Nigeria has recently lost its title as Africa’s largest producer and exporter of crude oil. This is a title that we have clung to for many decades, yet our steady spiral down the ladder over the last couple of years is symptomatic of every thing that is Nigerian.
Why is that that we cannot get anything working in this country? You would think that an industry that provides about 90-95% of foreign exchange and about 80% of revenue would be treated like the proverbial goose that lays the golden egg, yet the oil and gas industry has suffered years of inattention characterised by inadequate funding and investment, policy somersaults, lack of a strategic direction and policy and so on and so forth. But then, the oil and gas industry is not the only one is it? Refineries have stopped working; roads have failed all over the country, the railway and airlines died long ago, PHCN has had its name changed several times, but has only gone from bad to worse, NITEL is comatose, gas plants are being built (some completed) with no earlier thought or plan about where the gas would come from - even with the Niger Delta crisis staring them boldly in the face, various stadia refurbished just 10 years ago for Nigeria ’99 look like they were never repaired, Murtala Mohammed International Airport is barely functional in the true sense of an international airport and various Government agencies and parastatals fail to perform their statutory duties efficiently and effectively!!
What exactly is the issue? Why can we not seem to get ourselves out of a perennial downward spiral? Have we been consigned to never grow, mature, and develop? Perhaps it is spiritual! Maybe the gods have put a curse on this country. Because sometimes the reasons for our continued backwardness defies explanation, despite the myriad of learned people that we have in this country. Churches fast and pray and things just get worse and worse. What on earth is going on???
The government of this once great country is just nailing the lid on our collective coffins - one after the other. It is bad enough that oil has too much leverage on our economy, but even this mono product that we have is being threatened by lack of government vision and sincerity to the issue of development in the Niger Delta. The crisis going on there need never have happened. Why spend so much to develop Abuja while millions languish right next to where the oil is being produced? These people have been pushed to the wall and have bounced back in the form of militancy, kidnapping, thuggery and general lawlessness. After all, he that is down need fear no fall.
We need a well-orchestrated strategy to get this country on the path of sustainable development and to resolve the myriad of issues that confront us as a nation. Unfortunately, the political ‘elite’ has not demonstrated that they have the intellectual capacity to fashion such a strategy. After all, 49 years of evidence cannot be wrong!
Monday, 29 June 2009
Tuesday, 23 June 2009
2 GOVERNORS AND 34 ADMINISTRATORS
Our country operates a Federal structure wherein the country is ‘broken’ up into smaller States in order to ease administration. To a large extent, the States are meant to be independent entities and in charge of these 36 States are certain individuals called Governors who are meant to direct the affairs of their States in a manner similar to the way the President directs the affairs of the country, although by virtue of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, some things may be held as the exclusive preserve of the Federal Government.
In fact, in my opinion, the States have a better capacity to affect the lives of the people in a more direct way than the Federal Government can. How easy can it be to drive visible development from Abuja for the common man on the streets of Abakaliki or Ogbomosho or Zungeru. On the other hand, a State is just about the right size to allow for meaningful development. It is big enough to allow for the meaningful pooling of resources and small enough that the eye of the Governor can effectively cover the whole State, but of course, only if the Governor is someone with the vision and wherewithal to make it happen.
Herein lies the problem! I look at all the States of this country and I have come to the conclusion that we have only 2 Governors. The Governor of Lagos State, Mr Fasola on the one hand and the Governor of Rivers State, Mr Amaechi on the other. The rest are just Administrators! The progress that has been made in Lagos State is visible for all to see. While to some extent, the changes there can be termed as basic, but for Goodness sake, from where we are coming from as a country, the changes there are almost on the same scale as a miracle. Unlike most “governors” who talk a lot, but have nothing to show for it (reminiscent of a certain Mr Peter Odili), Governor Fasola only talks when he is already about to take action. And action is there aplenty. The BRT has been working non-stop since it was launched, a waterways transport scheme has been launched and the Lekki master plan has been launched and its implementation has started via the improved Lekki expressway. In addition there are also concrete plans in place for a free port in Lekki, as well as an international airport. Contracts have also been awarded for the massive expansion of the Badagry Expressway, while plans for the red and blue lines of the light rail system are also making steady progress. Action they say, speaks louder than words.
In Port Harcourt also, there is a wind of change and development, the like of which has not been seen in a previous administration. The whole city is almost one huge construction site. While this has its nuisances in the fact that the traffic situation has actually worsened, the situation will sure improve remarkably once the multitude of roads being constructed in the city are all completed. The traffic situation in Port Harcourt is legendry and of all the state capitals I have been to, only Lagos beats it hands down in that regard. However the reasons for traffic in PH are not far fetched. Aside from the old PH city, which was rather planned, most of what we call Port Harcourt today grew out of the massive expansion of the city due to the influx of people in search of a better life in a city flowing with oil money. As such, whole middle class enclaves sprang up in places that where hitherto simply villages and small communities, with their small roads and pathways. It is these small roads that were later tarred and ended up not providing an adequate road network for the city, due to their narrowness. However, Governor Amaechi has taken the bull by the horn by undertaking a huge road construction and dualisation exercise. Within the city, at least 2 flyovers are being built, 4 major roads are at different stages of dualisation and not less than 4 other major single lane roads have been marked for dualisation. In addition, there are many other brand new roads being built to reduce traffic by diverting traffic away from areas that were usually grid locked. I have not seen any road construction of this scale all at once in any city, except Abuja and perhaps Lagos. His administration has also embarked on a massive urban renewal exercise. Lots of buildings that were too close to the road have been demolished, shops in many areas that lined certain roads have been demolished, businesses residing in commercial areas have been given one year to vacate, while business concerns on the popular and busy Aba Road that have no provision for parking for their customers have been told to either relocate or face closure/demolition. These are all visible signs of development that will immediately benefit the people and impact their lives.
On the other hand, the Oyo State Governor was recently interviewed and was quoted as saying in response to claims that his government was not working, that his government had achieved a lot because it was paying salaries on time!!! Isn’t it amazing that in this day and age paying salaries on time is considered an achievement!! I am sure that one of his claims, along with that of many of the other governors, would be that his state has no funds. In my opinion, this claim has no basis because seated right here, typing this, I can think of dozens of ways that a State can raise its revenue profile. A province I once read about in South Africa gets about 35% of its revenues from fines!! Every day people are breaking laws in this country. Laws relating to sanitation, traffic/driving, failure to follow building plans and approvals and so on. All the government needs to do is to put in place strong structures to ensure enforcement and collection. This will have a 2-pronged effect. First, it will improve the government’s revenue and secondly, once people see that the government is serious about enforcement, it will bring about greater compliance to the laws of the land.
Our governors seem to think that their jobs are only about going to Abuja to collect allocation and then returning to their states to pay salaries. They do not realise that they have the capacity to develop their own states at an even faster rate than the Federal government can. Thank goodness Mr Fasola and Mr Amaechi have realised that they can do more for their States than Yar A’dua. All that is required is a fair bit of creativity, imagination and vision and voila…. an administrator can become a Governor!
In fact, in my opinion, the States have a better capacity to affect the lives of the people in a more direct way than the Federal Government can. How easy can it be to drive visible development from Abuja for the common man on the streets of Abakaliki or Ogbomosho or Zungeru. On the other hand, a State is just about the right size to allow for meaningful development. It is big enough to allow for the meaningful pooling of resources and small enough that the eye of the Governor can effectively cover the whole State, but of course, only if the Governor is someone with the vision and wherewithal to make it happen.
Herein lies the problem! I look at all the States of this country and I have come to the conclusion that we have only 2 Governors. The Governor of Lagos State, Mr Fasola on the one hand and the Governor of Rivers State, Mr Amaechi on the other. The rest are just Administrators! The progress that has been made in Lagos State is visible for all to see. While to some extent, the changes there can be termed as basic, but for Goodness sake, from where we are coming from as a country, the changes there are almost on the same scale as a miracle. Unlike most “governors” who talk a lot, but have nothing to show for it (reminiscent of a certain Mr Peter Odili), Governor Fasola only talks when he is already about to take action. And action is there aplenty. The BRT has been working non-stop since it was launched, a waterways transport scheme has been launched and the Lekki master plan has been launched and its implementation has started via the improved Lekki expressway. In addition there are also concrete plans in place for a free port in Lekki, as well as an international airport. Contracts have also been awarded for the massive expansion of the Badagry Expressway, while plans for the red and blue lines of the light rail system are also making steady progress. Action they say, speaks louder than words.
In Port Harcourt also, there is a wind of change and development, the like of which has not been seen in a previous administration. The whole city is almost one huge construction site. While this has its nuisances in the fact that the traffic situation has actually worsened, the situation will sure improve remarkably once the multitude of roads being constructed in the city are all completed. The traffic situation in Port Harcourt is legendry and of all the state capitals I have been to, only Lagos beats it hands down in that regard. However the reasons for traffic in PH are not far fetched. Aside from the old PH city, which was rather planned, most of what we call Port Harcourt today grew out of the massive expansion of the city due to the influx of people in search of a better life in a city flowing with oil money. As such, whole middle class enclaves sprang up in places that where hitherto simply villages and small communities, with their small roads and pathways. It is these small roads that were later tarred and ended up not providing an adequate road network for the city, due to their narrowness. However, Governor Amaechi has taken the bull by the horn by undertaking a huge road construction and dualisation exercise. Within the city, at least 2 flyovers are being built, 4 major roads are at different stages of dualisation and not less than 4 other major single lane roads have been marked for dualisation. In addition, there are many other brand new roads being built to reduce traffic by diverting traffic away from areas that were usually grid locked. I have not seen any road construction of this scale all at once in any city, except Abuja and perhaps Lagos. His administration has also embarked on a massive urban renewal exercise. Lots of buildings that were too close to the road have been demolished, shops in many areas that lined certain roads have been demolished, businesses residing in commercial areas have been given one year to vacate, while business concerns on the popular and busy Aba Road that have no provision for parking for their customers have been told to either relocate or face closure/demolition. These are all visible signs of development that will immediately benefit the people and impact their lives.
On the other hand, the Oyo State Governor was recently interviewed and was quoted as saying in response to claims that his government was not working, that his government had achieved a lot because it was paying salaries on time!!! Isn’t it amazing that in this day and age paying salaries on time is considered an achievement!! I am sure that one of his claims, along with that of many of the other governors, would be that his state has no funds. In my opinion, this claim has no basis because seated right here, typing this, I can think of dozens of ways that a State can raise its revenue profile. A province I once read about in South Africa gets about 35% of its revenues from fines!! Every day people are breaking laws in this country. Laws relating to sanitation, traffic/driving, failure to follow building plans and approvals and so on. All the government needs to do is to put in place strong structures to ensure enforcement and collection. This will have a 2-pronged effect. First, it will improve the government’s revenue and secondly, once people see that the government is serious about enforcement, it will bring about greater compliance to the laws of the land.
Our governors seem to think that their jobs are only about going to Abuja to collect allocation and then returning to their states to pay salaries. They do not realise that they have the capacity to develop their own states at an even faster rate than the Federal government can. Thank goodness Mr Fasola and Mr Amaechi have realised that they can do more for their States than Yar A’dua. All that is required is a fair bit of creativity, imagination and vision and voila…. an administrator can become a Governor!
Wednesday, 3 June 2009
ARE WE THE SAME AS WHAT WE SEE IN HOME VIDEO?
If reports in the media are anything to go by, the Minister of Information has turned her spotlight on the local home video in her efforts at re-branding the country. In my opinion, she has every reason to do so!! Film, and acting generally, tries to re-enact what goes on in a country and generally portrays the values that a country holds dear. A typical American action film, while sometimes violent, usually extols the values of courage and bravery of a hero, reminiscent of the many heroes that America has produced in the many wars dotting its history. Likewise, the many films centred on adventure (Indiana Jones, Pirates of the Caribbean), crime (the Godfather), the police (Internal Affairs, Police Academy) etc seek to re-enact, the many adventures of people such as Christopher Columbus, the dark days of gangsters like Al Capone and the courage of policemen, day in day out, in America.
In Nigeria however, many, perhaps most of our home videos, especially the ones in English, do not seem to depict any positive values or teach many lessons. All we seem to see is women being abused and slapped, and our younger girls being showcased as adulterers, fornicators and hustlers, while the men are cultists, 419’ers or dubious businessmen and politicians. But if films are meant to recreate reality, then it must mean that all the attributes I just listed are indeed attributes of the average Nigerian. And that is that is really sad!! Dora certainly has lots of work to do. But then, should the attention be on the home video industry or the larger society that the home video industry mimics?
In Nigeria however, many, perhaps most of our home videos, especially the ones in English, do not seem to depict any positive values or teach many lessons. All we seem to see is women being abused and slapped, and our younger girls being showcased as adulterers, fornicators and hustlers, while the men are cultists, 419’ers or dubious businessmen and politicians. But if films are meant to recreate reality, then it must mean that all the attributes I just listed are indeed attributes of the average Nigerian. And that is that is really sad!! Dora certainly has lots of work to do. But then, should the attention be on the home video industry or the larger society that the home video industry mimics?
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