hands of the Federal Government, must change.
As this column has persistently argued, Nigeria can only make the expected progress, when we have the courage to federalise, income and wages. Therefore, creating economic opportunities in all geo-political zones of the country, and indeed in all states, is not a mere political favour. It is rather a safety valve, to forestall the invasion of the political and economic space of the locals.Comparatively, the regrettable xenophobic war taking place in South Africa, will not solve the economic challenges of the South Africans. Truthfully, what will save local jobs and political space, is economic regeneration across zones.
