EVIDENCE emerges regularly that governance at the sub-national level in Nigeria is particularly dismal and marked by lack of accountability. The situation is ironic. While monthly statutory receipts from the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee to the 36 states are increasing, poverty is also expanding among Nigerians. As the statutory institutions (especially the federal and state parliaments) have failed to undertake this assignment, the onus is on the citizens themselves to interrogate this gnawing contradiction by demanding accountability from the governor for the public funds they have been collecting on their behalf.
Rising poverty among Nigerians belies the sums the 36 states and 774 local government areas receive from the FAAC that shares federally collected revenue to the three tiers of government monthly. With 86.7 million very poor persons, Nigeria overtook India as the extreme poverty capital of the world in 2018. A report by the National Bureau of Statistics in 2022 confirmed 133 million persons as “multi-dimensionally poor.”
Two new media reports on the FAACdisbursements also contrast sharply with the rot at the grassroots. Plainly, the two tiers of government have failed to deliver on sound governance. The states collectively received allocations of N3.16 trillion in 2022 from the federal till in 2022, an increase of 30.5 per cent from the allocations of N2.4 trillion in 2021. In 2020 – the COVID-19 pandemic era – the states collected N2.23 trillion.Also, internally generated revenue by the states and the Federal Capital Territory combined rose to N1.89 trillion in 2022 from N1.56 trillion in 2021, a jump of 21.5 per cent.
But these sums did not translate to any meaningful development at the sub-national level. Illogically, more income translates to more underdevelopment in Nigeria.
Altogether, the LGAs received N2.02 trillion in 2022, according to calculations by The PUNCH. At this tier, things are dreadful. Schools, rural roads, hospitals, housing, and basic social services have collapsed or are virtually non-existent.
The root of the crisis at the sub-national tier is the noxious dependence on federal allocations, which are largely unaccounted for, at the expense of productivity and rational economic competition. It has turned the states into beggarly appendages of the centre. This is unlike in the First Republic when the four regions operated as independent economic units, backed by the 1960 and 1963 federal constitutions.
Today’s 36 atomised states have become centres of misery. Unfortunately, the governors continue to misplace their priorities. Northern state governments abet underdevelopment by concentrating on sponsoring religious activities. Education there is in abeyance, and Nigeria, with a population of 20 million out-of-school children (per UNESCO), is second behind India globally. In the South, the governors concentrate on white elephants like airports. Governors live in luxury at the public’s expense. Some crown their indolence and kleptocracy with generous pensions on leaving office.
At the rural level, Nigeria suffers from the worst maternal and infant mortality (under-five) rates, estimated at 145 women deaths daily from pregnancy-related causes, and 2,300 children daily, the Federal Ministry of Health says. Combined, the states and LGs’ portion of 133,000 kilometres of road network (out of the country’s 195,000 kilometres) is largely untarred, said the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission.
Not surprisingly, Nigeria fares woefully in major global human development ratings. Numbeo, an online resource on liveability, rated Nigeria as the worst liveable place in the world in 2022 with a score of 45.13 (out of 100). Hanke’s Misery Index in2020 ranked Nigeria as the 15th worst globally. These ratings tally with the brutal reality citizens are experiencing.
While poverty is most severe in Sokoto, Jigawa, Kebbi and Gombe, the situation in the oil-producing states, which have been receiving the 13 per cent derivation fund, is horrible. Bayelsa, which collected N250 billion, and N24.07 billion by its eight LGAs from FAAC in 2022, is listed among the five poorest states.
The case of Lagos State exposes Nigeria’s crisis of development. It received a total of N225 billion (fifth) in federal allocations in 2022, while its 20 LGAs collected the highest at N146.39 billion. Nigeria’s commercial capital outstripped all the 36 states and the FCT in IGR with N753.46 billion in 2021, NBS data showed. Yet, with a bulging population of over 20 million, Lagos, like all the other states,is known for the huge joblessness rate among the youth, organised extortion by violent transport unions on the roads, gridlock, and other harsh indices.
Instructively, The EconomistIntelligence Unit rated Lagos the ninth worst place on earth to live in 2022. That conclusion is based on a report by the United States Department of State showing that Lagos made the list because “it is known for crime, terrorism, civil unrest, kidnapping and maritime crime.” Numbeo puts the cost-of-living index in Lagos at 41.4, among the 10 highest in the world, where New York City is No.1 at 100 points. The minimum wage in Nigeria is N30,000 per month; the minimum wage in New York City in 2023 is $15per hour (N6,915 at official exchange rate).
Corruption is another inhibition. Regularly, there are accusations that the governors appropriate the LGs’ allocations.
The ball is in the court of the citizens. Examples of ‘People Power’ changing the tide positively abound. In Romania, in 2017, days of protests forced a new government that wanted to whittle down the anti-corruption laws to back down. In Bulgaria, massive peaceful protests in 2020, after the ‘seaside villa scandal’ exposed a former leader as treating public property as private, caused the government to excoriate the offender. Therefore, Nigerians themselves should resolve to stand up against maladministration that is everywhere delivering poverty, disease, and misery.
Without effective parliamentary oversight at every level to check public expenditure and sleaze, the lesson is that citizens must not leave governance strictly to politicians. This places a burden on the people to constantly and decisively wield their power to vote in the right people at elections, and to organise civic activities to demand accountability from their leaders.
Punch
END
Be the first to comment