‘Our problem is that there are no consequences when laws are violated’
Many states of the federation are facing serious financial challenges, such that they are unable to meet their financial obligations in terms of paying workers salaries and other entitlements. Will financial prudence legislation for state chief executives do the magic? A managing partner in Aelex, a commercial and arbitration law firm, Mr. Theo Emuwa, in this interview with JOSEPH ONYEKWERE maintained that Nigeria’s problem is that there are no consequences when the laws are violated and not absence of legislation. He also shed some light on their 11th yearly conference taking place tomorrow in Lagos with the theme: “making states work”.
Do you think that there is something fundamentally wrong with our system of administration or the way states are being run?
I don’t think there is anything fundamentally wrong with the administrations we have. If you look around the world, you will find that there are different systems of administrations in different countries. The way things are run in Britain is not the way it is run in France. It is not the same as it is run in Spain or Italy or United States of America. But in each case, if they have certain elements like transparency and the willingness to do the right thing, they will succeed. It is not about the actual system, it is about how you operate the system. It is not as if those systems cannot be run badly. If you borrow those systems, you can run them badly. So it is not about the system, but about those who make the system work.
Do you think there should be a kind of legislation relating to mode and system of governance in the states, prescribing strictly how resources should be managed, including award of contracts?
Some of these things already exists. Like I said earlier, there is nothing that cannot be run badly. So, it is not so much about having a law that prescribes a particular type of behaviors. The question is: will people follow these prescribed laws? And when they fail to follow these prescriptions would there be consequences? If there is no consequence, I have no doubt that over time people would be unwilling to follow the prescription.
In other words, we have a challenge of enforcement of our legislations?
Yes, there are laws against bribery. There are laws against corruption. Nobody is in doubt that corruption is illegal but that has not stopped it, including the procurement act that has been repeatedly violated. So it’s not about the absence of law, it is the fact that there is no consequence when the laws are violated.
Tell us about your annual lecture series and your role in this year’s conference?
This year’s conference is holding on the 9th of November, specifically Wednesday at the Agip Recital Hall of the MUSON centre. As the managing partner, I will be responsible for driving the arrangement and ensuring that the team puts everything in place so that we have another successful outing.
What is the relevance of this year’s topic to nation building?
The theme this year is ‘making states work’. You know we have 36 states in Nigeria and in the last year or two, a number of these states have become challenged in terms of paying salaries, and investing in infrastructures. The question we are all asking is: What does the decline in oil price really mean for Nigerians? Does it mean all the states would gradually wind down and come to a halt? Or is there something that can be done to make them work? The truth is that making states work is not just a matter of finance, but there are a number of elements that must come into play.
What should agrarian states do to encourage or enhance productivity and economic activity in their states? It could be about helping them with roads to move their goods or produce out of their farms or is it about helping them with irrigation or providing them with security so that the produce is not stolen overnight, which is a common problem in some places? So indeed, there are a number of elements at play here. There is also the social contract and where the state relies on taxation, it would be easier to do so. Lagos state is a good example of a state which has discovered efficient ways to collect taxes or to have the tax payer pay more willingly; moreso, where the tax payer knows that the tax would be put to good use.
Lagos, over the years has been investing in infrastructures, and therefore it has become easier for the state to go to the open market to encourage the traders there to pay some amount of money as tax every year. This process has been almost hitchfree, as they are all happy to pay because they see what Lagos state is doing. I can tell you that it would be more difficult to do this in a state where the tax payer has no access to any form of social amenities and where the government cannot show what it does with the taxes collected. Again, these are some of the elements required to make a state work. Tax collection does not have to be forceful where provisions are made for residents and citizens.
In your choice of theme for this year’s conference, are you like trying to propound theories for state governments on how to generate funds, as you made reference to taxes?
I wouldn’t say we are trying to propound theories. We have invited a panel of people who in some cases have run a government. They have the experience. We have somebody who was in banking. So he has the experience in that perspective. We have somebody who is from the civil society who can speak on the things the public expect in order to work with a state government. If you have an unhappy populace, it is difficult to run things, to get the people to understand what you are doing and to win them to your side as well. It is more to discuss practical experience. We have two former state governors coming to tell us their experiences. If you think that in theory it would work, it is better to hear from the person who has done it before to say this is how it works. So that is the idea, to understand from them what it was that made it difficult for the system to get the results that we all desired.
No doubt you have a rich panel, particularly the choice of Peter Obi. What informed your decision to invite him? Was it as a result of his disclosures at The PLATFORM recently?
Not really! Actually we have been talking to him for the past months, even before he presented at both The Platform and the Lagos Business School (LBS). We were looking to get him because Anambra is one state that doesn’t have or receive revenue on the basis of derivation. So, they don’t have as much money as these other states, but somehow, in his time, he was able to meet the obligations of the state government. That’s why we are interested to hear from him how he was able to do that. Lagos state is also in that state. They were also able to meet up with their obligations. The immediate past governor of Lagos state is still in government and therefore, it may be difficult for him to be present in a forum like this. We wanted someone who has been there before and no longer in government.
Why focus on states alone and not the federation?
Well, you have to cut your coat according to your cloth. We are not trying to solve all the problems of Nigeria in one day. But the state government has more roads to maneuver than the federal government. The federal government is generating income from solid minerals and crude oil. State governments don’t have that. They rather have taxations and their share of the revenue that comes from the central purse. In the central purse, the federal government takes a large chunk of the money. The 36 states share 20 something per cent. By the time you divide that by 36 states, each state would be getting roughly one per cent whereas the federal government is getting 50 something per cent. You can see that there is a bigger challenge at the state level than at the federal level. We need to look at what is it they can do to get themselves out of difficulties.
Have you been able to monitor the outcome of your previous yearly lectures in terms of relevant institutions adopting your recommendations?
Our objective is mainly to provide a forum or a platform where ideas are exchanged. We are hoping that when the ideas come out, those who need to use the ideas would use them. We are not trying to become the government. If the ideas are put out there, governments and institutions that found them useful could make use of them.
A lot of people would like to know what Aelex stands for?
Aelex is a law firm. We are a full service law firm. We were established in 2004, when four firms came together to form this partnership. Today we are over 60 lawyers in three offices. We have offices in Lagos, Abuja and Portharcourt. We also have an office in Accra, Ghana. We cover all the main commercial areas such as Aviation, Energy, Oil and Gas, Mining, Taxation, Corporate Commercial as well as a strong dispute resolution department that does arbitration and litigation at the courts led by a senior advocate of Nigeria.
Over 60 lawyers makes it more interesting. Do you think you achieved this feat because of this partnership?
It is difficult to run a firm of this size without having more than one partner. You can’t have one partner with that number of lawyers because the role of managing the business would be difficult for one person alone to handle. Any firm that is of that size must have several partners in order to operate smoothly. So, we have several partners, that is what it means to be a partnership.
What do you think is the future of enduring law firms in Nigeria such as we have in other jurisdictions where firms exist for over 50 years?
One thing we did when we started was to avoid having the names of the founding partners as the name of the firm. So we chose a neutral name – Aelex, so that new partners thereafter would not feel that they needed to have their names added to the name of the firm. So the idea was from the very beginning. We were looking into the future to say that we need to avoid these problems from the beginning.
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1 Comments
Wrong caption. The appropriate caption should have been “Our Problem Is That There Are No Consequences For The Rich And The Connecteds When Laws Are Violeted”
Ah ah, no be Nigeria we dey?
We will review and take appropriate action.