For the second year running, the Federal Government is proposing an economic rescue plan for the insurgency-battered North-East zone. But instead of applause for what it called the Special Economic Development Initiative, the government has, also for a second straight year, received only verbal bashing from stakeholders who deplore the amount earmarked as too small and accuse President Goodluck Jonathan of insincerity.
But there is, indeed, a need for a realistic recovery plan for the geopolitical zone; the challenge is for the government and the region’s stakeholders to hit on the right approach.
When during a visit to Gombe State in 2013, Jonathan promised an intervention plan for the region, he was optimistic that it would “accelerate the zone’s socio-economic development.” He followed this up with a provision of N2 billion in the 2014 budget, but immediately took heavy flak from the affected states and their lawmakers who felt insulted by its paltriness, citing it as evidence of federal contempt for the region. Perhaps to follow up on his pledge of “aggressive and urgent action,” N5 billion is proposed in the 2015 budget with the heading, Federal Initiative for North-East (Pilot Counterpart Funding Contribution), under the notorious “service-wide vote.” Federal lawmakers from the zone are furious. Senator Ali Ndume said, “It is too meagre. It confirms … that the North-East is marginalised, deserted or almost abandoned.” With the level of devastation, the loss of over 18,000 lives and economic ruin, Mohammed Monguno of the House of Representatives argues that a “Marshall Plan” is required, not “ad hoc arrangements that won’t do anything.” Besides, critics say the N2 billion was never released.
It was the United States, through a plan by its then Secretary of State, George Marshall, that popularised massive economic and infrastructural spending stimulus for European countries devastated by war, after World War II.
That the North-East zone requires a rescue plan is incontestable. According to the latest assessment by the National Emergency Management Agency, over 800,000 persons have been displaced in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states as a result of the terrorist insurgency by Boko Haram. At least, 254 schools have been destroyed in the three states out of about 300 attacked, with 115 schools completely destroyed in Borno alone that also suffered partial destruction of 139 other schools. For a zone with the world’s highest number of out-of-school children, urgent steps should be taken on the 120,077 pupils that NEMA says have been forced out of school in the three states by December 2014.
Destroyed also over the last five years have been churches, mosques, markets, police and other security facilities, telecommunications and power facilities, government buildings, military bases, vehicles and bridges, among others. Farmlands, houses and factories − always few in the zone − have been torched and the economy of this agrarian territory has been devastated. Investors, managers and employees, according to the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, have fled the zone in droves.
Restoring order and rejuvenating the zone’s economy is therefore a daunting task. But, as usual, the federal and state governments as well as the region’s elite have not been clear-headed. First, you cannot implement any rescue plan until you have recovered the 20 local government areas now controlled by Boko Haram in Borno State and several others in Adamawa and Yobe states. There was no Marshall Plan in place until West Germany was liberated, or any US-led recovery programme in Japan until the imperial forces had surrendered to the Allied powers. The Taliban were driven away before a multi-billion dollar economic recovery plan that built dams, water supply schemes, roads and airports could get underway in Afghanistan.
Sadly, Jonathan and his security chiefs have demonstrated incompetence in recovering the territories taken by Boko Haram. Worse, they have not even shown that they care.
Second, such a rescue programme, to succeed, must be a collaborative effort of the federal, state and local governments. Jonathan appeared to appreciate this when he described the intervention as counterpart funding, rightly implying that other tiers of government will lead since they are closer to the people and better placed to appreciate their needs.
The primary responsibility for rehabilitation lies with the affected states and their citizens, not the Federal Government. The primary responsibility of the centre is to recover all lost territories, destroy Boko Haram and ensure the security of lives and property in the region. Jonathan’s abysmal failure to discharge this preeminent constitutional role imposes an added duty on him to raise funds to assist the North-East governments in rehabilitation after securing it.
North-East state governments and their leaders should avoid the prevalent attitude of entitlement in the northern states that allows its leaders to abdicate their responsibility and lay the onus of development solely on the Federal Government. We insist that it is their twin promotion of religion with state resources and neglect of education and social services that fertilised the ground for deviant, evil groups like Boko Haram to emerge in the first place.
The North-East states should start planning to reverse this retrogressive practice and lay out an elaborate plan with mass education, provision of basic social services, infrastructure and job creation as the fulcrum.
