NIGERIA: BLESSED BUT ACCURSED?

NIGERIA: BLESSED BUT ACCURSED?

In land mass, only Algeria, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo surpassed Nigeria in largeness. While Sudan and Algeria are mainly deserts, only the DRC may rival Nigeria in the richness of her soil in the African continent. Yet, the land is not cultivated enough to yield the much needed agricultural produce, to the effect that Nigeria is an importer of basic food items, thus she is threatened by food security.

This was a country which in the nineteen sixties exported palm kernel seeds to Malaysia. Today, Malaysia is the world’s leading exporter of palm oil while Nigeria imports it from there.

Petroleum was discovered in the 1950s and actual exploration or production started in 1958, two years before independence. Today, Nigeria is still exporting oil in its crude form while she imports refined oil for domestic use inspite of four refineries located in Lagos, Kaduna, Warri and Port Harcourt! Fifty solid years of being an oil producer!! Not only that, most Nigerians still have to queue for hours and most of the time, in order to buy the product. The cost is something else; unconfirmed reports has it that the pump price of petroleum products is one of the highest in Africa. Worse still, the territory from which the oil is extracted is so degraded that it has been rendered useless for agriculture and fisheries by oil pollution and spillage. These and other reasons gave rise to the uprising in the Niger-Delta which became more or less a civil war until very recently.

In terms of population, Nigeria is the biggest country in Africa and the tenth most populous country in the world. Herein lies the reason for being dubbed the ‘giant’ of Africa. But ironically, she has one of the highest illiteracy rate in the world. The United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) in its 2009 report, stated that Nigeria treats her children as if she hates them to the extent that even war-torn countries such as Siera-Leon, Sudan, Liberia and Ethiopia provides better care for their children than Nigeria! A leading member of child-unfriendly countries!!.

Nigeria is blessed with rivers Niger and Benue but has one of the least developed inland waterways transportation system. With three hydro-electricity stations in Kainji, Jebba and Shiroro and other thermal stations, Nigeria with a population of 140 million is able to generate only 4000 mw of electric power compared to South Africa whose population of about 60 million is generating 40,000 mw of electricity! A recent study by a Washington-based research group for the European Union-Nigeria Dialogue on Energy asserted that, in terms of energy issues, “Nigeria could be said to be in a series of downward spirals. The problems facing the energy sector in Nigeria are systemic, meaning that solutions have to cover the whole system and not isolated parts of it. Systemic failure needs systemic solution”, the EU said.

Unconfirmed but reliable reports has it that about 35% of health care workers in the United States of America are Nigerians. Yet at home, doctors and health-care personnel are among the most poorly paid as they get even the most minute demands after long drawn strikes during which thousands of patients must have died. Hospitals especially public hospitals are so ill-equipped that they have degenerated from consulting clinics to stinking morgues. But public officials with the responsibility to make things work are always the first to fly abroad for the basic medical check-up, not to talk of treatment. Even the quality of service and human relations in the hospitals repels the most patient of the sick patients, and given the level of poverty in the land, do they have any choice? Maybe the only choice is to go home and die!.

Nigeria’s leaders woke up on the wrong side of their beds one morning and decided that all Banks must be equal within one year, regardless of their age, asset base, liquidity status, capital base and territorial spread. So it was that in 2004, many banks either got sold or absorbed by bigger ones or went completely under. The people were told it was the only panacea for robust banking and the cure-all economic problems. Barely five years later in 2009, the Banks came down crashing again, this time on account of unsecured loans, sharp insider deals and non-performing credits. Meanwhile, the people were told earlier in the year that the country’s economy was insulated from the world-wide economic meltdown and recession. How un-informed they turned out to be! Yet the people also proved so gullible as to believe that an economy as import dependent as Nigeria’s could be so protected from universal recession. But here we are!

Now, most of the directors of the guilty banks are from Southern Nigeria from where the then Central Bank Governor Prof. Charles Soludo came. But he left the job in June 2009 and one month later, another Governor – this time from the North took over the Central Bank only to discover the stench. Wielding the big stick, Governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi is already being accused of pursuing an ethnic agenda – a charge he has labored so hard to deny, but which has refused to go away. Some pertinent questions are begging for answers, however.

Was the bank consolidation and reform exercise of 2004 carried out by an ethnic agenda? Was the result a reflection of the economic strength of the geo-political regions? Is the preponderance of Southern Chief Executives of Banks, Insurance and other financial institution a function of the human resources and the investment portfolio and acumen of the people of each region? Is it possible or an agenda of Sanusi Lamido Sanusi to equalize the ownership of the Banks or even sell them to Northerners via government’s acquisition of the Banks’ equity as being speculated by various concerned groups?

What guarantee do we have that when or if the Banks ownership and management change hands from Southerners to Northerners, that they will then be well managed for the good of depositors? What if the circle of mis-management continue inspite of the change in ownership structure and management? Who then shall we hold responsible – God or our stars? These questions are begging for realistic answers from whom it may concern.

Meanwhile, it does appear that the litany of failure enumerated above has its roots from Nigeria’s political economy, although most of Nigeria’s current leaders are apt to deny it. Political economy as used here goes beyond the theory or study of the role of public policy as an influence on the economic and social welfare of the country. So long as Nigeria shy away from her history as an amalgamation of disparate ethnic nationalities with divergent worldviews, so long shall she miss her manifest destiny. As long as these differences are not managed and put in their proper contexts for the benefit of all, so long shall they hunt the people and impede their progress. No amount of slogans of unity, or of rebranding can change the perception of the people. Assumptions of unity of purpose does not translate to unity just as uniformity does not necessarily bring about unity. Unity in a heterogeneous society such as Nigeria could come only out of voluntary choice based on mutual respect and acceptance of our differences – differences which is expressed through internal autonomy of the Federating Units and not by force or imposed by a hegemonic group. This is not to say that there are no other causes of failure. Of course, the reader is at liberty to postulate his/her own answers. The issue here is that no country or individual has ever succeeded in running away from her or his shadows. And the structure and system in Nigeria today appeared geared towards achieving that end-running away from her shadowed! Or what do you think?