Walk the talk
By Editorial 9 hours 48 minutes ago
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Jonathan Jonathan

President Jonathan asks Northern governors to look inward for more income. Let him show the way

It is sad to note that flat, hollow words seem to have become the trademark of the Goodluck Jonathan Presidency. Yes, Presidents and leaders are given to rhetoric and even banal words that amount to nothing, especially when caught off guard by the press, but we worry deeply when it becomes a way of life of our Presidency.

Governors from the Northern states of Nigeria had recently embarked on a rather mischievous clamour for more slice of the national cake, as baked in the Federation Account. President Jonathan was presented a most auspicious opportunity to respond to this obvious gaffe of the Northern governors on March 9, in Makurdi, Benue State, at the commissioning of what has been described as the first fruit concentrate processing factory in Nigeria. The President had told his audience which included governors from the North that: "We have resources in all parts of the country to sell. All states of the federation have products they can export. The governors should work with private sector operators to produce and sell what they have, not only to Nigerians but also for export.

"Nigeria is(sic) an agro-based economy even before the civil war. We should be able to revive this process like it happened in that period when oil was not an issue." Sound piece of advice there especially if we overlook the pock marks of Jonathanian inelegance of language.

Since crude oil was discovered in commercial quantity in Nigeria about 50 years ago, the country has lapsed irretrievably into a mono-product economy. Government after government has talked about diversifying the economic base; government after government has been unable to break out of what has come to be known as the oil doom syndrome.

Nigerian governments at all levels seem content with merely gathering the enormous rent from crude oil exploration and sharing same; thereupon they go about to mismanage and squander the revenue. This has largely been the cycle in the past 50 years: A most vicious one indeed.

For more than 50 years, we have not been able to grow local capacity; the industry has remained foreign dominated. Neither can we refine the product here as other oil-producing countries are wont. Not even the quantity we consume locally can we manage to put through basic distillation process. Till today, we still ship our heavy crude to other countries to process and ship the refined products back for our use at premium cost. But worse, at a heavy economic, social and psychological cost to the nation. Imagine the enormous impact vast refineries and petrochemical complexes would have had on Nigeria’s economy today in the face of high youth unemployment?

Apart from this aberrant crude (oil) situation, there are over a dozen other ways Mr. Jonathan, from his Olympian presidential heights, could catalyse, influence, support or even cajole the lower levels of government into more economic activities should he truly mean what he says. He could push urgent constitutional reviews to loosen such strictures that bar state governments from embarking on certain economic activities locked in the exclusive schedule of the statute book. For instance, states can’t even mine the sand deposited in their backyards. What is the Federal Government doing collecting value-added tax (VAT), making vehicle number plates, among numerous such petty economic activities best consigned to the level of local government?

On the part of the state governments, they suffer from the same germs of inertia and lack of creativeness ravaging the Federal Government. Consider Benue State which prides itself as the ‘food basket of the nation’; it can actually be the food basket of Africa or the world with a bit of vision and dash from her leadership. But nearly half of the vast food produced from that vast fertile land is wasted for lack of storage and processing capacities. And this vast fertile land that stretches across the north central states of Nigeria is still largely tilled manually as was done in the days of Adam and Eve. The fruit processing factory in question has been in the making for more than a decade.
Across the Southeastern states of Nigeria, there is more revenue to be derived from the palm trees than from the federal allocation. While cocoa holds huge promise to turning around the economy of the southwest states. Apart from mining and agriculture, there are massive opportunities in tourism and human capacity export like in sports and e-knowledge. In the Northwest zone of the country for instance, the Yankari Games Reserve in Bauchi State can drive the economy of the entire zone as the so-called Dongoyaro trees can release a pharmaceutical revolution. If that exquisite natural bequeathal were in South Africa or even Ghana, Nigerians would holiday there in droves, paying premium rates.
The examples are far too many just as the economic diversification songs have been playing for so long. But they are mere pop songs and hollow talk as demonstrated by the President in Makurdi. Why can’t he walk the talk?


^^^^The bolded is a serious mistake.The Yankari game reserve is in Bauchi (North-east).Nigeria and poor journalism.That said President GEJ is on track over this comments he made.The writer is obviously saying alot of nonsense for all i care.Charity begins at home!!!Oya Northern gov. forward march!!!!!

Really, he is right on this one.
I still can't believe there are leaders who beg for hand-outs and do it with pride.

hehehe! aboki time to start exporting mayi jada.
No more handouts!

AGRICULTURE. Mechanised agriculture. Put the vast expanse of land in the north to good use.

If I were a northerner, in order of priority:

1. Electricity
2. Rail
3. Better roads linking N/S. Currently takes ~10 hours to drive from Lagos to Abuja, this is pretty unacceptable given how small the physical distance is.
4. Industrial farming

Well, and massive spending on education of course. Fix primary and secondary education.

Truth be told, there is a lot of similarity between this list and what I want for myself..

Also, the tax policy in this country needs to be revamped so that indeed northern states can raise more income.

Give them the ability to have an income tax, collect their own VAT, etc...

Hehe. Nice one from GEJ to the norther beggars.