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This piece is a continuation of a series that I started last week. Last week’s article was on the abandonment of projects by the Federal Government. I came to the inescapable conclusion that the reason Nigeria is wobbly is because of not just leadership failure but more importantly because of followership failure. I said that all of us who occupy the Office of the Citizen (OOTC) have failed in the duty of making our leaders to do what they ought to do for the progress, stability and security of Nigeria.
Today’s sermon is on abandoned projects in the States and the failure of citizens to get their leaders to complete or revamp them. A few examples will illuminate our sermon. Some years ago, a 12-kilometre monorail was initiated by Governor Rotimi Amaechi in Rivers State. About N33.9 billion had been spent and the project was abandoned at 2.6 kilometres. It is more than a decade since the project was consigned to the margins. The project stands there, looking ugly like a refuse heap, looking boring like a rainy day and nothing has been done, nothing is being done, to bring the project to the happy shores of completion. It is because the rulers of the state after Amaechi are not singing from the same hymn book. And the citizens have stayed silent but silence in this situation is the ornament and safeguard of the ignorant. Perhaps they are hoping, merely hoping, that some government will complete the project in future. But hope, according to Francis Bacon is a “good breakfast but a bad supper.” There is the Katsina windmills in Katsina State. The N4.4 billion renewable energy project has been stalled for years and the people are deprived of a life transforming asset. There is the $350 million tourist and economic hub in Calabar, Cross River State initiated by Governor Donald Duke’s government. Much of the facility is said to be dormant or under utilised. However, I am told that Governor Bassey Otu is giving the facility a new lease of life which can substantially improve the State’s internally generated revenue.
There is also the Bayelsa Tower Hotel, an 18-storey five star hotel project in Bayelsa State. About N6 billion had already been spent on the project before work was stopped. It is standing there in its half-naked state, looking like the tower of Babel, looking menacingly ugly. And the people, the citizens, have said nothing, done nothing, about it. There is the Abuja CCTV project, a $460 million affair that has generated a lot of controversy in the Federal Capital Territory. There is the Ikere George Dam with a 565-million cubic-metre water reservoir in the Iseyin LGA of Oyo State. It has been abandoned too. Its turbines imported during Shehu Shagari administration are said to be gathering dust where they were kept. Should we believe this?
According to the Chartered Institute of Project Managers of Nigeria (CIPMN), the total value of abandoned projects in Nigeria is N17 trillion. Also, the Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors (NIQS) estimates that the number of abandoned projects is about 56, 000. The list includes roads, bridges, housing projects, airports, hotels etc. Worthy of note is that accountability reports by Budget IT’s Tracka has named five states with the highest concentration of unexecuted or abandoned public projects. They are Taraba, Abia, Nasarawa, Benue and Ondo. This column wishes to appeal to the Governors who now run those states to get on the ball, review the projects if a review is needed and get them completed. This column cannot name all the abandoned projects in the 36 states, but the citizens know where they are. .
There are several reasons why projects are abandoned. One, at campaign periods politicians who are seeking for people’s votes make fabulous promises to the voters without knowing the state of affairs, money-wise. Then they win an election and get into office only to find out that their promises are unfulfillable. Reason? No money. Eventhough they had told the people that when they step into office they would be firing on all cylinders, they are now firing on one cylinder only. Eventhough they had told the people that they would hit the ground running, they now hit the ground crawling. So, the projects they inherited remain dormant or dead like a dodo.
Two, Governments make plans based on estimated revenue. The funds of State Governments come from two sources namely, Federal allocation and internally generated revenue in the state concerned. Both streams of revenue do not come with specificity. They depend on other factors, some of them local, some of them global. If a factor favours increased revenue from the Federation account such as the current war in Iran, then there is a windfall. If there is creativity in the generation of internally generated revenue and no corruption within that system there may be a windfall too. So revenue coming into the wallet of State Governments is fenced round with ifs every year. It is these ifs that contribute to the uncertainty about government revenue. And project execution depends on available revenue. Many projects therefore get abandoned or reduced in size when the revenue expectations in the budget are not met.
Three, some politicians simply refuse to implement projects initiated by their predecessors either because they represent different parties or different ethnic groups or simply because they think that credit will go to the initiators if completed. This is a very selfish approach to governance. And there are many such selfish politicians in our midst who believe that it is only projects initiated by them that will ring a bell in their favour. However, some politicians have adopted a clever approach to the issue. When they complete a project initiated by their predecessor they put on the plague of the commissioning something like this: “This project was initiated by Governor ABC and completed and commissioned by Governor XYZ.” That is a clever way of giving credit to both the initiator and the finisher. No one loses. The people gain.
Four, some Governors think that some projects initiated by their predecessor(s) are not people-centred and therefore not worthy of their attention. So they decide to push the gearstick of governance in the state to negative. They forget that the money that is going down the drain belongs to the state and that if the project is completed the people will benefit somehow from the project. The abandonment of the project because a new governor feels that the project initiated by his predecessor does not have maximum value for the people is to me, an exhibition of superiority complex. If you have to review the project, review it but abandoning it is a No No because that is public money thrown into the gutter. That approach benefits neither the predecessor, nor the successor nor the people. If a project sited in a state is abandoned it is a failure. If the citizens keep quiet their silence gives the impression that they are satisfied with that failure. That attitude constitutes a greater failure on the part of the people. You cannot improve your state with silence. It was Thomas Carlyle who said that “speech is great but silence is greater.” Yes, this is true in some, not all, circumstances. When you maintain a stout silence when something is going wrong you are invariably and unmistakably complicit, a co-conspirator to evil. And we, all of us, who keep quiet when things are going wrong are not right; we are wrong, as wrong as what has gone wrong.
Today, many of our State Governors are behaving like emperors, giving duchessy orders eventhough we are in a democracy where there should be conversation that should lead to good decision-taking. I want to give every citizen of every State an assignment. If there are abandoned projects in your state pick up your phone and send a message to your Governor asking him to pay attention to it in the interest of the people. That is your duty as a citizen who occupies the Office of the Citizen. That is how you can nip in the bud followership failure which invariably leads to leadership failure in our country. Do it now. Thank you.
