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Dwindling Finances And State’s Resort To Modesty, Sobriety

By Ikenna Onyekwelu
12 July 2015   |   6:54 am
THERE is a strong ‘harmattan’ wind blowing across the federating states of Nigeria. The financial dryness elicited by this harmattan economic haze is driving states’ chief executives to a new fad of shrinking the almighty executive arm. The other two arms, legislature and judiciary, have long been cowed by the excess of the executive, which…
Nigerian governors addressing the media after their meeting... recently

Nigerian governors addressing the media after their meeting… recently

THERE is a strong ‘harmattan’ wind blowing across the federating states of Nigeria. The financial dryness elicited by this harmattan economic haze is driving states’ chief executives to a new fad of shrinking the almighty executive arm.

The other two arms, legislature and judiciary, have long been cowed by the excess of the executive, which acts like the life-giver by possessing the keys to the treasures of the state.

Emerging from a full-blooded election that challenged the nation’s democracy to its limits, the new governors at the states are shedding the usual flamboyance and ostentatious displays that characterise executive statuses.

As a result, a culture of frugality and contrition seem to have crept into the usually pugnacious arm. Before this new philosophy of sobriety and modesty, the chief executives of the states were wont to engage in a seeming competition for frivolity and licentious extravagance.

The loss of cheer among the rambunctious ‘Excellencies’ is astounding such that the surprised citizenry appear lost in search for a ready explanation of the sudden sense of moderation. What really happened? How did we come to this sudden pass?

Though, it is often said that experience is the best teacher, seldom do most graduates of that tuition-free tutelage come out in flying colours without tales of pain and regret. Popular psychology holds that pain is a prodding to remembrance. It could, therefore, be this inbuilt great potential to remind or constantly rebuke that makes experience stand out as the best teacher.

The saying that a man becomes rich not from his wages but from his savings was the hallmark of basic teaching in fiscal management. However, as the vagaries of economic instability continued to assail man, economists and finance-management experts revised the timeworn cliché to propound a new theory that (in modern economies) a man becomes rich not from his savings but from his investments.

Whichever way, the prodigal son in the Bible could not pay heed or remember the wisdom contained in the wise sayings until he went into penury and ran out of life’s necessary support. The new state governors seem to be in a similar situation.

In modern statecraft, there is a very thin line between economics and politics. The management of men could not be complete until it is complemented with the management of resources.

Unlike in the age of barter, money, which became the medium of exchange started commanding variety or answering to all things. Consequently the management of money became a central issue in people management or governance.

And from that crucial position of money in the affairs of humans, cost became King! As such cost, like a shepherd dog drives leaders to sundry experiences: either to the wisdom of prudence or ignominy and pain of prodigality. That era has receded.

So, suddenly the state governors have come to the painful realisation that public money is not their own. Do-good bazaar of appointments has given way to reluctance and desire to shrink the size of aids.

From convoluted cabinets, most of these governors are going for skeletal or commonsense executive committees. Could it be that a social science approach to governance has come into play, following the maturing of Nigeria’s democratic polity?

Is service gradually taking over from gallery dance, whereby, the question of what is necessary is sought rather than gathering of jumble of persons motivated by sundry desires.

To a large extent, cost tends to be central to this sudden burst of sanity and clear thinking. The depletion of the coffers that used to bulge with monthly largesse from the proceeds of sale of the liquid gold must have bewildered the governors.

Dazed in their shocking find, these former ‘knights’ of loud living, must have come to that state of self-realisation, like the prodigal son, where the urge to return to the wisdom of the father assails them.

And having returned to the ancient landmarks upon which are written the reminders admonishing wayfarers to save for the rainy day, the modern cronies of Bacchus have become sober, albeit, with regrets and had-we-known.

However, the fact that almost all the new governors are complaining of empty treasuries supports the general impression that leaner finances give rise to leaner and more compact governments.

The question of effectiveness and efficiency seem also to dictate the size. But definitely, it may not just be the shrinking size of the purse that necessitates the wave of new thinking and conservatism.

Given the massive mobilisation and campaigns to sway voters during the election (including stomach infrastructure), the challenge of knowing, who to favour with appointments and with what formula could be a restraining consideration.

Faced with a huge number of political IOUs therefore, the governors may have decided to play safe and hide under the ready excuse of low income to shirk the burden of bringing aids on board.

Again, if the decision to reduce the size of the executive arm is compelled by the need to source competent hands, the idea of competition should have been brought to bear. By now state governors would have been advertising the quality and range of experience to be possessed by prospective aidEs.

Yet, while many new state governors are taking their time to name a cabinet, many are still wary of bogus bureaucracies that same conduits of bloated expenditure on governance.

What has informed the current situation in states? The indicators are there. In the first place, the puzzle of the centre where a new federal government is yet to take strong root owing to the exigencies of appeasing factions, factotums and major dumos.

Then there is a seeming quest to imitate austerity and self-abnegation to empathise with the dispossessed masses. Yet in this massive desire to conform to the general feeling of poverty, governors want to redefine democracy as the government of the people by the people for the people: pandering to the whims of the people.

As certain incumbents fail at the polls, a sudden realisation that the people are becoming aware and assertive has crept in.

In Ekiti, where a giant fell, as well as in Osun where an incumbent refused to fall, frugality has become the watchword. The new governors are no longer eager to play the Hercules, but are rather inclined to stooping to the level of the people in order to be able to understand their heartbeat of priority needs.

So, instead of borrowing and spending tomorrow’s wealth to build skyscrapers that have no relevance to the immediate needs of the masses, the new governors are becoming sober. Now they tend to recognize that it is preferable to pay workers’ salaries as at when due than hire many idle hands as commissioners and deplete scarce resources on them at the expense of the multitude.

The real benefit accruable from the present realities in states is when various levels of government recognise the role of each. For instance, it could be said that the governors have retreated from the path of prodigality, when they begin to leave a sphere of authority and influence for local councils.

There is, no doubt, that the realisation of the inherent duplication of functions and therefore functionaries must have inspired the new act of circumspection being displayed by state chief executives.

From experience, they seem to have learnt the hard way, the vanity of their former ways. Something good is about to ensue from Nigeria’s democracy. Experience is indeed the best teacher!

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