Ben
With the continuing mindset of above-the-law and you-can’t-do-anything-about-it arrogance of the Nigerian ruler-ship, complemented by the apathy, cowardice and ruinous resignation and helplessness of the Nigerian follower-ship, any system, however “good,” would be liable to gross abuse such as we have seen in the civilian regimes since 1979.
Things were bad in the First Republic, which was why the Five Majors struck. If only they had known how bad things could really get—and we haven’t hit bottom yet. There may be no bottom to hit. The switch from British parliamentary to American presidential system of governance only took a bad case and made it ten times worse. In the parliamentary system at least, both the prime minister and his ministers have to be on their toes always—else they would be torn to shreds by the aggressive scrutiny of the Opposition with their “shadow cabinet” understudying their counterparts in the ruling party and countering their every move. Nobody was guaranteed even one year in office, not to speak of four years of misbehaving and looting; the government could fall any day.
But don’t even mention the possibility of bringing that system back: with things as they are now, all you will get is collusion between the party in power and the Opposition—and the beat goes on! So what are you trying to say, man? You can’t have it both ways. DON’T SAY THAT NOTHING WILL WORK. We can’t accept that! It’s not the system; it’s the people who operate it.
But . . . . let’s try again. One more time. Let’s propose a system—you have to have a system, name or no name. When the right people come—if they ever do—they will run it, or a much improved version of it. But here are some elements that might go into such a system; and as in the Federal, so in the States: •Turn the annual Budget on its head. 10% percent should go to Recurrent Expenditure (salaries, emoluments, entertainment, transport & travel, etc.); 90% to capital investment.
•Drastically reduce the cost of governance; dismantle the entire rickety apparatus of fleets of cars, fabulous allowances, foreign junkets, mansions furnished fit for princes and periodically sold to their occupants for next to nothing, while a brand new set of mansions is built for the next set of parasites. •Drastically reduce the civil service.
•Reduce NASS to a part-time National Assembly of 2 or 3 delegates selected from each State Assembly. •Reduce State Assemblies to volunteer or part-time, with very limited salaries/allowances. •We have a lot to learn from other countries which operate part-time legislatures. For instance, in the wealthiest nation of the world, USA, only 4 states (California, New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan) operate anything close to full-time legislature (80% time). The other 46 states operate on various degrees of part-time.
•Drastically reduce salaries/emoluments paid to governors, ministers, legislators, etc. Again, take a cue from USA, leader of the G20 which we say we want to join in Year 2020. USA pays N2.5m-10.5m annual salary/emoluments to state legislators, N25.5m to national legislators. USA per capita income: N6m; difference between national legislator and ordinary citizen (per capita) is approx. N18.5m. (These are 2008 figures; there has been no significant change, else the Wall Street Journal and CNN would have reported it).
In Nigeria presently, no one seems to be quite sure what we pay our national legislators in annual salary/emoluments, but it is estimated up to N250m, against a national average (per capita) income of N412,200—a difference of approx. N249.5m. What a difference! In other words, in USA, the wealthiest country in the world, the national legislators are paid N25.5 million, while Nigeria’s national legislators are paid ten times as much! And we say we have copied and are operating “the American system of government”!
Imagine that! •Abolish the Local Government system. •Do not create any more states.
• Reduce number of states to 12 or 6, and leave them alone to develop each along its own lines. •States should be economically viable and self-sustaining administrative/developmental units. Loosen or cut the strings tying them to the will of the center. Again, learn something from federal-state relations in USA.
•Decentralize government. It should never be necessary for citizens to travel all the way to Abuja for any essential functions. The question might well be asked: if we so drastically reduce the machinery and cost of governance, what will we do with all that extra money? Nigerians are fools with money. When we have a lot of money we don’t know what to do with it. Thanks a lot. Just stay with me. I’ll tell you what to with all that money. •NEXT WEEK: What do we do with all that money???
