3. Level of Development .
“Today we are talking of a government that has failed in the most basic of functions of governments” - Muhammed Buhari
“There is a direct correlation between governance and prosperity” -Barack Obama
“...if Umaru Musa Yar’Adua were to be taken to court to defend charges of poor performance against his government, the public prosecutor’s charge list would overwhelm even the President’s lawyers. That’s how disappointed many Nigerians are with Yar’Adua’s style of government” -Levi Obijiofor
Levi Obijiofor made that last statement exactly one year ago. Today the state of the nation has declined further to the extent that it rivals that of General Sani Abacha oppressive regime. The nation had lagged behind in development process compared to many nations with the same potential for growth and development. Nigeria scored very low in global indices bench making politcal,economic,business and human capital climate as show in the table below. All the indexes of development show low level of achievements in all areas of human endeavours. We need no prophet or Imam to tell us that Yar'Adua is then a 'monumental failure'. It is alarming and mind boggling that all the indexes have been on the downward slide since Yar'Adua's administration took over power. An overview of the various rankings is thus:
Nigeria's Report Card 2008 & 2009
| Name | 2009 | 2008 |
| Freedom House Index | Partly Free | Partly free |
| Health Status of President Index Saudi-Germany Institute | Worse | Bad |
| Mo Ibrahim Foundation Africa | 35/53 | 34/53 |
| Legatum Prosperity IndexTM | 98/104 |
|
| Harvard UKSG Index of Governance Africa | 38/53 |
|
| World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Index | 99/133 | 94/133 |
| UNDP Human Development Index | 158/182 | 154/177 |
| World Bank Ease of Doing Business Index | 125/183 | 125/183 |
| Transparency International Corruption Perception Index |
| 121/180 |
| Economic Freedom of the World Index |
| 111/141 |
| Heritage Foundation Economic Freedom Index | 117/183 |
|
| Milken Institute Capital Access Index |
| 88/122 |
| Bertelsmann Transformation Status Index |
| 66/125 |
Credit Ratings
Moody's Not rated
Fitch BB-/stable
Standard and Poor's B+/stable
The latest being the Mo Ibrahim Foundation,which released the rankings of good governance in Africa for 2009 with Nigeria ranked 35th on the continent. Nigeria scored below the West African regional average, which was 51.7 per cent and also scored below the overall continental average, which was 51.2 per cent.
Nigeria,the largest country in the West Africa, with the largest economy, was ranked below Sierra Lone and Niger. The country was ranked 11th in the West African sub-region at 46.46 per cent, with Sierra Leone (a nation just emerging from civil war) at 48.91 per cent and Niger at 46.59 per cent.
Nigeria was ranked 38th in the list of African countries in the 2009 annual Index of Governance released by the Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Governance, making it the 16th worst governed nation on the continent.
The 2009 Legatum Prosperity IndexTM is the world's only global assessment of wealth and wellbeing. The Index finds that the most prosperous nations in the world are not necessarily those that have only a high GDP, but are those that also have happy, healthy, and free citizens. Now in its third year, the Index builds on the previous versions with expanded data and refined analysis and assesses 104 nations covering 90 percent of the world’s population. Nigeria as usual joins the backbenchers who are ranked thus: 95) Kenya 96) Algeria 97) Tanzania 98) Nigeria 99) Pakistan 100) Cameroon 101) Central African Republic 101) Yemen 103) Sudan 104) Zimbabwe.
Latest ranking of Nigeria’s economy by a Geneva-based organisation, the world Economic Forum places Nigeria at the 99th in the world. Nigeria was among the 133 countries assessed in the Global Competitiveness Report for the period 2009-2010.
The World Economic Forum also in the area of weak institutions Nigeria was ranked 102nd, insecurity (117th), corruption (122nd) and wasteful spending (120th). Primary education level ranked 132nd out of the 133 countries that were surveyed. Besides, Nigeria’s state of infrastructure was described as appalling by the report. It was ranked 127th.Macroeconomic environment ranked 20th. Our market size was rated very highly at 42nd in the world.
Our nation occupies an inglorious position of 148th out of 158th in Human Development Index (HDI) as realised by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).According to Wikipedia online encyclopaedia “democracy correlates with a higher score on the human development index and a lower score on the human poverty index”.
Shame! the supposed Giant of Africa have been dwarfed and has conceded her position to smaller nations. I would have loved the literary giants Professor Chinua Achebe and Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka to capture the current state of the nation in their artistic way of writing. They would have made such remarks like “the big masquerade has been stripped naked in public”. Indeed things have fallen apart. In the olden days we would have been consulting oracles to find out what went wrong! Possibly the land has been desecrated. I had expected the Minister of Information Madam Dora Akunyili 'Re-Branding Apostle' or the Presidential Spokesman Olusegun Adeniyi to address the press dismissing and debunking all the various rankings as politically motivated,the work of the opposition or better still Western propaganda to discredit the nation in their usual manner of responding to critics.
These are not mere rankings as they represent the true state of the nation. I had expected the healthcare system to receive due attention because of the health status of Mr President. Currently,Nigeria's health system is ranked 187th among the 191 nations by World Health Organisation (WHO). About 200 out of every 1,000 children born annually do not live to celebrate their fifth birthday. With a maternal mortality of 100 per 100,000 live births,Nigeria continues to trail most African countries. According to the WHO,Nigeria and India account for about 10 per cent of the global maternal deaths while we are about 2 percent of world population. While Ghana has a life expectancy of 59.49 years,that of Nigeria is 46.5. The United Nations International children's Fund (UNICEF), in a report released in 2009 stated that in 2008,Nigeria,India and the Congo Democratic Republic accounted for 40 per cent of deaths of children that were below five years. The country ranked fifth among 22 high Tuberculosis-burden countries. According to the Minister of Health,Prof. Babatunde Osotimehin,tuberculosis cases in the country increased from 31,264 in 2002 to 90,307 in 2008.It was Her Excellency Turai Yar'Adua who sometime ago drew our attention to the fact that Nigeria has become an abattoir for pregnant women and children as such confirming the report of these world bodies. We have the some of the best brains in medicine but the are only willing to return when these hospitals are properly funded and managed with competitive wage.
Government hospitals have become “pre-mortuary”. We have a situation where despite a reported over N10 billion used to import medical equipment meant for the Aso Rock Clinic, Yar'Adua still embarks on endless medical trips abroad. A serving governor died recently because he was not flown abroad in time. What we have is a situation where the government establishes private wards in public hospitals with state-of-the-art facilities for its corrupt rich with cost of admission to these wards about N300,000.The Yar'Adua government has also begun moves to upgrade four teaching hospitals to “seven-star facilities”.All to discourage the rich from going abroad for the medical treatment. Poor Nigerians who make up over 90 percent of the population should manage the poor medical facilities if they can find any or better still suffer to death.
Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State who has shown formidable and exemplary leadership since becoming governor of Lagos State under the same period, upgraded the state owned hospitals to a reasonable standard. And to prove that he actually did that,he goes there for his medical check ups and treatment.
On education,We celebrated Yar'Adua as Nigeria's first graduate President with the notion that as a retiring teacher he will appreciate the value of education like the late sage Chief Obafemi Awolowo. In 2007,when Yar'Adua declared his assets his net worth was N767m. As Kastina State Governor in 1999,he declared publicly that he was worth about N100m, 'a princely sum' for a retiring socialist and teacher. Did he earn all the N100m from his vocation as a teacher? If not Yar'adua must have inherited a greater part from his family therefore he was insulated from the neglect and suffering of the intellectuals who churn out the nation's manpower yearly. So can we understand why Yar'Adua can afford not to pay attention to education? As such, he can go to other countries and commission $7bn Technological universities where the citizens of that country are given free education while the ones under his care are shut down for four (4) months and are highly neglected.
Academic Staff Union Of Universities (ASUU) just resumed from that four (4) months old strike. The government told us that they could not meet ASUU demands which will require them to cough out abut N100bn that was not included in the 2009 budget. Recession is the next excuse the blame for their ignorance. I stand to be corrected to say that we have been in depression ever since and you are either in depression or sliding deeper down in it,so the excuse of recession is a big lie. They reluctantly conceded to 50 percent salary increase for this men and women who are the fulcrum of the education system. Our best graduates don't want to become academics. The government continues to regard education and education development, especially research as a burden. We will get the massage 10 to 15 years down the line when mediocre graduates are being churned out to the eternal damage and detriment of the nation. We are already feeling the impart as many of today's graduates are declared unemployable by various companies and industries while their contemporaries from foreign universities even from Ghana are preferred. They lack the necessary skills needed in a world that is fast embracing globalization.
United Nations Educational,Scientific and Cultural Organisation(UNESCO) recommends that government devote 26% of their annual budget to education. Our leaders ignore this advice and consider it unattainable but we want to join the big 20's by 2020.A look at the G20 or G50 (if there is anything like) countries shows that they have at many period in their national development attained full education with high literacy levels. Year in year out,huge investments are voted for education and billions of dollars are dedicated to research and development (R&D).Their education system is the base of their economy. The British realized this early and every British citizen is guaranteed free education till he reaches 18 years of age. These developed countries encourage their citizens to go to school at least to college Level or acquire technical skills. Japan reduced their investment in defence and pushed it to education and today the difference is clear. The Asia Tigers and India invested heavily in technological education and today they are better off. They provide incentives such as education loans,scholarships,sometimes free education to any level and the education sector is well funded. Quality education have multiplier effects on any economy. It is one of the two major driving force of any developed economy. The education sector empowers the citizens to man the various sectors of the economy. This is why I revere late Chief Obafemi Awolowo. He realized this early when other leaders were more concerned with playing tribal politics and enriching themselves through corrupt means.
Until we have a President who realizes the importance of education we are doomed. I have perused a summary copy of the Vision 20:2020 blueprint presented by Minister of National Planning, Dr Shamsudeen Usman. There is no place for full education of the Nigerian citizens. Neither did I see a provision for the many expatriates who will man the various sectors of the economy come 2020. High premium ought to be place on education alongside power generation. I will still discuss the issue of education when I will talk about the eighth critical reason “Vision 2020 our pipe dream”!
On road infrastructural development,the House of Representatives was recently divided on whether to commence a debate on the state of our roads. I was amazed and asked myself,is there any sector of the economy of this nation that does not require debate or even a declaration of a state of emergency? In the Western world an unemployment rate of over 10 percent is considered a crisis development and a recession indicator but ours is well over 60 percent and we don't consider it an emergence? What manner of people! We have death traps instead of roads. Bad road network cause more accident than other factors put together. On any long journey such as from the east to Lagos or Lagos to Kano,fallen trucks and burnt tankers line the sides of the road with frequent carnage that had occurred. We have big craters filling a greater portion of the roads. Which part of the country can boast of good road network? Christmas is around the corner when some people will spend up to 2days on the Lagos-Benin express way which on a good road should take less than 5hours and possibly 2hours on a fast train if they exist. The fear of rogues,thieves and armed robbers on our roads no thanks to the dilapidated state of our roads is the beginning of wisdom for travellers and commuters. The unemployed energetic youth who could have put their strength into productive activities if industries exist take advantage of the bad road network to inflict harm on travellers.
Short-sightedness and lack of good policy formation of previous governments made them neglect and virtually abandon the railways in favour of extensive and massive road construction in a bid to open up Nigeria. They failed to see that all forms of transportation-land,sea and air have to be developed pari passu. They never planned for the future generations. The most advanced countries of United States,European Union and Asia who produce all the cars and planes did not ignore their railways. They constantly developed them and increased their efficiency such that it is fast,cheap and sometimes more convenient. Former Prime Minister Tony Blair sometimes took the London tube to and fro No. 10 Downing Street, the prime minister's office. Only Governor Fashola not even the President has seen the importance of railway transport by his Public Private Partnership(PPP) construction of a 10-lane road on the Lagos-Badagry axis of the state with street rail fitted.
I once read in the news papers where a western journalist inquired from his Nigerian counterpart if roads have never been constructed in a certain state in his country when a sitting governor read out staggering figures budgeted for road construction. Year in year out we vote gigantic amounts for our roads. The ones that are constructed do not meet international standard. In terms of roads maintenance, only 4,500 kilometres are maintained annually by both federal, states and local governments out of more than 30,000 kilometres in need of repairs. These roads are not constructed taking the climatic conditions prevalent in this part of the world into consideration. I wonder if our roads are built to last forever. I have realised that its not that government don't construct roads but there is no policy which stipulates how long constructed roads should last and no policy to remind us that certain roads have outlived their lifetime and should be considered for eventual reconstruction. Why can't we adopt proven models such as is obtainable in China. Contractors who are awarded road contract have to maintain such roads for a stipulated period which is always long enough to cover the expected lifetime of that road before the road is re awarded and reconstructed. Only the fear of Chinese executioners on any little account of diversion and corruption will restrain any sane contractor from the kind of things we see in this country. Albeit, I don't subscribe to China's barbaric behaviour.
I want to avoid the power sector, bring it into any discussion and boom! that's the end. Do I need to explain this term 'Up NEPA' to any Nigerian. Its a dilemma! It has even affected our psyche such that when we travel to other countries and the power is steady for more than we are used to we begin to feel uneasy and ask if there is no power outage in that place. God help us! A massive de-industrialisation is taking place. Many companies are closing shops and shifting their factories to Ghana,Angola,Cote d'Ivorie and other more hospitable environments in Africa. We are hoping to reach a targeted 6000mw generation capacity which is more elusive than ever(2 months to Christmas) while our South Africa brothers generate over 42,000mw.The combined effects of the decline in all area of infrastructural development brings the industrial sector to its knees,slowing it down to a little over 20 percent capacity utilization,according to the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria(MAN).Over hundred(100) textile companies have closed shops. The unemployment population increases in geometric proportion daily. Workers are laid off,while thousands complete their National Youths Service (NYSC),combined with the illiterates whose little business are being put out of business with lack of credit and investment in the real sector. The government and police continue to scream of the high rate of crime.
The newest addidtion to the crime scene is kidnapping which is mostly a scourge of the rich. When we have possibly say like 50 million able men and women who are eager and energetic to work finding no jobs while those who are engaged are just trying to be busy. Without any form of social spending,why wont crime rate be high and the militant groups have access to thousands of jobless youths to recruit? These citizen hear of astronomical figures (thanks to the proliferation of the media and thanks to the Chinese that have reduced the cost of electronics )that are realised everyday and gigantic sums expanded on ghost projects to better their life. Just like Oga Bode's N85b! (someone help! am about to faint!)They look with dismay and behold the opulence,extravagance and flamboyant life of politicians who live in mansions,drive in future model cars and own jets in the mist of the abject poverty that threatens their existence. Their assessment of the polity is reflected in the kind of amount they demand as ransom. Over $100 million have been collected in ransom between 2006 and last January as reported by the Nigerian Police. Banks are looted and even their fellow poor man is visited with anger when they go hay wire. In the Western world crime is caused by drug abuse and loose gun laws but here poverty is the major cause.
Despite the the country’s vast wealth in fossil fuels,and a estimated revenue of about N18b per day, over 70 percent our countrymen and women live in abject poverty according to The National Bureau of Statistics. Poor countries such as Sudan play host to over 5million Nigerians immigrants because Nigerians escape from their fatherland at any slightest opportunity. Libya continue to depot scores of Nigerians every year while many don't make it home alive. We were recently stunned with the large number of Nigerians serving jail time in other countries while many are on death row. China alone harbours over 700 Nigerian citizens in their jails.
United Nations High Commission for Refugees( UNHCR) has just informed us that we will soon top the list of asylum seekers world wide. Ghana has now become the nearest destination of choice. Embassies and High Commissions of other countries in Nigeria play host to a beehive of activities daily. Our own embassies and High commissions are mere outpost to receive aids and repatriated citizens. That is why we can afford to sell Nigerian government's properties in the US. Millions of Nigeria jostle for the few slots in various annul green card lottery programs of the US,Britain and Canada. Nothing works here! Who wants to come here? Anyone who is seen running into a house that is up in flames in a bid to get inside will need to have his or her head checked.
If the late Afro-beat King,Fela Kuti was alive he would have composed more songs to compliment his famous lines: “am sorry for Nigeria! am sorry for Nigeria!!” The music duo Paul and Peter 'P2' just released an album titled 'Wahala Dey'.Their lyrics are not far from Idris Abdulkarim 'Nigeria Jagajaga' single that put him in the bad books of the Obasanjo administration.
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