When shall we stop sharing oil money? As Nigeria marks her 53rd Independence anniversary today, the National Question has become more imperative. Is Nigeria working as it is currently structured? The answer is an unequivocal No! And if the country continues to be run in this non-competitive, non-productive and non-committal manner, the chances of disintegration are higher than if the Nigerian people are allowed to discuss how to live together. Any time “national conference” or “sovereign national conference” is mentioned, many people shout “disintegration” or “bloodshed”, thereby putting fear into many Nigerians that if they are allowed to discuss how to live together, the nation will disintegrate. I have had to search all the known dictionaries to see if there is any of them that defines “national conference” as disintegration, but have not found any. It then beats me why some people have been bent on stopping Nigerians from coming together to discuss the best way for them to live together in peace and mutual respect, so as to enhance the development and prosperity of the country. The only reason I can find for this attitude is laziness of the mind, which makes those against a national conference afraid that they will lose their source of free money. The current arrangement which makes the states to fold their arms and receive, every month, money they did not work for suits many. Those in political offices at the federal, state, and local government levels believe that any national conference and restructuring of the polity will make them lose this source of free money. That is why Nigeria is a paradox or an antithesis in all ramifications: rich in natural resources, poor in income per capita; rich in resourceful and hardworking people, low in production and output; blessed with arable land and great weather, poor in food production; blessed with petroleum, terrible in refining and supply of petroleum products. There seems to be a scrambling for the wealth of Nigeria like a cackle of hyenas on a prey. The hyenas never pause nor rest until they have decimated the carcass, including the bones. In the past few weeks, the states have been at their wit’s end because the regular monthly allocation shared in Abuja was not available for three months. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation delayed in remitting enough revenue to the coffers of the Federal Government, and the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, refused to share the money that had not been received. That caused a problem among the states. According to Saturday PUNCH investigations, that had “disrupted the payment of salaries, pensions and financing of government projects in many states.” It was regrettable that President Goodluck Jonathan was reported to have approved the release of N75bn to the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee to share to the states to augment the revenue shortfall for July. The three tiers of government – federal, state and local government – were said to be owed about N336 billion as arrears of shortfall owing to persistent decline in oil production and revenue. Jonathan might have taken that action to avoid arming the opposition with bullets that it would use to attack his government as being broke and grinding to a halt. That, added to the strike of the Academic Staff Union of Universities, would have given his opponents enough reasons to shout that the nation was grinding to a halt in all spheres. But to me, such is just cheap blackmail. A bold President needs to change this sharing mentality and make us a productive nation that creates wealth. We are running a country that cannot grow. Any plant whose leaves are promptly eaten by animals any time new ones appear on it does not grow. Such a plant may hold on for a while, but it will surely die. That is what we are inadvertently doing to Nigeria, our Motherland. We are greedily sucking her dry, without providing any nourishment for her. We are not running a federal system of government. What we have is a unitary system that got a wrong name during its christening. Our states are not functional. Our nation is unproductive but highly consumptive, because every month we share oil money to states based on their number of local government areas and oil producing status. That is why the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, said in June that the Senate received 61 requests for state creation. Almost every senatorial district wants to have its own state. Nobody bothers to discuss how the new states requested to be created will be funded, because oil money is flowing ceaselessly. If our states are meant to fend for themselves as it is practised in all federal systems, nobody would ask for new states. Rather, states would want to merge so as to be viable. There is no incentive to be productive in Nigeria. It is cheaper to receive federal allocation and spend it on private jets, sponsorship of pilgrimages to Mecca and Jerusalem, medical trips and holidays abroad, marriage anniversary parties, children’s wedding parties, purchase of choice property in Europe and Asia, erection of billboards with the picture of the governor in every nook and cranny of the state, and doling out of “transport fare” to mistresses and hangers-on. Simply because the money shared by the Federal Government, states and LGAs came easy, it is also spent recklessly. Come easy, go easy! The people are not compelled to ask questions because they believe that the money being embezzled is their share of the “national cake”. Imagine if a state laboured through farming or manufacturing to make some money, would that state and its people watch as their hard-earned wealth is frittered away by a few people in government? Every part of Nigeria can survive without receiving any allocation from oil sale. Before the unnecessary truncation of our democracy in 1966 by the military, Nigeria had a true federal system, which had three regions and later had four regions in 1963. The regions were self-sustaining and competitive. Every region wanted to catch up with the other and even surpass it. If a university was built in the East, the West responded with its own; and the North too. If a TV station was built in the West, the East responded with its own TV station. The only drawback with that era was that rather than having states that would compete on their individual status, we had regions that were formed along ethnic lines, leading to a recourse to excess tribalism, which pulled the regions apart rather than unite them as a nation. But if the states were created as we have today, with a view to managing their affairs, creating their wealth, choosing their priorities, solving their problems, the states with no natural resources may even become the richest, because they would be forced to be more creative to survive. The richest countries of the world are not those which depend on natural resources but those who depend on their human resources. Fortunately, President Jonathan and Senate President David Mark have recently made comments that suggest that contrary to their former stance against the convocation of a national conference, they now believe that there is a need for Nigerians to discuss. What is not clear is whether their comments were made to score political points or were made with in earnest. Every minute that passes without restructuring Nigeria spells doom for our nation. Restructuring will make Nigerians more productive, more accountable, more prudent, and more patriotic, while the nation will become more peaceful, because no section will think anymore that it is being short-changed or suppressed. The time for Nigerians to talk is now. The time to restructure Nigeria is now. Happy Independence anniversary to all Nigerians.
Posted on: Tue, 01 Oct 2013 08:33:25 +0000
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