Growing up in Nigeria, Christmas was the day everyone seemed to look forward to. Where you were at Christmas was invariably where your heart wanted to be.
I loved to travel home and be with my family and see old friends. You knew they would travel home as well, making the season one big party. Regrettably, the risk of travel in contemporary Nigeria is one that many refuse to assume, and rural Nigeria and families are the losers.
But I write this today to observe how state governors, some of whom brightened Christmas in the past couple of weeks by paying some outstanding wages, are growing more powerful.
I cite Gov. Ben Ayade of Cross River State, who late in November announced his 2018 budget proposal of N1.3 trillion, the largest state spending bill in Nigeria’s history. Ayade, a professor of Environmental Science, is an aggressive pro-development thinker who desires to take CRS “from third world to first world in four years.”
His priorities for 2018 include CRS’ deep sea port and the 260km Calabar-Obudu six-lane superhighway. “We cannot continue to be poor, in the midst of the plenty that we have got,” he says.
Other governors making news include Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, who proposed a 2018 budget of N1.046 trillion, the largest in Lagos history, and Kaduna’s Nasir el-Rufai, who is testing thousands of prospective teachers to replace the 22,000 he recently fired.
Making perhaps the biggest splash is Edo State’s Godwin Obaseki, who announced that state governors had permitted the Federal Government to spend $1 billion from the country’s excess oil account to help fight Boko Haram.
It is no surprise that Nigerians are upset, the nation’s history being replete with spending plans which such large sums, which simply vanish, or are responsible for hundreds of thousands of uncompleted and shoddily-completed government projects nationwide.
Governor Obaseki’s superfluous explanation does not help: “The money will cover the whole array of needs which include purchase of equipment, training for military personnel and logistics.”
That is difficult to swallow because equipment, training and logistics are all captured in the federal budget. And it is curious that the government did not choose to send a supplementary request to the National Assembly for the money.
As it were, the decision by the governors to act like the federal legislature and serve up a round $1billion to a government which preaches transparency but does not honour it, is seeing considerable rejection.
Two weeks after Buhari took power, and following his appeal to the G7, the United Kingdom pledged increased technical support, military training and enhanced assistance. It’s Africa Minister James Duddridge also announced a $5m package to support the multinational task force fighting the insurgents.
In August 2017, the UK announced an extended five-year package of help of an extra £200m. That was the same month the United States approved a $593 million sale to Nigeria of 12 A-29 Super Tucano attack planes and parts, along with training, facilities and weapons.
It may be noted that the assistance of the UK is different from £100million in humanitarian support for 2017 which it announced earlier in the year, and the £70million in humanitarian support it provided in 2016. It has also trained 28,000 Nigerian soldiers, with at least 40 military personnel deployed on a long-term basis.
In April 2017, the US announced $30m to support the humanitarian crisis in northeast Nigeria, bringing its total humanitarian contribution since October 2015 to $298m. Some of this spending explains why the international community is angry that Buhari is not prosecuting such persons as former government secretary Babachir Lawal, who allegedly manipulated funds meant for humanitarian assistance.
All of this is in addition to vast chunks of the recovered Abacha loot allegedly being ploughed into the anti-Boko Harm effort. Former NSA Sambo Dasuki has been detained for almost the entire tenure of the current government because he allegedly diverted some of the money.
For air operations alone, here are a few samples: in July 2014, the government of Mr. Jonathan ordered 40 attack and transport helicopters from the US and Russia.
Two months later, a luxury jet belonging to Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor was used to sneak $9.3 million in cash into South Africa, allegedly to buy arms.
In December 2016, Nigeria received four fighter aircraft from Pakistan. It also ordered 10 primary trainers, four helicopters, gunships, four medium airlift utility helicopters, and three live attack aircraft.
An elated Air Chief Marshal Sadiq Abubakar noted that since Buhari took office, 20 aircraft had been purchased and added to fleet, and 15 air planes and helicopters restored to flying condition.
The point is that despite a few military chiefs appropriating some funds in their care, Nigeria has been active in equipment acquisition and training in the past several years, leading to Buhari declaring Boko Haram to be all but fully defeated. But now a whopping $1billion influx of funds to fight the same group?
Buhari may have these funds, but even if the deal happened to be straightforward, which it is not, state governors are pulling the strings, and Nigerians have reason to worry.
Funds of this quality should be targeted not only at Boko Haram, but at all insecurity, which should include unemployment, the biggest insecurity of all.
Finally, Imo State’s Governor Rochas Okorocha, who has concocted a ‘Ministry of Happiness.’ At first, I thought it was a church, but he says it is an actual Ministry. And then he compounded lunacy with incest by appointing his own sister to it, thereby proving that to be half-smart is not necessarily to possess a sense of shame, or perspective.
Happiness, dear governor, is not a Ministry; it is the availability of opportunity to all. To that end, the successful ruler serves by creating, indeed multiplying opportunities so that the best and the most hardworking – not privileged relatives – elevate society through self-actualisation.
Imo is one of Nigeria’s most educated states, but it is stuck in the mud. Here are two examples Okorocha well knows. First: Hillary Promise Chigozie.
Four years ago, this highly-talented young man from Mbaitoli was admitted into the College of Aviation Technology in Zaria. But the tuition of N2.5 million was prohibitive, and he wrote letter after letter pleading with Okorocha for help. The governor ignored him, and Chigozie lost that opportunity.
Chigozie, who had dreamt of being an aeronautic engineer since he was five, built his first plane at 13. By the time he was admitted to the CAT, he had constructed aeroplanes, ships and cars, and even a robot that could walk.
Second: teenagers Gideon Emenike and Chibuisi Nwafor of Okigwe. In September 2013 they launched a rocket into space. The event was confirmed by Mohammed Katsina, the Commissioner of Police, who expressed the hope he might someday fly in a spacecraft made by the boys.
Is it really surprising that a self-centred governor who would create a fictitious Ministry of Happiness and appoint his sister into it does not notice talent of this quality?
But this, sadly, is the true character of the Nigerian in high places. It explains, to borrow the perceptive words of Professor Ayade, why Nigeria remains poor amidst her plenty.
Merry Christmas Nigeria.
• Twitter: @SonalaOlumhense
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