State-of-the-Nation: Giving face to capital projects by redefining socio-economic, political frameworks

Proferring solutions to the clusters of challenges confronting Nigeria is one call that unites the nation. The need for this, is not in any way an understatement when reality is put beforehand in the assessment and consideration of the state of affairs of the entire working fabrics of the Federation. Several strings of disturbances manifesting with bearing effects of multifaceted reflections largely present situations which require that matters be addressed strategically.

Recommendations from various angles by concerned stakeholders have continued to surface with resounding notations. It is however apparent that the discourse of the subject has more or less been coloured with ideological dichotomy of sentiments, particularly with signals of political apathy from the part of custodians of political authority to address some of the fundamental matters of concern requiring structural modifications.

While some political stakeholders have been at the vanguard of canvassing for premium structural changes which are strategically paramount to addressing the foundational troubles of the Country, it is observable that the percentage of those who fall within this bracket among blocs of political stakeholders are fewer when compared to those who have chosen and relaxed  into political, myopic leanings. It is disturbing that the culture of giving priority to political blocs of interest rather than address realities with sincerity of efforts in the best light of political integrity, responsibility and sense of trustworthiness as requested from representatives of the people, have over the years recorded higher influence in the setting of the Nigerian political terrain.

Joining the reservoir of asserting recommendations to addressing the troubling issues of the Country is the recent submissions of Elder Statesman and National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, whose assertions of addressing the wobbling state-of-the-nation is largely premised on key remodelling efforts bordering on the economy. According to him, while states and local government must shape their budgets to fit their revenues, the federal government should spend more to create more jobs for the youth in both the north and south which is key to eradicating restiveness and sundry criminality among the youth.

The Elder Statesman who spoke as the Chairman of the 2021 Sardauna Annual Memorial Lecture held on Saturday at the Arewa House, Kaduna, premised his position with a call to giving consideration to  structures of leading world class political economies. According to his,  the feat of successful economies were not achieved by those nations by accident but due to purposeful policy and the deeper understanding of the nature of money and the role of a national government in saving a flagging economy.

His submissions: “Take a look at the world. Those nations that recovered most quickly from the 2009 economic crisis and now from COVID-19 are those nations that most engaged in government stimulus spending to revive their flagging economies.  Thus, America recently embarked on US$1.9 trillion stimulus to boost the economy. It was not said that this government spending would erode jobs but that it would create them. Thus, we should not be so against government spending. If it is for the right purposes, it can do essential things that the private sector cannot. What we should be against is wasteful government spending. Building vital infrastructure such as irrigation and water catchment systems will help agriculture, arrest desertification and provide jobs. Only government has the power and resources to call forth such a program. Another readily available area primed for investment is the agro allied industry which, for the northern region is particularly advantageous. Urban populations are growing but urban jobs are not. Here, government must implement a national industrial policy to encourage key industries that begin to employ this growing urban work force.

“Like I said in my recent statement on the pressing issue of the herder and farmer dispute, we must appreciate that martial security measures alone will not suffice. Problems that are essentially of an economic origin must also have an economic solution. Enhanced security may be the necessary first step, but it cannot be the only step. We cannot resolve this problem by holding on to one-dimensional answers. We must all be dispassionate in our search for solutions. These challenges are multi-faceted and so shall the solutions must be. The issue of insecurity, poverty, unemployment and extremism have many things to do with governance, over time. At bottom we must tackle our deep and widespread poverty. If we limit government’s role under the erroneous assumption that government spending is intrinsically unproductive then we tether ourselves to failure. We would do well to more critically study how other populous nations such as the UK, US, Germany and China charted their course during their formative years. You will see that they did not adhere to small government or the purportedly free market. Government engaged in massive spending on infrastructure and education while also engaging in policies that protected industrial development and key aspects of the agricultural sector. Only when they matured and held advantages over other nations, did the UK and US begin to champion free markets and small government. We would do well to understand this history and learn what it means for our own pursuit of development.”

In his own position on the present woes of the Country,  Governor of Plateau State and Chairman of Northern Governors’ Forum, Rt. Hon. Simon Bako Lalong in a paper titled “Reducing the Cost of Governance For Inclusive Growth and Youth Development in Post COVID-19 Northern Nigeria” noted that Nigeria has further been stricken with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, which have further compounded the Country’s problem of inclusive growth and youth development, especially in Northern Nigeria which hitherto has the lowest economic growth rate in the Country and the most poverty stricken part of the Country.

He was quoted: “Currently, the cost of governance is astronomically high that so many sectors of the economy have remained underdeveloped. This is ostensibly attributed to the fact that the resources that are meant to be channeled to sectors like Education, Health, Agriculture, etc are consumed by overheads or administrative costs such as very high salaries of political appointees and the elected officials as well as maintenance of government structures. The resultant effect is exclusive or slow growth, underdevelopment and youth restiveness, particularly in Northern Nigeria. This presentation seeks to establish the major indices responsible for the rising cost of governance in Nigeria and how it can be curbed. It also seeks to address the phenomenon of inclusive growth, youth developent and how these could be achieved in the post COVID-19 Northern Nigeria. In Nigeria today the cost of governance is astronomically high such that so many sectors of the country have remained underdeveloped. Governance in Nigeria at all levels has become very expensive that other aspects like social, educational, economic and political spheres are also feeling the negative impact of such high cost of Governance. This high cost, commonly attributed to factors such as high overhead cost, at the detriment of capital and developmental projects, high recurrent spending, multiplicity of ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), retinue of political appointees for political patronage. The presidential system of Government with its attendant cost of operation where the legislature as the second tier of Government also come with a very high cost. For example, while the sum of One Hundred and Twenty-Seven Billion Naira (N127,000,000,000) was allocated to education in the 2021 budget, the sum of One Hundred and Twenty-Eight Billion Naira (N128,000,000,000) was allocated to the National Assembly. The tenets or antecedents of Civil Servants in relation to lack of integrity and accountability, according to Adamu and Rasheed (2016) are also major contributors to the high cost of Governance in Nigeria.” Among his submissions on measures to be taken by the Government towards addressing the rising socio-economic imbalances in the Country, is the emphasis on the need for youths to be empowered with entrepreneurial activities to support their means of livelihood by Government through its Agencies like the Central Bank, NGO’s, critical units of United Nations Organization, World Bank, and the Private Sector.

Submissions on addressing the challenges confronting the Country have largely flowed along the need to address fundamental parameters of the economy. It is apparent by observation that the strings erupting from the wobbling state of the economy are formative foundations for the myriads of socio-economic and political dysfunctional manifestations. It is therefore arguable that addressing key fundamental problems of the economy is a ticket to addressing a number of problems in the socio-economic and political fabrics of the Country. While such matters may bear economic definitions, it is observable that they cannot entirely be isolated from socio-political architectures, since by nature they portend effects to the workings of these structures. The resonating intelligence therefore, reflects a strong hypothesis that addressing such problems as wasteful government spending; cost of governance; restructuring of the political economy of the Federation are plausible submissions which by and large bear relevance to thriving possibilities on the impetus of political architecture.

The submittal is thus an expression that directing attention to reforming these working political-economic structures will correct the system of allocations to give ample atmosphere for massive execution of capital projects which the economy is significantly thirsty for. The need for diversification have been right one of the  resounding submissions to address the weaken status of the economy. However, it is arguable that leaving the prevailing structures in persistence may never afford the possibilities of this necessity. The need for infrastructures for other sectors such as  agriculture, agro-allied industries, mining, manufacturing among others to work productively at the height of self-sufficiency is pragmatically paramount. It is, hence, imperative for the working faculty of the Government to have a redefinition towards the interfacing connectivity of these socio-economic and political necessities.