The world, nay, Nigeria is endowed with sufficient and adequate wealth and resources to ensure that the over 200 million people experience decent standards of living. Yes, this is a hard fact. Before I come home to the roosters, let’s first mind the rampaging foxes in the vineyard.
The world has enough wealth and resources to ensure that the entire human race enjoys a decent standard of living.
But not a few countries are living in despairing scarcity. Why are these countries adjudged to be enmeshed in poverty? The best way to explain it is by looking at the Gross Domestic Products per capital (per person) and the Purchasing Power Parity, that is the individual’s buying power in a given country.
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According to the International Monetary Fund, World Economic Outlook, published April 2023, the top 10 poorest countries in the world are all in Africa. While South Sudan is the world’s poorest and Liberia is the tenth poorest, with Burundi, Central African Republic, Somalia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mozambique, Niger, Malawi, and Chad taking their positions in that order in the committee of poorest countries, Nigeria occupies number 48 among the pitiable countries.
Why this sustained poverty and a people’s destinies run roughshod in the midst of plenty? The IMF’s World Economic Outlook tries to come up with causes. According to it: “Corrupt governments can make a very rich nation into a poor one. And so can a history of exploitative colonisation, weak rule of law, war and social unrest, severe climate conditions or hostile, aggressive neighbours. Weaknesses compound: A country in debt will not be able to afford good schools, and a poorly educated workforce will limit capacity.”
Taking a look at some of the world’s largest economies, we can find cases where the financial management has somehow gone wrong, writes Wikipedia. Argentina, with its many natural resources, well-educated workforce and export-oriented agricultural sector, has been through quite a few ups and downs which led to a severe recession and ever-increasing poverty. The country’s increasing public debt was one of the reasons for the recession. Greece, by the end of 2009, experienced one of the most severe economic collapses. The crisis resulted in great public poverty. In Athens, 20 percent of the shops were all of a sudden completely empty; and in February 2012 it was reported that 20,000 Greeks, during the preceding year had been made destitute.
Stefan Fölster, in his: “Rethinking The Public Wealth Of Nations,” declared: “Most governments know a lot about their debt but little about their assets.” Perhaps it is the poor grasp of what constitutes the wealth that often leads to poor management, misappropriation and wastage of loans and unending borrowings to further plunge the people to destitution.
Recent issues emanating from Abuja about how the resources (mostly acquired debts) are appropriated is hardly pleasing to discerning minds. That over a trillion naira is a subject of misappropriation hara-kiri by the national assembly, as alleged by the suspended Abdul Ningi, is not only worrisome about a sustained rundown mission of a people’s wealth but also a pointer to the fact that the Nigeria’s legislature occupants, year after year, are on their personal mission that fits perfectly the description by the IMF World Economic Outlook cited above.
It was in 2016 that the former President Olusegun Obasanjo described the National Assembly as a den of corruption occupied by unarmed robbers during the first Akintola Williams Annual Lecture in Lagos. “The national assembly cabal of today is worse than any cabal that anybody may find anywhere in our national governance system at any time. Members of the national assembly pay themselves allowances for staff and offices they do not have or maintain. Once you are a member, you are co-opted and your mouth is stuffed with rottenness and corruption that you cannot opt out as you go home with not less than N15 million a month for a senator and N10 million a month for a member of the house of representatives.”
How can the National Assembly claim they have oversight responsibilities and they can appropriate for themselves so-called constituency projects in billions of naira? The Niger Delta Ministry investigation when the current Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, was the minister also speaks a lot about a National Assembly populated by contractors and rent seekers and not legislators. Without mincing words, there is a public disorder in the governance of Nigeria; and this bata drum is sounding high-pitch off tune and near tearing point.
The famous Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore says: “We cannot afford to forget that public order, personal security, economic and social progress, and prosperity are not the natural order of things, that they depend on ceaseless effort and attention from an honest and effective government that they people must elect.”
Communal bullying and intimidation made Singapore people willing to endure the hardships of going it alone. Nigeria’s own is the lumping of nations of different orientations together to be managed by a government with zero institutional culture in a unitary system. Yew asserts that the traumatic experience of race riots also made his colleagues and himself even more determined to build a society that would give equality to all citizens, regardless of race, language, or religion.
Nigeria can attain heights or such determination if we can recognise that Nigeria is not homogeneous and progress can only be attained when we know that true federalism means dual sovereignty, as I mentioned last week. Nigeria must grow and develop at states’ respective pace to elicit healthy developmental competition. This present system of governance is very backward and highly destructive.
Obasanjo, though full of his own shortcomings, said: “If the judiciary is being cleaned, what of the National Assembly which stinks much worse than the judiciary?” As things are at present in Nigeria, not only the National Assembly needs cleaning but the entire governance system. Abuja is destroying Nigeria, and we need to make it no longer uninteresting to political hatchet men and women. We must carry out fiscal restructuring of Nigeria whereby the wealth of the people is controlled by the people, and the states only pay interests or make contributions to the centre. We need to curb these mercenaries that are only self-seeking and the time for people to rise and do it is now.
. Emmanuel is a business planning consultant and founder of Leacent Incorporated Trustees, a network of entrepreneurs and group of cooperatives. He works with a team of international consultants to conceptualise and plan agribusiness and housing projects. As a certified trainer authorised to use the International Labour Organisation’s enterprise development modules, he trains entrepreneurs and organises workshops and seminars for potential and practising entrepreneurs as well as business managers and cooperatives. He also speaks and facilitates at leadership and management workshops on invitation. His book, Business Planning Made Easy: Step by Step Guide On How To Turn Your Idea To Profitable Business’ is the latest of the books authored by him. Tel.: +234(0)9068602954 (call and sms), +234(0)8023257707 (WhatsApp only).