Continued from yesterday

Fourth, Nigeria needs housing for all.
A better quality of life requires access to decent and affordable housing for all. I remember growing up, how hard my father worked to be able to build us a decent house to stay in, after living for years in high-density areas, in what is called face-me-I-face you. What a joy it was to finally have our own rooms with baths and toilets. This joy eludes hundreds of millions of people in Africa, yet several governments stand watch undeterred and unflinching as millions of their citizens live in slums. Today over 65 per cent of people in sub-Saharan Africa live in slums.

Let me bring this closer home.
In Nigeria, 49 per cent of the population live in slums, according to data by UN-Habitat. That is a staggering 102 million people!

These trends need to change, rapidly.
Welfarist policies are urgently needed to ensure that 100 per cent of citizens have access to basic and affordable housing. The opprobrious policies that seek to upgrade slums should be jettisoned. There is nothing like a 5-Star Slum: a slum is a slum. Urgent actions are needed to support mortgage financing and re-financing and use of innovative financing structures to raise long-term capital for closing the housing deficits.

Fifth, Nigeria needs government accountability and fiscal decentralisation for a true federalism.

Democracy is more than the right to cast a vote. It is the right of citizens to hold governments accountable for improvements in their welfare. Citizen accountability forums are needed in order to have a say in how their nation’s resources are being used and how their governments are performing. Governments must show concrete and transparent evidence of fiscal responsibility.

Governments without citizen accountability become synonyms for democratic dictatorship.

Today, therefore, there is a greater need for e-governance systems to enhance transparency and accountability of governments, in service of the people. That is what people-centred governance is all about. That is why the African Development Bank is developing a public service delivery index that will rate governments on the quality-of-service delivery for citizens.

Development clearly requires a significant amount of financing, which governments need to raise. A primary tool for doing so is through taxation. The rationale for raising taxes in Nigeria is that the nation’s tax-to-GDP ratio is low compared to other African or non-African countries. However, taxation in the absence of a social contract between governments and citizens is simply fiscal extortion.

Participatory tax-based financing systems demand participatory governance. Take the case of Norway for instance. Its tax-to-GDP ratio is 39 per cent. It is easy to make the comparison and say Nigeria needs to raise its taxes from 6.1 per cent of GDP to a similar level as Norway.

But consider that in Norway, like all the Nordic countries, education is free through university. And if you finish your course on time, any loans you took to feed yourself, clothe yourself and maintain yourself, are converted into grants.

We must distinguish between nominal taxes and implicit taxes – taxes that are borne by the people but are not seen or recorded.

Truth be told, Nigerians pay one of the highest implicit tax rates in the world. Most of the citizens provide electricity for themselves via generators; they repair roads in their neighbourhoods if they can afford to. They provide boreholes for drinking water with their own monies. In the 21st century, this is incredulous as every household should have pipe-borne water!

Sadly, the abnormal has been normalised.
If people pay taxes, governments must deliver services to citizens and be held accountable for their ability to do so or not. Governments should not transfer their responsibility to citizens. When governments or institutions fail to provide basic services, the people bear the burden of a heavy implicit tax.

To succeed with much needed welfarist and people-centered policies across Nigeria, it is necessary to change the governance system and decentralise governance to states in order to provide greater autonomy.

States have tremendous potential to become even more financially autonomous through greater fiscal prudence. If states focus on unlocking the huge resources they have, based on areas of comparative advantage, they will rapidly expand wealth for their people. With such increased wealth, they will be able to access capital markets and secure long-term financing to fast-track their growth and development.

States that adopt this strategy would have less of a need for monthly trips to Abuja for grants. Instead, part of their federal revenue allocations can be saved as internal ‘state sovereign wealth funds’. This can then be used as guarantees against borrowings from capital markets. In essence, they would be free from needing to exclusively rely on the federal government.

To get out of the economic quagmire, there is a compelling need for the restructuring of Nigeria. Restructuring should not be driven by political expediency, but by economic and financial viability. Economic and financial viability are the necessary and sufficient conditions for political viability.

If there was one attribute that defined Chief Obafemi Awolowo, and there were many, it would be his visionary boldness. He went where others feared or failed to go. In the process, decades later, his footprints remain in the sands of time.

Likewise today, in Nigeria, we need men and women with vision, who are willing to take bold decisions.

Surgeries are tough. They are better done well, the first time. The resources found in each state or state groupings should belong to them. The constituent entities should pay federal taxes or royalties for those resources.

But let’s be clear. The achievement of economically viable entities and the viability of the national entity requires constitutional changes to devolve more economic and fiscal powers to the states or regions. The stronger the states, or regions, the stronger the federated units.

In the process, our union would be renewed.
Our union would be stronger. Our union would be equitable. Our union would be fully participatory.

Excellencies, distinguished ladies and gentlemen. We must be audacious! Instead of a Federal Government of Nigeria, we could think of The United States of Nigeria. The old would give way to the new. We would change the relational mindset between the states and Abuja: the fulcrum would be the states, while the centre would support them, not lord over them.

With good governance and better accountability systems, and a zero tolerance for corruption, more economically stronger constituent states would emerge! We would unleash massive wealth across the states. A New Nigeria would arise!

To do so, we will need all of us – not some of us. From our forgotten rural villages, to our boisterous and dynamic urban areas. From the sparks of desire in the eyes of our children, to the lingering hope in the hearts of our youth. From the yearnings of our women and mothers and our men and fathers for a better tomorrow, and the desires of the old that our end would be better than our past. From the hardworking street vendors and small businesses to the largest business conglomerates… we must create a movement of hope.

Hope for a better Nigeria! Not a Muslim Nigeria. Not a Christian Nigeria. Not Eastern Nigeria, Western Nigeria, or Northern or Southern Nigeria. But one Nigeria – a New Nigeria, created by a renewed commitment to turn our amazing diversity into exceptional strength.

A New Nigeria, powered by torrents of hope, trust, equity, fairness, and wealth at every level, in every state … by all and for all.
We have the capacity to do this and make it happen. We must rise above mistrust and divisions and make history.

Not the history that is written about us, about Northern Nigeria, Southern Nigeria, Eastern Nigeria, or Western Nigeria. Not the history of divisive political parties; but a new history that we commit to write for ourselves – the history of a New Nigeria.

We are the history makers. So, let us commit to make history for a New Nigeria!

For the darkness of today will soon fade. It will not be long before our star shines brighter as a nation, as welfarist policies and people-centered policies spur shared wealth.

A nation where majority prosper, not just a privileged few. A nation that provides real opportunities for the youth. A nation where equality of opportunities for women is a reality, not a dream. A nation where hope is ignited, and dreams are realised. A nation known for wealth, not poverty. A nation set on a hill whose light will never be hidden. A New Nigeria that we all are proud to call home. So, help us God!

Thank you very much.

Concluded.

Dr Adesina is the President of the African development Bank Group. Being the speech he delivered as the recipient of the Obafemi Awolowo Prize for Leadership Award 2023, recently.