The electoral setback for John Olukayode Fayemi defines the reinforcement of an era. We ought to be in the age of enlightenment, of renewed hope and vigour. Sadly, we have moved in the opposite direction. The price tag for this will be harsh.
As the ever persective Adewale Maja-Pearce observed in the New York Times, “In Nigeria, as elsewhere, the will of the people is fickle. The recent gubernatorial race in Ekiti state is a case in point.” This is correct. Nevertheless, events after the Ekiti election have confirmed the unhealthy direction in which we are heading.
Confirming the tendency the national talk shop in Abuja played its own delirious card. With the crude still flowing out of the Niger Delta, the talk shop decreed the coming into existence of, if it has its way, 18 new states. Welcome indeed to the age of entitlement. It is very difficult to comprehend as to how at a time when the terms of trade are beginning to swing against our mono-crop the wobbly Nigerian state will sustain this absurdity.
It is going to be a time of unlimited epicurean activity. The price tag of 18 additional states fits the king size delusions of grandeur of Nigeria’s rentier establishment. Out for ever goes the very notion of building a state based on production. It is going to be well-nigh impossible to build power stations, roads as well as schools and universities fit for modern purpose under this new template.
The creation of 18 states will translate for a start into 54 additional brand new senators at a time when Senegal has sensibly abolished its own senate. Added to the present 109 senators, the country will now have to cater for a total of 163 senators. A perfunctory cost/benefit analysis by an O’ Level student will reveal just how ridiculous this self-serving proposition is.
In the age of entitlement, the political establishments are obviously not perturbed about the horrendous and rising level of poverty in the land. Let them eat more recurrent expenditure. Creating additional states will certainly be music to the ears of the boys and girls. Wow its party time! Happy days are here again.
Very much so. With hordes of new commissioners, special assistants, special advisers and board members, it’s time for highlife. And as the great sixties highlife tune intoned, “…prepare yourself let us have a good time tonight.” It is going to be fun. We will have new Chief Judges, new secretaries to the state government, new vice chancellors for the inevitably to be built state university. There will be infrastructure as well, apart from that of the stomach. For a start, each newly minted State will have to build “befitting” new state houses, state secretariats and so on. The incoming new governors’ spouse will of course launch her own showpiece “pet project.”
On the contrary, in countries where the political establishments have their thinking cap on, this is not the case. In the United Kingdom a few years ago, the people of Yorkshire decisively rejected the proposal to create a new state. 71 per cent voted in a plebiscite against the proposed state. They were aware of the detrimental cost. The new state would have had to be paid for out of tax payers’ contributions. It is unlikely that the UK government would have provided even a token “take-off” grant. In the Republic of South Africa, a study by the South African Institute for Social and Economic Research concluded that the creation of one new state as a result of the negotiation to end apartheid had been a drag on the economy.
Nigeria’s continuing repudiation of the concept of the deferment of gratification comes 50 years after the publication of a warning by the French agronomist Renee Dumont “False starts in Africa.” Dumont as far back as half a century ago warned about the delusion of grandeur of Africa’s post-colonial state. A deluded elite refused to heed his foreboding.
Dumont who died in 2001 lived long enough to see the African countries make a harsh of the hopes of independence. As has been pointed out, Dumont was one of the first to explain “the consequences of what was to be called globalisation, demographic explosion, productivism, pollution, shanty towns….”
Fast forward to the Nigeria of today. The rejection of Fayemi and the childish gyrations of the national clap trap are instructive. Fayemi lost because he had the absurd notion of building for the future. Today, it is all about now! No need to save for a rainy day. Let a thousand fold increases in recurrent expenditure blossom. No need to build for another generation. Already, some people are threatening to burn the country down if they do not get their own state. By the time it is all over, we will probably have 40 new states.
Let me allow Maja-Pearce to define the age of enlightenment, “this after all is politics, and the first duty of a politician is to win. If the able Mr. Fayemi had had the common sense to make a show of channeling more state resources to the local level, he would not have enabled the triumph of a so-called friend of the people, who will continue to pursue his own interests. Sadly, Ekiti state is now destined for another four years of underdevelopment under the guidance of the people’s choice.”