• Thursday, March 28, 2024
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Unfinished business for the next president: Tackling regional disparity

Unfinished business for the next president: Tackling regional disparity

In 1712, Peter the Great declared the new city of St. Petersburg as the capital of Russia, thus displacing Moscow as the seat of government. It remained Russia’s capital city until 1918, when by Lenin’s decree Moscow was restored to its ancient primacy as capital.

Somewhat like oil producing Russia, Nigeria has also built 2 modern cities, Lagos and Abuja. The latter built from scratch as the showcase capital.

However like much of Russia in recent past if you travel just 100 kilometres out of either city centre (Lagos or Abuja) in any direction, one is confronted with a depressing landscape of poverty and abysmal infrastructure.

Both cities largely built with massive Federal investments, sport relatively superior transport and other infrastructure, like schools, hospitals, malls, housing, municipal services, and so on and thus are often a magnet for private businesses/capital and jobs that come with it.

Read Also: https://businessday.ng/energy/oilandgas/article/nigeria-its-time-for-gas-attah/

The two cities in the South West (SW) and North Central (NC) regions of Nigeria have also managed to somewhat positively influence adjacent states like Ogun or Nassarawa.

However beyond these two cities, large swathes of the country especially those in far flung regions (North East, North West, South South and to some extent the South East) and away from the economic activities generated by Lagos and Abuja, often find themselves mired in poverty and unemployment.

Most of these regions with little or no Federal investments on the scale of Lagos or Abuja are often plagued by militancy (SS), Insurgency (NE), Insecurity, Kidnappings (NW).

For the next President (whomever it may be), there needs to be a concerted effort to tackle this problem in a bold and systematic manner and provide economic linkages between Nigeria’s vastly divergent regions to arrest a widening regional disparity that threatens the country’s stability.

One part of the puzzle would be to fix Nigeria’s collapsed rail infrastructure and provide a boost to poverty stricken parts of the country. A turnaround of the railways should be private sector led akin to what was done in telecoms, as opposed to Governments current tinkering which is inadequate and largely ineffectual.

Ayo Teriba, CEO of Economic Associates, a risk analysis and research firm, reckons that much of the harvests in the North still rot from a lack of transportation to markets, while most inland cities and trading activities have declined as the rail lines stopped functioning.

The regional disparity is revealed in stark numbers.

All major economic indices that deal with access to finance, power supply, education and employment all point to the fact that the Northern states are generally worse off than the south.

Seven of the ten largest state economies are in Southern Nigeria, while the population living in Southern Nigeria is more likely to have completed primary school than its counterparts in northern Nigeria, according to data from the National bureau of Statistics (NBS).

Lagos State has the highest net primary school completion ratio in Nigeria, at 70.6 percent, while less than 10 percent of the populations in Adamawa, Taraba, Yobe and Bauchi in particular have completed primary school.

The same trends persist in Secondary school attendance rates.

Average income per head was about $2,000 in 2018, however the Northern States income per head of $990 is about half the national average.

Most financial services institutions are concentrated in the South, with Lagos State alone home to over a quarter of Nigeria’s financial and insurance sector workforce.

Lagos State residents have the highest electricity supply per capita in the country, at 163 watts per capita, while power supply per capita in the north-east states is particularly dire, at less than 20 watts per capita.

Borno State, which is home to the militant group Boko Haram, has the lowest per capita power supply in the country at seven watts.

In a sense a Marshall Plan for disadvantaged regions of Nigeria should be contemplated.

The Marshall Plan, the historic U.S. aid initiative to speed Western Europe’s recovery after World War II, is legendary for its vision and accomplishments.

The $13.2 billion the United States dedicated to the Plan from 1948 to 1952 would be worth about $135 billion in today’s money and it helped to expedite economic recovery and buoy morale in France, Italy, the United Kingdom and West Germany, following the war.

For a Nigerian version of the Marshall plan to succeed however, there first has to be assembled a capable, largely apolitical bureaucratic team, willing and able to carry out the reconstruction and reform programs that such a plan would entail.

Lately there seems to be an absence of big thinkers in Government, who are looking at the big picture and proffering bold solutions that would change the trajectory of the country.

It is hoped that governance for the next President will not be business as usual.

PATRICK ATUANYA