Bisi Ojediran
2 December 2008
column
Lagos — A new song seems to be playing in that Niger Delta and people are stopping to listen. I belong to a group of Nigeria watchers, which believes in the urgent need for a critical mass in leadership to turn the fortunes of this country around. The tipping point!
Critical mass is a momentum generated in a social system by a small group of people but which is strong enough to become self-sustaining and fuel growth. In a popular example, it takes a very small number of people looking at an object in the sky to attract a crowd to gaze in the same direction. If one person stops and look up at the sky in Lagos, perhaps some people will momentarily turn around, but then continue on their way. But only a small number of people is required to cause others to stop and looks up at the sky too.
The number of leaders required to turn Nigeria around is equally small. No rocket science: a selfless and visionary head of state, at least eight ministers of the same breed, and some 15 good governors. Of course, we expect some complimentary leadership from the Judiciary and the Legislature.
Considering the enormous resources state governors control, their closeness to the grass roots and their control of the local governments, a show of promising performance at that tier of government easily catches attention. People stop to listen and watch.
The circumstances that brought Governor Rotimi Amaechi to power are well known in modern history. But truly, I was one of those who wrote him off as a chip of the old block. Dr. Peter Odili employed Amaechi as public relations officer at his private hospital, Pamo Clinics and Hospital Ltd in Port Harcourt after he finished the NYSC in 1988. And in 1992 when his boss became the Deputy Governor of Rivers State, he made Amaechi his Special Assistant.
Amaechi took a plunge into serious politics with his role as Secretary, Ikwerre Local Government Area chapter of the National Republican Convention from 1990 to 1992 and later in 1996 as the State Secretary of the Caretaker Committee of the Democratic Party of Nigeria.
As the old political parties metamorphosed into the various parties of today, Amaechi went with his boss to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), where he won the party's ticket to the Rivers State House of Assembly. Although Odili was said to have denied it throughout the eight years he was in office, not many ruled out his role in Amaechi's ascendancy to the position of Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly. For the eight years, the relationship between the state Executive and Legislature was chummy.
That was the basis of my belief. But Amaechi's early sound bites threatened my belief, as it would have the expectations of his former masters. It was my entire fault. I forgot that I had never met or seen a person who hadn't been changed by power. In the case of Amaechi, the effect of power on him may have been hastened by his tortuous road through the courts to Government House.
But from there came a totally discordant tune last October, when the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC), arrested some key officials of the State government over questionable bank accounts. Magnus Abe, the secretary to the state government, SSG, and Nyesom Wike, chief of staff to Amaechi were held but Abe was later released while Wike remained behind bars. He was later charged to court.
The case against Wike originated from two groups of petitioners. One of them, the "'League of Democrats" even drew the attention of the EFCC to the arrest of Governor Amaechi when he was speaker in December 2006, asking that the case be re-opened.
Amaechi has denied that his administration is corrupt. He said it is part of a well-orchestrated campaign to make him lose focus. The case is on, and Wike, and to some extent the governor who is now immune, are considered to be innocent until proven otherwise.
But the arrest left some people disappointed. It confirmed the belief that it is really hard to find a thing as an honest politician. Many people enter the political arena with perfectly selfless and virtuous intentions. They want to feed the poor, house the homeless, and cure the sick. They say that they want to change the world by having a voice in the government. It sounds wonderfully altruistic, but it is also naïve. It looks like the system was never intended to serve anyone other than those who control it.
I happen to love the altruistic political animals but they are difficult to find. When you find them, they do have their fingers on the pulse of the people but many of them never lived to meet their grandchildren.
True, Amaechi has a strong, formidable opposition, including some of his former friends and masters. But it is also true that as a Speaker of the state House of Assembly for eight years, he cannot be absolved from the weaknesses of the past administration. There are not many instances in the history books, if there was any, where the House opposed the Executive.
It is also true that he has one of the worst security challenges to battle with. Yet it is true that good, selfless politicians without such challenges are difficult to find in Africa and many of his colleagues in the Governors' Forum have not been impressive.
For these reasons, I was not persuaded to dump my scepticism by the rave reviews of his first year in office, especially in the area of infrastructural development. The governor has said his administration has within the past one year concentrated on providing infrastructures such as roads, education and health facilities, pointing out that the state government is building 150 health centres in the 23 local government areas, while 10 primary schools are also being built in each council area.
An African proverb says the talisman of the monkey is its eyes. It has to see to believe. And it is difficult to forget the aggressive advertising that Enugu (State) was working to the Glory of God, when in real terms, it wasn't.
But I must confess that Amaechi caught the attention of our group with his accountability crusade. Even the ever critical Niger Delta Peace Coalition is impressed.
In a letter of commendation of Amaechi to President Umaru Musa Yar' Adua last month, the Coalition noted that: "For a government to be accountable, it is expected of it to regularly give explanations and detailed analysis of data/figures of all their actions and expenditures in the management of their state's resources. This is something that is very scarce and hardly done by state governments in the country, specifically, those in the Niger Delta. And this has kept us wondering, 'how can we achieve development in all ramifications when our executive state governments cannot be held accountable for the management of the resources under their care? How can the issue of corruption be abated in our society when our political leaders are left at liberty to do whatever pleases them with states' scarce resources?
"However, we are glad that amongst the 'as usual' practice of most state governments in the Niger Delta, one state has decided to do something different in the area of being accountable to the people that elected them into public office. This was shown recently in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, where Governor Amaechi gave account of his stewardship to the state in the last one year. The governor who spoke to a mammoth gathering of Rivers people at the state Civic centre, said between October 26 last year (2007) to this year (2008), the state received a total sum of N349,439,804,410.31 from various sources..."
For a long time the Federal Government refused to disclose that it took the lion's share of over 90 per cent on every barrel of crude oil sold. And for some Niger Delta governors who boasted that it was nobody's business how they spent their share of the statutory allocation from the Federal Government, disclosure of the billions they get monthly is a no-go-area. Some of them resisted the publication of statutory allocation to states by the Federal Ministry of Finance.
In 2007, for example, four major oil producing states received over $4 billion of the more than $11 billion revenue allocation from the federal government to the 36 states. Yes, the Niger Delta could do with some more money, but in many measures that was some good money. There is no way it would not show in improved living standards if it was spent on the people.
It is commendable of Amaechi to have disclosed in his widely publicized stewardship that between November last year and October, 2008, the state received a total of N323 billion from the Federation Account, including N27.5 billion as statutory allocation; N154 billion from the 13 per cent mineral fund; and N95 billion from Excess Crude Account. Although the expenditure part of the balance sheet was not listed to show the cost effectiveness of completed and ongoing projects, Amaechi has, without doubt, made a bold move on accountability in the Niger Delta.
He has said that the only way people would have confidence in their leaders is when they are honest, transparent and accountable. And that in addition to a Due Process Agency already in place, he plans to send to the state House of Assembly a Bill on Fiscal Responsibility that would make every government functionary responsible and accountable.
These are good sound bites from Amaechi to make him one of the governors to watch for the critical mass. One gone, and three more years to go, it is hoped that he doesn't lose focus and sensitivity to the needs of the people. As one book shows, the problems of the Niger Delta were caused by the impudence, insensitivity and the greed of some stakeholders.
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