An agenda-setting matter of reforming the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission (EFCC) has been trending lately. Suddenly there is
talk about the propriety of the independence, power, and relevance of
the anti-graft agency. The brouhaha followed the frosty relationship
between some members of the Federal Executive Council, such as the
Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice (SAN), Chief
of Staff to the President, some lawmakers and the EFCC chairman, Ibrahim
Magu, whose confirmation as a substantive chairman has been long
overdue, but is being delayed, or may be denied. This is not unconnected
to his image as a man whose style of leadership and method of pursuing
the anti-graft war are antithetical to his antagonists’ and men on the
corridors of power.
While Magu’s opponents’ agenda may be self-serving, they have
cleverly couched it with the need for the EFCC to be reformed. They say
EFCC should only investigate and not prosecute. They also want to create
another agency with similar power that EFCC has and they have also not
failed to remind us of the overriding power of the AGF over and above
that of the EFCC chairman, and that the constitution vests the power to
do all that the EFCC is doing and more on the AGF.
Where are all these coming from? At what stage did we suddenly
realise that the EFCC wields too much power and should be curtailed in
the name of reforms. Come to think of it, is it the reform of the EFCC
that should engage our attention now or we should focus on the bigger
issues confronting the Nigerian state? Instead of seeking to whittle
down the powers of the EFCC because some higher men of influence do not
like the face of Magu, should we not rather worry about the structure of
the federation that no longer effectively serves our purpose; a skewed
federation with a huge treasury that dependent states come cap in hands
to every month to take a share from, even now that the revenues are
drying up.
The kind of restructuring or reforms we should be talking about
should be how the centre can devolve more powers to the states, make
them more financially independent and give them the power to ingeniously
harness and exploit their resources, as against their total dependence
on Abuja. Rather than hound or persecute Magu and even hope to throw the
baby and the bathwater away, we should think of superior conversations
capable of taking us out of the woods.
While ruminating on this topic and how to conceptualise it, I came
across this beautiful piece below written by one Fidel Albert and shared
on one of my WhatsApp groups, and I thought I should share it with you
too. Enjoy:
“California is the 6th largest economy in the world. Its economy is
larger than that of France or Brazil. The little problem is that
California is not a country. It is a state in the United States of
America. It has little offshore oil, yet its economy is larger than
states in the US that are famous for their oil reserves, like Texas.
California generates much of its revenue from non-oil products. It found
a way to absorb and domesticate much of the intellectual output from
its premier university, Stanford University, into saleable products
within its economy.
As a matter of fact, much of California’s economy is built around
Stanford University. So with this, Silicon Valley developed. I’m sure
you’ve heard of Silicon Valley at least once in your life. Now with
Silicon Valley came companies like Apple, eBay, Cisco, Lockheed, Hewlett
Packard (HP), Google, Netflix, Facebook, Oracle, Tesla…and the list
goes on and on ad infinitum. These are multibillion-dollar companies.
The yearly budget of any one of these companies might be larger than the
entire yearly budget of, say for example, Akwa Ibom State. I’m talking
about companies that are richer than countries. They are all in
California. But that is just in the technology industry where the
technologies and inventions spewing out of Stanford are caught mid-air
and converted to money spinning enterprises.
But there is also the entertainment industry in California. Yes,
Hollywood is in California. The US movies industry contributes about
$504 billion to US’s GDP. Hollywood, as you know, contributes over 70
percent of that figure. Most iconic movie studios are in Hollywood. As a
matter of fact, the “Big Eight” consisting of 20th Century Fox,
Columbia Pictures, MGM (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer), Paramount Pictures, RKO
Radio Pictures, United Artists, Universal Studios and Warner Bros are,
or were, all in Hollywood. These again, are multi-billion dollar
companies generating revenue for California.
Despite the above, California also thrives on agriculture. As at
2014, California had not less than 77,000 farms and ranches raking in
about $55Billion in revenue yearly. It produces over 400 agricultural
commodities, a large chunk of which it exports. It is the leader in
producing exotic fruits in America. Its wine industry is unique.
California wine is drunk with relish the world over. I used to drink
some too.
“Nigeria cannot wake up from its
slumber today because it cannot lift its head. The entire weight of its
existence is concentrated in its head. From the viewpoint of government,
the weight is in Abuja. From the viewpoint of revenue source, the
weight is in the Niger-Delta. We need to urgently restructure and evenly
distribute this pressure points and weights to diffuse tension in
Nigeria.”
This is just one state in America. You see, California actually had a
choice of sitting back and striving to get a piece of the revenue
generated from Texas’ oil. It could have depended solely on Federal
allocation to survive so that every month end, it will send its
Commissioner of Finance to Washington DC to receive monthly allocation
so that it can barely pay salaries of its workers and nothing more. Then
San Francisco would resemble Ajegunle in Lagos. And there certainly
would not be those beautiful sights and sounds that make California what
it is today. But no, not California. Not America. California gives to
the centre and, because of its wealth, despises the idea of depending on
it for survival. The Federal Government actually needs California to
survive, not the other way round.
You see, America is structured in such a way that states must look
inwards to exploit their wealth for the good of its citizens. There is
no free lunch for the lazy states. There certainly is no commonwealth.
But there is your wealth, if you can create it. Under American
Federalism, you are the captain of your ship. But again, you are also
the waves upon which the ship will sail. That is America. The local
government, the government closest to the grassroots, is deliberately
made the strongest level of government. Items like Variances (adaptation
of state law to local conditions), public works (yes, public works!!),
contracts for public works, licensing of public accommodations,
assessable improvements, basic public services are all left for local
county governments to handle. The state handles weightier matters like
property law, education, commerce laws of ownership and exchange,
banking and credit laws, labour law and professional licensure,
insurance laws, and electoral laws, including parties and civil service
laws. Items that the Federal Government, the centre handles affecting
the states, are actually very negligible.
Nigeria on the contrary will never do well unless we restructure. We
pretend to have a Federal system but we are actually operating a unique
form of unitary government, and it is weighing the polity down. Can you
imagine a country where the school curriculum is regulated by a national
central body and states have no powers to vary or amend their
curriculum? So, if the rest of the developed world is light years ahead
in what they teach their children from primary schools, and our Minister
of Education has absolutely no clue, the states must be burdened with
antiquated school curriculum until such a time (if we are lucky, before
rapture perhaps!!) that we have an Education Minister who would realise
how far behind we are and bring the curriculum up to date. Just take a
look at the science curriculum for grade students in advanced countries
and you would cry for Nigeria. I recently read of a high school in Japan
which has amended its curriculum to include robotics and drones
technology. In high school, our equivalent of secondary school!! But our
professors here don’t have a hang on robotics even! Students are still
taught the very prehistoric rudiments of physics and chemistry in our
schools. And this is even in the few schools that teachers and students
still meet in the classrooms! For the few public schools that are lucky
to have labs, all you see are miserable nameless creatures trapped in
formalin, to which nobody ever pays attention. These creatures suffer a
double jeopardy having suffered the first misfortune of being caught and
preserved in formalin in Nigeria, and then thereafter completely
ignored, even in death! And because the control of our curriculum is
central, there is nothing potentially proactive or progressive-minded
states can do about this.
You would think this is not a problem until you understand that
Nigerians spend over N1 trillion every year to study abroad, despite
there being over 100 tertiary institutions in Nigeria. Not one is deemed
good enough. You see, the reason why you have Cambridge, Harvard,
Princeton, Yale, Oxford, etc is not only for academic excellence of the
citizens of the countries which have these schools. No. They invest in
their institutions so that they can earn revenue from foreign students
from countries like Nigeria which has destroyed its educational system.
Abroad, schools are so important to society that the economy, business
and lifestyle of whole cities and even states completely depend on or
revolve around schools. What would the city of Cambridge be without
Cambridge University? Or Cambridge, Massachusett without Harvard
University? These cities depend on these universities to survive. And
imagine that Nigeria had invested in its universities and was earning $1
billion dollars a year from foreign students seeking to study here, who
would be fighting over oil in the Niger Delta? How many car
manufacturing companies would we have in Owerri near FUTO where students
are constantly doing and selling their research products to burgeoning
engineering and manufacturing companies?
Recently, three students in Sweden conducted a research and came up
with a product that could improve wear and tear on tyres. The product
became so successful that Volvo had to partner with these students to
patent the product. Now when this product hits world stage, can you
imagine how much revenue Sweden would earn from these product? Do your
research, most of the world-class products we buy today off the shelf,
at great cost, were invented by university students. As you are reading
this, do not forget that without Harvard University, there would not
have been Facebook.
But our students in Nigeria are not entirely without inventions. We
invented the Pyrates Confraternity, the Black Axe, the Eiye, the Vikings
and what not!! Students resume school with guns and bullets, rather
than books and scholastic ideas, as though academic institutions were a
war college. Lecturers fly colours as do students. And when the turf war
begins, people die in droves. But states can do nothing about this
because some of these institutions are controlled by the Federal
Government. Even for the ones controlled by states, you still can’t do
much because the security apparatus is controlled by the Federal
Government. The Federal Government will provide or withdraw security
from the state, depending on whether it is happy with the sitting
governor. So every year, all sorts of characters are vomited from
Nigerian universities to take their place in the Nigerian society. So
you have judges, lawyers, engineers, doctors and so forth whose first
and primary allegiance is to their cult groups, before the country. The
multiplier effect of this is a treatise for another day.
But suffice to say that as long as this problem persists, let’s
forget about Silicon Valley in Nigeria, because there will never be a
Stanford University here to provide an infinite supply of ideas and
prodigies to feed the invention value-chain!
Nigeria cannot wake up from its slumber today because it cannot lift its
head. The entire weight of its existence is concentrated in its head.
From the viewpoint of government, the weight is in Abuja. From the
viewpoint of revenue source, the weight is in the Niger-Delta. We need
to urgently restructure and evenly distribute this pressure points and
weights to diffuse tension in Nigeria.
We need to revisit the exclusive legislative list in the constitution
and systematically reduce the responsibilities of the Federal
Government vis-a-vis the states. Resources have to be handed back to the
states that generate them but place an obligation on each state to
contribute an agreed percentage to the common federal purse to service
obligations of the Federal Government. There is no reason education,
policing, prisons (only people convicted of federal offenses should go
to federal prisons!!), ports, inland waterways, natural minerals, even
marriage (yes, English form of marriage!!) and so many other items
should be the concern of the Federal Government. We will never develop
with such weight that weighs us down at the centre. Nigeria can never
raise its head in the comity of nations because of the sheer weight of
the head.
There is more to say, but scarcely any time. But to emphasis the
point I’ve been labouring to make, shall I say again that there is
absolutely no reason or need to fight for oil in the Niger-Delta. There
are so many things that can bring more revenue to states in Nigeria than
oil. South Africa has no oil, but it has gold, and is richer than
Nigeria. Let us fight for a system that will promote both equality and
equity. Let us restructure Nigeria.”
