by Ochiaka Valentine
The caption of this article is derived from the book written by John Kotter about penguins and their iceberg, and the measures taken by the leadership of penguins to arrest the situation. I think that kind of leadership prowess is urgently needed to address the rising inequality and maladministration of my dear country- Nigeria.
“Throughout 2011, I gladly accepted invitations to Egypt, Spain, and Tunisia and met with protesters in Madrid’s Buen Retiro Park, at Zuccotti Park in New York, and in Cairo, where I spoke with young men and women who had been at Tahrir Square.
“As we talked, it was clear to me that while specific grievances varied from country to country and, in particular, that the political grievances in the Middle East were very different from those in the West, there were some shared themes. There was a common understanding that in many ways the economic and political system had failed and that both were fundamentally unfair.
“The protesters were right that something was wrong. The gap between what our economic and political systems are supposed to do—what we were told they did do—and what they actually do became too large to be ignored.
“Governments around the world were not addressing key economic problems, including that of persistent unemployment; and as universal values of fairness became sacrificed to the greed of a few, in spite of rhetoric to the contrary, the feeling of unfairness became a feeling of betrayal”….. Joseph E. Stiglitz in his book; “The price of inequality”. Stiglitz wrote this as a result of the demonstrations in some part of the world, blamed on the inability of the ruling class to address the myriads of challenges confronting the people. If Stiglitz and people of United State of America, Spain and other civilized world could complain of rising inequality, youth unemployment and other economic distortions, then I wonder what we in Nigeria should be doing. The political class has persistently ignored the people, they have persistently ensured that even the common natural resources bequeathed to Nigerians by God do not get to people.
Extant literature shows that Nigeria is fraught with poor leadership, corruption and weak bureaucratic institutions. It is an axiom that since attainment of political independent, Nigeria has never been governed by selfless, truly transformational and intellectually endowed leaders. Late Prof. Chinua Achebe in his book published in 1983; “The trouble with Nigeria” identified poor leadership as the major cause of Nigeria’s woes.
In 1960 when we got our independent, our GDP was 91 USD Billion not much below that of Brazil, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, and other emerging economies. 55 years down the lane, Nigeria is still struggling with basic needs of life like: water, light, access road, healthcare, chronic youth unemployment and staggering GDP even after the rebasing which put our GDP at 522.64 USD Billion with a population of over 170 million people. Brazil is now $2.48 trillion with a population of a hundred and ninety six million people, South Korea $1.12 trillion with a population of fifty million people, Singapore of five million people has a GDP of $318.7 billion.
What happened?
Paris-based magazine Jeune Afrique in 2012 placed Nigeria as the highest Africa Champagne consumers. According to 2010 report alone, Nigerians drank about 593,000 bottles of champagne, the highest in Africa. Who are the consumers of this champagne, and where is the source of the money? Public office holders of course, and from the public treasury. These are the people entrusted to manage the resources of the nation. This is a country where about 60 percent of the population cannot afford N10 to drink potable water, while public office holders will buy a bottle of wine worth 500,000. This is a country where about 65 percent of the population cannot afford bicycle to go to farm yet their leaders junket all over the world with plane in a first class, and sleeping in the best hotels all over the world, while their subjects cannot afford decent home to lay their heads. This is a country where a governor spent N4bn to demolish a secretariat, spent 17 billion to erect the same secretariat, while vast majority of the state do not know how the state capital look like because they do not have access road to the city; a country where a governor spent about billions to set up ‘road blocks’, while poverty is ravaging the citizens. No bridges, no damns, no light, no water, heath care in shamble and public schools are collapsing in their numbers.
We have made progress in some sectors especially the immediate past government of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan in Aviation, road construction and agriculture no doubt, but my argument is that the pace we are moving is not commensurate with the stock of productive resources that we are endowed with as a nation. The world is leaving us behind. We can do better if right people are put in right places. The rate of the population growth has diminished the progress we have achieved. Therefore, there is the need for more urgent and radical approach to leadership of the nation at all levels.
What do we do?
This writer is not agitating for a socialist government; neither is he requesting government to do everything for the people. In short, I am an apostle of free market economy but, government has enormous role to play. It is the responsibility of government to provide the economic enablers, and then allow the market mechanism to take over while government regulates. My view is also well captured in Musgrave and Rostow government expenditure model. This model advocates huge government expenditures in infrastructures at the first and second stages of economic development.
Solow-Swan in their Convergence Hypothesis predicts that rapidly developing LDCs will enjoy faster economic growth rates than the developed economies for a time. Eventually, as the capital stock and output per worker rises in these LDCs, economic growth will fall down to steady-state level found in these developed countries. By then, these LDCs will have converged in the amount of capital available per worker and output per worker. The once fast-growing LDCs will have reached a standard of living comparable to those attained in the developed nations.
Convergence hypothesis lays much emphasis on savings and investment. The model states that any nation that is serious about development must pursue vigorous public and private savings which will be invested thereby increasing the stock of capital in the economy with little or no public deficits. The reverse is the case in Nigeria where the president is borrowing, with governors struggling to out-borrow one another, and even local government chairmen are all in this mess of reckless borrowing to sponsor projects that soothes their own taste and not the societal needs. Despite the criticisms against Solow-Swan growth model, some nations of the world have applied it to their own benefits.
No matter how someone hears the truth, it does not make the truth a less of a truth. I am only adding a voice to an already growing concern that the cost of governance in the country is relatively too high, and has continued to keep annual recurrent expenditure above capital expenditure. Current remuneration levels of N1.3trn are estimated annual salaries, allowances and fringe benefits of the nation’s political office holders at all tiers of government. Just imagine that Enugu state, with meager federal allocation and a paltry sum as internally generated revenue IGR, buys cars worth of N2million for all the elected councillors and supervisors in all the 17 local government areas, LGAs, of the state.
There are at least five wards in each LG, that is 5 councilors and at least 5 supervisory councilors too. Multiply this 10 by 17 LGA and then multiply it by N2 million and you will have an idea of the amount we are talking here. Please, how can such a state grow economically? A state where you have special adviser to the governor on budget formulation, special adviser to the governor on budget monitoring, special adviser to the governor on budget implementation. How unfortunate!
In the final analyses, Nigeria must be returned to true federalism. This feeding-bottle kind of federalism has failed to work and will never work. Our leaders are now lazy because oil is flowing. Before the discovery of oil in large quantities, our leaders were selfless and innovative. Now that we have oil, the innovation is on how to share wealth and not how to create wealth.
Ochiaka Valentine is an MSc student of Economics at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. He can be reached through: ochiakauochiaka@yahoo.com
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