Maximum government, minimum governance
By
If you have travelled round the country the way I have
in the last one year, and observed our country the way I have tried to, you cannot help concluding that our various governments are not people
friendly. We are, perhaps, the most over-governmented, but under-governed country in the world. There is so much war about power and its
paraphernalia but the effect of government on the lives of the people is yet to justify the amount of resources invested in governing us.
Let me pose a few questions to illustrate what I am driving at. How many governors know the
state of the Fire Service in their state? Why is such a matter a federal issue in the first place? Considering the importance of the Fire
Service, Why has it become the proverbial goat owned by all but cared for by nobody? Again, for all the noise about extending their idle tenure
to four years, how many local governments have demonstrated a capacity to manage ordinary solid waste in their localities?
You know the noise, the controversy, and indeed, the blackmail that have accompanied the passing of the budgets in the last three years. How have these budgets changed the lives of the ordinary Nigerians? How many more budgets before the economy begins to grow? The reason why the economy is still in shambles seems to be largely because the welfare of Nigerians is not at the centre of our economic planning. Our governments seem to be planning for the statistical satisfaction of the IMF and the World Bank.
Is there any arm of government studying the effects of the various budgets on the lives of
Nigerians? Who is keeping watch over the prices we pay in the market? Why does the Central Bank statistics always conflict with those of the
Federal Office of Statistics? When government wakes up to slap a ban on Tokumbo cars over five years old, what plans does it have for
public transportation? Who in
I have had to travel through the so-called Enugu-Port-Harcourt expressway several times in
the last three months. Each time, I try to see where the much-advertised work is going on the road but I can't find it. What I see is a
disappearing track of what obviously used to be a major road. All the way from
Was there not a ceremony supposedly flagging off the rehabilitation of this road? Was any
contractor awarded the contract to rehabilitate this road? Then, why is no question asked about his or her performance on this road? More
importantly, where is the almighty Minister of Works, Chief Tony Anenih? Why is he more interested in the demeaning frivolity of gadding about
in CNN cap than in his responsibility to the nation as its chief road maker?
Where are those who performed the flagging off ceremony? Where are those who lied that that
road is being worked on? Why has that road defied the almighty federal government? Does anybody care about Nigerians who use that road? Why has
this conspiracy of neglect continued? Why are the politicians from the East duplicitous about this road?
I am amused by the effort and resources wasted on convincing Nigerians about what is “on
the ground.” If I drive on a good road, enjoy rural electricity, health facility and drink good water in my village, do I need any propaganda
to convince me of that? But more importantly, how long are these roads guaranteed to be “on the ground”? How many of them will last till the
next rainy season? What can anybody say is “on the ground” on the Benin-Ore-Shagamu expressway?
Travelling to the East is always a nightmare once you get into Onitsha. As far as I am
concerned. Onitsha should be abolished! Its filth and the sheer insensitivity of the residents annoy. The town is a disgrace to both the
indigenes and the entire Igboland. Two characters make Onitsha unique. Filth and chaos. Come Christmas, travellers will be forced to sleep in
their cars waiting to cross, just like the olden days of the ferries. The simple reason why Onitsha is impassable in December is that some
morons insist on using the road as a motor park.
Whenever I contemplate Onitsha, I ask the question: where is the local government that is
supposed to clean the town? What is the local government chairman doing with his statutory allocation? Is he not one of those local government
chairmen spoiling for war if they are not allowed to stay an extra idle year in office? Where is the governor of Anambra State and all those
shameless people running around disgracing their ancestors in the name of politics? Is Onitsha not part of Anambra State? What will it take for
the local government to remove the bottleneck created on the Onitsha-Owerri road by mindless people every year?
I got to Port-Harcourt, I see a city gradually straining on the overburden of urbanization.
The traffic jam in the city is gradually overtaking that of Lagos. The problem with Port Harcourt is that it has just one major road, the
Port-Harcourt-Aba road. I hope the government is critically watching what is going on in that city. Otherwise one will wake up one day to find a
city that has exploded at the seams. I say this because for some curious reason of misguided assertion of ownership, Port-Harcourt has been done
an unfair deal. Port-Harcourt is now helmed in by villages, whose huts have been converted into zinced huts, without planning. There is little
room for expansion.
All over the country, you see things that should reoccupy the attention of those governing
us but are largely ignored. Yet the cost at which we are supposed to be governed is mind-boggling. Are we really getting value for our money
from the police that are unabashedly still collecting bribes on the highways in spite of the directive against check points on the highways and
President Obasanjo’s crusade against corruption? Why has government that spends so much found if difficult to stamp out extra-judicial killing
by the police?
The frequent mayhem and wanton killing and burning of religious places in the North have
now become a regular festival of blood. At what point in our life will the government be able to stamp out this festering bestiality? Why are we
gradually sinking into anarchy while the federal government watches? If the Governor of Zamfara State can openly declare a jihad on his
political opponents without the federal government calling him to order, why are we surprised that Kano erupted in support of the Talibans of
Afghanistan? Why are our governments absent when Nigerians need them most? Why must we have governments at such exorbitant costs if they are not
in the business of working Nigerians?
It seems to me that those in government are there for their own sake. That is why politics and government appointments have such do-or-die attraction to a lot of Nigerians. That is why we have ministries and board appointments described as lucrative and juicy. The popular saying of American Presidents about their office is: working for Americans. That is what makes the difference. An American President grows gray hairs after three months in office. A Nigerian president grows rosy cheeks. The challenge is for Nigerians to insist on our governments working for us. And the way to do so is not to insist on our own man or woman there, but to insist on the right man or woman.
November 2001