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| Governor Obiano |
On 18th day of March,
2014, our leadership at International Society for Civil Liberties & the
Rule of Law-Intersociety, x-rayed Governor Willie Obiano’s inaugural
speech and concluded that with some modifications here and there, the people of
Anambra State and the entire Southeast geopolitical zone may most likely smile
at the end as was the case under the out-gone Chief Peter Obi’s administration.
As part of our social obligation and thematic areas of advocacy activities
(advancement of democracy, good governance, security and safety), we have
decided to offer a credible opinion and advice based on areas we think the new governor
will focus on for the purpose of ensuring greater happiness for the greater
number of the people of the State. This is because when leaders govern well
democratically, people rejoice and become happy. Our 18th day of
March public statement dwelled on the new governor’s promise to “set up an oil
refinery within one year and build power plants in Onitsha, Nnewi and Awka”.
These we saw as good, but subject to the outcome of findings by a committee of
experts, which we seriously recommended. Our 19th day of March
statement took a critical and conventional look at the new governor’s proposed
policy on “security and vigilantism” and advised accordingly.
In this part three of our public
statement, we intend to advice and guide the new governor on the need to make
“economic governance” the bedrock of his new administration as against
“populist and political governance” culture, which has characterized governance
style in most of the States of the Federation and the Federal Government of
Nigeria and led to their failure. “Economic Governance” concept was solely
conceptualized and test-run for the first time in Nigeria by Chief Peter
Gregory Obi in Anambra State of Nigeria. It was “nurse-maided” using the theory
of “Anambra State Integrated Development Strategy (ANIDS)”. Another name
for “economic governance” is “credit governance” and its main rival and
antagonist is called “deficit governance”. “Economic Democratic Governance”
involves deriving political power from the consent of the governed through their
representatives at popularly conducted poll with zeal to serve and not to be
served. An “economic governor” does not see his or her call to leadership as
business enterprise or exercise of raw power and enjoyment of immunity or
sharing of governance proceeds among his or her few cronies and other
associates. An “economic governor” is a collectivist and contented leader” and
not an individualistic and selfish leader. He or she is usually an expert in
non borrowing or deficit resources mobilization who goes beyond receipt of
traditional statutory allocations and raising bonds in local and international
capital markets with obnoxious interests and penalties.
An “economic governor” is not an
election rigger or credibly perceived poll rigger. He or she must be reputable
enough to be listened to, and attract international development partners and
foreign investors. His or her “economic blueprint” must be both locally and
internationally appealing with accompanied social development and investment
friendly environment. Locally, an “economic governor” is the one who develops
eagle-eyes to be able to identify most of some say existing “eighteen (18)
sources” of non statutory allocations and loan oriented resource mobilization
in Nigeria. Where application for membership of such exchequer sources becomes
imperative and where “counterpart resource contribution” is required, an
“economic governor” must all be part of them. Most importantly, an “economic
governor” must be prudent and transparent in spending and accounting for
resources so given or attracted. Politically, an “economic governor” must be
humble and remain focused at all times by facing his or her table of governance
squarely and refusing to be distracted, misled and doomed. At the end, an
“economic governor” does not leave his or her State in human, material,
infrastructural and fiscal deficits, but in great transformation. This explains
why we celebrate the “obinomics” ingenuity of Chief Peter Gregory Obi, who is
the first governor in recent Nigeria to leave his State in huge credit totaling
N75billion (about $470M), comprising cash and investments. Conversely, the
“fasholanomics” in Lagos State is expected to leave Lagos State in 2015 in huge
deficits of over N400Billion ($2.5B), comprising local and international debts.
The stark opponent of an “economic
governor” is a “populist and political governor”. He or she is a skewed
“capital city developer” and a rabid loan borrower. He or she is also
loquacious and empty-headed, who relies heavily on statutory allocations and
raising bonds from local and international capital markets with shocking
interest rates and penalties. The governance style of a deficit governor
thrives on electronic, visual, audio-visual and print media. While an “economic
governor” “escalates” and democratizes good governance and democracy dividends
to every nook and cranny of his or her social clime, a deficit governor
“de-escalates” and concentrates them in his or her capital city. Another naïve
governance pattern of a deficit or political governor is sightseeing projects
including lightening, flowering and painting of capital cities and major
entrance high ways/roads. He or she runs away from meaningful and capital
intensive public oriented projects such as building of bridges and roads in swampy
areas. At the end, a deficit or political governor not only abandons his or her
handover ceremony to evade the long arm of the financial and homicidal crimes’
law, but also leaves his or her State in huge human, material, infrastructural
and fiscal debts. When sitting governors fail to create wealth for the
execution of their scripted and skewed projects, they resort to raising bonds
indiscriminately with political and media propaganda to justify such a
despicable policy.
We wish to state that one of the
greatest challenges facing Governor Willie Obiano’s new administration is “non
deficit resources mobilization” or “wealth creation”. For Governor Obiano
to succeed in this respect he must think more and rest a little; work harder
and leisure less. He must also retain the approach of his predecessor, who
attends all economic related meetings locally and internationally; sometimes,
thrice a day and timely and dutifully commits State money running into millions
of naira where necessary, in the form of “counterpart funding or contribution”,
which, in turn, matures into hundreds of millions or billions of naira on due
dates. That Chief Peter Obi attracted over N30billion worth of foreign
investment to Anambra State within two months of this 2014 alone, is a clear
case in point. Of course, the bedrock of these attractions and feats remains
the Anambra State Integrated Development Strategy (ANIDS), which is the
domesticated version of the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs).
Resources mobilization involves
congregating and aggregating human, material and fiscal resources for the
maximum development and transformation of Anambra State. To this effect,
Governor Obiano’s promise to transform “import based trade” to “industry based
trade” in Anambra State is very appealing to us at Intersociety. This is
because no matter how small an industry is (small scale); it must create jobs
for the jobless (skilled and unskilled). In the world over, the greatest
employer of labour are industries powered by private sector and protected by
formal or public sector. At Onitsha Main Market, for instance, there are a good
of trader-millionaires of N300Million and above, who still wholly invest their
total capitals on importing goods and services from Asia. It is unimaginable
what an N300Million industry can do in terms of job and wealth creation; not
talk of billionaire-based industries. The idea of building ultra-modern markets
in the State is also appealing to us. This is because the Onitsha Main Market,
for instance, is long overdue for decongestion, having being built over sixty
years ago. The Market is now a glorified concentration camp, having lost all
qualities of a modern market.
Signed:
Emeka Umeagbalasi, Board Chairman
International Society for Civil Liberties & the Rule of
Law-Intersociety
+234(0)8033601078, +234(0)8180103912
Comrade Justus Uche Ijeoma, Head, Publicity Desk
+234(0)8037114869
