For the sake of Nigeria something must change quickly

“The present has finally prevailed….The past shall not return. The future is here. We have the blocks to build firm foundations therefrom to secure a stable future – That is the urgent patriotic task.

In this regard, Statecraft anchored on Prudence, Justice, Simplification, Decentralization and Deregulation will be indispensable”

– Hernando de Soto and Chu S. P. Okongwu (former Nigerian finance minister)

This quote is a combination of statements by two great people in two different parts of the world – Peru in South America and Nigeria in West Africa. The two people share some commonalities in their economic, political and social circumstances. They both come from countries that have been called “developing” for many decades but are yet to develop.

The first of the two is Hernando de Soto – a Peruvian economist and founder of the Institute for Liberty and Democracy based in Lima, and committed to the promotion of property rights in developing countries. The Economist Magazine identified de Soto’s institute as one of the top two think tanks in the world. De Soto is also famous for his many contributions to economic thought and management, particularly his seminal work, The Other Path, from which a part of this quote was taken.

The second person is Dr Chu S.P Okongwu, Knight of the British Empire (KBE), – a highly cerebral Harvard-PhD economics of Nigerian origin and, probably indubitably, her most outstanding Finance Minister. Okongwu not only understands economics, he has unusual capacity to weave theory into public policy of long term value. When he introduced the Value Added Tax, which is now Nigeria’s leading revenue source after oil, the country was not in a financial crisis.

When he returned from Malaysia in 1990 and proposed the establishment of what he called the Mortgage Guarantee Corporation of Nigeria, after Malaysia’s Kagamas, our housing deficit was far from what it is today. It took about a quarter of a century for Nigerian governments to come to the same realization to set up our present mortgage guarantee outfit. Okongwu is a visionary; a class that seems to have no place in Nigeria. But the present has finally prevailed.

Nigeria has always been engaged in the art of “statecraftmanship”. Since independence, we have been trying to build a cohesive nation. It is however uncertain if prudence has been a major element of this effort. The state is like any other institution and requires proper corporate governance, complete with accountability and selfless service.

This implies that we need people who come to government to give and not  just to “ come chop” – remember those famous words; people who work for Nigeria and not just for themselves while in government. When public officials work for themselves rather than their country, one finds much incongruence as we find today in Nigeria.

This is probably why as more and more Nigerians enter the Forbes List of the richest men in the world, more of our citizens find it harder to feed themselves. As more Nigerian leaders acquire private jets and pay no taxes, more of our young people are driven into crime for lack of hope. Perhaps, this also explains why some people could come on television to say that we did not know that the revenue from the Treasury Single Account would grow rapidly and so we forgot to vary the percentage of commission payable (if any) to software vendors. I still do not believe anyone in our financial high places will say such a laughable thing.

It is not so long ago that we negotiate fees for Pension Fund Administrators and Custodians. We varied the fees and commissions payable to these agents with increases in the volume of funds collected. Incidentally, it was the CBN and Pencom that brilliantly negotiated the fees for the pension industry. Things have to change.

Okongwu’s part of the quote was taken from his “Policy Thrust of the 1991 Budget” – a brilliant document that laid the foundation for the revolution that has happened in the Nigerian financial system over the past two decades, with emphasis on canalizing financial resources to the poor. It is futile for us to continue to talk of unity, peace and progress when the bulk of our young people are completely excluded from the economy and no finger has been lifted to change this despite much rhetoric. Things have to change.

We must seek to promote economic democratization by which I mean getting Nigerians to benefit from their national patrimony. Perhaps, our leaders do not know or they downright do not care to know the level of desperation now in the land. The wealth of this country is so concentrated in a few hands that something must have to change if we are to be united and peaceful country. Nigerian youths are not only feeling hopeless, many are actually hopeless.

Is there anyone who does not know that nobody applies for any federal or state government jobs anymore because only highly placed politicians and government officials give out jobs, and they give them to their relations. Who does not know that all government jobs are shared out to political office holders before they are created? Who is unaware that most families are unable to maintain the sanctity of their daughters today because they have to go to politicians to beg for upkeep? Something has to change.

The rest are on the streets fending for themselves in an economy that prevents them from using their brains but forces them to use their brawns. Is this what the new Nigeria promises our children? Am surprised our women are not interested in the misfortune their daughters have come into. Poor governance has exposed our kids to the dark side of living. Something has to change.

Nigeria has once again come to the beginning of it next life but it has also come face-to-face with the result of imprudence. We are not likely to ever be as rich as we were, say in 2010. As Hernando de Soto said, the present has finally prevailed and the past shall not return. One hopes that Nigerians get this point.

When President Buhari said we must kill corruption before it killed us, he spoke the minds of many. However, many now think that there is a degradation of the venom with which he condemned the status quo. One hopes that the status quo will not gain an upper hand as it fights back at the president. With so many visits and private meetings with people not exactly in his genre, we need to pray for our President. Something has to change quickly.