Trends across the country tend to suggest that state governors have learnt little or nothing from the current downturn in the economy occasioned by the recession in the global oil market. Despite the drastic shortfall in revenues, resulting in their inability to pay workers’ salaries regularly, many of the governors still have their heads in the clouds even as citizens are being asked to make more sacrifices; this is most unfortunate. No fewer than 27 of them, according to President Muhammadu Buhari, were finding it difficult to pay workers’ salaries.
Ordinarily, this should be a time for sober reflection, an opportunity for fresh ideas on how to explore available and new sources of revenue, other than oil, and a time to put to utmost judicious use the little resources that have been trickling in from the Federal Allocation. But many of the governors seem to have different priorities altogether. At a time when oil prices have fallen so badly, they have continued with the same ostentatious lifestyle that defined the years of plenty, when the commodity commanded over $100 per barrel.
A good example is the Governor of Cross River State, Ben Ayade, whose recent appointments have reportedly brought the number of his special advisers and personal assistants to 1,000, from an outrageous target of 1,500. For someone who has already assembled a team of 28 commissioners, it is baffling what he intends to do with such a long retinue of aides. How does he meet with them and what kind of advice does he expect from such a motley crowd? Will it not amount to a case of too many cooks spoiling the broth?
Ayade, is, however, not alone in this lavish show of ostentation. In the same league with him is the governor of Delta State, Ifeanyi Okowa, whose retinue, alongside the commissioners and their own personal aides, is put at 1,500. For a state that relies heavily on oil money to run its affairs, it is still amazing how the multitude of aides will be maintained and still have money to spare for projects now that about 60 per cent of revenue has been creamed off due to the glut in global oil market.
The truth is that a state the size of Cross River has no need for 28 commissioners – let alone other adjuncts in the name of advisers and assistants – when half that number could as well do the job. How many ministers, as they were designated then, did the likes of Michael Okpara, Obafemi Awolowo and Ahmadu Bello hire to run their respective massive regions, which were able to come up with landmark projects and developmental initiatives in the First Republic that are still being admired till today? They were less than half of the 28 commissioners, and this was when Nigeria had just three components, instead of the current 36.
It is not as if Ayade does not appreciate the need to cut cost at times like this. In fact, he deserves some plaudits for announcing recently a slash of 80 per cent in his own salary, a gesture that his commissioners have also bought into by voluntarily announcing a 20 per cent cut of their own. What then could have been the motivation for trying to give with one hand and take away with the other? Could it be the need to service his grass-roots political contacts at the expense of delivering service to the voters? Perhaps only the governor and some of his colleagues with the penchant for bloated cabinets can provide the right answers.
At the last count, well over 27 of the 36 governors owed civil servants salaries, not to mention pensioners, who are treated like the scum of the earth. Watching their payroll gradually outstrip their monthly income, they have not only demanded and obtained a bailout from the Federal Government and a loan from the Central Bank of Nigeria, they have also come out, unashamedly, to declare their inability to continue paying the monthly minimum wage of N18,000.
Shocking, isn’t it? Yet, many of them are still embarking on projects such as building unviable airports, buying private jets for their comfort and luxury car gifts for their commissioners, aides and parliamentarians. States bitten by the airport bug are Osun, Ogun, Anambra, Nasarawa, Zamfara, Abia and Ekiti.
In other parts of the world, airport projects are seen as drivers of the economy, where the host cities already boast a strong economic base and guaranteed goods and passenger flow. It is quite unlike Jigawa where a former governor had to enter into an agreement with an airline for a twice-weekly flight to the airport, bringing in between five and fifteen passengers. In China, the second largest economy in the world, airports are seen as competitive assets, not nuisance and environmental threats. That is why the country is embarking on an ambitious project of building 10 airports a year until 2020, according to The Economist of London.
Nigerian governors have to change their attitude towards governance. Governance has to be people-centred. The governors have to live a selfless life and get their priorities right. That is the only way to take Nigeria out of its present state of underdevelopment.
