JANUARY is the month of the budget, the yearly rituals on incomes and expenditures of the governments. In the closing days of 2015, President Muhammadu Buhari and many of the state governors delivered their budgets to the legislatures, that ultimate symbol of Peoples Power. In December, Governor Akinwumi Ambode presented his 2016 budget of N662 billion, the biggest among the states, to the Lagos State House of Assembly. One of the earliest to present his budget of N67 billion, the smallest in the country and barely 10 percent of Lagos State’s, was Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State.
Each of the 774 local governments, too, does present budgets. They even have a House and a Speaker. This is the law. However, if you have never seen the budget of a local government, then you are in good company. Most Nigerians are not even aware that local governments do present yearly budgets. I think a law should be made compelling the Federal, States and local governments to publish their budgets in at least two newspapers and two newsmagazines. It is only when this is done that many Nigerians would know that indeed local governments do have budgets.
We are moving gradually away from the era where our budget would be funded almost entirely from our oil revenue. Oil revenue is declining and we have to look for a new grazing ground. The challenges are many. We have to develop new sources of income fast, cut out unnecessary expenditure and persuade our law makers to do with smaller wardrobe allowance and ride cars that may be older than one raining season.
Some years ago, I had watched a documentary on CNN, the international cable television behemoth, on the state of textile industry in the United States. Textile factories across the US were closing down and workers were forced to acquire new skills or face redundancy. Most of the textile companies were outsourcing their products to other countries that have cheaper labour and more favourable conditions. By that time, only two companies were still maintaining textile factories in the U.S. One of the professors on the programme was not surprised by the collapse of the American textile industry.
“American should concentrate on the knowledge industry which is the main product of the post-modern age,” he said. “Textile industry should be left to Chinese and Indians.”
There was a time he could have mentioned Nigerians, too. In the immediate post-Civil War years, the textile manufacturing industry enjoyed a boom in Nigeria. In Ikeja, Isolo, Ilupeju, Apapa, Ibadan, Ado-Ekiti, Aba, Maiduguri, Kano, Kaduna, Benin, Ibadan, Onitsha, Jos and many other Nigerian cities and towns, the textile factories worked 24 hours a day. Workers ran three shifts. In Isolo, you could walk five kilometres on the factory floor of the Aswani Textile factory. A market was eventually established in the vicinity of the factory where its products and that of other Nigerian manufacturers were sold. That market has survived the collapse of the Nigerian textile industry. It is called Aswani Market till today.
The Aswani Brothers eventually relocated to South Africa. Most of the industry owners were Asians. Many of them headed for South Africa. Some went to Ghana, Burkina Faso, Cote D’Ivoire, Mauritius and India. When TELL started operation in 1991 on Acme Road, Ikeja, and the textile factories were still working in full steam, because of that, you could go out at anytime of the night and enjoy hot amala and ewedu soup. You could have your pepper soup, suya and chilled beer at 3 a.m. Now the factories are silent. Most have been taken over by churches and other miracle centres.
There may be no miracle on our road to economic greatness. We have to interrogate our economic history and find out why we are now importing palm oil, why the textile factories are silent, why we are no longer number one on the cocoa map of the world and why the country with the best wood in the world is importing second-rate furniture from China. We would discover that lack of good faith, poor labour laws, lack of infrastructures and power and hostile political environment, especially during the military era, may have contributed to our decline.
Of course, we have been regaining our leadership in many sectors since the return of democratic rule, thanks to the likes of Aliko Dangote and many brave men and women who are sailing into uncharted seas to establish Nigeria’s name in the world economy. The Dangote group is now the number one cement manufacturer in Africa. One area we have shown tremendous positive growth is in telecommunications where the GSM (Global System for Mobile Communication) companies are daily digging gold from the pockets of millions of Nigerians.
Considering the size and youthfulness of our population, it is not surprising that we are the leader in the telecommunication industry in Africa. That sector is today dominated by giants like the MTN, Glo, Airtel and Etisalat. In the past era of military coups, I don’t know how this scenario would have played out with the old NITEL out of the arena. With what magic wand would a coup plotter have disconnected all lines and render all of us literarily speechless for the duration of the coup?
MTN, the leader of the pack, is having problems with the Federal government for allegedly violating the explicit directive of the National Communications Commission, NCC, to disconnect all lines whose owners have not been properly registered. To curb insurgency and other criminality in the country, the NCC had directed that all GSM users must be registered with their full biometrics. When the MTN could not meet the deadline, the NCC asked it to pay a fine of N1.04 trillion. If you don’t know how many zeros are after one trillion, you better ask your neighbour or Google. I am not going to tell you. I can only say it is certainly higher than the budget of Lagos State and that of many African countries. It is about 12 times the budget of Ekiti State for 2016.
The NCC says it imposes the fine to cure MTN of its insolence and financial flatulence. The MTN considers the punishment punitive. It went on its belly before the NCC, sober and penitent. Later, the fine was reduced to N780 billion, which is still higher than the budget of Lagos State for 2016. Dissatisfied, the company went to court to seek refuge.
In and out of court, there is no doubt that we are witnessing a running story whose impact would be considerable. Already, the shares of MTN in the Johannesburg Stock Exchange have declined by almost 30 percent. Several of the top management, including the managing director in South Africa and Nigeria, got the red card. The multi-billion naira drama is being watched with keen interest world wide.
MTN is a Nigerian company that has its roots in South Africa. It has proven the capacity of the African to manage large and complicated enterprises. Despite its South African roots, it employs directly and indirectly more than 500,000 Nigerians, including some of our country brightest and the best in information technology. The chairman of the board is the elusive billionaire, Pascal Dozie, economist, banker, businessman and the genius behind the success of Diamond Bank and many other ventures. Like the MTN itself, Dozie is a giant who walks on tiptoes.
There was no doubt that MTN was expecting some lashes on its bare buttocks for its alleged offence of not disconnecting 5.2 million subscribers. But the firing squad? Unlike the textile companies, it could not quickly pack up and go. Since 2001 when President Olusegun Obasanjo opened Nigeria into the gsm world, MTN has been a great part of our success story. It is the success of the MTN and other players in the telecommunication industry that has made us to become the largest economy in Africa. While it may not eventually escape outright, the punishment should not be so great that it could end the MTN story. That story is our success story. We should also know that when a mosquito perches on the scrotum, it has to be dealt with thoughtfully and with considerable circumspections.
GUARDIAN
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