Nigeria and beggar bowl leadership approach

As a nation, Nigeria and most of her federating states are currently faced with serious socio economic issues/survival dilemmas. Although this, in my view, has been on over time, as a nation that plays politics with everything, we have been living in denial. But as it currently stands, it has gotten to the brim and […]

As a nation, Nigeria and most of her federating states are currently faced with serious socio economic issues/survival dilemmas. Although this, in my view, has been on over time, as a nation that plays politics with everything, we have been living in denial. But as it currently stands, it has gotten to the brim and the nation/states are faced with either confess or collapse options.

According to media reports dated September 16, 2021, the nation’s public debt stock stood at N35.465 trillion as at June 30, Director-General of the Debt Management Office, DMO, Ms. Patience Oniha, disclosed. Total public debt is composed of the domestic and external debt of the Federal Government, the 36 state governments and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT. Nigeria’s total public debt stock was N33.107 trillion or USD87.239 billion, as at March 31, 2021. FG owes 29.5trn, states owe N6trn, World Bank group, AfDB group dominate creditors’ list, bilateral creditors include China, France, Japan, Germany, India.

It is not a bad idea to borrow, especially when such borrowing is development-targeted/focused.  However, mindless borrowing as we have recently witnessed can only but deplete the borrower’s economic creative prowess, dwindle the propensity to achieving self-reliance and has the entity exposed to further socio-economic vulnerability. As a nation, we appear to have forgotten that one of the negative attributes of borrowing is that once you start, it becomes your character. This borrowing habit of ours has succeeded in weakening our states to a sorry level.

The consequence of such development (thoughtless borrowing) becomes a worrying/worrisome one when one remembers a similar report that the Federal Government made a total of N3.25tn in 2020 and out of which it spent a total of N2.34tn on debt servicing within the year. This means, the report underlined that 72 per cent of government’s revenue was spent on debt servicing. It also puts the government’s debt servicing to revenue ratio at 72 per cent.

Within the year, debt servicing gulped N2.11tn. This puts the Federal Government’s debt servicing to revenue ratio in 2019 at 54.66 per cent. This means that between 2019 and 2020, the Federal Government’s debt servicing to revenue ratio jumped from 54.66 per cent to 72 per cent. It concluded.

Now, this piece will keep issues where they are.

First, there exists reasons why state governors are reputed for not looking inward on how to make their state financially independent/self sufficient.  Most fundamental of the reasons is the feeling by some that Abuja is there to provide the needed financial succour. This has rendered most of our governors lazy and uninterested in carrying out self-introspection on how to improve their state’s internally generated revenue (IGR). Instead, they prefer to borrow, not minding that every opportunity to borrow as provided comes with a looming risk.

With the exception of Lagos, Delta, Rivers and a few others that are still active in sustaining their states via internally generated revenue, the rest share a common denominator; Abuja dependents. This also points to the fact that our problem as a nation is more of leadership as the strength of every state is a direct result of the strength of the leaders.

 Without doubt, our leaders know how to mop up our commonwealth for their personal aggrandizement, while abandoning the poor masses to mop up their tears. They (public office holders) are specialists in seeking foreign loans.

But in doing this, one point they fail to remember is that no one takes a government that governs with a beggar bowl approach seriously and no nation becomes strong or great by living on borrowed funds.  

There is need for our leaders to imbibe a saving culture as this attitude of eating with our ten fingers is not in any way supporting our economic growth or sustainability.

 State governors should remember that the shortest way to the bright future we seek lies in a creative approach. Therefore, let the governors defocus on Abuja and focus on increasing their state’s internally generated revenues, working in a collaborative manner with development minded/focused Nigerians. This process, who knows, may provide a lasting solution to the nation’s nagging financial challenge.

Jerome-Mario Utomi, a programme coordinator (Media and Public Policy), writes from Lagos