Lagos, the April polls and the imperative of big ideas

There are many things wrong with Nigeria as structured today, we have repeatedly held. But one of the most jarring is that the constituent units are not pulling their weight. If and when they do, Nigeria will rise up again.


One state that has a good chance of pushing further in this regard is Lagos. It is clearly the smallest in geographical terms but arguably the richest in terms of financial and commercial capabilities. And for it to even build stronger on this base, we need then to look at the vector factors that made the present degree of success possible.


History has a place in this. The colony of Lagos was set up as a separate British jurisdiction over a half century before my co-pen pusher, Flora Shaw, gave the overall entity her name.


With the amalgamation in 1914, it was the first, formal coordinate seat of governance. At Independence in 1960, this status was reconfirmed and remained so until about the end of the century.


But then the strength of Lagos is not just in its being a former capital city of Nigeria. There are indeed several other variables.


One critical element of the Lagos story is its commercialism. From the ports to the banks, Lagos sits atop a lot of the business and traffic in this yet import-dependent nation.


The development of this strong commercialism has also encouraged a greater ethnic accommodation. Though this suffers from time to time, it remains a major component element in its continuing success story. And it is one that several other states and territories who are looking to grow should not obscure: migrants build cities, states and nations, effortlessly.
Indeed, stretched further, there is a sense in which the coastal city was prepared to be a rainbow enclave. Lagos is beneficiary of a host of migrations from Edo to Brazil, Ile-Ife to Ijebu-Ode, Portugal to England and Sagamu to Niger; Lagos has taken many in and continues to take even more.


With this mass of people have come urban engineering pressures that successive administrations have tried to respond to. During the colonial era for example, ‘new towns’ like Surulere were encouraged to come into being. And they did. Post-independence, the struggle has continued. From the ‘tenure’ of Mobolaji Johnson through Raji Rasaki and on to Lateef Jakande, Bola Tinubu and the incumbent, Raji Fashola, the race has been two-fold: responding to the dynamics of the ever-burgeoning population and advancing the infrastructure to cater for even more migrants that would inevitably come.


In all of this, one critical concern has been the issue of getting resources that government can use to work on and expand the state’s infrastructure. For Mobolaji Johnson, his tenure coincided with the execution of city-redefining infrastructure projects like the Carter bridge and Ikorodu road. Lateef Jakande on his part expanded schools and hospitals infrastructure massively and during the Fashola administration, a lot of critical road infrastructure have been revamped and/or introduced.


Two factors that helped Johnson, resource-wise, were the outpouring of oil wealth, nationally, and the fact of Lagos being the extant federal capital during that era. For Jakande, it was the drive to be faithful to the manifesto of the Unity Party of Nigeria. And for the Fashola administration, it has been built on the current tax-and-spend paradigm that reigns in the state.
On account of many strides that it has taken, Lagos has over time then come to be established as Nigeria’s pacesetter state. And one challenge before it in the forthcoming electoral and post-electoral season is about its living up to this billing.
The next administration would have to do more than has been done this far. As things stand now, the tax-and-spend regime looks like it is here to stay but there must be a lot done to plug loopholes, including issues of probity, transparency and popular buy-in. But no matter what is done, it is most critical that for the Lagos of the future to emerge, bigger and more elaborate ideas need to come in stronger onto the governance template. And when they do, the taxed would have had greater value for their ‘sacrifices.’


For example, virtual ‘brand new cities’ have to be built to decongest the very many presently clogged parts of the state. Lekki for example has no doubt been helped by the expansion in road infrastructure there, but the continually expanding traffic situation on that artery comes with a very clear foreboding that that ‘city’ could soon begin to experience even more troubling incidents of epileptic but sustained shut-ins. God forbid. While the average feeling is that Lagos has no land left upon which to build, the truth is that with creative engineering, the stretches between Ajah and Epe and Ajah and Ikorodu can receive new and better planned cities. Equally capable of taking new developments is the stretch between Ojo and Seme. And should more space be needed, the state can negotiate with neighbouring Ogun for example, to ‘take over’ swathes of the Lagos-Shagamu expressway and expand the remit of its present ‘limited acquisition’ of farmlands on the Ikorodu-Ijebu-Ode axial. And if outright take over fails, an alternative ‘Greater Towns’ framework can be contemplated and worked on. The truth of the Lagos situation clearly is that since more and more people are surely going to continue migrating into this ‘fairly solvent Nigerian oasis of economic opportunity,’ forward looking administrators must continually engage and re-engage in scenario planning with a view to ensuring that the city does not someday crash on account of this deluge. Now is the time to act.


A second core decision that the next administration should bring to bear is greater creativity in the arena of fiscal management. For one, the State has in the Fashola years being borrowing massively for projects execution even as it has also built stronger savings buffers. As at September 2014 for example, the state’s debt portfolio was a princely N160bn. Even with this, there is still an assurance that the state can really do without spending any bit of its income allocation from the federation account today. This is particularly so when it is observed that the state currently runs annual budgets in the half a trillion naira mark! And that is why it should go ahead now to build on its present strengths through the House of Assembly passing a law to compel that at least 50 percent of the current ‘paltry’ revenue from the Federation account should be automatically saved and invested and not spent. Like Norway does with 85 percent of its oil receipts, this would be a further endowment for future generations.


We also need a greater practical synergy with the people. To whom much is given, much indeed is expected. While the rest of Nigeria whines over the curse of government, Lagos should be basking in its positives. The state must take very strong and assuring steps to improve its education and healthcare facilities to world-grade and residents should benefit maximally in this. Public schools and health institutions remain largely unattractive and this must not be allowed to continue. It is not enough to give people free education or free healthcare. If there is no quality integral in the offering, the people have really only been shortchanged. In this wise, it is quite timely that one of the candidate’s asking to be elected governor is already talking of a statewide Health Insurance scheme. While some may balk at a project of this magnitude, given its anticipated costs, the other side of the equation is that a well-executed health insurance scheme would translate into greater prosperity for Lagos and Lagosians. So let us not give up so readily.


Still talking of big ideas, another candidate is proposing a N25billion Employment Fund. This also is a winning proposition if it is properly executed. And the logic here is simple. With thousands of Nigerians pouring into the state daily in search of jobs and economic opportunities, a fund of this nature would avail employers with the necessary financial resources with which to create the jobs and opportunities that government does not have. The barber with two apprentices can move on to four. The bakery down the road can acquire a delivery van and thereby be in position to expand its market reach. Lagos must embrace its destiny. It simply cannot say no now to committing to continuing growth. And progress. E ko o ni baje o!

Cry, the beloved country

You may already know Alan Paton’s epic, anti-apartheid novel from which this caption has been taken. But we are not talking of South Africa today. No, we are talking today about Nigeria, which to paraphrase our own Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, has continued to be enthralled in an ‘embarrassment of bad choices.’


Yes, bad choices. And we know what happens with bad choices. They invariably lead to bad outcomes. Some eternally optimistic Nigerian would say ‘God forbid!’ But that is why the creator Himself carefully outlined in the Book of Deuteronomy: ‘This day I place before you life and death. Choose life that you may live!’


Indeed, before the current dilemma of having to choose between Buhari and Jonathan, Nigeria and Nigerians have long been enthralled in choice-making.


The British first set up four separate ‘protectorates.’ They were the northern, southern, oil rivers and the colony of Lagos. Then for greater administrative ease, they began to blend them into one entity and finally ended with the unified territory of Nigeria in 1914.


The January 1966 coup brought in some dilemma when it did not succeed in all of its objectives. It left the rump of the administration with two options: work around it some more until a civilian government could be put in place or turn over power to the armed forces. The lot fell on the then Senate President, Nwafor Orizu to read ‘the instrument of surrender.’ In a classic case of déjà vu, the military’s withdrawal of protection for the electoral process last weekend follows most whimsically in that same tradition.


In July 1966 also, the hamstrung North wanted out of the unified federation. Araba, they insisted. Again the British intervened and the mantra changed: ‘To keep Nigeria one is a task that must be done!’


With the crisis in the North and the pogroms, a traumatised Eastern region had to make a choice. The crowd wanted out. Some other voices counselled continuing on with ‘difficult dialogue.’ The military administrator of the region, Lt Col Odumegwu Ojukwu cast the deciding vote. ‘On Biafra we stand.’


Were there alternatives to postponing last weekend’s polls? Plenty. But two would suffice here. And they reach to the heart of the issues.


A country is about its plans. Nigeria planned the botched electoral event four years ago. Three years after, the substantive agency in charge of the project declared specific dates for the contest. And then with literal days to the event, the agency is forced to abort the process.


Two principal challenges have been largely adduced for this. First is the issue of security. Nigeria has been fighting insurgents for years. And if we recall our historical details correctly, the escalation in the violent disposition of Boko Haram coincides with the extra-judicial killing by the security forces of Boko Haram’s first leader. When the same forces say they are requesting six weeks to finish off or substantially contain the insurgents (as the text is now being watered to), the question to ask is that given public knowledge that the theatre of conflict largely involves 14 local governments spread across three of our 36 states, could Nigeria not have requested strategic military support six months ago from the United Nations to beef up security in the affected areas and thereby ensure peaceful polling as has been the case in Iraq, Afghanistan and several other conflicted nations where the Nigerian military has participated and shone?


The second issue is that of the organisational inadequacies of INEC. Now, there is really no breaking news in saying that INEC, like the average national institution, is performing below the mark. And this writer is a personal victim giving that on account of this tardiness, he would not be voting in the elections. It is sad, but that is our cross today. But to insist that the elections must not hold on account of this is most mischievous. The other day for example, I watched INEC spokesman, Kayode Idowu, reel out figures on the level of PVCs collection as at Feb 10, 4 days to the initial polling date. Contrary to the widespread view that the PVCs had only been given out to ‘northern voters,’ the records show that in Akwa Ibom INEC had scaled the 80 per cent mark, while in Rivers and Abia States, PVC collection was in the range of 75 – 78 per cent.


Let us describe the spade after its shape. This postponement is indeed a sore blight and my prayer and hope is that this is all that it is. May God help Nigeria.


This piece was initially published on www.hallmarknews.com

Goodbye, Mr. Omar

NLC elections and the legacy conundrum


A democracy is many things. It is about citizens that vote. It is about institutions that are constitutionally enabled to drive the processes of statecraft. While some function directly, others exert indirect influences. One such indirect buoy is organised labour. As the aggregator of the views of the bulk of the working class in a country, organised labour is an important player in the overall democracy project.


During the Olusegun Obasanjo era when Adams Oshiomhole held sway as captain of the labour movement, and in the absence of a strong, formal political opposition in the land; the lot fell on the labour movement to ensure that there was some degree of accountability in the land.


While some commentators take exception to this liberal reading of the mandate of Labour in a democratic society, the deeper truth is that such a reading did not begin with Oshiomhole. In the 1940s for example, it was organised labour, then led by the venerable Micheal Imoudu, aka Number One, that rose to the challenge of insisting on the right of Nigerian workers and people to be treated with dignity and decorum in the land of their birth despite that Nigeria was then a British-occupied territory.
Imoudu it was who led the workers and other Nigerian nationalists in what is perhaps, the first minimum wage protests in our history, the Cost of Living Allowance (COLA) struggle. When the colonial security forces brutalized and killed workers at the Iva Valley Mines in the eastern heartland of Enugu, it was again the mercurial pan-Nigerian fighter that rose to the fray and led organised labour and the nationalists in demanding justice for victims and more hospitable mining conditions in the land.
Imoudu’s interventions were not only for the masses. When for example, he heard that the Nigerian elite were being denied access to ‘Whites Only’ clubs, the lion in him arose and he led yet another series of marches to de-segregate the clubs. Indeed, when the full and correct story of Nigeria’s independence movement is eventually told, it would be most apparent that it is heroic statesmen like Imoudu that should occupy the top ranks.


Beyond Imoudu and Oshiomhole, other notable labour leaders like Hassan Summonu have also read the mandate of labour to include advocacy for the rights and interests of the Nigerian people. And such advocacy has helped in ensuring a balance in the political make-up of the nation and ensuring that the issues of the mass are not casually dismissed by elite power jugglers.
It is one such moment that arose on January 1, 2012 when the Jonathan administration gave Nigerians the very ill-timed new year’s gift of a hike in the prices of petroleum products! Incensed, organised labour joined other civil society advocates in resisting the increase.


However, unlike in the Imoudu and Oshiomhole eras, it soon became clear that the Abdulwaheed Omar-leadership of the NLC, in consort with the Peter Esele-led Trade Union Congress were only observing the motions. To paraphrase a Bible text, they were only ‘having a form of militancy but denying the power thereof.’ And so the protests petered off.


Many commentators believe that the now-ending Omar era, like that of Paschal Bafyau also, clearly does not fit in with the highpoints of the labour movement in Nigeria. And even as Congress is engaged this week in picking a new leadership, they also do not see much to recommend the trio of Ayuba Wabba, Igwe Achese and Joe Ajaero who are currently angling to succeed Omar as NLC President.


Interestingly, the NLC polls are coming in the middle of one of the most embarrassing mis-steps associated with organised labour in recent times. It has to do with the ill-advised mass housing scheme being undertaken by Congress in conjunction with the developer, Kriston Lally Nigeria Limited which till date has failed to deliver one house!
While Congress is accusing the company of making illegal withdrawals from the project account, the company is accusing Congress of not having met a pre-condition of the project, namely the provision of land upon which the said houses would be built!
Meanwhile the embattled workers remain caught in the throes with no houses, their monies trapped and no solid assurance that the saga would be resolved in their favour soon. This is what happens when leaders leave the core demands of their calling in preference for chasing shadows.


The next President of the NLC must then not be only one who stares down government. He must also be one who would like Caeser’s wife is seen to be clearly above board in all respects. Goodbye, Mr Omar.