Asked by journalists to list his achievements, a governor
proudly said: “Mr Bigg’s has opened an outlet in the state
capital under my administration.” The reporters could
hardly stifle their chuckle. Another governor told a group of
editors that “peace obtained and maintained” was his biggest
achievement, pointing to an award plaque given to him by an
association of crime reporters whom he called “security
experts”.
These days, many governors would list payment of salary arrears
as one of their biggest feats, and I am still seeing politicians
celebrate the provision of well water, construction of wooden
bridges and distribution of transistor radios.
One thing I have come to realise in the development debate in
Nigeria is that we have not properly defined, or agreed upon, the
indices and criteria of analysis and assessment. What is our
collective understanding of development? What are our expectations?
What should we get from the federal government, state government
and local government? Who or what should be held responsible for
the failings? If the indices are not well defined, how do we
appraise the success of each level of government? If there are no
goal posts, how do we know when we have scored? How do we assess
our progress per time? What are the criteria we should adopt in
reaching conclusions?
My opinion on the underdevelopment of Nigeria is slightly
different from the position of the leading lights of the debate.
Many see our problems from the perspective of the “unitary”
constitution (suggesting that unitary systems can’t deliver
development) and propose the need to restructure Nigeria along
ethnic lines. After breaking down the definition of development
into tiny bits, I always conclude that there are things to blame on
the structure and there are things to blame on the leaders. There
are “federal” problems as well as state/LG shortcomings. But there
seems to be a prevailing narrative that dumps all of our problems
at the doorstep of the federal government.
Our discourse today zooms in on the performance of state
governments who effectively control the LGAs. Together, both
control nearly 47% of federation allocations. To help assess the
performance of governors, I want to propose what I call the
“minimum of five credits” baseline tool. No, I am not saying a
governor should have a minimum of five credits at O’Level. We are
not discussing JAMB and university admissions here. Rather, we are
discussing how to pull Nigeria out of underdevelopment. I am
suggesting that a governor must target to score a “minimum of five
credits” in office in order to be considered at all for a pass
mark.
The five “subjects” in which the governors must have these
credit passes are: education, healthcare, roads, water and
inclusion. I understand that different states have different needs
and what is critical in one may be less critical in others, but no
state has yet conquered all these areas, so they are relevant to
everyone. A credit pass would mean addressing at least 50% of the
problems. I have found out that these “five credits” are achievable
under the current constitution. This is good news as far as I’m
concerned. It means no law stops the governors from attaining these
minimum qualifications. By that, I mean we can still record some
big progress under our current circumstances.
I will break things down further so that I am clearer. One, a
governor must attain a credit pass in education. That means, in
practical terms, if there were 500,000 children out of school when
they assumed office, they must aim to reduce the figure to 250,000
in four years. This requires that there will be more classrooms
built, more qualified teachers and more capacity to enhance
standards. That would also mean at least 50% of the schools under
the state government should have libraries that have books and
laboratories that have chemicals. It is doable: it is about proper
planning and efficient use of resources. Some governors are already
doing well in this “subject”.
Two, a governor must have a credit pass in healthcare. Again I
will simplify it. Infant and maternal mortality must reduce
significantly during the four-year tenure. At least half of the
primary healthcare centres in the state must have basic drugs and
personnel to attend to common ailments. State-owned hospitals must
improve bed capacity in those four years, meaning more hospital
beds, more qualified personnel and more access for the ordinary
citizens who can’t afford to travel abroad for treatment. I would
add sanitation to healthcare. We will probably take care of many
medical problems and promote healthy living through better sanitary
conditions.
Three, a credit pass in roads is non-negotiable. I will also
simplify my understanding of this. If there are 10 villages without
access roads, at least five of them must be linked to a major road
within four years. If there are 10 kilometers of bad roads in the
state, at least five kilometers should be put in motorable
condition within four years. You would be surprised how a simple
road – even if untarred – can change the economic lives of a
people. What some villagers need is just to be able to stand by the
roadside and sell yams, tomatoes and bush meat to travellers. They
alone can improve their economic conditions and empower them to be
able to send their children to school and buy drugs or pay hospital
bills.
Four, a credit pass in the provision of clean water should be
compulsory. By clean water, I am not referring to wells and
streams. I mean treatment plants and motorised boreholes supplying
clean water to the people. If 50 villages do not have clean water,
the governor must target to provide that for at least 25 of them
within four years. In many villages, children wake up early and go
to the stream to fetch water for their parents. They carry heavy
buckets on their heads and walk for kilometers to and fro. When
they get to school, they are tired and frustrated and then we start
teaching them chemistry and mathematics. And then we will say
failure rate is high. What were we expecting?
Five, and very important, is inclusion. By inclusion, I refer to
giving the vulnerable people a voice and a space in government
policies. I’m referring to women, children, the disabled and the
unschooled. Several studies have shown that when you empower this
group, you solve a wide range of problems in the society.
Government policies must factor in the needs, concerns and
interests of vulnerable Nigerians. A 50% score in this area in four
years can make a 100% impact on the society. Many states are not
doing badly in this “subject”. The end product, if this is well
attended to, is that we are going to tackle many of the challenges
dragging us backward as a nation.
Achieving “five credits” in four years, however, does not mean
governors should start celebrating like they have invented
something. Just as no undergraduate should boast about having five
O’Level credits, no governor should be bursting our ears that they
did these five things. I remember, as a football reporter, I
covered a league match between BCC Lions and Julius Berger in
Gboko, Benue state, in 1994. Goalkeeper Andrew Aikhomugbe pulled a
string of superb saves in the dying minutes to help BCC to a 1-0
victory. I interviewed coach Shaibu Amodu afterwards and expected
him to praise Aikhomugbe. But he simply said: “He was not put there
as a decoration. He was doing his job.”
We don’t elect governors to be decorations – we elect them to do
a job. No governor should be celebrating paying salary arrears or
painting schools. The governors that should be celebrated are those
that score distinctions – 90% and above — not mere credit passes.
In fact, these “five credits” are just the irreducible minimum.
They will contribute in no little way to poverty reduction, job
creation and national development. There are more “credits” to
target, such as the provision of housing (an urban issue),
investment in legacy projects (tourism sites, fancy bridges, etc),
enhancement of security, and making policies that will attract
substantial investments in agriculture and industry.
There are plenty questions waiting for me, I know. One, what is
the role of councils in all this? Are they there for nothing? The
truth is that as things are today, the states are in total control
of the LGA funds, so I would say councils should be centres for the
implementation of developmental policies and projects at the
grassroots until we have local government autonomy guaranteed by
the constitution. Two, won’t the governors sex up the figures and
claim that they are scoring credit passes? That is why the citizens
must be awake to their responsibility of holding their governors
accountable. Third party monitoring will also be a good device to
match claims with reality.
Three, where would the states get the money to implement all
these projects? Funding is a major issue, many governors will
readily tell you. However, if the governors do their job
competently and patriotically with all the federation allocations,
development loans, bonds, joint LG accounts and IGR at their
disposal, there is nothing stopping them from achieving these
outcomes. More so, the states and councils can begin to push for a
greater share of the federation account. I don’t understand why the
federal government alone should take more than half and I have
always advocated that the formula should be revised in favour of
states and councils.
I am fully persuaded that most of the development problems we
are battling with as a nation will be half-solved if the governors
have a minimum of “five credits” during their terms in office. No
doubt, there is a lot we need to restructure about Nigeria – but
there is still much to be achieved under the current system. Let us
perform an experiment for the next four years: all the budgetary
allocations to health, education, infrastructure, water and housing
should be judiciously spent on these areas. Stealing,
over-invoicing and waste should be cut down by at least 50% at all
levels of government. Let us review things in another four years. I
suspect our progress would be monumental.
==
AND FOUR OTHER THINGS APC IN CRISIS
Anybody who is surprised by the APC crisis has not been paying
attention since 2015. The party started out as a coalition of
mostly aggrieved politicians who were out to oust the PDP from
power – and they succeeded. Sadly, there has been no attempt to
build the coalition into a family since they won power. For a party
that is five years old, this is a big failing. I agree that a
gathering of strange bedfellows will be prone to crisis and
difficult to manage, but I have not seen any genuine attempt at
integration. For those who are gloating, they may need to note that
the ultimate victims of a troubled ruling party are the ordinary
people whose interest automatically takes the back seat.
Change?
THE STRIKERS
Anytime I hear that public health personnel are going on strike,
my heart skips a beat. The casualties are always the ordinary
people who cannot to afford private treatment. Saving lives, I
suppose, is the calling of those in the health sector. That should
always be the consideration, especially when it is the poor, lowly
Nigerians that will bear the brunt. The demand for improved welfare
by the Joint Health Sector Union (JOHESU) is, no doubt, legitimate
but is the collateral damage caused by the strike worth it? To
compound matters, doctors are threatening to go on strike if
JOHESU’s demands are met. There is something peculiar to us in this
country which I will never understand. Sigh.
SMALL CHANGE
If there is a Nigerian state that comes close to my idea of how
the society should run, Lagos would be it, despite its
shortcomings. I can say for free that it is one state where the
leaders try to adopt and implement what they learn from advanced
countries. That means not all of the estacode is wasted after all.
The latest development is the establishment of a Small Claims
Scheme to resolve civil disputes involving amounts below N5
million. The entire proceeding from filing of claim to judgment is
a maximum of 60 days. This is a welcome development. It will free
the police from debt recovery duties and at the same time save us
from unending court proceedings that could last 10 years.
Progress.
AND FINALLY…
I am sensing that there would soon be the 28th amendment to the
American constitution to make it a criminal offence to be black.
Not so long ago, two blacks were arrested and handcuffed at a
Starbucks outlet. They sat there waiting for a friend and were yet
to place an order, which is like committing mass murder. Last week,
Ms Lolade Siyonbola, a Nigerian graduate student of Yale
University, fell asleep inside the common room at her dorm. Some
white girl discovered the criminal offence, told Siyonbola she had
no right to be there, and quickly called the police to restore
order. Pronto, gallant officers were dispatched to the crime scene
and the national heroes swiftly ID-checked the felon.
Ridiculous.
Asked by journalists to list his achievements, a governor
proudly said: “Mr Bigg’s has opened an outlet in the state
capital under my administration.” The reporters could
hardly stifle their chuckle. Another governor told a group of
editors that “peace obtained and maintained” was his biggest
achievement, pointing to an award plaque given to him by an
association of crime reporters whom he called “security experts”.
These days, many governors would list payment of salary arrears
as one of their biggest feats, and I am still seeing politicians
celebrate the provision of well water, construction of wooden
bridges and distribution of transistor radios.
One thing I have come to realise in the development debate in
Nigeria is that we have not properly defined, or agreed upon, the
indices and criteria of analysis and assessment. What is our
collective understanding of development? What are our expectations?
What should we get from the federal government, state government
and local government? Who or what should be held responsible for
the failings? If the indices are not well defined, how do we
appraise the success of each level of government? If there are no
goal posts, how do we know when we have scored? How do we assess
our progress per time? What are the criteria we should adopt in
reaching conclusions?
My opinion on the underdevelopment of Nigeria is slightly
different from the position of the leading lights of the debate.
Many see our problems from the perspective of the “unitary”
constitution (suggesting that unitary systems can’t deliver
development) and propose the need to restructure Nigeria along
ethnic lines. After breaking down the definition of development
into tiny bits, I always conclude that there are things to blame on
the structure and there are things to blame on the leaders. There
are “federal” problems as well as state/LG shortcomings. But there
seems to be a prevailing narrative that dumps all of our problems
at the doorstep of the federal government.
Our discourse today zooms in on the performance of state
governments who effectively control the LGAs. Together, both
control nearly 47% of federation allocations. To help assess the
performance of governors, I want to propose what I call the
“minimum of five credits” baseline tool. No, I am not saying a
governor should have a minimum of five credits at O’Level. We are
not discussing JAMB and university admissions here. Rather, we are
discussing how to pull Nigeria out of underdevelopment. I am
suggesting that a governor must target to score a “minimum of five
credits” in office in order to be considered at all for a pass
mark.
The five “subjects” in which the governors must have these
credit passes are: education, healthcare, roads, water and
inclusion. I understand that different states have different needs
and what is critical in one may be less critical in others, but no
state has yet conquered all these areas, so they are relevant to
everyone. A credit pass would mean addressing at least 50% of the
problems. I have found out that these “five credits” are achievable
under the current constitution. This is good news as far as I’m
concerned. It means no law stops the governors from attaining these
minimum qualifications. By that, I mean we can still record some
big progress under our current circumstances.
I will break things down further so that I am clearer. One, a
governor must attain a credit pass in education. That means, in
practical terms, if there were 500,000 children out of school when
they assumed office, they must aim to reduce the figure to 250,000
in four years. This requires that there will be more classrooms
built, more qualified teachers and more capacity to enhance
standards. That would also mean at least 50% of the schools under
the state government should have libraries that have books and
laboratories that have chemicals. It is doable: it is about proper
planning and efficient use of resources. Some governors are already
doing well in this “subject”.
Two, a governor must have a credit pass in healthcare. Again I
will simplify it. Infant and maternal mortality must reduce
significantly during the four-year tenure. At least half of the
primary healthcare centres in the state must have basic drugs and
personnel to attend to common ailments. State-owned hospitals must
improve bed capacity in those four years, meaning more hospital
beds, more qualified personnel and more access for the ordinary
citizens who can’t afford to travel abroad for treatment. I would
add sanitation to healthcare. We will probably take care of many
medical problems and promote healthy living through better sanitary
conditions.
Three, a credit pass in roads is non-negotiable. I will also
simplify my understanding of this. If there are 10 villages without
access roads, at least five of them must be linked to a major road
within four years. If there are 10 kilometers of bad roads in the
state, at least five kilometers should be put in motorable
condition within four years. You would be surprised how a simple
road – even if untarred – can change the economic lives of a
people. What some villagers need is just to be able to stand by the
roadside and sell yams, tomatoes and bush meat to travellers. They
alone can improve their economic conditions and empower them to be
able to send their children to school and buy drugs or pay hospital
bills.
Four, a credit pass in the provision of clean water should be
compulsory. By clean water, I am not referring to wells and
streams. I mean treatment plants and motorised boreholes supplying
clean water to the people. If 50 villages do not have clean water,
the governor must target to provide that for at least 25 of them
within four years. In many villages, children wake up early and go
to the stream to fetch water for their parents. They carry heavy
buckets on their heads and walk for kilometers to and fro. When
they get to school, they are tired and frustrated and then we start
teaching them chemistry and mathematics. And then we will say
failure rate is high. What were we expecting?
Five, and very important, is inclusion. By inclusion, I refer to
giving the vulnerable people a voice and a space in government
policies. I’m referring to women, children, the disabled and the
unschooled. Several studies have shown that when you empower this
group, you solve a wide range of problems in the society.
Government policies must factor in the needs, concerns and
interests of vulnerable Nigerians. A 50% score in this area in four
years can make a 100% impact on the society. Many states are not
doing badly in this “subject”. The end product, if this is well
attended to, is that we are going to tackle many of the challenges
dragging us backward as a nation.
Achieving “five credits” in four years, however, does not mean
governors should start celebrating like they have invented
something. Just as no undergraduate should boast about having five
O’Level credits, no governor should be bursting our ears that they
did these five things. I remember, as a football reporter, I
covered a league match between BCC Lions and Julius Berger in
Gboko, Benue state, in 1994. Goalkeeper Andrew Aikhomugbe pulled a
string of superb saves in the dying minutes to help BCC to a 1-0
victory. I interviewed coach Shaibu Amodu afterwards and expected
him to praise Aikhomugbe. But he simply said: “He was not put there
as a decoration. He was doing his job.”
We don’t elect governors to be decorations – we elect them to do
a job. No governor should be celebrating paying salary arrears or
painting schools. The governors that should be celebrated are those
that score distinctions – 90% and above — not mere credit passes.
In fact, these “five credits” are just the irreducible minimum.
They will contribute in no little way to poverty reduction, job
creation and national development. There are more “credits” to
target, such as the provision of housing (an urban issue),
investment in legacy projects (tourism sites, fancy bridges, etc),
enhancement of security, and making policies that will attract
substantial investments in agriculture and industry.
There are plenty questions waiting for me, I know. One, what is
the role of councils in all this? Are they there for nothing? The
truth is that as things are today, the states are in total control
of the LGA funds, so I would say councils should be centres for the
implementation of developmental policies and projects at the
grassroots until we have local government autonomy guaranteed by
the constitution. Two, won’t the governors sex up the figures and
claim that they are scoring credit passes? That is why the citizens
must be awake to their responsibility of holding their governors
accountable. Third party monitoring will also be a good device to
match claims with reality.
Three, where would the states get the money to implement all
these projects? Funding is a major issue, many governors will
readily tell you. However, if the governors do their job
competently and patriotically with all the federation allocations,
development loans, bonds, joint LG accounts and IGR at their
disposal, there is nothing stopping them from achieving these
outcomes. More so, the states and councils can begin to push for a
greater share of the federation account. I don’t understand why the
federal government alone should take more than half and I have
always advocated that the formula should be revised in favour of
states and councils.
I am fully persuaded that most of the development problems we
are battling with as a nation will be half-solved if the governors
have a minimum of “five credits” during their terms in office. No
doubt, there is a lot we need to restructure about Nigeria – but
there is still much to be achieved under the current system. Let us
perform an experiment for the next four years: all the budgetary
allocations to health, education, infrastructure, water and housing
should be judiciously spent on these areas. Stealing,
over-invoicing and waste should be cut down by at least 50% at all
levels of government. Let us review things in another four years. I
suspect our progress would be monumental.
==
AND FOUR OTHER THINGS APC IN CRISIS
Anybody who is surprised by the APC crisis has not been paying
attention since 2015. The party started out as a coalition of
mostly aggrieved politicians who were out to oust the PDP from
power – and they succeeded. Sadly, there has been no attempt to
build the coalition into a family since they won power. For a party
that is five years old, this is a big failing. I agree that a
gathering of strange bedfellows will be prone to crisis and
difficult to manage, but I have not seen any genuine attempt at
integration. For those who are gloating, they may need to note that
the ultimate victims of a troubled ruling party are the ordinary
people whose interest automatically takes the back seat.
Change?
THE STRIKERS
Anytime I hear that public health personnel are going on strike,
my heart skips a beat. The casualties are always the ordinary
people who cannot to afford private treatment. Saving lives, I
suppose, is the calling of those in the health sector. That should
always be the consideration, especially when it is the poor, lowly
Nigerians that will bear the brunt. The demand for improved welfare
by the Joint Health Sector Union (JOHESU) is, no doubt, legitimate
but is the collateral damage caused by the strike worth it? To
compound matters, doctors are threatening to go on strike if
JOHESU’s demands are met. There is something peculiar to us in this
country which I will never understand. Sigh.
SMALL CHANGE
If there is a Nigerian state that comes close to my idea of how
the society should run, Lagos would be it, despite its
shortcomings. I can say for free that it is one state where the
leaders try to adopt and implement what they learn from advanced
countries. That means not all of the estacode is wasted after all.
The latest development is the establishment of a Small Claims
Scheme to resolve civil disputes involving amounts below N5
million. The entire proceeding from filing of claim to judgment is
a maximum of 60 days. This is a welcome development. It will free
the police from debt recovery duties and at the same time save us
from unending court proceedings that could last 10 years.
Progress.
AND FINALLY…
I am sensing that there would soon be the 28th amendment to the
American constitution to make it a criminal offence to be black.
Not so long ago, two blacks were arrested and handcuffed at a
Starbucks outlet. They sat there waiting for a friend and were yet
to place an order, which is like committing mass murder. Last week,
Ms Lolade Siyonbola, a Nigerian graduate student of Yale
University, fell asleep inside the common room at her dorm. Some
white girl discovered the criminal offence, told Siyonbola she had
no right to be there, and quickly called the police to restore
order. Pronto, gallant officers were dispatched to the crime scene
and the national heroes swiftly ID-checked the felon.
Ridiculous.
Read more https://www.nairalaw.com/governors-must-have-at-least-five-credits/