This piece by the late Erudite Professor of Economics, Prof Sam Aluko was first published in the year 2000
BY
SAM ALUKO (Posted by Irohinoodua)

The economic philosophy of the present Federal Government is hinged on the market: “that government has no business in business”. Therefore, all the existing government projects, plants, enterprises, refineries and shareholdings in industries, trade, banking, finance and agriculture must be privatised and sold, so that government, particularly the Federal Government, can concentrate on governance, forgetting that a government that cannot run an industry successfully cannot govern efficiently. So, the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) has been very active, since the present regime came on board on May 29, 1999, in selling off enterprises, including houses and other landed properties owned by the Government. Such a philosophy violates the Nigerian Constitution not only by abandoning the control of the major sectors of the Nigerian economy but also by offering Nigeria for sale to domestic and foreign private interests and concerns.
1999 Constitution and the Privatisation Orgy
(i) Chapter 1, Part 1, Article 3, of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria provides that, if other law is inconsistent with the provisions of the Constitution, the Constitution shall prevail, and that law shall to the extent of the inconsistency be void.
(ii) Chapter II of the Constitution contains the FUNDAMENTAL OBJECTIVES AND DIRECTIVE PRINCIPLES OF STATE POLICY
(iii) Article 16(1) of Chapter II provides that, “The state shall, within the context of the ideals and objectives for which provisions are made in this Constitution”
16 (1) (a) “harness the resources of the nation and promote national prosperity and an efficient, a dynamic and self-reliant economy”
(b) “control the national economy in such a manner as to secure the maximum welfare, freedom and happiness of every citizen on the basis of social justice and equality of status and opportunity”.
(c) “without prejudice to its right to operate or participate in areas of the economy, other than the major sectors of the economy, the state shall manage and operate the major sectors of the economy”.
(d) “without prejudice to the right of any person to participate in areas of the economy within the major sectors of the economy, the state shall protect the right of every citizen to engage in any economic activities outside the major sectors of the economy”.
16(2) The State shall direct its policy towards ensuring;
16(a) “the promotion of a planned and balanced economic development”. There is no planned economic development today of 4-year, 5-year – 10-year or 25-year Development Plan, as was the case between 1946 and 1985. Planning the economy of Nigeria ceased when the Babangida Regime introduced the IMF-World Bank imposed Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) in 1986. Economic planlessness has been more greatly emphasised, since 1999, in deregulation, privatisation, down-sizing of the public service and reform agenda of the Obasanjo regime. The present regime seeks to ensure the continuation of planlessness on the nation through a succeeding surrogate regime by getting the PDP be re-elected at all costs in the general elections of April 14 and April 21, 2007.
Article 16(b) of the 1999 Constitution provides also: that, “the material resources of the nation are harnessed and distributed as best as possible to serve the common good”, while Article 16(c) provides that, “the economic system is not operated in such a manner as to permit the concentration of wealth or the means of production and exchange in the hands of a few individuals or of a group”.
The on-going privatisation of public enterprises and their sale to a few privileged Nigerians and foreigners are violations of these noble and unambiguous provisions of the 1999 Constitution. The destruction of the houses of Nigerians in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, and the sale of the Federal Government houses, nationwide, in which many civil servants, parliamentarians and other Nigerian citizens live, without providing the affected citizens with alternative accommodation is also a violation of the provision of Article 16, Section 2(d) of Nigeria’s Constitution, which provides that, “suitable and adequate shelter shall be provided for all citizens of Nigeria”. Also, the reversal of the pension benefits of public servants and the deduction from their monthly wages for pensions, in place of the earlier non-contributory pensions; the non-payment of pensions and gratuities, as and when due; the retrenchment and retirement of public servants; the non-creation of employment opportunities and the non-payment of unemployment benefits to those forced into unemployment, are violations of the same Article 16, Section 2(d) of the Constitution, which further provides that, “suitable and adequate food, reasonable national minimum living wage, old age care and pensions and unemployment benefits, sick benefits, and welfare of the disabled shall be provided for all citizens of Nigeria. The enforcement of contributory pension scheme on public servants already in the public service, in the name of pension reform, is a violation of Article 173 of the Constitution, which protects the existing pension rights of public servants
DERELICTION OF RESPONSIBILITY BY THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY, SINCE 1999, WITH RESPECT TO THE ECONOMIC WELFARE OF NIGERIANS
In order to protect the economy from being operated against the collective interest of Nigerians, by a dominant minority, Section 4 of Article 16 of the Constitution provides that, “ the major sectors of the economy, to be managed by the State, shall be construed as reference to such economic activities as may, from time to time BE DECLARED BY A RESOLUTION OF EACH HOUSE OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY TO BE MANAGED AND OPERATED EXCLUSIVELY BY THE GOVERNMENT OF THE FEDERATION, and until a resolution to the contrary is made by the National Assembly, Economic ACTIVITIES BEING OPERATED EXCLUSIVELY BY THE GOVERNMENT OF THE FEDERATION ON THE DATE IMMEDIATELY PRECEEDING THE DAY WHEN THIS SECTION COMES INTO FORCE, WHETHER DIRECTLY OR THROUGH THE AGENCIES OF A STATUTORY OR OTHER CORPORATION OR COMPANY, SHALL BE DEEMED TO BE THE MAJOR SECTORS OF THE ECONOMY”.
It is obvious that the on-going privatisation of the enterprises of government also violates this provision, since neither or both of the Houses of the Nigerian National Assembly have acted in consonance with this section, inspite of the BPE Act No. 4, enacted by the National Assembly in 2002. Nigerians should continue to shout that the on-going privatisation policy of the Federal Government is a violation of all the relevant provisions of the 1999 Constitution, with respect to the management and control of the Nigerian Economy.
STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS AND ECONOMIC PLANNING
In order to ensure that not only the National Assembly but also the States Houses of Assembly and the Local Government Councils participate in the planning and in the control of the nation’s economy, Article 7(3) of the 1999 Constitution (on Local Government system) provides that, “ it shall be the duty of a Local Government Council within the State to participate in economic planning and development of the area, and to this end an economic planning board shall be established by a Law enacted by the House of Assembly of the State”. No Local Government Council in Nigeria, since 1999, to my knowledge, has established a Planning Board or has participated in economic planning of its State! Also, no State House of Assembly has enacted any law for that purpose. On the other hand, all that we are fed with daily by the reformist Federal Government is that government has no role in the economy and that rather than plan, it is the market and the private enterprises that should plan and develop the Nigerian economy and grow it to become one of the largest 20 economies in the world by 2020!
EDUCATION AND THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
The disregard of the Nigerian Constitution is not only with respect to the physical economy but also with respect to the education sphere. Article 18 of the Constitution provides for the Educational Objectives of the country. In this regard, Article 18, Section 3, provides that, Government shall strive to eradicate illiteracy and to this end, Government shall, as and when practicable, provide:
(a) free compulsory and universal primary education
(b) free secondary education
(c) free university education
(d) free adult literacy programme
Instead of working towards making education free at all levels, the Federal government plans to privatise all its hitherto owned, financed and managed Federal Government Unity Secondary Schools under a dubious public-private partnership (PPP) administration through which it seeks to reduce the Federal Government financial and administrative commitments to the Unity Secondary School. Instead, government should be grant-aiding the existing privately owned primary and secondary schools, so as to reduce their costs to the youths of Nigeria. Furthermore, the Federal government and the National Universities Commission (NUC) continue to license private universities, including those owned by the President, the Vice President and the leading members of the government and their business partners. These private universities will charge, and are charging, exorbitant fees, thus making education at the university level, as in the primary and in the secondary school levels, less and less free and more and more expensive so as to make education available to a decreasing percentage of the Nigerian population. The Public Private Partnership proposal of the Federal Ministry of Education is thus not only a violation of the provisions of Article 18(3) of Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution but also a disservice to the present and the future youth of Nigeria.
DENIAL OF FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS OF NIGERIANS
Chapter IV, Articles 33-43 of the 1999 Constitution, provide for the Fundamental Rights of Nigerians, that is, the:
(i) Right to life (33)
(ii) Right to dignity of the human person (34)
(iii) Right to personal liberty (35)
(iv) Right to fair fearing (36)
(v) Right to private and family life (37)
(vi) Right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion (38)
(vii) Right to freedom of expression and the press (39)
(viii) Right to peaceful assembly and association (40)
(ix) Right to freedom of movement (41)
(x) Right to freedom from discrimination (42)
(xi) Right to acquire and own immovable property anywhere in Nigeria (43)
All of these rights have not been adequately promoted and protected by the Nigerian government since 1999. Innocent Nigerians have been killed in their own homes, on the roads, in assemblies, and in their work places more than at any other peaceful and democratic time in our nation’s history. Nigerians have been denied their rights of peaceful assembly. Economic, Financial and legal agencies of Government have been used to harass innocent Nigerians on discriminatory bases and for not belonging to the ruling political parties or to the section of the ruling political parties that is a crony of the government. Properties acquired in other parts of Nigeria by Nigerians had been destroyed by government agencies, under the nebulous pretence that they violated plans made many years ago, but which were unknown to Nigerians. Fair hearings had been denied to public officers who had been arbitrarily retrenched, retired or dismissed. Politicians, including parliamentarians and governors, had been removed unjustly or impeached unconstitutionally because they refused to kow-tow to the whims and caprices of the ruling elite. Press barons had been killed or their premises burnt because they held and expressed opinions different from those of the ruling elite. Nigerians have been persecuted and are being persecuted and their freedom restricted. They have been threatened with arrest and detention because they did not, and do not, become a puppet of the ruling elite. Towns and villages had been bombed and razed to the ground, because their leaders expressed opinions different from those running the government. Because of the unconstitutional behaviour and the neglect of the government to cater for the welfare of Nigerians, the nation has become seized by miscreants who have constituted themselves as dangers on our highways, in our own homes, to our banks and even to our foreign visitors, workers and investors who are frequently held as hostages. The non-respect for the Constitution of Nigeria has become the regular behaviour of the ruling elite. These should not continue to be so in a democratic Nigeria, governed under the provisions of the 1999 Constitution.
NEO-COLONIALISM AND THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
The majority of Nigerians supported the emergence of President Olusegun Obasanjo and the PDP into the governance of Nigeria in 1999, partly because of the assumed nationalistic stance and achievements of General Obasanjo, as the Military Head of State during 1976-79. His 1976-79 regime championed the freedom from colonialism of many African countries, particularly of South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Namibia, etc, with money, men and materials. Nigeria became the haven for freedom fighters in Africa. The 1976-79 regime nationalised the British Petroleum Company (BP) and renamed it. African Petroleum Company (AP). It nationalised land by passing the Land Use Decree. It passed the Indigenisation Decree by which Nigerians became the managers of not only the commanding heights of the nation’s economy but also it provided Nigerians with the wherewithal to manage and promote small and medium enterprises. It established the Bank of Commerce and Industries (BOI), and the Nigerian industrial Development Bank (NIDB). The Regime initiated legislation for the establishment of more Commercial and Merchant Banks, which later regimes imitated to increase the number of banks from 21 in 1979 to 90 in 1999. The regime championed the establishment of the second Port Harcourt Refinery; the Kaduna Refinery and the Warri Refinery, which led to the increase in the number of refineries from one in 1976 to four by 1983. Through these measures and the planning processes emanating from them, the Nigerian economy grew at an annual average of 7% during the 1970s until the early 1980s.