"If Nigeria gets to the parapet of a failed fourth republic, the tale of 11 trillion naira would be on the front page of that handbook: a handbook chronicling the opportunities lost, disappointments and crush of dreams in nation-building," writes the usually tepid Guardian newspaper, infuriated at the revelation that over 11 trillion naira had been spent by the Obasanjo administration since it came to power.
Editorial
THE Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, recently published a breakdown of allocations from the Federation Accounts to Federal, states and local governments from June 1999 to December 2005. The report, one of its type ever in this country, indicates that the sum of over 11 trillion naira has been distributed and received in the commonweal over that time. It is a very significant piece of information especially as the timeframe coincides with our practice of democratic governance and the attendant props of accountability and people power.
To the extent that the published 11 trillion naira is only the disbursements from the Federation Account alone and does not include internally generated revenue of the states and local governments, in which case a figure of 22 trillion naira would be a fair estimate of public revenue and expenditure in the six and half years. These figures are very considerable and truly do not depict a forlorn or poor country.
We congratulate the Ministers at the Finance Ministry for the freshness of their efforts in emphasising accountability. Over a year ago, Mrs Nenadi Usman spoke out against looting state governors who pilfered the treasuries immediately after the same Federal Allocations and ran overseas with ill-gotten foreign exchange. She illustrated her point so well that Nigerians were convinced that the monthly exodus of governors for overseas tours was dubious.
What may probably become more enduring is the showing up of Nigeria's power elite, in government and outside of it, for the monumental lapses of financial responsibility and accountability. This commendable publication by the Federal Ministry of Finance speaks of the Obasanjo years in terms of 11 trillion naira and counting. So much has been received in the people's names and has been regularly distributed. The publication has shown in black and white what has snowballed into the worst kept secret in Nigeria - that naira for naira value - there is not enough to show for the largest and longest-running income boom since the foundation of this country. Physical infrastructure is decrepit and social infrastructure is febrile all over the country and yet we appear determined to budget huge sums at Federal, state and local governments year on year. The counterpart performance for the greatest good of the greater number of the people continues as the challenge of these Obasanjo years.
In the week that Nigeria paid off the Paris Club of Creditors, a sum over $18 billion, it is meet that we return our attention to the conduct of our internal financial arrangements and disbursements. There are abiding arguments opposed to the solution adopted by Nigeria to clean her books with the Paris Club, basically running on the theme that Nigeria is not a rich country and has pretended to a strategy of the buoyant and the rich in the Paris Club negotiations. An 11 trillion inflow in the current accounts of the many tiers of government and the mound of foreign reserves, strictly speaking, tend to spike the poor country cognomen
There are four separate but related uses we may deploy the published figures for: Enlightenment of the masses, for blackmail of the ruling political elite and their co-operators, as an instrument for forensic accounting and auditing at each tier of government and a platform of appeal for divine intervention in the human management in Nigeria. In each instance, though we confront the historical, an opportunity to redefine the traditional nuance of public office presents itself. Mrs Okonjo -Iweala, while releasing the report, actually advised the Nigerian people to ask of their governors and councillors what they have expended these sums written against their jurisdictions on!
Destination Nigeria would have become a haven if 11 trillion naira was truthfully spent in the public interest within six odd years. This publication is a rueful commentary on the size of our collective greed. It is all so very sad at the thought of what could have been: A chance to build a prosperous, responsive and republican society that would push its civilisation in all directions of the new world order. Instead, Nigeria can, at present, be rightly characterised as a society unconscionably corrupted by its elite, where "prosperity of the wicked and the suffering of the masses" has been evident and life expectancy in the mid-40s.
A quick illustration of what we have missed to spend money on: 11 trillion naira is sufficient to create two North-South eight-lane freeways, Two East-West highways inclusive of the Niger Delta, the waterways, airports, public power generation and nationwide supply and open up the energies and ambitions of this country. There would still be over eight trillion for the social infrastructure required for the 21st century, massive law and order reforms - Judiciary, Police, Prisons; country-wide and profession-wide healthcare reform, pensions and Senior citizens initiatives, Internet highway for every institution of learning in every nook and cranny of this country, universal qualitative secondary and vocational schools, capital and long-term endowment for all tertiary institutions in Nigeria.
We would still have three trillion to pay salaries and emoluments and attend to the bloating of administrative apparatus in the country under a ridiculous appreciation of presidential style governance at states and local councils. Let it be added that there would even be balances to pay for the shindigs and shenanigans of First Ladies who have assumed a peculiar stature when analysing governance in Nigeria. In the season we paid off the Paris Club of Creditors, at the end of the seventh year of purportedly democratic governance, our fortunes should address the "Nigeria Club."
We expect that the three years grandstanding on the Fiscal Responsibility Bill should end now by turning it into law. If the public space is not swamped by warped arguments, is this not an example of where the ruling party should display its tentacles and muscle its majority in the National Assembly to vote for the bill?
In the event that institutions created by public trust and supported through public funding for watchdog roles have barely lived up to their billing - the Police, the Judiciary, Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC), Economic and Financial Crimes Commission(EFCC) - we urge the people to ask their representatives for explanations in respect of this publication and painstakingly explore all legitimate processes including professional advisers to ventilate the matter. If Nigeria gets to the parapet of a failed fourth republic, the tale of 11 trillion naira would be on the front page of that handbook: a handbook chronicling the opportunities lost, disappointments and crush of dreams in nation-building.
