State governors should independently plan to grow their economies, or their citizens should compel them. They must work with the local governments, which Section 7(3) of the 1999 Constitution requires “to participate in (the) economic planning and development of (their) area(s).”
And the “statutory allocation of public revenue,” which Section 8 of the Constitution requires the National and state assemblies to provide for local government authorities, should be judiciously expended for the growth of state economies.
Even when Nigerians complain about the overarching and dysfunctional influence of the central government on the fortunes of the states, no one can blame the central government for the pilfering and wrongful diversion of public funds at the state level. Governors must be held accountable for their misdemeanours.
Anyone who thinks that the demands of Section 16(1 and 2) of the Constitution, for the harnessing of “the resources of the nation… promote national prosperity…secure the maximum welfare…of every citizen… (and provide) suitable and adequate shelter, suitable and adequate food,” apply only to the central government, must think again.
The central government depends on offshore oil revenue, customs duties, (mostly value added) tax and debt, to finance its mostly overhead, debt servicing and token infrastructural, expenditures. State governments too have been sucked into that abysmal vortex.
The 2021 Federal Budget is Ń13.08tn, about 9.3 per cent of the $360bn or N150tn projected Gross Domestic Product for the year, (going by the generally ignored official Central Bank of Nigeria exchange rate).
Even if you add the budgets of the 36 state governments, it will still be insignificant when compared to the GDP. This is to acknowledge that the economy is bigger than the annual budgets.
It might help to put in perspective the reality that only Lagos State, whose internally generated revenue is almost independent of remittances from the Federation Allocation Account Committee, had a budget (of N1.163 trillion) in excess of N1tn in 2021.
Oil producing Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Delta and Abia states are skirting N500 billion, as significant portions of their annual budgets depend on proceeds from the FAAC, which is in turn, significantly funded by oil revenue.
Former Lagos State governor, Bola Tinubu, thinks that government spending is critical to the economic progress of Nigeria. His theory is informed by classical economists, who believe government should maintain the commanding heights of the economy. This may have been so, immediately after Nigeria’s flag independence.
These days’ governments, that already provide jobs for public servants, anyway, should only evolve macro-economic and monetary policies that will empower, or enable the private sector to prosper, and provide the goods and services needed by the citizens.
Tinubu avers, “We must reject that mode of thinking that assumes government expenditure is inherently unproductive as well as harmful to the overall economy.” He however, emphasises capital or infrasructural projects, which private corporations can handle these days:
The development of any populous nation has always been dependent on the ability of government to allocate sufficient funds to projects and programmes that directly create growth and employment.”
The Federal Government, that employs roughly one million (mostly idle) civil servants and political office holders, certainly has no capacity to employ a significant proportion of the 23.19 million Nigerians that the National Bureau of Statistics reports are unemployed or marginally employed.
The World Bank estimates that by 2022, another 15 to 20 million will join the ranks of the unemployed, and raise the number of Nigeria’s poor to 100 million. While the United Nations Development Programme defines poverty as lack of basic needs, food, clothing and shelter, the World Bank defines it simply as hunger.
To get out of this self-inflicted rut, the first step is that state governors must stop stealing public wealth, engage thoroughbred technocrats to help think through and fashion out humane, but technologically driven, policies that will rapidly drive their economies northward.
The first Premier of defunct Western Nigeria, Obafemi Awolowo, has left copious tome of literature on this subject. Any ethnic jingoist, who does not want to travel the path of Awolowo can employ the services of development economists, philosophers and scientists in Nigeria’s ivory towers.
You are going to be awed by the quantum of creative thought therein. Every state must embark on deliberate investment in Research & Development into issues that are peculiar to its environment. Collaboration between coterminus states into areas of mutual interest should be explored.
The place of creative thought and the employment of the new digital tech in the states cannot be overemphasised going forward. The 4th Industrial Revolution is the place where the youths, said to be 70 per cent of Nigeria’s population, can be engaged profitably.
States must also engage the expertise of Nigeria’s Diaspora to harness the latest technologies. Again, governors do not need the Federal Government before they can push the frontiers of the New Economy within their states.
They must pay utmost attention to Artificial Intelligence, the future technology that is already here, and which experts predict will likely replace about 40 per cent of jobs, as it is known now, within the next 15 to 20 years.
Ekiti State governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, is treading that path with the establishment of the innovative Èkìtì State Knowledge Zone that is expected to host the Space Communication Satellite Centre.
It’s interesting that the CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, who was shooting down the idea of digital cryptocurrency, until Vice President Yemi Osinbajo stared him down, is now canvassing digital infrastructure.
It is also imperative for state governments to invest in infrastructure for water, electricity, railways and roads through public and private efforts, create jobs, put money in the system, and create the enabling environment for business to prosper.
Because the constitution allows state governments to engage in these key sectors, states must not hesitate to engage in them. They must also drive the initiative to explore mineral resources within their borders.
Governors may need to assemble legal teams, like that of former Governor Tinubu that engaged former President Olusegun Obasanjo whose jackboot background got in the way of Lagos State creating new local governments.
Such a team will explain the nuances of the constitution and the legal remedies available to the state in case another meddlesome Federal Government is thinking in the wrong-headed manner of a unitary political structure.
Education is key to the turnaround. State governments should adequately fund their vocational and academic institutions in order to create the cadres of manpower that will man their economic renaissance.
Merit must be the watchword for admission into these institutions. Imagine how gladsome it would be if state universities have higher Unified Tertiary and Matriculation Examination cut-off points than federal universities.
That will be the end of gnashing of teeth concerning discrimination in favour of the so-called educationally disadvantaged candidates over better academically endowed candidates who are denied admission into tertiary institutions.
One critical area that can compromise whatever gains may result from these efforts is that of security, which rests almost solely in the hands of the Federal Government. The way to deal with that is to sponsor bills that will amend the constitution to establish state police forces.
Security is key to economic development, especially in a federation like Nigeria with a vast territory and diverse cultures.
