Follow Us on Google
The flight that took me from Nigeria via Europe finally landed at Tel Aviv airport, which was then the capital of Israel, about 4:30am. The airport was beautifully lit but calm. I guessed it was not the rush hour yet, implying we had mainly the security agents to deal with. “Who is the leader of this delegation?” The question came through. Yours sincerely stepped forward carrying the usual Nigerian aura of coming from a mighty country, the “giant” of Africa for that matter. Don’t forget we can be very audacious.
What I had thought would have been inquisition session having heard of the famous Israeli security network turned out to be banter and lecture all rolled into one. «Your country is big quite alright, you people have population and to add to that natural resources which are big assets but majority of your people are very poor, they live below poverty line.»
He paused apparently thinking I had been provoked. I kept my calm. He landed the real question agitating his young, obviously pregnable mindset: “Bad people and poor governance culture are the reasons things are the way they are in your country.”
Drawing from the nationalism in me I took him up not aggressively though since his mien convinced me it was a genuine desire to know beyond stories he may have heard from official and secondary sources. «We are nascent, every developed country we know of in the world today passed this route. It is a deveIopmental process, after all Rome wasn›t built in a day,» I said, and continued: «These great countries had their rough paths before they entered their glory level.» He looked at me and smiled, it was as if he was saying, ‹I heard you, but you people got to be be honest with yourselves.›
Of course, that answer was not a lie so to speak. It was just off the mark, given modernity and preponderance of examples to draw from. It is foolhardy to remain on the level of perpetual learning curve when knowledge is pervasive. Lessons of history are there to show us pathways others walked through so that those coming behind know and develop ability to jump the potholes that caused their predecessors to stumble and record terrible falls. Lessons of history quicken the pace. The Israeli told me point blank: «Your leaders share out the country›s wealth among themselves, leaving out development, thereby leaving the rest of the population stranded. We can›t understand why individuals should take over ownership of oil wells. We won›t allow that.»
On face value the position of the Israeli would look like an insult but a little introspection will show it is the truth, that it is an honest, objective assessment of our condition by a foreigner, who is genuinely concerned about the plight of the Black race. He perceives we know the truth but afraid to tell ourselves that. Objective assessment of state would show us we don›t have «organization» in place. This has been so since independence. So, corporate ethics is not in place. Ad-hoc system is the culture. Leaders struggle to get to power before searching for what to do with power.
The biggest consequence from this malady is that we have an entity that looks like a country but in reality is no country. Countries evolve from their first state of combination of distinct units. It is the outcome of deliberate social engineering. In our case we have not evolved because we have turned attention away from the forces necessary to produce that and the husbanding work required. This is the root of what is an obvious tragedy. Every speech by our leaders, 63 years after independence, begins and ends with a resolve to protect or keep the unity of Nigeria. Some go to the absurd level of maintaining that unity in a social diverse society such as we have is “non-negotiable”. This view remains inspite of the number of universities with departments teaching social sciences, particularly political science. Why would unity remain a cardinal need if indeed we agreed to run under one nation, one destiny? Singing it as song is indicative of something fundamentally wrong. Foundational fault. If the foundation is faulty what can the best of leaders do?
Every issue we call a challenge didn›t just emanate few months ago. They had been there even before the British colonialists achieved what was clearly a forced union. Some components of Nigeria today didn›t want this union at all, and if it must be, they insisted, the shape must be different from what we have today. The core north is an example of those who desired something different. After disagreements and contentions the founding fathers agreed on federalism and independence. Six months after, the military was instigated to shoot their way to power. What followed was the bastardisation of the country’s political architecture and the national constitution agreed on before the union.
Today, we run on a constitution written at the instance of military officers that were both religious and ethnic jingoists. A grand law book with a preamble that begins with falsehood. Each provision is contradicted by the next sentence following it. For instance, it talks about a federal state and yet makes provisions for representation on indigeneship. States can’t have their security system. Just few days ago states got approval to go into electricity generation and rail development services, offered by even corporations when colonial masters were around and in-charge.
When we are assailed by sectarian conflicts, we seem lost when in actual fact the seed had long been sown by us, starting from the time of our forebears. Sit down and do the right thing, a small but powerful ethnic group will say no. They don›t just say no and leave it at that they ride the platform of effrontery, ride roughshod over the rest of us to introduce terrible models in governance style. We do away with fairness and justice and still want peace and unity. Contradictions don›t build, they only assist individuals and people understand their follies so as to turn away from them into the right paths if they are of sterner stuff.
If not, they collapse. Contradictions can sink and finally eclipse a society. We talk of insecurity and few days ago I saw hotel manager passing her internal security personnel through morning military style drills. I couldn›t help nodding and said to myself, «if federalism was properly practiced, even small corporate entities of different undertakings should have their own security setup in place. They will bear arms. Here a group insists all security concerns must be borne by the national army and then the police whereas soldiers should hardly be seen in public except there is a war. Today, army does internal and external duties. It is an aberration with huge strain on discipline, effectiveness and finance. We pay through the nose to keep them daily on streets. In Europe and Israel the security in hotels don›t belong to the state. They own them. The same thing for crude oil politics. It isn’t a new matter, it has been an issue even before independence. If we had federalism the people who oil is found in their lands should own it, produce and pay taxes. This is not what we have here, instead the state takes over and rather than run it with the highest standards of corporate responsibility they hand over public patrimony to crafty individuals. Individuals get fatter the rest of the population stays lean. Those whose land habour the oil are left empty and dry. Their territories uptil now look like war ravaged zones. Those who are responsible for this would tell you “after all their is provision for the development of the area and commission as if we used commission to develop Lagos and Abuja.
They never tell the public the creators of the commissions also appoint officers who work in the Commission. When the people show sign of revulsion, their oppressors take a recourse to state coercion instructments, they send in the army, police and the like in a manner those who know would think it is a response to external aggression. Oil pricing has remained an issue for decades running. Onetime Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon was right when they established refineries even some were located in areas that made economic sense. But it was better we had them.
Successive governments came and killed off the refeneries under western motivation that government has no business being in business. They used the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, IMF, and urged us to sell those assets and even to cease from providing anything such as housing, vehicles and the like for civil servants.
We bought into the retrogressive prescriptions since we are no thinking people and very incapable of knowing what is good for us. Look around and see what all that has left us with. An entity blessed with crude oil can’t refine it. We sell crude and reimport finished petroleum products at international market prices. Which sensible entity would toe this part?
No one needs to study economics or even go to university to know products are costlier in their finished state than when they are in their raw form. Our leaders know this much. In 63 years of nationhood the pricing of petrol remains an issue. Then somebody suggested subsidy but see the stupidity in the arrangement: send your vrude, send your crude abroad then add more money from public coffers to purchase same for public consumption. They ignore the huge corruption this could provoke and wastage of foreign exchange. Which sane people will think this way? Now cash flow has declined very much, the vaults are near empty, suddenly everyone is caught napping and the solution is remove the subsidy which is right but let the importation spree continue, which again is on the road to perdition.
So what is the solution in all of this? Government couldn’t build a refinery. This is an idea long overdue. It is unfortunate rather than go in that direction our successive administrations find it worthwhile to buy into individual businesses. This is strange. Many still wonder the kind of sense and economics this is. Echoes of conspiracy theory have been loud, we can leave that out but not the question why government doesn’t seem to place so much emphasis on establishing refeneries. Why? Why is attention so much on importation? President Tinubu is a victim of circumstance. Many of us know this. He hardly settled when power brokers pushed him. It wasn’t a fair push. He has displayed democratic temperament in handling matters arising so far. This is commendable. It counts for him.
He should think modular refeneries. He should encourage states to establish their own. He has mooted salary increase, that is good. Nevertheless, we urge a return to the old order. Let ministries and departments own staff buses run free or at subsidized rates. Staff canteens and workers housing estates. Nothing wrong if they have hospitals. Free education is possible in Nigeria for all levels. He should take another look at electricity supply. These are areas that can take away pressure from salaries and allowances.
