Governance, Nigeria’s biggest problem, says World Bank

World Bank’s chief economist for Africa, Shanta Devarajan, at the weekend said one of the biggest problems facing Nigeria is poor governance.

Devarajan said this has caused many of the nation’s successive governments to be unable to transfer huge oil wealth to the benefit of the poor.

He said poor governance in Nigeria reflects in the fact that despite huge oil revenues, inequality in the country remains huge while the country suffers from high poverty and unemployment rates.

He spoke at the World Bank Chief Economists’ Roundtable on Prospects for the World Economy at the ongoing Spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.

His words, “I think the central problem in Nigeria is how do you translate oil revenues into benefits for the poor. Nigeria earns something like $30 billion in oil revenues but still has a poverty rate of about 60 percent and that is unacceptable in my view. Then you go back and say how do you do that and I think it has got to do with infrastructure deficits which hurts the poor. You know that the non poor has their own generators and things like that but the poor are suffering, education and health system is not delivering desirable outcomes.

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“But underlying all that, I think is the problem of governance because to me, to make infrastructure work, you need to build trust in the public that if you raise electricity prices for instance that they will get better electricity, you have to get trust in the public that if you reduce energy like the fuel subsidies, that the government will actually use that money wisely, or may be even transfer it to the poor in terms of cash transfers”.

Devarajan is of the opinion that things could get better in Nigeria and that the country has all it takes but strongly believes that the task lies in the hands of Nigerians to push the government to change things and not really for the international agencies who, he said, can only offer technical advice and help.

“The change has to come from the Nigerian people, we can only advise them but it is the Nigerian people, the government will only do things if they see that a majority of the Nigerians will support them, so it is up to you to raise your voice to amplify it through the media.”