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Three Notes On The $107.4 Billion Nigeria Spending

| by Ndubuisi Ekekwe | 1
Three Notes On The $107.4 Billion Nigeria Spending
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After running the piece where Nigeria has spent $107.4 billion, over 15 years, only to deliver mass poverty across the nation, a Tekedia reader (Akintola T. Obafemi who runs Going Global Consultancy, an FMCG consultancy), sent these notes and asked me to share with the community. I want you to pay attention to his #3 which is a very important element as Nigeria votes this Saturday.

So, the trending Premium Times report which noted that in the last 15 years Nigeria has spent $107.4 billion (the equivalent of N15.46 trillion) from the Excess Crude Account (ECA) under the administrations of Olusegun Obasanjo, Umaru Musa Yar Adua, Goodluck Jonathan and incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari while recording mass poverty is nothing new.

Mr. Akintola Notes and Questions

1. Maybe our problem is a scale problem:
Nigeria is such a big country where we need all channels to work for us to progress, however unlike the US and Canada which are way bigger countries, we have not been able to work on a micro level. We run after big issues everytime forgetting those small fixes that’s needed to make everything work.
Who monitors the performance of the electorate starting from local govt counsellors and chairmen?
2. Shouldn’t  Nigeria be run like a corporation?
Yes corporation. The same way you would run Fasmicro with targets, KPI’s,  business plans, strategy plan and all. Shouldn’t this plan be shared amongst all stakeholders (including the masses) and shouldn’t ineptitude be frowned at and voted out when discovered. I think with only a business corporation model can we make the forward movement we desire. UAE, Malaysia and Singapore are recent countries who have worked this model.
3. Are we not still ripe for true federalism?
Let each state independently govern itself and run to federal purse only when necessary. Generate your own revenue and use it under the watchful eyes of the accountant general and chief justice of the federation. I believe this would help diversify our economy and reduce dependence on oil. The groundnut pyramids of the North would resurface, cocoa house in Ibadan would breath again, the palm oil and copper mines of the East would rise up and then no one would blame oil price plummet for ineffectiveness or austerity measures.

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1 THOUGHT ON Three Notes On The $107.4 Billion Nigeria Spending

  1. I totally agree with this:

    “The groundnut pyramids of the North would resurface, cocoa house in Ibadan would breath again, the palm oil and copper mines of the East would rise up…”

    This would happen within a short space of time when we shift our focus from oil. It’s often spoken of as though we’re too far gone down this road of putting all our national eggs in the oil basket, that those other industries can’t be revived to be what they once were. I believe they definitely can be as you said prof and that they can also thrive far more than they ever did before.

    Looking forward to those days…

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