The so called Chief Servant of Niger state, Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu, never seizes to amaze. Beside moving his massive frame from one awards venue to another and from one public lecture hall to the next, I am not sure the man has done much to improve the socio economic lives of the people of his state. To put it another away, the number of awards he has received so far does not match the number of projects he has commissioned since coming to office about five years ago. If the awards and invitations to deliver lectures were the yardsticks to measure performance, he would probably be voted best governor – he has that award in the bag perhaps. But truth is Niger state is still among the least developed states in the North.
It is ironic that while the man was busy inaugurating the Advisory Council of the Sir Ahmadu Bello Memorial Foundation, staff of the New Nigerian – the newspaper that the late Sardauna himself set up – are on an indefinite strike action over unpaid salaries and pensions which has put the verge of death under his watch as the chairman of the Northern Governors Forum. Perhaps he needs to be told that spearheading the revival of that newspaper would serve a greater purpose of helping to actualise the dreams of the former premier for the region. Being the “intellectual” that he claims to be however, I am quite certain he knows this fact pretty well but has just chosen to ignore it and chase shadows instead.
At last week’s inauguration, the governor more or less confirmed what we have always known; that governors especially of the northern states have turned rent collectors who do nothing to augment what the receive from the centre to make life meaningful for their people. He said this much himself when he called for the review of the revenue allocation formula describing as unfair a situation where his state receives between N4.2 billion to N4.5 billion monthly while some other states receive so much more. According to him, the state spends half of that amount on payment of salaries and overheads with very little left to provide infrastructure. For me, there isn’t a greater self indictment than this. It is no wonder that the people of Niger state still struggle with bad roads, poor water supply and the rest. The governor and his colleagues haves evidently not done much to harness the abundant agricultural resources in their domains to boost their revenue base.
It is not in doubt that Northern states receive much less revenue from the federal government in comparison to their counterparts in the South some of whom also enjoy the additional 13% derivation monthly and Northern governor are well within their rights to demand for more from the center. The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria [CBN], Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, did make a similar call recently when he went as far as to blame the imbalance in the revenue allocation formula as partly responsible for the Boko Haram menace the nation, particularly Northern states, is currently grappling with.
Sanusi told the Financial Times of London that: “When you look at the figures and the size of the population in the North, you can see that there is a structural imbalance of enormous proportion. Those states simply do not have enough money to meet basic needs while some states have too much money. The imbalance is so stark because the state still depends on oil for more than 80% of its revenues”.
Looked at in the context of the on going calls by groups in the Southern part of the country for a Sovereign National Conference {SNC] where they say Nigeria’s myriad problems will be discussed, a call for more money from the centre puts Northern states and their governors at a disadvantage when the Conference is eventually convened. Despite his seeming reluctance, I am almost certain that President Goodluck Jonathan will pander to the wishes of his people. He may not call it an SNC but a National Dialogue or anything of that like. After all, he did say, while making reference to the Justice Belgore committee set up to review the Constitution that “a larger body will meet on issues that are still controversial for a national consensus”.
What Northern leaders and elite don’t seem to get is that agitators for the SNC are not necessarily calling for the break up of the country. What they want is essentially to take control of the resources found in their backyard such that all revenues accruing from the sale of those resources are kept by them and will only be obliged to pay a small percentage in tax to the federal government. Where then would that leave the North if that happens? Considering the fact that Northern leaders have always shown a disunited front when it comes to representing the interests of the region at the national stage, chances are the Southern states might just get what they want.
Over the years, Northern governors have failed to tap the enormous agricultural and solid mineral resources in the region and are now paying dearly for their over reliance for hand outs from the federal government. As someone mentioned elsewhere, Niger state, for instance, has abundant shea butter, sugar cane, palm oil and other agricultural resources but successive governments have failed to develop them to become commercially viable. Governor Aliyu and many of his colleagues in the North have failed woefully in reviving the countless comatose and dead industries that would have employed the large army of unemployed youths and this is partly responsible for the unrests we are witnessing. Agriculture which used to be the mainstay of the nation’s economy prior to the discovery of oil in the late 1950s has suffered so much neglect that it would take not less than 10 years for it to be fully revived to sustain the Northern economy.
Perhaps this explains why many Northern elders and politicians are afraid of the SNC. They simply do not have a strong economic position to canvass for the North. Interestingly, a group of Concerned Northerners met last week in Abuja – again with Governor Aliyu in attendance – to, among other things, support the call for a restructuring of the country. They however failed to give details of the kind of restructuring they wish to see take place.
With Governors like Aliyu and his colleagues who are only interested in talk but not action, the region is in a severely disadvantaged position in the scheme of things in the country. A Sovereign National Conference, if allowed to happen, will only drive this harsh reality home badly.
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