By Julius Ogar
Nigerians are going through the grill and apart from cabinet and party members, everyone has “Tinubu” on their lips. Maybe because it’s Tinubu’s turn.
Being called out fairly or unfairly comes with the job.But no one is calling out their state governors and representatives. And there is ample reason to do so.
The total absence of business opportunities alone provides more than enough justification to carry placards in every state capital – and march to all government houses to demand that state executives render account of the funds they receive – especially given the incremental value that has come with the removal of subsidies.
As you read this piece, we are awaiting the ruling of the Supreme Court on a suit filed by 19 states of federation seeking the abolition of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
Such brazen, pro-corruption audacity!Citizens should be asking: Where are the infrastructure and industries states are building to create jobs and wealth for the populace? Without such questions, Governors will hibernate in all seasons knowing that Abuja takes all the blame for every malfeasance, including foreign companies seizing national assets for infractions committed by States.
If development is so completely out of the reach of states, why can’t governors do the next best thing – pay state and local government workers living wages? Why are the arrears of pensions and gratuities running into months and years?
Why are schools, hospitals, roads, and basically every other thing falling to pieces? Why are citizens and businesses relying on generators for electricity and why can’t citizens enjoy ordinary pipe borne water?I was elated, overly excited even, when Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu announced that not only will Lagos State pay its employees N85, 000 as minimum wage – which is about 13 percent above the approved national baseline, but that he hopes to raise it to N100, 000 by January 2025.
It may be tempting in the typical Nigerian way to ask the cynical question: what is the value of 85k or 100k? Indeed it doesn’t amount to much given the cost of petrol, food, transportation, and other essentials by today’s realities.
It assumes even less value when we think and reason in dollars like we generally do these days.Five years later, there are States in this country yet to implement the 30k minimum wage approved and gazetted as law in 2019.
Others, I understand, pay workers in percentages—whatever that means! The reactions of citizens from such states indicate that such percentage payment is a malpractice that short-changes workers.
Following on the heels of Lagos is Rivers, whose governor, Siminalayi Fubara, is also ready to break the federal ceiling. Good tidings! But this time I’m not so impressed. There’s a difference between altruism and politics.
In case you miss the drift, Sanwo-Olu is not going for another term, whereas Fubara has every reason to start prospecting for votes by investing in workers’ wages before the redoubtable Nyesom Wike pulls the rug.
Far more than the welfare of Rivers people, is Fubara’s fight for 2027. The top three states in Nigeria in terms of allocations from Federation Account as at 2023 are Delta, Rivers, and Akwa-Ibom respectively.
Lagos comes in at fourth place. But when it comes to the development and provision of social infrastructure, less has accrued from those to whom much has been given.
Today, Lagos is crisscrossed by blue and red rail lines and trains, rapid bus lanes, gas-powered tricycles, and a general upgrade that struggles to keep pace with an exploding population.
The State has grown beyond the Lagos of Obalende, Victoria Island, Ikeja, and Ikoyi to a mega metropolis – warts and all. Other states can hardly measure up to this level of urbanisation beyond their capitals and a few townships.
Yet, no one is asking the “presidents” of their respective states: what’s gwan with the billions and trillions.The Federal Government had hardly signed the new minimum wage act before some states started hissing and hinting at the inability to pay. And in the absence of developmental projects in most of these states – if we discount the white elephants, there is essentially no justification for that inability.
Lagos is proof that Nigeria’s second and third tiers of government can be radically different from what presently obtains. What it takes is the courage not to be in the bandwagon of lassitude – the lazy and unproductive attitude of feeding from the Abuja trough at the end of every month.
Aside from Lagos, few States in Nigeria can be financially independent without federal allocations. Internally generated revenues, industries and manufacturing are at near zero levels.
State and local bureaucracies exist simply to pay salaries. And those salaries are waited for till the governor and commissioner for finance return from Federation Account Allocation meetings.
Despite its sheer chaos and bedlam, Lagos State has been the pacesetter in consolidated and incremental development.
It has been intentional in building and upgrading transport infrastructure, land reclamation, urban renewal, traffic control and generally keeping the state on a trajectory of modernisation.
All of this the State manages to do with a resident population that can crowd out an ocean.The argument that Lagos was a former federal Capital lost relevance a long time ago, and is no longer tenable. Ibadan, Enugu, Kaduna and Benin City were at some point regional capitals as well!
Where are their city trains, bus rapid services, and power plants?If other states moved in the direction of Lagos, Nigeria would be a much different country in terms of infrastructure, jobs, and urbanisation. With near-nationwide comparative advantage in agriculture and some intentional investment in agro-allied industries and manufacturing, much mileage could be achieved.
But with oil money to be shared, this seems like asking for too much. Cross River, Benue, Kogi, Nasarawa, Taraba, Niger would practically consider federation allocations as bonuses if they were more intentional about agriculture and agro manufacturing.
But along with others, they are cheekily called “civil service states”, a condescension that should cause any serious leader to cringe with embarrassment.We can heckle Tinubu and indeed we should.
But we ought to face the truth that the fast food shared at the federal table is causing bloated bellies for the political elites and leaving ordinary folks severely malnourished and deprived at the states. Next time you want to protest, ask your governor why, if he can’t do better than Lagos, he is not even trying to imitate Lagos.
Julius Ogar writes from Utako, Abuja.
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