LET NIGERIANS ACCEPT REALITIES, AS A STEP TOWARDS ADDRESING CORRUPTION, A CASE FOR BEYOND OIL RELIANCE: It is unfortunate that some would think of this piece as sectional but let the truth be said and imbibed for once, there is no way many Nigerian state governments can properly develop or make meaningful progress relying on the Niger Delta oil for survival, and it is not feasible within sincerely drawn logic for anyone to prosper from others wealth, a people develops from ample and judicious use of what they have to make life better for themselves. It is unimaginable and reckless to make people above their means. A common example is when a father of 10 make five well employed children to feed the other five on continuous basis instead of taking from the wealthy ones to establish the other five and leaving them to fend for themselves. A time may come when those rich ones who are not allowed to use much of their income to expand, crumbles and the whole family will then move into penury, and we fear that this present western economic war against Russia, through oil price nose dive, is just one predictable eventuality. More so is the adage that a wise person should fear what is free, anything free is prone to abuse or misuse, no wonder politicians who aspect that more oil windfall must flow in 30 days feels no guilt when they embezzle their federal allocations; the story follows that when u take blood to install an oracle you must administer blood refresh you oath and perform other service to that oracle. If niger delter contributes close to N500b monthly, west contributes N399, while the North east contributes N5b with population that is 4 times the population of Niger Delta no mathematician will be needed to estimate that N/E for instance constitute major benefactors from Niger Delta resources in the terms of what goes into attending to needs of that mass population, simply put they eat more than they produce, many developed non oil producing countries make best use of human resources to put their economies on place, the most of government revenue is generated from tax and other economic activities like agriculture , industry etc, Theft of government revenue and allocations is mostly guided against because all income emanates from serious economic activities not from oil windfalls as is the case here in Nigeria. To this regard the recommendations of the National conference regarding state police and local government autonomy should be stretched further by the legislature to include a meature of fiscal federalism, for the Nigerian federating unites, to enable all the states to seat up, we will discover measure expansion in monitoring propensities’ since it is more likely for people to trust and mean well for themselves than others or strangers, some form of ethnic/ regional or federating unit patriotism will come begging to exist as of necessity, which will enthrone true accountability to militate against the bane of corruption, and theft of public fund. If you look squarely on the ratio of fund properly applied in the development and maintenance in the present Nigerian states, less that 30percent get into honest use, and it is very possible in true fiscal federalism devoid of large scale corruption, as it now exist; can produce more developments and better living standards for people in the in the non oil producing federating states, not withstanding the consequential reduction in money available for the state, if all states control their resources and contribute to the center in Abuja for the maintainance of federal institutions and security. It will thus not be possible to maintain corruption and waste at the federal level because of the consequential mass reduction of funds controlled at Abuja, and politics will become less lucrative for the federal politicians who will be forced to ignore politics for professionals, and patriots who will then equate their jobs at the National Assembly and the executive as a call to serve there father land and to gain popularity due to measure of contribution to government business. Further still, it will be possible for people and states with enormous resources to move in funds to other states with much population and conducive environments for selected business activities like agriculture and manufacturing which will inculcate a more purposeful relationship between states rooted in mutual respect and benefits in a more enduring fashion. Let us not lie to ourselves further, Let us do the right thing, all will benefit in material way because of the healthy competition that will flow from it, the time to do the right thing is now.
Posted on: Tue, 23 Dec 2014 20:53:18 +0000
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