Okonjo-Iweala’s Indictment Of Governors

Last week, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala stunningly indicted the state and local government tiers in the country for the poverty in the country.

While receiving an honourary doctorate degree at the Babcock University, Remo, Ogun State, Okonjo-Iweala bared her mind, diverting the heat on the Federal Government on the states. She nudged her listeners to begin to ask questions relating to accountability from their leaders, especially at the states and local levels of administration in the country.

According to her, more questions should be asked about poverty eradication and building of infrastructure which are not handled by the Federal Government alone, adding that in 2013, the top 10 allocations went to: Akwa Ibom, N260bn; Rivers, N220bn; Delta N209bn; Bayelsa, N173bn; Lagos, N168bn; Kano, N140bn; Katsina, N103bn; Oyo, N100bn; Kaduna N97bn; and Borno at number 10 with N94bn.

She asked what the states did with the money. This seeming solemn call appears to have come from someone who knows better than the rest of us. A woman who knows how much she doles out and how much has been achieved in most of the places she mentioned. It would have made more sense, if the Federal Government, the level of government where Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala is a key player, came clean on accountability. Unfortunately, its linen is as dark as scarlet, with corruption becoming its sobriquet.

This is not to exonerate the states and local councils of any wrong doing. But, pray, isn’t the popular wit “He who comes to judgment must come with clean hands” applicable in Nigeria? The Transparency International and other peer-review bodies that Okonjo-Iweala is conversant with rate Nigeria so low. Is that rating based solely on the performances of the state governments? How about the bulging corruption allegations hanging on ministers or ex-ministers and agencies of government all connected with the Federal Government? Is the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, the so-called government Automated Teller Machine, ATM, an organ of the state governments?

Okonjo-Iweala wants Nigerians to dress the Federal Government in white robes and then demonise the other arms of government. This can’t fly because the rot at the centre is too putrefying. Nigerians know that corruption is endemic in the country and that the leaders have been accountable to everyone else but the electorate.

What with the scandalous retirement benefits drawn up by some state governments. We are aware that some state governments just wait for allocation to just share with their cronies and other corrupt accomplices while real governance suffers. The so-called dividends of democracy are provided only on the pages of newspapers.

All international indices that measure growth in the country are stacked against us. Only problem is Okonjo-Iweala chose to speak half-truth. This is dangerous. She forgot to tell Nigerians that the Federal Government earns the lion’s share from the monthly federal allocation and, as such, deserves to lead the way in giving account of its stewardship. If, indeed, the state governments are as idle or just guzzling our resources as she painted them, how come her rebased economy posted such a handsome figure? Is it all the product of the very industrious Federal Government? Was the figure patching or rebasing an empty economy – a product of the Federal Government without input from the counterpart arms of  government? These are questions that make Okonjo-Iweala’s outburst more disturbing.

We believe it is time for Nigerians to begin to rethink the whole idea of leadership. In all known laws of democratic leadership, a leader takes absolute responsibility for whatever goes on. In this case, since the President Goodluck Jonathan administration is mired in corruption, it is easy to blame the states for its own inadequacies. Nigerians must quickly begin to ask for leaders at all levels who match figures with words, not people who look for escape routes when their failure becomes so glaring.