Waste in Oyo

In a prior post titled "Development by Doing", I cited the example of federal legislators who flew to London in the early days of the Fourth Republic to spend time at Westminster ostensibly to learn how to be parliamentarians.

In that post, I pointed out that many villages in Nigeria have held perfectly effective "parliamentary" sessions for hundreds if not thousands of years, and that this was not something we had to abroad to learn. Indeed, the National Assembly in the Fourth Republic subsequently turned out to be a corrupt and dysfunctional institution, whose best-known achievements include awarding themselves some of the highest legislative pay packages in the world, awarding themselves the "official accomodations" that were initially meant to be vacated (like Aso Rock) at the end of their terms, and starting so-called investigations that are no more than avenues to extort bribes from the people they are allegedly investigating.

But now comes news of something even ... well, in one sense it is hilarious, but in another sense it is enraging. The (female) Speaker of the Oyo State House of Assembly has taken all the wives of the Oyo State Assemblymen to London for eight days of "training" in how to properly support their husbands as legislators' wives.  This all-expenses paid trip is courtesy of the Oyo State treasury.

No, no, this isn't about feminism or masculinism.  All of them, the Speaker, the legislators and the legislators' wives, are well aware that no such "training" in "supporting your husband" is necessary, so don't derail the issue.

What this is, is the most unabashed, bold-faced excuse for "legal" theft.  As I keep saying on this blog, for all the complaints about "corruption", Nigeria suffers most from spending decisions that are technically "legal" (as in not necessarily criminal or unconstitutional) but which are nevertheless the equivalent of throwing money into a toilet and flushing it away.

The trip and accommodations are to be paid for by the people of Oyo.  The people of Oyo are likely also paying for the luxuries the women will pick up in their time in London. Interestingly, the Speaker is vociferously defending herself and her co-travellers. Like I said, no shame.

A semi-acquaintance on a Nigerian-oriented website asked what I think is a funny, yet important question: "Why couldn't they have flown the trainer(s) to Ibadan and done the training there?  It would have been cheaper."

Mind you, people are reacting to this mainly because it is so brazen, but by focusing on this, we are losing the wider picture, not to mention our own complicity as citizens.

The fact is, our elected leaders have a tendency towards using public/treasury funds as though it were their own private money.  They are forever announcing "donations" to one thing or another, often spun and packaged as though they were charitably/philanthropically giving away their own money, when it is the state's money they are spending.  Sometimes they donate the state's money to things like a former president's Presidential Library. Other times, they just issue executive orders and directives to do this thing or that thing, and money is just allocated to it, regardless of whether it is in the budget or not and without any whisper of Assembly approval being sought.

Not that the State Assemblies provide any check or balance; another thing Governors do with State funds is distribute it as gifts to grateful State Assemblymen.  And by the way, this trip by the wives of Oyo State legislators would not be possible without the Oyo State Governor signing off on it (and on the use of state funds to pay for it).

My criticism of us as citizens is we have accepted this as the proper, constitutional way of government, perhaps because this has always been the "proper" way we have been governed. It is difficult sometimes to argue with someone about a Governor making a one-man decision to use state funds on something that is clearly personal and not governmental, because the perception is that he has the right to do so.

The governor of Imo State is building a university in his home village; he is not alone, as President Goodluck Jonathan is doing the same thing. You can find yourself in a protracted argument if you suggest to some fellow citizens that this is wrong.

Let me make myself clearer. It is not that people don't know that it is wrong morally to use state money as though it were your own pocket money, but that people don't think it is unconstitutional that they are doing so.  People will laugh when discussing the governor building a university in his village (or a refinery or hotel or hospital in South Africa or Niger Republic), the sort of laughter reserved for wily rogues and charming thieves (i.e. they acknowledge this is thievery), but will then repeat again and again, "He is the governor, if he wants to build a university in his village, that is his prerogative. All we ask is that he build things in our communities as well."

But this is ridiculous.  Most governors, even the popular ones like the governors of Lagos and Akwa Ibom, and one of the ex-governors of Cross River State, put their hands into the public till, dig out some money and either distribute it to their political godfathers (where do you think Bola Tinubu and the ACN got the money to take over the Southwest?) or put it in their offshore accounts or in offshore investments.  Most of them at least come up with a cover story, usually not as ridiculous as "training in supporting your husband", but a few of them just take the money because nobody, least of all us citizens, is lifting a finger to stop them.

By the way, the most creative cover story was that used by the Lagos State government. A contract for collecting taxes on behalf of the State was awarded to a Bola Tinubu front company; the contract said the company was to be paid by keeping a percentage (a large percentage) of the tax money it collects. Unsurprisingly, this company has been extremely efficient at tax collection, making Lagos State the Federal Republic's leader in Internally Generated Revenue.

Which is a good thing and a bad thing. I love that Lagos State now has an annual budget larger than the national budgets of some of Africa's middle powers, but on the other hand, if you try to criticize what is in effect "legalized" theft of public revenues, you run the risk of being shouted down by people who will say something along the lines of "At least they are doing something positive fiscally while simultaneously stealing".

But if you are going to support that sort of thing, then you can't follow me to complain when the same sort of mentality, from a governor that is a part of Tinubu's party (and probably also sends Tinubu money from the Oyo State treasury under some form of ruse), sends legislative wives and the Speaker to London to "train" in how best to "support their husbands" as legislators.

And bear in mind, as "big" as the Lagos State budget is, it is not big enough for the State's needs. Neither Lagos, nor any other State in Nigeria, can afford the amount of public revenue that is diverted to the personal and political needs of the politicians. Even one Naira of waste is too much, especially when you need so much more than that one Naira just to make fiscal ends meet.

There is a saying that "half bread" is better than none. But I suspect that the Number One reason Nigeria struggles to achieve its potential is the fact that we the people have concluded that we will not do the things that will make our potential achievable, and so have elected to accepted whatever crumbs (not "half bread", but "crumbs") we get and are resolved to be grateful for the crumbs. "At least they are giving us crumbs, when they could have eaten the whole thing."

Do you have any idea how much it would cost to upgrade our Police Force to a standard where we can finally be confident of our public safety and security?  And that is if we ever got around to doing anything about it, which we never will because these very same politicians we praise for giving us crumbs have never had any interest in police reform.

We can't afford a kobo of waste.

Not even to train the wives of legislators in how to support their husbands' legislative careers.