The same elite are lining up again for the 2011 general election and people will laud them, applaud them, fight for them and sing hosannas to their names. The same individuals that have deprived them of electricity, good roads, hospitals, and are indirectly responsible for the mass exodus of millions of Nigerians to other shores to escape poverty. The same elite that have squandered our resources and become billionaires by simply being in government. With poverty levels at up to 70 per cent on their watch, they show no shame or remorse as they covet power for power sake. Once again, people will strew the streets and fete them instead of being appalled by them. A bizarre relationship of the oppressor and the willing oppressed.
Some say that we may be unduly hard on ourselves and not tall enough perhaps to see the progress we have made thus far and they may well be right. We have made some progress indeed these 50 years, and it is right we should celebrate them. For a start, we are still one country despite the efforts of some politicians to whip up ethnic divisions and sentiments among us. We have quarrelled, sometimes very violently, but we always seem to make up despite our diversity in culture, language and religion. This potentially explosive mix of some 150 million people is unparalleled anywhere in the world in our unity in diversity.
And what about Abuja? We built this city from scratch and should celebrate it. The city may have made dollar millionaires of our men in uniform and made their girlfriends real estate magnates in Abuja, but what the heck, they still built us a city.
As we reminisce on our 50th year as an independent nation, we must not forget the ongoing contributions of the private sector to the development of the country. Thanks to the entrepreneurial spirit of Nigerians, we are leading the telecommunications revolution in Africa and Nigeria is positioning herself to become the ICT Powerhouse of Africa with Globacom’s investment in undersea fibre optics pipelines. We lead our sub-region in financial services with one of the most dynamic banking sectors in Africa. We have a booming music and movie industry that is the envy of the rest of Africa and poised to become a major export earner for the country.
We must also not forget the vibrant Nigerian tabloid press that has kept us informed all these years, unafraid. Undeterred they match, fearless in their zeal to report and challenge, even at times when most of us cowered under the barrel of the gun. For this, some of their members have paid the ultimate price; but notwithstanding, their colleagues have picked up the baton and pressed on. We owe them our gratitude and salute their courage as we reflect on our 50 years as a sovereign state.
As a people, Nigerians are entrepreneurial and can compete with the best in the world. Our failure in Nigeria has been government, corrupt government, where the public treasury is seen as a cash cow to be plundered and pillaged. All Nigerians want from their government is the provision of basic infrastructure and the enabling environment for the private sector to invest and create jobs for the teaming unemployed. On this they have failed spectacularly due to corruption and sheer incompetence of leadership.
Whilst politicians have been the main culprits, the Nigerian Civil Service must bear its share of this failure in leadership. We have a civil service in need of a root and branch reform, where people get promoted to senior positions on account of length of service and patronage instead of performance, with permanent secretaries and board chairs leaving office as multi-millionaires. It is obvious they could not have acquired this wealth from their salaries. The gross incompetence of the police at protecting citizens, despite the billions appropriated every year for security, explains in part this inherently regressive system where people get promoted on batch based on length of service instead of performance and competence. We automatically equate paper qualification with competence and appoint people to positions where they are ill-equipped. With some parts of the country under siege from kidnappers, the security of Nigerian citizens has never been worse.
As Nigerians, we accept poor performance, most times out of resignation that nothing will be done if we complain; from the national disgrace that is the public toilets at Murtala Mohammed International Airport to the Lagos-Ore-Benin Road where commuters have been known to sleep for days on a journey that should only take a couple of hours. There are no consequences for poor performance; instead, mediocre performance that will be shunned in the private sector is rewarded. The same managers that will not so much as ensure that public toilets in Nigeria’s gateway airports are cleaned travel abroad every year and see the standards of their peers abroad but still come home and deprive their fellow citizens of same services, with no consequences.
As 2011 beckons, the Lagos State governor gives Nigerians hope of what can be achieved with the right leadership. The changes he has brought to Lagos State in his short time as governor is there for all to see. Some say a combination of him and Mallam Nuhu Ribadu at the helm will be exactly what the doctor ordered, but they will have to make their case to the Nigerian people. Most encouragingly, Fashola has triggered a healthy competition with other progressive state governors who are now embarking on similar changes in their states. Changes are happening in Rivers, Edo, and Plateau states, to name a few. Indeed states are driving the economic growth of the country, moving away from oil as the dominant resource. The clog in the works remains the current system of funding local governments which is corrupt and lacking in accountability. This totally inept system of funding councils needs to be addressed, together with the alleged N30m paid quarterly to legislators for constituency work. Legislators should have no business building schools or digging boreholes. This should be the sole concern of the executive and the state machinery. Even the United States, the world’s richest economy with a GDP 84 times that of Nigeria, does not pay a quarter of this sum to their lawmakers. It is scandalous that our legislators should be paid such ridiculous sums, especially in the light of the recently published 2009 World Bank report on Gross National Income which ranks Nigeria as belonging to the world’s poorest nations, with a GNI per capita of $1980.
The latest 2009 country GDPs published by the World Bank ranks Nigeria as the 43rd largest economy in the world with a GDP of $168.9bn and Belgium with a population of 11 million as the 20th largest economy with a GDP of $468.5bn. This is some 2.7 times Nigeria’s GDP and shows the extent of our challenge if we are to attain our goal of becoming one of the 20th largest economies in the world by 2020. Based on current GDP growth, it is nigh impossible to attain this vision. Nigeria will require annual growth rates well in excess of 10 per cent to achieve this goal. This challenge though daunting is by no means impossible with the right leadership. We will need to give priority to investment in power and railway construction, the key drivers of industrialisation. We will need a massive investment in our infrastructure comparable to the Marshall Plan employed by Western Europe to re-build their economies after the second World War.
As the same politicians line up again for our votes, let us challenge them to show us evidence of what they did whilst in power, in whatever capacity. This time the answers must be specific and no bullshitting, for lack of a more civilised expression. It is critical at this stage of our history that we look for leaders with vision and intellect that understand the urgency of the moment. Let us resist personality politics and demand clear strategies for bettering the life of all our citizens. Let us demand to see concrete proposals for creating jobs and lifting people out of poverty. In all of this, the media has a pivotal role in challenging political aspirants on television and on the tabloid press. Nigerians must join civil society groups in demanding that our votes must count. We believe Professor Attahiru Jega when he assures Nigerians that this time around our votes will count. We welcome his assurance with some measure of cynicism informed by previous experiences, but welcome it nonetheless. Let us give him the benefit of the doubt. Let us wish him well and God’s speed.
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