Veracity Desk veracitydesk
Related Articles
The recent #endbadgovernance protest was some kind of eye-opener for a lot of Nigerians, not because of its destructive and disruptive mode, but for the revelations that surfaced after the protest. Quite a number of Nigerians had spoken so lugubriously about the sanctity of protest as a jerk for virile democratic practice, but when it was time to hold them accountable for the destructive nature of this last protest, they started raising alarm, disclaiming the protest.
Some of us had stated ab initio, that the protest was not necessary for it would further pauperise the people, cripple our struggling economy and harm our initiatives to pull through these trying times; we knew it was inimical to our country; but those unpatriotic elements who have hidden agenda towards regime change, needed to satisfy their whetted appetites and were too much in a hurry to disrupt the economy and halt our democracy for their selfish interest.
Even some low rated Governors, whose performance have been dismal, e.g. the Edo State governor, Godwin Obaseki was bold enough to instruct the protesters to channel their message to the president through him; even in the face of his own appalling record which brought about the near debacle of the state. Thank God the protesters readily shouted him down, knowing how distratrous his administration has been. If he for example had utilised the increased allocations they’ve been getting in a judicious and equitable manner, the reality today in the state of famine, poverty and hunger would not have been; instead prosperity and progress would have been in the air in Edo State.
State Governors must wake up, with alacrity, to perform to meet up with their promises to their people across the board. They cannot heap multifarious and malevolent blame on Mr. President alone, in their shared incumbency to deliver good governance. After the protest, Mr. President was able to give the public cogent information on the steps being taken to ameliorate the challenges caused by the sudden subsidy removal, while reassuring us that he is steering the wheel of the country prepensely to surmount this tortuous bout as he takes us to more prosperous and happy days ahead.
Mr. President was lucid and transparent in his admission of the challenges; like a result-driven leader, he was able to give a roadmap to positioning the country on the path of prosperity. His mettle about the subsidy has been most telling and audacious of how a leader should behave.
The subsidy scammers are not resting on their oars: as economic predators and buccaneers, they will go to any length to undermine the system, creating further cracks in a system that is mostly dysfunctional; but Mr. President has vowed not to capitulate. This is why they have now exerted more energy on bunkering, making us lose so much in stolen oil on the high sea. The government must take more than a passing interest in this aspect of our national economic life.
Bunkering does not survive except there are collaborators and in the case of Nigeria, the security operatives are the collaborators making us lose so much in the oil sector, while they fester their own nest. Bunkering has become a cankerworm that is plundering the economy of our nation. Our Navy, Airforce and Amphibious Soldiers should wake up. There should be no excuses for bunkering when government is paying so much to security agents to safeguard our waterways and high sea.
As the protesters threaten to keep up their demur, they should span their focus to include the State Governors also; especially those ones who have not done well in fulfilling their leadership obligations to their people. Many states governors just collect allocations, collect a lot also as security votes, spend only a little on frivolous sub-heads and then just wait for the next allocation. One hardly sees any tangible capital project in their states. In Edo state for example, the Governor, Godwin Obaseki has not been able to meet the expectations of the people at all; his performance is way less than satisfactory.
What he gets from the Federation Account in the name of monthly allocations has not transmuted into any tangible development/investment in or for the state. Governor Obaseki on behalf of Edo state Government has received the sum of N184.03b from the Federation Account in the last twelve months. Within the same period, he received additional N10b for security support, N7b for palliatives support, as well as N22.3b from 13% derivation due to the oil producing states.
That means that in one year, June 2023 to June 2024, Edo State has received roughly N223.4b from the Federal Government, added to the IGR of N48b during this period; amounting to N271b. A visit to Edo state today presents an egregious travesty of my earlier narration; a gory sight of rotten infrastructure, and a human development index in debility is what obtains in the state at the moment. In real term, Edo is beautiful online, with graphics that are scripted to represent nebulous realities; but in practical terms, Edo is bleeding by the day. The graphics shown about, are from the reveries of the state’s executives.
Driving through even the state capital, Benin City, is tortuous and labyrinthine. It reminds one of a primordial city. Aside from the major road expansions and the construction that Senator Oshiomhole did as Governor, which included Federal roads, nothing else in that state is modern. Governor Obaseki has just been spinning around in one spot, developing the state virtually, through consultation fees.
There are no legacy projects; nothing one can touch or point to- nothing tangible! The legacy projects which Oshiomhole executed are suffering from lack of maintenance. The legacy Central Hospital that Oshiomhole built, for which there was too much hoopla, is also suffering similar fate of neglect; eight years after its commencement, the buildings have not been repainted. The humongous resources given to Edo state without any corresponding project implementation, is the very crux and reason why the protesters jeered at Governor Obaseki’s plot to pass the buck. The Edo people understood the deliberate subterfuge and chicanery which the Governor tried to apply to the matter, and that was why they quickly rebuffed his antics.
He was trying to blame President Tinubu for the rot in the state because Tinubu increased allocation to states. Do you blame him for the failure of the Governors to initiate and institute initiatives that would address the challenges facing their states and their people? Do you blame Mr. President for the palliatives he has sent to the states, including fertilizer to boost farm produce? Truck loads of fertilizer were delivered to the government for the farmers in Edo state from the presidency. As at Sunday, 11 August the farmers in Edo Srate complained at a meeting, that they have not seen even a sample of any fertiliser. Rather than deliver these things to them as expected, Governor Obaseki has been hoarding the fertilizer as well as the twenty trucks of Rice sent to the state.
If the protesters are truly serious about demanding the dividends of democracy, they need to cast their binoculars to happenings across the states of the federation. We cannot bebudening Mr. President with the minutiae of state’s administration when the real enablers of bad governance are the governors. Imagine a state like Edo, claiming to be spending N950m monthly on security.
Doesn’t that appear laughable? With a porous security system that has enabled kidnapping and armed robbery, no one needs a soothsayer to conclude that Edo is presently beset with violence and woes. Where is the humongous N271b in the last one year? What has Governor Obaseki done in the last one year as legacy projects? On top of this halitosis is the fact that Edo state ranks third in the hierachy of most indebted states with a whooping N570b owed. We must invest time and attention in the activities of governors to decipher their engagements.
The Federal Government under President Tinubu has increased so many things going to the states, including the allocations to Local Governments, but the impact is not felt; the governors would never allow the local governments to breathe. Despite the verdict of the Supreme Court, it is still business as usual apropos of the local government allocation issue. The joint account still operates and the level of rot and financial malfeasance keeps growing by the day.
The point must be made very instructively that protests don’t do any country any good. The crisis we witnessed in the first 10-days protests could have been avoided, if we allowed a little bit of patience to rationalise Government’s intervention thus far. We cannot be hurting our economic initiatives and engagements through protests when we need every kobo to add to our efforts to improve our economic investments.
Everyday the country is shut down, attracts its own negatives. Businesses are closed, banks are shut down, artisans and petty traders are frustrated to make ends meet, while the psyche of the people caused a general malaise. In such a situation, protests further compound the realities of hunger and poverty.
This is why we must continue to ensure that the activities of our state governors are in the spotlight, to enable us indeed locate the real enemies of our development. Until we are able to beam our searchlight to capture the entire gamut of the activities of those who represent and act for us, especially the governors, so much will still be shrouded and lost; and the animus in the polity will keep growing.
Governors across the states must wake up, and take their responsibilities more seriously; and eschew profligacy. They should with moral rectitude deliver the dividends of democracy to the people, as promised during their campaigns. Passing the buck to the president is sheer deviousness and cowardice.
