We can pass laws to address corruption but there is no known antidote to incompetence

By Ayo Akinfe

[1] With May 29 fast approaching, are we braced for the fact that 12 new governors are going to assume office across the country. This represents one third of all the 36 state governors and will have a fundamental impact on the lives of ordinary Nigerians for the simple fact that it is states that provide the daily basics of life like water, schools, hospitals, roads, etc. If you have an incompetent governor, you are in for a rough ride. It is as simple as that

[2] We have made a lot of the issue of corruption lately but alas, there is no evidence of it abating. Is it just me but I do not see any sign of there being a shift in the attitude of the public, which in turn feeds through to the ruling elite. This just then begs the question as to whether we are just flogging a dead horse. President Obasanjo recovered about $5bn through the EFCC despite not making corruption the flagship programme of his regime. At the moment, I see little evidence of such amounts being recovered

[3] Do not get me wrong, it is right to keep up the fight against corruption but we should not deceive the Nigerian public into believing that it is the beginning and end of all their problems. Even if every single penny of our 2019 $28.8bn budget was spent judiciously and prudently, we would still be a beggarly and poor nation. Until we get it into our collective heads that Nigeria is not a rich nation, we will never get this country off her knees. At the moment, our diagnosis of the ailment is wrong and consequently, so too is the prescription we have offered

[4] Governors for me are the key to getting Nigeria out of her current rut as they hold the answer to our low productivity and limited economic output. Just do the arithmetic and ask yourself where we could be if every state matched Lagos State's $3.2bn or even Rivers State's $226.7m annual internally generated revenue (IGR). If every of our 36 state raised the same as Rivers, we would generate $8.1bn nationally. Any governor who can meet his state's running costs and generate an additional surplus to fund capital projects, is worth his weight in gold

[5] Any governor who is genuinely passionate about improving the living standards within his state, would make income generation his number one priority. Unless a governor can boost IGR, he simply will not be able to fund social welfare programmes like healthcare, education, road construction, social housing, etc

[6] It is a normal all over the world for people to get elected, assume office and then find out that the state of public finances are worse than they were during the election campaigns. This is why a lot of politicians are unable to match their campaign rhetoric when they assume office. If a governor makes boosting revenue his main priority, he will never get into a situation whereby he is at the mercy of global crude oil prices as is currently the case

[7] Ogun State for instance has a 2019 budget of $1.1bn. Any governor who cannot match that in terms of revenue is simply incompetent. No matter how much he fights corruption, his state will forever be in an economic crisis because it is spending more than it generates. We can at least send corrupt governors to jail, what do we do with incompetent governors?

[8] In Oyo State for instance, the new governor-elect Seyi Makinde has already said he cannot pay the paltry minimum wage of N30,000 per month. When you have someone this intellectually challenged who is not thinking about how to generate revenue to meet the challenges head on, what hope is there for Oyo State. Surely, if he matches the $878m annual budget in IGR, Oyo State will be able to pay the minimum wage, meet all running costs and have a surplus for capital projects

[9] I look forward to the day when competence will be the watchword in our politics and when governors will be elected on the basis of how much revenue they can generate for their states. Until then, we will just be groping in the dark. Of the 12 newly elected governors, did one of them campaign on the platform of making his state economically independent and self-reliant? Did one of them even make living without federal allocation a cardinal objective, even if it is over the long term?

[10] What I find it hard to get my head round is how such poverty of thought has become so commonplace in Nigerian politics. How can a nation of 180m with diasporans excelling all over the world end up producing some of the most clueless, visionless and intellectually limited leaders? Speaking to some politicians just leaves you fearful for what the future holds at times. Where else in the world have you heard of a person running for governor without an economic policy? Fighting corruption is good but hey, we have some far bigger problems