With the presidential and National Assembly elections successfully concluded on March 28, Nigerian voters still face another crucial task when the governorship and House of Assembly polls hold on Saturday. The elections are as critical as the previous ones: the governors and state lawmakers are closer to the grass roots, where the majority of the citizens are located. This makes it vital for voters to be astute in their choice of candidates. One of the most important rights of Nigerian citizens is the franchise — the right to vote. As it was the case two weeks ago, voters should be ready to protect their votes and citizens must be prepared to display people power to safeguard our emerging democracy.
The Independent National Electoral Commission says there will be governorship contest in 29 of the 36 states. States like Rivers, Lagos, Abia, Plateau, Enugu, Delta and Benue will be electing new governors altogether in place of the current helmsmen, who are concluding their second terms in office. In some others like Oyo, Ogun, Borno, Kaduna, Adamawa, the people will choose between the incumbents and other contenders. But there won’t be governorship elections in Anambra, Bayelsa, Edo, Ekiti, Kogi, Ondo and Osun states because the initial results of the flawed elections of 2007 were overturned at different times. In these states, only the parliamentary election will hold.
Voters need to understand what the candidates stand for, what their records of service are and what visions they have for the people. A decision to elect the best candidates would be a bonus to the consolidation of our democratic process. For instance, many states face serious financial challenges as a result of mismanagement and corrupt practices, and the almost absolute dependency on the centre for monthly allocations. A good number of the governors claim blithely that they are unable to fulfil their obligations to civil servants because of dwindling federal allocations. This lazy approach to governance has produced stunted development and inflicted chronic poverty on the people. According to media reports, 22 states owed workers salaries last December. Even now, the situation has improved only marginally.
Having assumed office, many governors are bereft of modern, scientific ideas that can move their states forward. They got their priorities wrong by wasting state resources on white elephants instead of providing basic amenities that can touch the lives of their people. Such political misfits are not worthy of another mandate. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, only Lagos State can survive from its internally generated revenue out of the 36 states. The NBS said Lagos grossed N185.9 billion in 2010, N202.7 billion in 2011 and N219 billion in 2012. All the other 35 states are far behind Lagos in their IGR profile.
Rivers, which is next to Lagos, generated N49.5 billion in 2010, N57.1 billion in 2011 and N66.2 billion in 2012, while some states, though host to rich, but untapped economic resources, garnered as little as N2 billion for a whole year in 2012. The current misery the masses are undergoing needs to be addressed with the right economic policies. The electorate should refuse to be hoodwinked by platitudes and look at the hard facts as they vote for the next set of governors.
In a federal system of government, imaginative states can set themselves on the path of development through sound economic management. California, by far the richest state in the United States, boasted an economy worth $2.05 trillion in 2013, with agriculture, real estate, health and education playing key roles. California’s solar power sector alone employs 43,000 people. In all, 18.6 million people are employed in California.
According to the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, the Los Angeles County generated $47 billion to the California economy in 2011, employing 162,000 people, 85,000 freelancers and contractors, with an average annual income of $117,000 per employee. This figure is double the average annual income in America, which is estimated at $53,000.
Similarly, Las Vegas, Nevada, thrives on its gambling industry, which employs 169,908 people. Its casinos and hotels paid $2 billion in taxes to the government in 2014. The industry is 45 per cent of the Nevada State economy. As a result, Nevada has reduced the burden of tax on its residents, making tourists who stream into its casinos to pay higher taxes.
Our states need to stop giving lame excuses about their non-performance, and it is only through the ballot that the electorate can tell a governor whether he is performing well or not.
The legislature, as one of the three coequal branches of government, is ascribed significant powers by the Constitution. The parliament is invested with the power to check the excesses of the executive arm, but what has happened in the Fourth Republic at the state Houses of Assembly has been rather revolting. With 978 members, lawmakers in the 36 states take so much from the public till. They passed only 601 bills between 2011 and 2013.
Many governors have turned their houses of assembly to appendages of the executive. Governors who do not implement budgets passed by the assembly have never been called to account. The parliament in states like Akwa Ibom, Rivers, Lagos and Kwara has hurried through obscene retirement laws for their governors.
The situation is really bad. Musa Rafsanjani, the Executive Director, Civil Society Advocacy Centre, said, “In Nigeria, the state Houses of Assembly have turned themselves to be the stooges of their state governors as a result of their weaknesses. After reviewing the performance of state Houses of Assembly in the current dispensation, human rights activists, civil society organisations, eminent lawyers and leaders … have declared them ‘dead.’” The electorate have to take their fate in their own hands by electing capable lawmakers who can reverse the trend at the state level.
The electorate should be persuaded to elect parliamentarians who will eschew self-aggrandisement, focus on the common good and bring about the principle of separation of powers in our drive for effective governance. In the end, when the last ballot paper has been counted, it should be clear to the governors and lawmakers that the electorate have done a good job of putting the right people in charge of their affairs for the next four years. As Abraham Lincoln, one time US President, once said, “The ballot is stronger than the bullet.”
