NIGERIA MASTERWEB DAILY NEWS

By Oyeols Akin Our country operates a Federal structure wherein the country is ‘broken’ up into smaller States in order to ease administration. To a large extent, the States are meant to be independent entities and in charge of these 36 States are certain individuals called Governors who are meant to direct the affairs of their States in a manner similar to the way the President directs the affairs of the country, although by virtue of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, some things may be held as the exclusive preserve of the Federal Government. In my opinion, the States have a better capacity to affect the lives of the people in a more direct way than the Federal Government can. How easy can it be to drive visible development from Abuja for the common man on the streets of Abakaliki or Ogbomosho or Zungeru? On the other hand, a State is just about the right size to allow for meaningful development. It is big enough to allow for the meaningful pooling of resources and small enough that the eye of the Governor can effectively cover the whole State, but of course, only if the Governor is someone with the vision and wherewithal to make it happen. Herein lies the problem! I look at all the States of this country and of all the ones I am familiar with (Western Nigeria and Eastern/South south Nigeria) and I have come to the conclusion that we have only 2 Governors. The Governor of Lagos State, Mr Fasola on the one hand and the Governor of Rivers State, Mr Amaechi on the other. The rest are just Administrators! The progress that has been made in Lagos State is visible for all to see. While to some extent, the changes there can be termed as basic, but for Goodness sake, from where we are coming from as a country, the changes there are almost on the same scale as a miracle. Unlike most “governors” who talk a lot, but have nothing to show for it (reminiscent of a certain Mr Peter Odili), Governor Fasola only talks when he is already about to take action. And action is there aplenty. The BRT has been working non-stop since it was launched, a waterways transport scheme has been launched and the Lekki master plan has been launched and its implementation has started via the improved Lekki expressway. In addition there are also concrete plans in place for a free port in Lekki, as well as an international airport. Contracts have also been awarded for the massive expansion of the Badagry Expressway, while plans for the red and blue lines of the light rail system are also making steady progress. Action they say, speaks louder than words. In Port Harcourt also, there is a wind of change and development, the like of which has not been seen in any previous administration. The whole city is almost one huge construction site. While this has its nuisances in the fact that the traffic situation has actually worsened, the situation will sure improve remarkably once the multitude of roads being constructed in the city are all completed. The traffic situation in Port Harcourt is legendry and of all the state capitals I have been to, only Lagos beats it hands down in that regard. However the reasons for traffic in PH are not far fetched. Aside from the old PH city, which was rather planned, most of what we call Port Harcourt today grew out of the massive expansion of the city due to the influx of people in search of a better life in a city flowing with oil money. As such, whole middle class enclaves sprang up in places that where hitherto simply villages and small communities, with their small roads and pathways. It is these small roads that were later tarred and ended up not providing an adequate road network for the city, due to their narrowness. However, Governor Amaechi has taken the bull by the horn by undertaking a huge road construction and dualisation exercise. Within the city, at least 2 flyovers are being built, 4 major roads are at different stages of dualisation and not less than 4 other major single lane roads have been marked for dualisation. In addition, there are many other brand new roads being built to reduce traffic by diverting traffic away from areas that were usually grid locked. I have not seen any road construction of this scale all at once in any city, except Abuja and perhaps Lagos. His administration has also embarked on a massive urban renewal exercise. Lots of buildings that were too close to the road have been demolished, shops in many areas that lined certain roads have been demolished, businesses residing in commercial areas have been given one year to vacate, while business concerns on the popular and busy Aba Road that have no provision for parking for their customers have been told to either relocate or face closure/demolition. These are all visible signs of development that will immediately benefit the people and impact their lives. On the other hand, the Oyo State Governor was recently interviewed and was quoted as saying in response to claims that his government was not working, that his government had achieved a lot because it was paying salaries on time!!! Isn’t it amazing that in this day and age paying salaries on time is considered an achievement!! I am sure that one of his claims, along with that of many of the other governors, would be that his state has no funds. In my opinion, this claim has no basis because seated right here, typing this, I can think of dozens of ways that a State can raise its revenue profile. A province I once read about in South Africa gets about 35% of its revenues from fines!! Every day people are breaking laws in this country. Laws relating to sanitation, traffic/driving, failure to follow building plans and approvals and so on. All the government needs to do is to put in place strong structures to ensure enforcement and collection. This will have a 2-pronged effect. First, it will improve the government’s revenue and secondly, once people see that the government is serious about enforcement, it will bring about greater compliance to the laws of the land. In Lagos, LASTMA, though they are often high handed, has engendered a greater sense of compliance to traffic regulations. Our governors seem to think that their jobs are only about going to Abuja to collect allocation and then returning to their states to pay salaries. They do not realise that they have the capacity to develop their own states at an even faster rate than the Federal government can. Thank goodness Mr Fasola and Mr Amaechi have realised that they can do more for their States than Yar A’dua. All that is required is a fair bit of creativity, imagination and vision and voila…. an administrator can become a Governor!