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New Page 10
The celebration of underdevelopment
JOSEPH OMOWA
IN our brand
of federation, people still clamour for a complete devolution of power to the
lower tiers of governments in which state police, among other things, would be
made to exist side by side with the Federal Police as practised in respectable
countries. Never mind that some of our governors will use state police to settle
personal or political scores.
Yet some other Nigerians have consistently
called for complete overall of the revenue allocation formula in favour of the
lower tiers in an effort to empower the states and the local governments with
greater portion of the oil money. Until such demands are implemented through the
much advertised National Conference either in parts or in whole, one must
continue to query the use to which the trillions of naira from the Federal
Accounts are being put.
The attention of all Nigerians and the
International Community has consistently been focused on the level and rate of
population growth accompanied by increasing level of poverty, economic decay,
poor health of the populace, depreciating and falling standards of living, lack
of essential infrastructural services, neglect of educational facilities,
growing incidents of unemployment and under-employment. There is no doubting the
possibility of other woes emanating from the throes of these social and economic
malaises such as armed banditry, ethnic clashes and other social misdemeanours.
These represent the problems requiring solution by those in positions of
authority.
It is, therefore, not surprising that
Nigerians daily complain about the denial of the dividends of democracy under a
democratic civilian dispensation in which much hope has been reposed. But
whatever one might say about the failure or inability of the actors to deliver,
there is the need to stress that one of the beauties of the type of federal
being practised in this country, is that every citizen belongs to the three
tiers of government at the local, state and the federal levels; such a structure
is calculated to bestow some triple development benefits on every citizen
depending on the responsibilities assigned to each by the 1999 constitution of
the Federal Republic of Nigeria. But as things stand, it seems that many critics
have taken the non-performance of many local and state levels of government for
granted, all the criticisms of non-performance are majorly and entirely heaped
at the doorstep of the Federal Government. This must not be seen as an attempt
to exculpate the first tier of government which should by right set the tone of
development through the procurement of a National Economic Development Master
plan, rolling out the direction of developments at all levels of government via
an effective micro and macro economic policy guidelines. As things are today,
every chief executive has no guideline, even the political party manifestoes are
subjected to numerous interpretations, every level of government is made or left
to do its own thing to the detriment of the masses and denial of improvement in
their standard of living.
There is a proper need to put the existing
situation and the relationship between the governments and the people in proper
perspectives; but the question that is germane today is how effectively have
these different tiers of government fulfilled their constitutional assignments
and social pacts with the governed? Should every tier of government not impact
to its citizenry dividends of democracy commensurate with its financial
resources? Should these levels of government not co-ordinate their development
strategies while the Federal Government sets the tone of economic policy for the
nation, direction of development and progress irrespective of the political
ideology espoused by each level of government, because what is paramount to
Nigerians is development and the improvement in their standard of living?
Questions are asked everyday in respect of
the suffering of Nigerians and the seeming neglect of governments for the
betterment of the people. However, a rare opportunity was created on May 29 when
Nigerians can ask more questions about the level of performance of these tiers
of government. It is on record that the present civilian administration came on
board on May 29, 1999, and has consequently taken that day as democracy day when
perceived achievements are rolled out and celebrated by them. We need not break
heads or bother ourselves as to which day either May 29 or June 12 that should
be set aside for celebration as democracy day. This debate or disagreement
remains the creation of the elite, but for the Nigerian masses who are
thoroughly mired and trapped in the abyss of poverty and under-development,
their democracy day is neither of the dates, and not even October 1, when they
were granted Independence by the Colonial Masters. Their democracy day is only
when they reap the dividends of democracy in form of improved standard of living
and economic development which propel them to join the human race.
The point being made is that majority of
Nigerians see everyday as another in their sojourn through a time-scale of
underdevelopment. They are either bothered about May 29, which the present
administration values as the time the military handed over power to the civilian
government, or about June 12 which those who boldly confronted the Abacha
military disposition see as the right time, being the day Chief M.K.O. Abiola
won a free and fair election to celebrate; or even October 1 when Nigeria was
granted Independence by the Colonial Masters. Now that the celebrations of June
12 and May 29 have died down, and until next year when the combatant elites will
embark on another round of verbal warfare, it is necessary to examine what some
Chief Executives have reeled out with fanfare as being beneficial to the people
or being gains of democracy. While some Governors were celebrating their fifth
year anniversary, others their first year. The celebrants have resorted to
different methods of celebrating the acclaimed achievements on radio, television
and the newspapers.
The pertinent question is: who should
celebrate, should it be those who are given the rare opportunity to bring
changes and improvement to the welfare of the people or the people who enjoy
such benefits? A casual visit to any part of the country will confirm the
disaffection and dissatisfaction of masses of Nigerians with the rabid hunger,
abject poverty, unemployment and other social vices ravaging the country, yet
some chief executives have the temerity and audacity to sponsor numerous
advertisements coached in lucid congratulatory messages on the pages of
newspapers, televisions and radios and praising their achievements and exploits
in the past one or five years, as the occasion may be, through the hands of
sycophants consisting of contractors, commissioners, permanent secretaries,
chairman of state boards of parastatals and chairmen of local governments.
It is unfortunate that the council
chairmen who sit on the third tier of government failed to showcase their own
achievements, rather behaved as appendages of the state governors who have
illegally usurped the management of revenues to those of praise singers. Just as
some educational institutions which complain of poor funding are not left out in
the praise singing, so also were some royal fathers. One would be surprised to
read of the roles of Houses of Assembly who joined the bang-wagon of those
sending congratulatory messages to the Governors for ‘exemplary’ performances,
forgetting that they and the local government councils share vicariously in the
non-performance of governments in this dispensation.
The annual procedures of advertising some
fake or minor achievements has become the usual trend, such as the installation
of one transformer or another, the sinking of bore holes or deep wells, patching
of some pot holes, opening of rural farm roads, village clinics, building
classrooms and opening libraries, purchase of drugs and other intangible
projects that marginally affect some of the people as major achievements. Have
those projects been evaluated against the resources at the disposal of the
state? If these are what state government can showcase, what would a functional
local government show?
It needs to be restated that the annual or
periodic procedure of advertising some minor achievements by those made to
administer our affairs is very unfortunately, more so as such projects painted
in glowing language impact minimally on the impoverished masses of Nigerians who
are daily in search of food, security, employment opportunities, and provision
and functionality of essential infrastructure.
Should the government not allow the
beneficiaries exhibit blatant acts of hypocrisy, self-righteousness and
self-deceit? For how long will these State governments continue to deceive the
people who voted them into power by making what should be their right a
privilege? Should our state government continue to celebrate under- development?
What a sad irony that a nation that is blessed with so much abundant resources
should be turned into a poverty-stricken one where the people swim in poverty
and under-development.
•Omowa wrote from Iju, Ondo State.
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