Many times, one has looked at the state of the Nigerian economy and wept silently. This is more so when, as an economist, one cannot just visualise but possesses the knowledge of the sizes and varieties of natural resource endowment, human and non-human, Nigeria owns, and the quantum of revenues the various governments have derived from these resources. The majority of Nigerians below 45 years have never known affluence, except those born with silver spoons. Yet, the resources have always been there, been exploited, and been stolen by the privileged few.
I can recall that under the National Party of Nigeria between 1979 and 1983, with President Shehu Shagari as head of the government, corruption reached a scale unimaginable, and the condition was so bad that poor Nigerians turned to dustbin scavengers to feed their families. When there were complaints of deep-seated poverty, the top-notch in the NPN, including the Minister of Information Garba Wushishi, waved away the situation with a statement, “We have not seen Nigerians picking food from dustbins.” How would they know when they were living in opulence in secluded areas?
Eventually, they got kicked out by the military in January 1984. The military was very disciplined at the time and quickly introduced the “War Against Indiscipline”. The regime was called Buhari-Idiagbon, and it jailed many politicians, particularly State governors, on corruption charges. The politicians of that time went on a rampage to destroy the Nigerian economy for personal economic gain. It was the height of insensitivity, indiscipline, and corruption. Corruption in the military manifested openly and freely during General Ibrahim Babangida’s era, but became minimised and concentrated in the leadership of General Sanni Abacha’s regime. That is why we have Abacha loot. Shares of other looters could be regarded as crumbs.
Since the return to democracy in 1999, the incidence of corruption has grown in leaps and bounds. We found that sound economic policies are implemented to favour the political class. Unfortunately, the Nigerian economic growth remains stunted. It is not because of the absence of good economic policies but due to economic mismanagement, selfish leadership, and extensive corruption. To the public, it is like moving from a bad to a worse scenario each time a government succeeds another. The civil servants have perfected the art of underreporting revenue and over-invoicing of expenditure. These create room for a huge deficit budget found in every annual budget and justify borrowing in domestic and foreign markets. If investigated, we would find that money borrowed from the domestic market is part of the stolen funds from the national purse.
It was during the time of President Olusegun Obasanjo that the issue of “Ghana must go” bags was circulating in the National Assembly for budget approval. It was bribery at the highest level of lawmaking and scandal in governance. It was also the period when EFCC was created, and many politicians were arrested for corruption, with a few actually taken to court and even fewer of these convicted.
That emboldened more politicians to take politics as an occupation with the sole intention of helping themselves to the national purse.
For each successive government since Obasanjo’s Presidency, the number of indicted politicians for corruption by EFCC continues to increase. Like the large number of the so-called repentant Boko Haram members now found in the military, the national and state assemblies are full of EFCC-indicted politicians. Despite humongous oil money that came in as revenue during President Goodluck Jonathan’s period, the PDP mafia engaged in embezzlement individually and party corruption for Jonathan to get a second term.
President Muhammadu Buhari came in as a clueless leader. His Minister of Finance came in with the mindset to debt-finance the economy for personal gains or a lack of initiatives to generate money. The Minister, Kemi Adeosun, declared from the beginning that the economy would be bailed out of economic quagmire with local and foreign loans. The government ended up with huge debt and debt servicing with kept Nigeria’s economic development in bondage.
Given the revelations after Buhari’s tenure, the thieves in his government took stealing to the highest level. It was the time that the Country’s global corruption index reached the highest level, with an Accountant General stealing over N100 billion, a central bank governor still accounting for his huge property and local and foreign funds, an Attorney General who was not in charge of finance found with close to a trillion dollars and recently, a power minister caught with over N1tn. It is likely that the Nigerian politicians or civil servants will reach a US$1tn economy before the country itself.
This government came in with a bang. The desired twin policies of fuel subsidy removal and massive devaluation of the naira brought in the needed take-off funds, but the benefits of the policies were designed to benefit only the political class and the top echelon of civil society. The fact that those policies would generate inflation was known by the government, but they did not care. That outcome has generated a higher level of poverty and insecurity in the country. External debt in particular continued to mount, and wasteful spending/mismanagement of funds has been going on simultaneously. There has not been seriousness in the implementation of economic policies for the benefit of the citizens, which is why the government is always happy to showcase GDP as economic growth instead of HDI, which represents citizens’ welfare.
It is as if we enter a one-chance cab each time we elect a government. But it has to be so. A country where people vote based on stomach infrastructure and rigged elections using the same electorate cannot produce credible leaders. A country where politicians found guilty of corruption and jailed are later voted into the state and National Assembly to make laws cannot complain of a lack of transparency and accountability in governance.
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