The idea that certain states are no longer viable is not news anymore. It has now become a reality that stares us in the face as a people. If there is anything good at all from this development, it is the fact that many political scavengers who never ceased to screech for state creation have now permanently shut their lips at least till the next oil boom if there will ever be any or better put agricultural boom as the government is now forced to pay attention to that sector. Many analysts have argued that the years of wasted resources from the oil boom had brought quite a lot of doom upon this country likening it to the seven years of plenty and the seven years of famine in Egypt as recorded in the bible. The surplus and famine experience was very strategic in the plan of God for Egypt and he had to raise an astute economic manger that foresaw both experiences and instructed them on how to avert the latter. In our own case, while we should have applied simple economic principle in the absence of a prophetic economist, which teaches to save in surplus and apply in scarcity, we rather depleted all our earnings including the treasures of the fathers (savings of previous administration). It then became an issue of here, now and never.

There is no need over flogging the wasteful spending and damaging corruptive attitude of the last administration many of which are yet to be discovered. It is only disheartening that our own “Joseph” became an “Esau”. One who is meant to save for the rainy day said “let’s eat and be merry for tomorrow we die”. Unfortunately, his thought was: “what is there to save for anyway when presently we are starving”? He gratified the appetite of a few and cared less about the destruction of many. A country which was positioned to be a continental financial big brother can now hardly cover her wage bill not to talk of capital projects for development. Our current financial crisis has put the feasibility of many states to further questioning. I was saddened few days ago to watch Nigeria governors under the NGF converge to meet for another bailout despite a recent bailout. They claimed their wage bills have continued to pile up again. They went further to justify the fine Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) imposed on the giant telecom firm MTN indicating that there should be no leeway whatsoever for flouting the country’s law. While I copiously agree with them, I’m persuaded to believe the governors’ stand on the matter is rather necessitated by the need to meet financial obligations than a patriotic zeal to adhere to the rule of law. The motivation behind their unified position is debatable.

It is even appalling to discover that while many states are unable to cover their recurrent expenditure, their chief executives insist on implementing superfluous projects such as construction of airport in the guise of infrastructural development which failed all fiscal conjecture vis-à-vis the state’s resources and economic opportunities. Many states are presently generating less than 20% of their total budget as IGR. A situation many analysts tagged as shameful bearing in mind the abundance of resourceful prospects available to them. Some of the state governors are now considering salary cuts and increased taxation to augment their collapsing conditions. There is absolutely no reason to cut any further the already insufficient N18,000 minimum wage. In fact, in view of the growing inflationary pressure on the market, it will only exacerbate the sufferings of the poor masses if any wage cut is implemented. The ineptitude of many state governors is also driving them toward allowing for (and some already implementing) a system of vertical taxation above horizontal tax arrangement. While vertical taxation is an additional burden on existing and complaint tax payers, horizontal tax system is simply a situation in which the tax net is extended to inconsistent tax payers and deliberate tax evaders. A competent governor ought to focus on the latter than sitting tight on the former as it will only breed inequality in the society.

There are several ways by which state governors can grow their IGR. The outrageous amount of money Nigeria losses to educational tourism yearly are despicable to the extent that our citizens now go to countries like Ghana and Ivory Coast for their academic pursuit. I honestly think this is something the Nigeria Governors Forum should be ashamed about and deliberate upon to solve. Just imagine a report by World University News which indicated that there are over 75,000 nigerian students in Ghana, paying about $1billion annually as tuition fees and for their upkeep as against the annual budget of $751million approved for all federal universities. In other words, capital flight by Nigerian students studying in Ghana ALONE is far in excess of government’s annual budget for all federal universities in the country.

Another frightening point to note is the amount of money we lose to importing several agricultural products which ought to be our major export earnings. It is equally vital to understand that the inability of many governors to think beyond federal monthly allocations has given birth to an unending and recycled abysmal and atrocious performance that is now eating deep into our very national life. As at July 2014, Nigeria was spending about N356bn on rice import annually and even lost N71bn to waivers in the same period. Nigeria spends also about N16bn on importing tomatoes alone into the country. Isn’t it disgraceful that a country like Nigeria where over 75% of her youth population is jobless will be spending this much on an import bill of completely avoidable agricultural products? You don’t even want to imagine how much Nigeria spends on her total food import annually. It is monstrous to the human race to say the least.

Even more dreadful is the amount of money we spend on medicals abroad. Recently, a ministerial nominee, Professor Adewole Folorunsho indicated that Nigeria losses about N3bn annually to medical treatment abroad. Is something wrong with us in this country? Definitely! That is about an entire state monthly allocation. Imagine a state partnering with the private sector to invest in medical infrastructure upgrade in the country? The case of the facility claimed to be available in Akwa Ibom state is one I do not wish to comment on. We all saw what happened when the immediate past Governor Godswill Akpabio who claimed he had built a world class hospital could not even be treated for a minor leg injury. It is highly ignominious and the governor ought to bury his head in shame.

Instead of these governors travelling out to woo foreign investors to their states, they will rather engage in mediocrity and some would even prefer religious excesses. Rather than writing off unnecessary spending from the state budget, they will award, re-award and continue to award a single contract with little or no execution. Many governors treat the monthly allocations as personal funding and therefore spend it as they wish. I’m of the opinion that, many of them should have highlighted by now comparative advantage areas to commence or increase production in such areas in order to create room for higher earnings, job creation and increased taxation.

The present national situation calls for competent minds at all levels of governance. It is never one in which salary cut should be considered or vertical taxation implemented. It is a circumstance in which wastage must be abolished, horizontal tax system executed, local agro productions increased, deficits in the educational division addressed, shortfalls in the health sector corrected, deliberate massive investments in infrastructural development and robust exploration of public private partnerships on various economic opportunities. Any governor who simply cannot live up to this responsibility has no business in governance. He should honorably resign and return to his village.

Olusegun Elemo
olusegun.elemo@gmail.com

Please kindly note that this article was first published on Leadership Newspaper’s website.