Jump to navigation

Nigeria

Elders call for reform, warning 'things are falling apart' as bandits and insurgents step up attacks

Parallel stories of economic and security breakdown are playing out without reference to each other

Some of Nigeria's most eminent cultural, diplomatic, business and religious figures warned on 6 March that the latest wave of criminality and violence was threatening the stability and unity of the country. 'The current state of affairs is not sustainable if the country is to avoid becoming a failed and broken state,' said former Secretary-General of the Commonwealth Emeka Anyaoku.

Meeting via video-link for this year's Obafemi Awolowo lecture, leaders from across the country – Anyaoku, Sultan of Sokoto Sa'ad Abubakar, Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka, and Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, the former governor of the central bank – spelt out the growing risks faced in the country and need for hard-headed political reforms.

Calling for a restructuring of the federal system, Anyaoku referred to former leaders of the country who have spoken of an 'inevitable calamity' if the current challenges are not effectively tackled.

Despite a growing distrust and divisiveness among religious and ethnic groups, argued Anyaoku, every section of the society had an interest in being part of the wider country. Yet federalism in the country was in urgent need of evidence of 'equity, justice and fairness for all ethnic groups' and guarantees for the economic freedom of all citizens.

Sultan Sa'ad Abubakar, who served in peacekeeping forces in Liberia and Afghanistan, said that no group had a monopoly of violence and that the 'inaction of government had allowed many avoidable losses of lives to happen'. As the foremost Islamic leader in the country, the Sultan's influence is particularly strong in the north-west of the country that has seen the worst uptick in violence over the past year.

Sanusi, who was deposed a year ago as Emir of Kano by the state governor Abdullahi Ganduje, said the 'extraordinarily expensive system of governance' was an over-arching problem, the 'bloated structure of elective offices' was a recipe for irresponsibility. Reforms should focus on having fewer elected officials working harder and more accountably, he added.

The toughest prescriptions came from Odia Ofeimun, saying that the social contract between citizens and government had failed and that the country must implement a radical decentralisation of power, with much stronger protection for minorities and the launch of a mass education programme across the country.

Soyinka added his voice to the devolution cause, accusing some state governors of shackling themselves in a 'centralist mindset', acting as accomplices to a federal government that was 'subverting the rights of states and subnational governance structures'.

This month, the country has been hit by a series of deadly attacks: jihadist insurgents took over a UN facility in Didka, north-east Nigeria; kidnappers abducted 300 schoolgirls in Zamfara state; herder-farmer clashes continued in the south-west; a new militia in the Niger Delta threatened direct action against Abuja and Lagos; and a secessionist militia in the south-east is stepping up its campaign against the government.

Against that backdrop, officials in Abuja are trying to develop a policy response to the country's economic travails, which are worsened by the Covid-19 pandemic and the waves of violence.

Economists advising the government's National Council on Poverty Reduction, which aims to lift at least 100 million Nigerians out of poverty by 2030, set out their strategy at a cabinet meeting in Abuja on 3 March.

Heavily dependent on boosting farm productivity, fast-track industrialisation, diversifying the economy away from financial reliance on oil exports, the anti-poverty plan will be uphill work. According to the World Bank, another 20 million Nigerians could fall into extreme poverty over the next two years due to the coronavirus-induced recession.

Alongside this plan, the government has launched a US$37 billion Infrastructure Corporation to build the roads, railways and power stations needed for its development plan. The government is to provide 1 trillion naira ($26bn) as seed capital for the fund, backed by central bank governor Godwin Emefiele. Already, PricewaterhouseCoopers, McKinsey and Boston Consulting Group are jockeying for advisory contracts for the fund.



Related Articles

Shamsudeen Usman

Finance Minister, Nigeria

Since joining Umaru Musa Yar'Adua's cabinet in 2007 as Finance Minister, Shamsudeen Usman has courted foreign investment - particularly from China - to rejuvenate Nigeria's infrastructure and boost its petroleum production....


Renaissance woman

Renaissance Capital has a new Chairperson for its advisory committees on Nigeria and Africa. The World Bank has a new Managing Director. And both institutions have secured the...


Beijing gazumps New Delhi

China's state companies advance billion-dollar oil and banking deals while India's plans are now on hold

The Lagos State government, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and the China State Construction Engineering Corporation signed an US$8 billion deal this month for a 300,000 barrel-per-day oil refinery and a...


Sanusi hits out at subsidy racket

Almost alone among his colleagues in government, Central Bank of Nigeria Governor Sanusi Lamido Aminu Sanusi has made a credible case for the removal of fuel subsidies*. He...


UN breaks with scandal-hit pollution agency

Theft of oil spill clean-up funds in Ogoniland is set to continue as the UN Environment Programme cuts ties with HYPREP

Activists and environmentalists looking for a policy change on the troubled US$1 billion clean-up project in the Niger Delta by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu's government have been disappointed....