Our Sovereign Wealth

The National Assembly is in the process of considering a bill to establish a Sovereign Wealth Fund. The bill will most likely be passed.

In recent years, there has been much discussion of doing this.

I like the idea of a Sovereign Wealth Fund. I believe it is a good thing. But I fear that unless we fix the substance of economic governance, it will not matter what form we give that governance.

The Excess Crude Account was ostensibly set up to operate in a specific and particular way. In reality, it operated within the context of the substance of our economic and political governance ... and so an account that had $20 billion at one point is now nearly empty.

Lots of other things were ostensibly set up to operate in specific and particular ways. Nigerian Airways. The National Electric Power Authority (by whatever name). The Nigerian Police Force. Each and every federal budget since the début of the Fourth Republic nearly 12 years ago. Charles Soludo's "consolidation" of banks. The Economic and Fiscal Crimes Commission.

The list goes on. It is a long list. A looooooong list.

Over decades, we have repeatedly created entities, programmes, plans, projects, agencies, etc, etc, etc ... things that are always intended (or so we were told) to serve a specific and particular purpose .... things always end up functioning very, very, very differently from what we were told was the plan.

The outcome is always disappointing.

And we always claim it is the Nigerian Factor.

There is no such thing as a Nigerian Factor. The fact is, if you plant beans, you will harvest beans. Once you have planted beans, you cannot then say that the Nigerian Factor is the reason you didn't harvest yam. You didn't harvest yam before you never planted it in the first place. That agency you created and named the "Yam Planting Agency" planted nothing but beans because that was what you wanted, and so a harvest of beans and nothing but beans is what you will get.

Accept responsibility!

This history worries me.

It worries me regarding the Asset Management Corporation.

And it worries me regarding the Sovereign Wealth Fund.

One way or another, these entities are not going to function the way they are supposed to. And it is very disappointing to me, because we need both entities, and we need both entities to function exactly as they are supposed to.

I want to see fundamental reforms to the way we do things. If we don't change what we substantively do, then it won't matter what bright new ideas we profess to have, because it just won't work.

The governing board of the Sovereign Wealth Fund is to be an unwieldy leviathan that draws in all sorts of characters, including (depressingly) the president and the 36 governors .... the same people who depleted the Excess Crude Account, and spent it all on recurrent waste and political patronage. The very Assembly right now moving to pass the bill has NEVER in the last 12 years adequately performed its role as a check and balance on the executive.

We are planning on putting a big, juicy stack of money into a pot that no one of ethical standing will watch over.