The Nigerian President, General Olusegun Obasanjo (rtd.), recently made the news by declaring that Nigeria was a poor country. Put in simple terms, he believes our GDP and our national budget are both quite small when compared to our huge population and considerable geographic expanse.
I agree with him. Our fiscal, financial, and economic size in the per capita sense needs a lot of improvement before we can say that we are where we want to be. And our high rank on the ‘income inequality’ charts (in terms of distribution of wealth) complicates the issue further.
Nigeria needs economic growth. Not just any kind of economic growth, but the kind that embraces and improves the lives of as many citizens as possible. It is not simply a task for the government and the private sector, but is also a national imperative for the citizenry at large.
But is Obasanjo sincere in his protestation of national poverty? The political leadership of Nigeria has always acted as if money grew on trees. A poor country should not waste scarce resources, yet they continue to squander copious amounts of public money. It is difficult to get a true financial picture of Nigeria’s federal, state, and local governments, but a look at high-profile events in the last few weeks indicates that that long-standing tradition of waste is still going strong.
Ogun State Assembly Goes On Holiday
In the last week, the 26 members of the Ogun State House of Assembly returned from a trip to the United Kingdom. This trip was paid for with public/state money. When asked to explain the purpose of the trip, the Speaker of the House asserted that they had gone to learn how to do their jobs better by observing the British Parliament. Listing some of the things they had learned from their trip, the Speaker mentioned:
a) They have decided to set up an official website;
b) They have strengthened the ties between Nigeria and Britain.
c) They have learned how to interact with their constituents;
d) They have learned that legislative sessions should be peaceful and orderly;
e) They have learned they should host the governor from time to time;
f) The have learned to ask any question on any issues, and that the governor should answer the questions politely, even if it comes from the opposition;
g) That at certain key ceremonial moments, everyone in the British Parliament are quiet and civil, something they think they should emulate;
h) That it was part of (I quote) ‘human capacity building which is one of the cardinal programmes of the Otunba Gbenga Daniel-led administration’.
Maybe I am just foolish, but I do not think there is any need to travel all the way to Great Britain to ‘learn’ any of the above. In fact, any intelligent person could come up with all of the above without leaving his house, much less leaving the country.
There was no need to travel to Britain in order to find inspiration to set up a website. Governmental, quasi-governmental, and private organizations have had websites for years. The websites of the J.A.M.B. and the I.N.E.C. are particularly well known. And the excuse of flying the entire state legislature to Britain to enhance diplomatic ties is ludicrous. International diplomacy is not the constitutional function of the Ogun State Assembly. A lot of money is spent on our High Commission (Embassy) in London, and on the Ministry of External Affairs. Even if the Ogun legislators needed something from Britain, they could forward a written request directly or through the embassy. Capacity building is a nice cliché, but frankly the legislators could (and should) just simply apply themselves to doing their constitutional jobs. There are enough Nigerian scholars to advise them, and even if there was something vital that can only be learned from Britain (which there is not), bringing one British man to lecture them in Abeokuta is cheaper than sending 26 legislators to London. I can not believe they are not ashamed to pretend (and it is just a pretence) that forty-three years after independence they can not sit down and make laws unless they go abroad to be told how to do it.
Frankly, I could not help but laugh (sadly) at the ridiculousness of some of the excuses. How can they say they went to London to learn how to ask questions, how questions should be answered, and that civility is a virtue? One would assume that anyone who puts himself/herself up for election to political office would already have some sort of personal understanding or philosophy on these rather simplistic concepts. Indeed, it is almost like they are asking us to believe that they are stupid. If so, I disagree.
They are not stupid at all. The Ogun State legislators went to London for a very rational reason: To enjoy a holiday at the expense of the people of Ogun State. Their expedition to the British Isles was no more than private tourism paid for with public funds.
I have yet to see any reports on the exact amount of public funds that was spent on this waste of time, and it is not a phenomenon restricted to Ogun State. It seems everyone in political office in Nigeria at the federal, state and local levels routinely flies all over the world at public expense. Our governors spend a great amount of time abroad, and our president seems to live abroad. Even local government councils have joined in the owambe. A couple of years ago, all the political officials of one local government area (chairman and councilors) flew abroad, only to return and claim their trip cemented the diplomatic ties between Nigeria and the country they went to. How they could say that without laughing is the eighth wonder of the world.
There is money for Fake Popularity
In the last few weeks, the Governor of Bauchi State donated six Mercedes Benz vehicles to six Emirs in the State. In the same time period, the Governors of Abia State and Rivers State poured millions and millions of Naira on Enyimba Football Club and Sharks Football Club respectively.
Now, before anyone starts slinging insults, I am a big supporter of our history, culture, and tradition. Likewise, I am a massive fan of Association Football (a.k.a. ‘soccer’); while many of my fellow Nigerians have developed emotional attachments to European clubs (particularly English clubs), my attachment remains with the Nigerian League, and I hope it one day rivals the world’s best.
Having said that, lets call a spade a spade. It is often said that our leaders (civilian and military) pour money on traditional rulers (over and beyond statutory allowances) as a sign of respect for the rulers. In truth it our leaders (civilian and military) expect to be repaid with political support from the traditional rulers. This political support is not based on any deep and lasting (as opposed to cosmetic) contributions the leaders have made to the people. Indeed, one could argue that if our leaders wanted to show respect for our culture, traditions, and our people, they would actually do their jobs properly including effectively managing scarce funds. Is it better for an Emir, Oba, or Eze or Amayanabo to have an expensive car (and government contracts in some cases) while their people are mostly poor, or is it better that unemployment is erased from their domains and healthcare enhanced?
Before anyone accuses me of disrespecting royal fathers, we should realize that the decades and decades of politicization in our traditional institutions is as dangerous to the traditional rulers as it is to their followers. In recent years, governors and presidents have sacked royal fathers for purely political reasons, and appointed replacements, equally for purely political reasons. Our traditional rulers are often reduced to mere supplicants, instead of being proud standard-bearers for our culture. In the last week, the national newspaper ‘This Day’ reported that the Emir of Pindiga had to publicly beg forgiveness from the Governor of Gombe State for not supporting him at the elections. I read the story, and frankly felt very bad for the Emir. Why should the Governor make him do such a thing? Surprisingly, I have heard no criticism from the public. Then again, the Emir probably shouldn’t have given his political support to the defeated former governor. In fact, he should not have supported anybody, and nobody should have asked him for support.
Why are traditional rulers engaging in politics? Why do politicians waste state money lavishing patronage on traditional rulers to buy support? If you want to help the people in that Emirs’ domain, could not the cost of 6 Mercedez Benz vehicles have purchased materials for schools or hospitals? Established scholarships?
And then there are the Governors who pour money on football. They (and the mediat) act as if it their private money and their private philanthropy. ‘Odili lavishes ‘¦.’ and ‘Kalu splashes ‘¦.’ is all we hear. With all due respect, if there is one and only one sport in Nigeria that can conceivably pay for itself without public money, it is football. But it has never been allowed to do so because politicians, militicians, and mega-rich private individuals do not want it to. It would deprive them of a cheap source of instant popularity. Football popularity is very potent. If you are a private mega-rich citizen, it makes people forget where you got your money from, no matter how dubious the source. If you are in government (whether military or civilian), football popularity makes them forget whether your government is producing the public service you elected them for.
There is always public money available to buy popularity and political clout. But when the people ask for something with permanent, long-term benefits, suddenly everyone starts complaining that their allocation from the federal government is too small.
The President Himself
It is a bit ironic that the President, General Obasanjo, would complain that Nigeria is a poor country. I read the transcript of the speech he gave at a conference of Transparency International – in Berlin.
Can someone add up the cumulative cost of all the foreign trips General Obasanjo has embarked on since 1999? It must be a considerable sum. They keep telling us that the trips are to:
a) Seek foreign investment;
b) Repair Nigeria’s foreign image;
c) Gain debt relief vis-Ã -vis the national debt;
d) Required because of our ‘Giant’ standing in African and global affairs.
With all due respect, the above is just rhetoric. Proper cost/benefit analyses (and other empirical economic study) would call into question the necessity of so many travels in the name of investment (there are better, cheaper, more effective ways to promote investmen), as well as cast doubt on whether Nigeria has actually derived any investment benefits directly attributable to the incessant traveling. The question of direct attribution is important, because the president’s publicists will claim that any investment whatsoever received by Nigeria obviously (in their view) came from the endless traveling. If traveling by politicians is the reason investors invest, then the President of the Peoples Republic of China must be constantly in the air, never setting foot on the ground, to have gained such levels of investment.
As for repairing our image, the very fact that Obasanjo was in Berlin to complain that Transparency International has ranked Nigeria as second-most corrupt for every year of his presidency makes that explanation seem baseless. And while the ‘Giant of Africa’ mythology inspires us to contintue spending huge sums of money on various things, nobody ever comes up with simple Naira-and-kobo explanations of just why it is in our strategic interests, or what concrete things we actually gain. All we get is ideology and slogans. As for debt relief, no need to say any more.
Nigeria is a poor country, and so Nigerian citizens need to be careful about every single Naira note of expenditure. So, I would like to know how much money has been spent on all the foreign trips.
The bureaucrats who arrange the trips might know. The Ministry of Finance probably knows (or should know if they don’t). And in theory it should be easy for me to find out. All I should have to do is look at the budget.
Except we have not had any budgets in the last 2 years. The Presidency and the Assembly failed to pass a budget in 2002, though they still managed to spend enough money to cause our external reserves to drop (meaning they ran a deficit). This year (2003) is drawing to a close, and we have had no national budget. Like 2002, the external reserve has fallen in 2003 – another year of deficit. This is possible, in spite of the fact that Nigeria is a poor country.
Perhaps we ran the deficits because revenues were insufficient to fund legitimate government expenses. But if revenues are insufficient to fund proper expenses, you would expect the government to cut down on non-essential, wasteful spending. Yet we still get legislators flying to Britain to learn how to ask questions, and Presidents flying to Berlin to give a speech about things he should have been doing in the last five years or has done with only cosmetic effect. And how can we measure the legitimacy of spending when there is no budget to look at and examine?
We did have budgets in 1999, 2000, and 2001. But looking at those documents to gain an understanding of ‘how much money was spent where’ is pointless. Apparently we did not follow the budget. Apparently the executive and the legislature just spent any which way they felt like, on any particular thing that caught their fancy, without any recourse to the text of the budget. I have to keep saying apparently because nobody really knows for sure. The only things we do know are:
a) The National Assembly accused the President of not following the budget. They offered no further explanation and no proof. They did present some Ghana-Must-Go bags filled with money – but the bags and the money have yet to be explained or investigated.
b) The President launched counter-accusations of corruption toward the National Assembly. Again, no proof, no data, no documents, no evidence.
c) The Auditor-General produced a report alleging corruption in the executive branch, but also pointing out the fact that the Ministries were not following the budget. The Auditor-General was promptly sacked, but nothing has been said or done to show that his findings were false.
So, why should I believe that any of the ‘facts’ contained in the budgets relate in any way to how the money was actually spent? It does not help matters when one considers that all sorts of optimistic projections were made about the profits, tourism and economic benefits Nigeria would gain from Nigeria’99 (FIFA Under21 Cup) and the 2003 All African Games. At the end, no profits came, economic/tourism benefits were minimal to negligible, and (most importantly) none of the ordinary citizens of Nigeria really know how much money in total was spent on either event.
So, What is the Point of This Rant?
Actually, it is that I agree with the President. Nigeria is a poor country. But he should note two things:
a) Part of our poverty stems from wasteful spending by our leaders;
b) Our leaders do not act like people from a poor country.
Most importantly, Nigerians need to start taking positive, direct action to control the expenditure of public money. Nigerians only seem react to fiscal waste in an inverse manner, by refusing to pay taxes and other civic financial obligations, and protesting vociferously each time the price of fuel is raised. This inverse reaction is not very useful as a practical means of advancing Nigerian progress. We need to take charge. If we do not, we will be left with the current situation where our President goes to Berlin to talk about how ‘former ministers’ and ‘former governors’ are being tried for corruption – when yet he sacked the prior Auditor-General for releasing a report revealing corruption and waste in the federal Ministries and nobody implicated by that report has been charged with a criminal offense or even given a reprimand.
Postscript: Shortly after I finished typing this essay, I learned that President Obasanjo had flown out of the country, yet again. This time his destination was Harare, Zimbabwe. His Harare trip was linked to the fact that Nigeria will be hosting the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in December. Hosting the CHOGM will drain a lot of money from the federal treasury, and will be of little or no practical benefit to Nigeria. The trip to Zimbabwe costs money and equally yields nothing for Nigeria. But the President is insistent on spending all this money. I guess we should be grateful that in-between wasting our money, the president still finds the time to tell us that he thinks Nigeria is a poor country.
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