Against the backdrop of the frenetic clamour for restructuring and
devolution of powers in the country, SUNDAY ADEPOJU reflects on governance in
the South-West geopolitical zone, dating back to the First Republic in the old
Western Region.
The period of Nigeria’s First
Republic in the old Western Region (the Yoruba land) has been the best of time
so far in comparing the strides of the old time and what obtains in the present
six states making up the South-West. It witnessed a lot of monumental
achievements in diverse spheres of life. The region, covering the present
Yoruba land to some part of the far present Edo and Delta states, had its
headquarters in Ibadan, the capital of the present Oyo State. No wonder, Ibadan
has some strings of ‘firsts.’
Pundits have ascribed the myriads
of the strides of the period to regionalism, a system that allowed the three
regions – North, East and West – to develop at their own pace in line with the
resources available in the areas. Beyond this, it is also noted that there was
decentralisation of resources and devolution of powers to the three regional
governments. Aided by the parliamentary system and federal constitution in
place, the region was able to maximise its resources and potentials and brought
about developments not only in education, health, agriculture, commerce and
industry but also in the areas of infrastructural development and public
utilities like pipe-borne water, electricity, good roads, among others.
Ably led by the late sage and
Premier of the Western Region, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the area, with the
proceeds from cocoa and other agricultural resources, achieved the University
of Ife, Ife (now renamed Obafemi Awolowo University to immortalise Awolowo);
the first skyscraper in the Sub-Sahara Africa, Cocoa House, Dugbe, Ibadan;
Liberty Stadium, the first to be constructed in Nigeria and Africa; the first
television station in the Africa, Western Nigeria Television now the Nigerian
Television Authority (NTA) and Western Nigerian Broadcasting Service (WNBC).
As evident in all parts of the
region and beyond, Awolowo and his team were synonymous to the development of
the Yoruba land pre-and post-First Republic. It was no surprise that a juju
music maestro, Chief Ebenezer Obey, upon the demise Awolowo, sang of his
(Awolowo) contributions translated into English thus: “Free education, free
health services, first television station in Africa… Awolowo, thank you.”
Interestingly and sad enough, the proceeds from cocoa and other agricultural
resources, not oil, were used to achieve these and other laudable feats for
which the Western Region was known.
The late sage believed in
economic freedom of all; that the hallmark of economic freedom means the
deployment of the resources of an area for the benefits of its citizens. Sadly,
the country now solely depends on crude oil as the means of mainstay of the
economy. Even, then, with the benefits accruing from cocoa, Awolowo condemned
over-dependence on cocoa as a major export product. Awolowo said: “I am sure
that all the honourable members will agree with me that the core of our wealth
in the region is cocoa. It is the very life blood of our economy….It has been
realised by all of us for some time now that an economy which depends mainly,
as ours does, on a simple export crop, is a precarious economy. The government
is fully alive to these dangers and steps being actively to remove them.” This
attests to the claim that the regional government was proactive and visionary.”
With the benefit of hindsight and
nostalgia, the Olugbon of Orile-Igbon and vice-chairman of the Oyo State
Council of Obas and Chief, Oba Francis OlusolaAlao, noted that the achievements
of the First Republic were futuristic and awesome. He said: “The achievements
in the First Republic were futuristic and awesome. Go and check the
infrastructure made then. They are still intact but these days, reverse is the
case in terms of additions. Some of the governors that have ruled the regions
(and still ruling) are not innovative; in other words, they couldn’t sustain
the achievements made then. Regrettably, some of the achievements they now have
are not sustainable and futuristic.”
A world scholar, Professor
Omotoye Olorode, who was a youth during the First Republic, similarly reminisced
on what many now referred to as the golden era in Yoruba land nay human
history. He stated: “People are talking about ObafemiAwolowo, Nnamdi Azikwe and
Sadauna of Sokoto as leaders of the regions. A lot of what they achieved had to
do with the struggles of Nigeria’s working people. They had their own ideas but
there was nothing fundamental that separated the ideologies of the trio.
‘Fundamental’, I said. That was why the British handed over to them. The
nationalists in the North, West and East built universities and schools. They
gave free education all over, not just in the Western Region. They had public
utilities; they built roads and all that. These people are now selling
everything that was built in all the regions. We are selling all the things the
nationalists gave to us. There is a Nigerian ruling class now sitting on the
ordinary people.
“There was Western Nigeria
Development Corporation (WNDC), the Northern Nigeria Development Corporation
(NNDC) and the Eastern Nigeria Development (ENDC). There were development
programmes across the country. It was because they forced them to deliver on
such promise of independence. It is because they are the people that fought for
the independence. It was not only Awolowo, Sadauna and Zik that fought for independence;
it was the Nigeria’s working people. The development programmes were more or
less uniform across the country, although were variegated.”
A legal practitioner, Femi
Popoola, also recalled spoke on the remarkable achievements of the era, situating
the trend on a number of factors. According to him, “There was regional
autonomy; that was why the Western Region decided to use cocoa money to provide
free education, free medical service and such other capital projects like Cocoa
House, Liberty Stadium, Western Nigeria Television (WNTV), University of Ife,
Ile-Ife, the establishment of Odu’a Group, farm settlements, among other
laudable programmes and achievements.” A public affairs analyst, Comrade Deji
Ola, was on the same page with Popoola on the issue. He explained that the
much-talked about achievements of the First Republic were made possible because
we had a set of leaders who were not self-centred.
Odu’a Group
The novel ideas of Awolowo and
others in the regional government also led to the formation of the Odu’a Group.
It is one of the three regional groupings in the country. While the West had
Odu’a Group, the North and the East had Interim Common Services Agency for
Northern Region and Interim Assets and Liabilities Agency. Of the three, only
Odu’a still exists in reality. Odu’a would always be remembered for the Cocoa
Industries Limited in Ikeja, Epe Plywood Industries Limited, and Odu’a Printing
and Publishing & Co. Limited. Odu’a’s relationship with foreign partners in
the management of Nigerite Limited and Larfage Cement WAPCO. There are also,
today, Lagos Airport Hotel in Ikeja, Premier and Lafia Hotels in Ibadan. WEMA
Bank and others are also there as part of the legacies of the First Republic in
Yoruba land. But the question is: are citizens feeling the impact of the
investments now. It appears the investments are either to enrich the political
class or those in charge of the day-to-day operations.
Farm settlement schemes
The government also established
farm settlements as an attempt to provide a model for farmers to learn the then
modern techniques and method of scientific farming, as well as to serve as a
source of employment for the youths. Today, the settlements have gone moribund.
Then, Awolowo and other officials of the government went to Israel to study its
agricultural development scheme named Moshav. After a careful examination of
the system, 20 farm settlements and five agriculture institutes were
established across the region, with the aim of achieving food sufficiency and
encouraging educated young men to make a profitable career in farming. Like in
many moribund settlements, record states that Sanwojo Farm Settlement in
Igbogila, Ogun State sits on 335,000 hectares of land presently occupied by
less than 150 residents. It was learnt that some of the beneficiaries of the
training at the institute had, in the past, ventured into something else. The
little education they had afforded them the opportunities of joining the civil
service when the successive governments of the modern era neglected the
farming, which the mainstay of the economy.
This was due to the
overdependence on oil as a result of oil boom which pundits have called ‘oil
doom’ is a bane. And more worrisome, most of the monetary resources that accrue
to states go to overhead, payment of salaries and little is left for capital
project. Poor internally generated revenue of states in the region as also
constitute the bottleneck. It is also an eyesore to note that out of the 36
states of the federation, only four – Lagos, Kano, AkwaIbom, and Rivers states
– are generally regarded as viable in terms of liquidity, economic growth and
prosperity. According to this data, it implies that of all the six states in
South-West region, only Lagos is viable.
There is overdependence on the
allocation from the Federation Account. For instance, the allocation is, in
accordance with a vertical formula determined by the Revenue Mobilisation and
Fiscal Commission (RMFC) with the approval of the National Assembly. The
formula allocates 52.68 per cent, 26.72 per cent and 20’60 per cent to the
federal, state and local governments respectively. The allocation is shared
among the component units by applying factors such as equity, population, land
mass, internally generated revenue (IGR) and social development. Going by all
these factors, the region is not advantaged. It is unimaginable to note that
without proper rediscovery and ‘real’ diversion into agriculture and other
allied businesses, the governments of the states in the South-West may not achieve.
Regrettably, some of the present
crop of leaders, ranging from governors, parliamentarians and others who
benefitted from the lofty programmes and policies of the old Western Region in
the First and Second Republics could not adequately fund education let alone of
providing free education at all levels. However, serious attempts were made in
the Second Republic at consolidating the gains of the First Republic. Thanks to
the five cardinal programme of the defunct Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) under the
leadership of Chief Awolowo. There was a semblance of pragmatic efforts to
reaffirm the region as pacesetter and bastion of hope for the citizenry through
quality governance. The gains were most evident in all the states, including
the then Bendel State where the party held sway. Unfortunately, the
consolidation programmeof the era was soon derailed by another military
incursion into political power in 1983.
Also, at a point, governors from
the South-West wanted to come together for economic integration. It elicited an
applause from different stakeholders in the zone. Again, Oba Alaoshed light on
the initiative: “Regionally, the South-West governors tried to come up with
economic integration but due to lack of cohesion and differences of their
political parties, it appears a failed agendum. Moreover, most of the governors
live on budget deficit without innovation and sustainable capital development
that would bring values to individual states. I don’t think they have brought
anything new to the table in conformity with the global trend. Even though some
of them try to come up with infrastructural development, they are not of
quality and not sustainable. Besides, most of these developments they created
are on loans to various states and no tangible assets that are repayable or to
service some of these debts which are often inherited by subsequent
governments. The spending rate of government is too much than income.”
Speaking on the lack of
sustainability, Comrade Ola lamented thus: “Only few among the present crop of
leaders are sustaining the legacies. Take for example, the agriculture,
education legacies which distinct us from other regions have been defeated.
History has it that major projects were executed through agriculture then. But
now, we depend solely on federal allocations. I have not seen any innovation
other than mere modifications of existing ideas. The reason is simple; our
current leaders impose their agenda on us without special consideration to our
needs.”
“Some of the issues constituting
bottlenecks are, I think, are: structural defect which is fundamental to the
operation of each state government; creativity or innovation in projects that
will bring value and revenue to the state; reduction in the operating
expenditure (OPEX) of annual budget or spending reduction; increase in state
capital expenditure; the increasing number of cabinet members or government
cumbersomeness i.e. too much special advisers, special assistants, personal
assistants, and so on; duplicating offices,” Oba Alao opined.
Alao advised: “Corruption should
be addressed from all segments of government, adding that there should be
enabling laws and policies for the economy to grow. “And above all, sincerely,
the country needs to be restructured, reconstituted and regionalised. There are
too many abuses of powers and offices. Governors in various states are having
absolute executive powers and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Let us
restructure and come up with devolution of powers in all the tiers of
government. Also, some categories of the traditional rulers should be graded
and included in governance which will make additional sense and added value.”
Popoola further canvassed for
regionalism with emphasis on the recommendations of the conference organised by
former President Goodluck Jonathan. He said: “We feign to use ‘unitarism’ and
called it federalism. You call it federalism and there is no financial autonomy
for the federating units, the states. When the military took over power, they
said it was the Federal Government that owned everything. Even, if they found
gold in your father’s backyard, they would say it’s the Federal Government’s
property. He maintained that the country would not have been in this mess if
the military had not truncated the first republic and later the second
republic.
Professor Olorode opined that so
many people have misconstrued the idea of regionalism and devolution of powers.
“People talked about regionalism long ago. Is it about devolution of power? Of
course, more power could be given to states. There are a lot of powers in the
states. Look at COVI-19 palliatives given to states. Is it the Federal
Governments that asks them not to distribute them? Is it the Federal
Governments that says teachers, workers or pensioners should not be paid by
state governments? There have been agitations by the local government union for
the autonomy of the lowest tier of government. Is it the Federal Government
that is fighting against that autonomy,” he queried.
The veteran unionist faulted the
ruling class for the diverse problems in the workability of the government.
“The Nigeria’s ruling class is warehousing public property in their houses and
pockets. Even, if they divide Nigeria into 300 countries, we still have to
fight the ruling class in each of those countries because they are enemies of
the people,” Olorode said.
Similarly, Comrade Ola
maintained, “We need to sound a note of warning: the electorate need to know
that power resides with them and it’s high time they carefully elected leaders
who would never deviate from core values. Regionalism would save us from the
whole of the ineffectiveness of the government. But, it still depends on
who are in charge.”