Why The States Matter

Peter lwegbuka Vincent argues the states are very important units of government. They deserve close monitoring and should be held to account

Ido not know how many Nigerians read The Guardian on Sunday, January 17, 2016 on the states of the federation entitled; FAILD STATES: A Narrative of Nigeria’s Skewed Federation. Knowing my countrymen as l do, very few probably read it, as reading is not the hallmark of Nigerians especially it’s adult population which interesting enough often complain that the young ones don’t read. Nevertheless, it is a report we should all read, in the hope that it can help us all to focus attention on the states and figure out how to save the states and indeed the federation, that is if the states can be saved. Nigerians continue to expand considerable energy on the central government with little attention paid to the states. No state governor or government is harassed, abused, probed, questioned, pressurised or ridiculed as the president and the federal government. You can even see that in the current fight against corruption. The All Progressives Party which won the 2015 elections came to power with the promise to reduce the cost of governance and bury corruption, among others. Even if one is not happy with the process adopted by the federal government and its agent the EFCC, in the current war on corruption, they are at least doing something. Nothing is happening in the states where they are considerable evidence that the states are in trouble among others because of corruption and mismanagement of resources. Equally, while the APC federal government has effected some cosmetic reduction in the cost of governance, most states have actually increased the cost of governance through creating more ministries and appointing more aides.

Nigerians should wake up to the fact that the states matter. Believe it or not, Nigeria’s growth rate would have been fastest, stronger and more sustainable if the states were substantially developed. This is why the states matter and why more attention needs to be paid to the states. It is because we have failed to pay collective attention to the states that the states are failing and why successive governors since 1999 have left the states worse off than they met them. If you probe further, you will appreciate that, not only does the states matter but that it is imperative we engage in serious discussions about the future of the states many of which are not viable. From the federation account, the states and local governmental collect 47. 32% but you cannot see this on the ground. The situation is even worse in the states that collect additional 13% as derivation fund. It was the state governors under the Rotimi Ameachi -led Governors Forum that compelled or forced Presidents Umaru Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan to share out the savings in the Excess Crude Account and why today we do not have enough in the kitty to protect the Naira or to cushion off the effect of the dwindling oil price. As we are all eager to find out what happened to the money approved by the last president for arms purchase for the military, would it be out of place to demand to know what happened to the millions of ECA monies collected by the states?

There are many reasons why the states matter but let’s look at just three. In terms of education, the federal government has very little involvement in primary and secondary schools which are almost the sole responsibility of the two lower tiers of government. In fact, the federal government has about 120 secondary schools called federal government colleges. In contrast, some states like Ogun and Delta States have more than 1500 secondary schools each. If the quality of our university products is bad, unemployable and worrisome, the states should bear the bulk of the responsibility for the poor state of education in the country. While a number of former governors spent millions in rehabilitating schools and building mega schools, they paid very little attention to the most important item in the education value chain, teachers. In almost all cases, no serious effort was made, has been made or is being made to improve the quality of teachers or to pay them well and as of when due. Consequently, in a number of states, teachers are perennially on strikes for poor conditions of service. The situation is not different in state-owned universities. It is the same situation in the health sector where collectively, the states have more hospitals than the federal government. In almost all cases, rather than expand and improve on what they met, including strengthening the capacity of the medical personal, incoming governors embark on building new hospitals which, if they manage to complete , soon begin to suffer from lack of quality staff and equipment. I do not know of any state in Nigeria where doctors and other health personnel work for 12 months uninterrupted. They are on strike for most part of the year, complaining of poor pay, delayed payment of salaries and other legitimate benefits and poor conditions of service. Interestingly enough, it is these same states that cannot pay civil servants, teachers, doctors, pay student’s scholarship, keep the environment clean or indeed provide any basic services that are agitating to have their own police forces. What a recipe for disaster?

It is however in agriculture that the states matter most. The federal government has no land and as it does now, provides broad policies and emplaces various funding mechanisms to assist the sector. It is the states that have the land and farmers. Repeated efforts to persuade successive state governors since 1999 to focus on growing agriculture in their respective states because of its multiplying effect have yielded very little results, more because, there is some cheap money that can be collected on a monthly basis from Abuja. In addition, unlike such infrastructure as roads, schools and hospitals which are easily visible and can boast the popularity of a governor overnight, the benefit of agriculture does not fit well into our election circles. Despite this, huge sums are budgeted for agriculture but are never released to grow agriculture. There is a report that indicated that 2011 and 2015, the south-south governments collectively budgeted about N97.5 billion but spent about six per cent. Indeed if state budgets are studied annually, the nation will be shocked at how the states have squandered scare resources, opportunities and stunted Nigeria’s growth and development. In most states, once budgets are passed by the rubber stamp state houses of assembly, which are in perpetual league with the state governors, they are captured and locked away and the keys hidden away by the governors. Money is only released based on the fancy and personal interest of the governors.

This is why it is imperative to engage in serious discussions about the future of the states. We do not need an oracle to tell us that the states as they are today are not sustainable and one who have been bold enough to say so directly to his colleagues is Ogbeni, Rauf Aregbesola, the embattled governor of Osun State, a state that is notorious for its inability to pay its civil servants, teachers and doctors. It is not only Osun State that can’t pay its worker; most states can’t nor do they have the capacity to generate employment. With the exception of Lagos, Ogun,perhaps Kano, most have no industrial base and no governor in the last 17 years have shown any seriousness or inclination to diversify the state’s economic base. As a result, the predominant activities in the states are services, and thus limiting their abilities to augment their Abuja cheques with IGRs. This is also why states are unable to create jobs.