The Nigerian Conundrum
By Banji Ayiloge
At Independence 60 years ago, the world was full of hope for Nigeria. At the same time, Nigerians were ecstatic about the prospect of the nation becoming a shining beacon to the rest of the black world. Nigeria’s resources would, from then on, be for the upliftment of Nigerians instead of carting them away to the metropolitan countries of the world.
The experiment in multi-ethnic cohabitation was to guarantee that the country would remain in the firm grips of the retrogressive block that wanted to maintain the status quo. With this unique but self-serving arrangement, it was clear that the country’s dominant interest would continue to reside with the colonial overlords. The emergent clan of native hegemonists would perpetually ensure that the country’s promise of a proper functioning society is forever a mirage.
The world intelligentsia wonder that despite a preponderance of world-class intellectual citizens proving their mettle around the world, Nigeria remains backward and unable to rise to its promise. Apart from the fact that it is perpetually locked in crisis, those crises have never been national. It has had numerous sectional crises. Those crises ensure that Nigeria would design its peculiar system, which the world has not recognized or has misidentified in its entirety.
Around the globe, Nigeria is notorious for corruption. Thanks to transparency International and other self-serving pseudo-international watchdogs, Nigeria is a corrupt country which, at the absence of a precise understanding of the system, is painting us all with a broad tarbrush. This is far from the truth in that those Nigerians who found themselves out of the debilitating system have excelled outside the borders of the country.
Nigeria has inevitably created a system of government, a private sector economy, and a social system entirely based on corruption and fraud. There is, therefore, not a single individual from the lowly Almajiri in the north or the lowly vagrant who sleeps under the overpass bridge at Ojuelegba in Lagos, to those in the high echelon of society, who believes that hard work and honesty is the best way to thrive in the country.
In 1979, we copied the American constitution based on the argument that our country’s tradition did not permit the constituted opposition as the Westminster type of government handed down by the British. Those young intellectuals convinced the green and clueless military boys that the African traditional monarchical and feudal systems were more attuned to the Presidential system of government. This system of an executive presidency and governorships have taken to the highest peak our proclivity for corruption and graft. The President and governors pick their cronies and loyalists as Ministers and Commissioners, respectively, and they, in turn, serve him and not the nation or the state. Political parties exist for maximum extortion and graft. As examples, even though political parties are not to be exclusive clubs that create their own rules to the exclusion of the constitution, some of our judges have been known to devise alternate facts to skirt the law. We also have a rotational presidency and governorship, which ensures that the best man may never get to the office.
Here is the way our system works: We have a You- Chop- and- I-chop system. One ethnic nation out of many in the country captures power; it immediately deploys its members to the critical sectors of the nation’s government. Nigerians have a name for those sectors — Plum or juicy positions. They are the NNPC, the nation’s oil conglomerate, and the cash cow, the Port Authority, which is another cesspool of corruption, the Finance, Aviation, Capital territory, EFCC, the security services and others. Upon filling the top jobs, other ethnic nations can occupy the rest. Since we pretend to run a representative democracy , other areas fill the remaining executive, legislative and judicial positions. All these arms of government have workers who feel compelled to steal as much as possible within a short time. Government money is after all nobody’s money, and therefore, a person can embezzle it without any fear. As a fact, if you must steal, it must not be less than a couple of billions. Anything less will ensure a stiff punishment. You can go to the bank with that statement
Is the money stolen surplus funds that do not need accounting? Not at all. These are funds budgeted for approved projects. Every institutional framework for monitoring projects is compromised. Nigerian development pattern has been to rob the public purse to convert general funds to private. You can then send the children to the best and most expensive schools in Nigeria and abroad. A civil servant can then acquire properties in choice areas and build such homes that would make Hollywood billionaire Artists green with envy. However, these private infrastructures lack public utilities. It is common for individuals to provide electricity, borehole water, high wall fence for security, private security guards, chauffeurs to drive you around because of the bad roads, septic tanks for wastes. A recent study pointed out that most of the drinking water from boreholes in Lagos contains 20% of feces. At the drop of rainfall, a flood takes over most of our cities. Lagos, unarguably the wealthiest state in the country, is prone to flood. Paris, the French capital, began the construction of its underground sewer in 1370. No city has an underground sewage system in Nigeria in the year 2020. We constructed a system that is rife with greed; we shall all bear its unpleasant consequences.
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