According to elders, the one-eyed man becomes the king in the city populated by people with impaired eye-sights. Also, in leadership and management, celebration of short wins is something good to do, but is only permitted with eyes fixed on the broader, ultimate goal where there are physical manifestations to show that progress is being made. The measurable, step-by-step achievements toward actualization of the ultimate, broader heights connotes one will not mistake a fraction for the entire, larger whole; and will not drop by wayside thinking he has accomplished everything possible when there is much in front still waiting to be garnered. And that is why it is called ‘short-wins’ – a chip from the whole. It should not be – and cannot be – the absolute mission. Therefore, for a leader of a people not to mistake a part for the whole, time must be well measured and apportioned to fit accomplishments; and the entire expected deliverables must be well placed within a broader timeframe. But when a government, term upon term, is fond of celebrating primary obligations as extraordinary achievement, it speaks a lot about the abundance in the hearts of such managers of people’s destinies, their intelligent quotient and the quality of intellectual capacity as well as know-how that they brandish as they scheme to take control (or hijack in a do-or-die manner) to administer the affairs of a people.
Over the weekend (Saturday, February 8, 2025), the Oyo State Government made a press release to celebrate its 2024 VAT collection figure. In the release e-signed by the State’s Commissioner for Information and Orientation, the state government gleefully celebrated its triumph as the third highest contributor to VAT pool among the 36 States of the federation and the FCT. This feat, according to the commissioner, was as a result of the “right stimulus” deployed to trigger the economic potential of the state. And what was the stimulus? Governor Seyi Makinde, not the state government, was “pumping ₦6.4 billion into the state economy on the 25th day of every month for almost five years”. And where the money was being pumped, a probing mind would ask. Salaries of 130,000 government employees (a minute 0.014% of the 9 million population) are paid every month, In his guffaw, the purchasing powers of these 130,000 government employees are sufficient enough to stimulate and keep rolling the economic activities in the state populated by about nine million people. In his words, “the sheer consistency of salary payments on a given day has upgraded kátàkárà and opened up patronages for artisans of different persuasions”. What an achievement to take what is done to a miniscule section (130,000 people) as commensurate potential of nine million people if all, in diverse sectors, are effectively stimulated!
The issue of salary payment as a government achievement has become the well-worn cliché of Oyo State government over years. Ask any government official in Oyo State, administration upon administration, to point at government’s achievement, salary payment is the first touted, most times, and only achievement to be played up with much hype and with much garrulous innuendoes. It speaks a lot about the people. It conveys to the discerning the pervading mentality of majority of the people being governed. It tries to say a lot that the millions of people in Oyo State are pliable with no aspirations and expectations – a people that may be profiled (albeit not) as incapable of intellectual capacity to know and understand what good governance entails, what good governance should be, and a people that cannot really identify a good governance. Can one say these people have submitted themselves to anyhow leadership, that they are malleable and that they are ever happy in ignorance? Since majority know nothing about what it means to have better life and what should be the duties of the managers of their resources in making possible better life, the few that know have been cowed into submission and their voices drowned by the vociferous and highly babelous ‘ayes’ of the ignorants.
In the government’s celebration through the press release, it took a sideswipe at Lagos. “With no seaports to beef up its economy and a paltry ₦5 billion monthly IGR (compared) to Lagos’ ₦65 billion”, the statement reads. Is a seaport necessary before Oyo State can grow its own economy? It is like the Oyo State government officials have not really taken to heart the correct position of the State Governor, especially since the beginning of his second term (in his drag with the federal government on local government autonomy) that each state is a sovereign entity. Oyo State has no seaport but what is expected of a landlocked state in a federation to grow and develop its economy?
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To help the government officials rethink on his ‘no seaport’ jibe, let’s learn a thing or two from sovereign states with no seaports that are developed economies with enviable heights, and whose population are equal or below that of Oyo State. Luxembourg, Switzerland, Austria, Andorra, San Marino, Liechtenstein, even Vatican City are all wealthy landlocked sovereign states that have thriving economies. These countries have developed industries that don’t rely on seaports or coastlines and they are countries with highest levels of per capita incomes.
The total population of Luxembourg is about 700 thousand people, far less than the number of people in Ibadan (3.8 million, estimated). As at July 2024, Luxembourg was the world’s richest landlocked country with GDP per capita of US$128,259. The economy is built on steel manufacturing, tourism, logistics, information technology and banking. Oyo state and Switzerland has almost equal population of average 9 million people. However, while Oyo State wallows in its economic quagmire, Switzerland, a country without seaport, is thriving on services (banking, insurance and tourism), industry and agriculture as mainstay of its economic activities. Switzerland’s economy is based mainly on high-value products: pharmaceuticals and chemicals, watchmaking and machinery. San Marino ranks among the richest landlocked countries in the world with per capita of US$54,982.45 as at 2021 (according to World Bank). The landlocked country’s economy (within Italy just like Oyo State is within Nigeria) with a population of 35,000 people is built around commercial agriculture (grains, grapes and fruits), banking, electronics, and ceramics as well as tourism which accounts for about 22% of its GDP.
What about Austria, a country of equal population with Oyo State? Austria’s economy relies on exports from highly developed agriculture, services (including tourism), manufacturing of high-quality vehicle components, and production of natural magnesite (for chemical industry). Andorra on its own has population of 85,000 people (far less than Iseyin people). Andorra’s economy heavily relies on tourism, with majority of its GDP coming from visitors drawn to the country’s duty-free shopping, skiing, and outdoor activities. The per capita GDP of these people was US$53,000 as at 2017, and doing very well in sheep rearing.
Should Oyo State be an economy driven by civil servants’ salary payment? Can officials in charge of the state think about the economic potential of the state where various sectors are effectively and efficiently stimulated? Can these government functionaries really think about what will be happening where other sectors of the state’s economy are making their fair share of contributions? What would have been happening where over 5 million have first-line real sector economic engagements well supported by spin-off service providers? Wearing a thinking cap for optimized productive engagements will do a lot of good – and this is the time.
. Ola Emmanuel is a business planning consultant.
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