Governors have become emperors, says Obasanjo
Obansanjo
• Ex-leader warns of rising debts • Anyaoku calls for return to regionalism
• C’Wealth ex-scribe wants geo-political zones converted to federating units
FOR former President Olusegun Obasanjo, some governors in the country are not really engaged in the business of governing their states with the overall objective of improving the lives of the citizens. Rather, they have turned themselves into emperors in their states.
Equally lamenting the state of affairs in the country, former Commonwealth Secretary- General, Emeka Anyaoku, has said that for Nigeria to survive the harsh effects of its political structure amid dwindling government revenue, it must revert to regionalism, such that the six geo-political zones will become federating units.
Obasanjo who spoke at the inauguration conference of the Ibadan School of Government and Public Policy, at the International Conference Centre, University of Ibadan, Ibadan yesterday said some state governors had turned themselves into emperors and that they had even appropriated the funds belonging to the local councils in their states into their private estates.
The former president, who said corruption was the worst legacy bequeathed to the country by bad governance by some past administrations, also said Nigeria may experience another debt overhang as happened during his first term in office when his administration negotiated an $18 billion debt relief from the Paris Club.
“The drastic reduction in the prices of crude oil in the international market, has unraveled the weakness of governance in Nigeria. The Minister of Finance recently announced that the 2016 budget deficit may be increased from N2.2 trillion in the draft document now before the National Assembly to N3 trillion, due to the decline in the price of petroleum. That means that our budget will be 50 % deficit. I wonder… I really wonder.
He continued: “If the current fiscal challenge is not critically addressed, Nigeria may be on its way to another episode of debt overhang. You may recall that a few years ago, we rescued Nigeria from its creditors. Things were bad, they really, really were bad. My first year as an elected President of Nigeria, we were spending over three billion dollars to service our debts, and even then, the quantum of debts were not reducing.
“Anytime we were not able to pay those debts, they piled up at a punishing rate. So we moved from $18 billion to $30 billion, until we were in the region of $35 billion. It was not pretty. We were lucky that we finally met with the Paris Club and other creditors and we were able to obtain a $18 billion debt forgiveness, it was the largest African debt cancellation that has ever taken place.”
He went on: “Nigeria was able to use the money realised from the sales of crude oil to pay off the sum of outstanding debts and interests and we were able to end up with the debt of only $3 billion. It is indeed important for us as Nigerians to ask questions about the government’s ability to deal with all these mounting economic developments.’’
The former Commonwealth General-Secretary, in a lecture titled “Nigeria: In urgent need of a truer federalism”, delivered at the inaugural lecture of the Ibadan School of Government and Public Policy (ISGPP), Ibadan noted that failed experiments at reviewing the country’s constitution in which there had been consistent calls for creation of more states was a sign of dissatisfaction of Nigerians and a failure of governance.
According to him, “In this age of rising global move away from the use of fossil fuel, and particularly in this period of continuing fall in the price of crude oil, the constitution must enable the country to plan and pursue a non-crude-oil-based economic development. It must also address the issue of concentration of power at the centre, which fuels the destabilising competition for the control of the centre between the country’s diverse ethnic and religious groups.
“Instead of the present structure of 36 economically unviable states with concentrated political power at the centre, the National Assembly should convert the existing six geopolitical zones, which have been recognised and are being used for a number of political decisions and actions, into the more viable federating units of a truly Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
Proposing that Nigeria’s 36 states can be retained as development zones within the regions but without full administrative paraphernalia, he said that it would be up to the six federating regions to consider and meet any demands for the creation of new development zones within them.
According to him, it is inexcusable that Nigeria is endowed with so many untapped solid minerals, and such vast arable land for significant agricultural production, and these resources have remained inadequately exploited for the benefit of its citizens of whom no less than 70 percent still live in massive poverty.
He added : “As more viable units for planning and attracting investments in larger development projects, the six regions will facilitate the necessary shift from the present philosophy and reliance by the 36 states on ‘sharing the national cake’, to focusing on production and internally generated revenue within the regions. In addition, internal security and crime control can be more effectively managed by the people in the regions who know and are more familiar with the local environment.”
Providing a probable structure for operation, he said: “The Federal Government should retain exclusive powers over federal matters and related institutions including Finance and Monetary Policy, Defence, Foreign Affairs, Immigration, Customs, Aviation, Maritime, Minerals (Liquid and Solid), Internal Security (but liaising with regional security agencies), Judiciary ( but only the Supreme Court), Education ( but only Federal Universities and supervision of standards for all tertiary institutions), Health (only Federal Universities’ Teaching Hospitals including at least one state-of-the-art specialist hospital per region), and federal highways and railways.
“The six federating regions should have responsibility over their fiscal matters, law and order (including the police), education, health, power (to be shared with the centre), transportation (roads & inland waterways), and economic development (investments, agriculture).
“The federally-generated revenue should be allocated on the following basis: 40 percent to be retained by the Federal Government for its substantially reduced responsibilities with up to 15% of revenue derived from minerals (solid & liquid) going to the mineral-producing areas for addressing the resultant environmental damage; 60 percent to be shared equally among the six federating regions.”
He called for a change of heart by politicians if the restructuring of the country would ever come to fruition, adding : “While it would be necessary to have the right governance structure, it would also be important that the people operating the structure are no longer imbued with the characteristics of today’s Nigeria’s political class.”
Related
Get the latest news delivered straight to your inbox every day of the week. Stay informed with the Guardian’s leading coverage of Nigerian and world news, business, technology and sports.
16 Comments
Even when every four houses in Nigeria almost become a state the people at local levels did not get anything. The fraudulent so called governors ignored their people and swallowed the MONEY and nobody is challenging them. May be the federal government should stop spoon feeding the crooks.and let them fend for themselves. The little money the federal government realized from the mono economy” oil” should be used to provide the ROADS the RAILS and ELECTRICITY
Indeed Mr. president but when you reigned the governors were equally powerful. Why were they nor checked then? The Executive not just governors are literally the same. This anomaly rose from the misread and misapplied Immunity conferred on them. perhaps there were fears that the executives may be hampered from serving their people by pesky politicians and lawyers. What we ended up witj an impunity conferred on them and confirmed by our Courts. Unlike Mr. Anyaoku, I do not believe there is anything wrong with the structure, no. it is just that those who run the show are simply selfish! Whatever we may decide it is those who ultimately run the show that determine the impact of governance not the structure which is a mere paperwork anyway. When the military destroyed the old Federation were the politicians not blamed? Now it is the structure which structure are we really talking about when the fault line is clear enough -a thieving executive protected by the Constitution and the Law Administration. That’s what has to change!
Sir, without restructuring Nigeria is not moving an inch. No matter good intentioned the person at the top is. In the alternative, if we insist on maintaining this pseudo federal structure, we need a benevolent dictatorship that will drive the country for the next 30yrs if centripetal forces will not pull it down
Dictatorship? Absolutely not but then it is your opinion. On the restructuring, I still believe there is nothing that is that wrong with the nation’s structure, no. It is the people; specifically the leadership. Reading through the Dasuki Arms Gate you can see clearly when it comes to short-circuiting the National system and committing frauds, theft and misappropriations they are all united-elders and all. When it is time to account it is then people like you turn the blame on a structure instead of blaming the culprits, that is the problem not a paper based structure that could be undone by a single military decree as we have witnessed severally along the line. From one Unitary state to twelve and on to the thirty-six we have with many more agitations for more states and local governments.
Exactly. Corruption will thrive in any type of political structure. What the country needs is INSTITUTIONS which will enforce the Law.
OBJ should not tell Nigerians he is singing his “Nunc Dimitis”. Baba, you will not be highly missed! T0 former CW scribe, it does not matter what cloak a criminal is wearing – s/he is still a crook. If Nigeria returns to regionalism, the center could still no longer hold(apologies to late Chinua Achebe} because things are no longer at ease. There is no amount of “good” remedy given to a dead person that will revive him/her. Nigerians should try to re-engineer the country into nations which it was before European colonization. It may be a bitter pill to swallow but we have to deal with it.
We can make it as a united nation sans corruption.
OBJ is responsible for governors acting as emperors. Nigerians had high hopes that OBJ would reign in changes. The only changes was more corruption, lack of accountability & godfathers-ism. I feel that both houses need to revisit the immunity clause and make changes to Nigeria constitution. We need some smart lawyers to sue because the constitution is illegal because it was promulgated by the military regime. They buttress it to favor themselves after they leave office.
Both houses need to be revisited themselves! Good grief! What a set of politicians! Probably our hope is in firebrand lawyers like Falana.
“Governors have turned themselves into emperors in their states”. Keep talking, Baba. It is amusing to hear you say something we all know. Were they not emperors when you were Head of State? By that time they have even much more money to steal (should we say “misappropriate” to be more politically correct?). Do you need names? (Ibori, Alami …, etc etc).
In Nigeria, in a southern state, due to corruption, Stealing, Violence,
killing on election days, all senate and House of Reps seats cancelled
for re-run. In the same state, Almost all House of Assembly election
cancelled for re-run. Which angels voted for the Governor without
violence & killing same day as House of assembly ???. Two lower
courts cancelled all elections and directed they should go for re-run
but SUPREME COURT of NIGERIA said , all is well with Governor’s election
result. Some time ago, Gbenga Aruleba of AIT said, “what money cannot
do , more money can do it”. SHAME TO THE LADY SYMBOL OF JUSTICE, who is
deceiving herself that her eyes are covered to dispense justice without
knowing WHO is involved and weight of evidence ( or weight of something
). Every day for the thieves and corrupt people (Judges inclusive), but
one day for the common man and divine revolution, and these
evil-actions / in-actions will be remembered. One day , . GOD HELP
US. *** OSGG
OBJ is right on the money on this – however, Baba contributed to creating this particular issue of emperor governors. Even the real Governors in a country like USA are not referred to as excellencies…this shows the myopic mindset of our approach to everything that involves power. Our politicians have overbloated egos and the citizens also help fuel their false sense of importance.
A mere gubernatorial office elevated beyond the bounds of common sense,accountable to no one,, not even state assemblies.. Now the nation is totally helpless …and captive to a debilitating constitution. Its not a question of giving a cup of water to the monkey but how to retrieve back the empty cup now held fast on top of a tree
OBJ is probably preparing the ground for regime change. Old fox.
Tell us who you are campaigning for ?
It’s mere hypocrisy for a former president that is known as the ‘king of corruption’ to lecture and point fingers at corrupt public officials. It is no more a secret that Obasanjo established EFCC and anti-corruption agencies to witch hunt his perceived enemies while he covered his own track. He left prison and had N25,000 before he became president but left Aso Villa as a billionaire – the wealth he had not be made to account for. This man should remove the log in his eyes before seeing the speck in others’ eyes.
We may not like OBJ but take it or leave it, the message is clear. Our governors have become mini gods with so much powers and money. They threaten president if he did not do there bidding. They hand pick there cronies to succeed them when living office after plunging there state resources. They run Local Government Areas as an extended private business. They hand pick half bake individual members of National and State Houses of Assembly. Development in the grass root has been stifled by those our governors. Between the messenger and message, if I am to chose, I take the massage.
OBJ have raised an important issuer that in my opinion we the masses should key in to the discussion and if need be proffer solution on how these so called governors excess can by curb. I am of the opinion that we the masses should call for plebiscite (a vote by the electorate determining public opinion on a question of national importance). Thank you readers.
We will review and take appropriate action.