Stimulating economic activity in the North East

It was a welcome focus away from the bloodletting of the past three years during which the insurgency was at its most virulent form.There can be no question that the region’s economy, particularly that of the hardest-hit states of Borno and Yobe, has been in decline during that period, compounded by a state of emergency […]

It was a welcome focus away from the bloodletting of the past three years during which the insurgency was at its most virulent form.
There can be no question that the region’s economy, particularly that of the hardest-hit states of Borno and Yobe, has been in decline during that period, compounded by a state of emergency that is its seventh month now.
Tagged 2nd North East Economic Summit, the forum was much more than a symbolic political statement; it was a demonstration that despite the ongoing challenges, it would be useful to plan ahead, post-insurgency.
The summit took place just a day after a desperate attack blamed on the Boko Haram on the Maiduguri Airport and the Nigerian Air Force Base located in the vicinity. Its continuation represented a rebuttal to the forces of evil and darkness that have wreaked one atrocity after another, almost with impunity, despite the presence of a division of the army deployed to the region specifically to contain them.
One of the important outcomes of the summit was the announcement by President Goodluck Jonathan, who declared the occasion open, that the federal government was planning a special intervention programme to aid the states stand on their feet again, economically.
Jonathan outlined the programme, akin to the US Marshal Plan for Europe after the devastation of World War II, which he said would be implemented in partnership with states in the region-Borno, Yobe, Adamawa, Bauchi, Gombe, and Taraba. The plan still needs some work to flesh out, and to assign to each government some responsibility. But as Jonathan noted, the damage wrought by the insurgency required ‘aggressive and urgent action’.
The president said the federal government was in consultation with the states in the region to define ‘a shared vision, workable strategies and responsibilities of all stakeholders for the economic resurgence of the region.’
Conceivably, this may require a contingency appropriation by the federal government to introduce poverty alleviation schemes directly and in conjunction with the six states.
Even without the additional challenge of the insurgency, the economy of the region had not been in good shape to begin with. As in many other states in the entire North, industries were shutting down faster than new ones were set up. Internal revenue generation suffered as a result.
Increasing reliance on the statutory revenue allocation from the federation account meant that governments in the region were failing to meet certain basic commitments to the people, like providing good roads, stocking hospitals with sufficient drugs, building schools and paying the teachers well. Overhead costs have been rising higher while investment in capital projects dwindled. Unless this trend is reversed, it spells disaster for not only the region but threatens the stability of the entire country.
That is why it is apposite that the federal government should be deeply involved as an important stakeholder in building a strong and sustainable economic foundation that would be a formidable and more attractive alternative to the life of despondency that drives some of its citizens to take up arms against the state in a misguided insurgency.
But the president also should carry out his words beyond the platitudes he expressed at the summit. Just as he showed determination to impose a state of emergency in the areas, he should equally be aggressive in addressing the issues that brought it about. The governments of the six states should not relax and wait, cap in hand, for Jonathan’s promised largesse to start coming, if it ever will. True, the security situation has given them little room to do much. But they can do far much more than they are doing now.
As in the American example, rebuilding does not necessarily mean government has to it alone. Individuals, such as the private interventions of personalities like former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and former Minister of Defence, General Theophilus Danjuma, to name a couple of them among many, can make a huge difference. These men, either as individuals or though their foundations, are building schools of all levels, and providing many social services, helping to bridge the gap between government’s ability to provide and the needs of the people.
It is the combined efforts of everyone that would play the key role in lifting the economy of not only the region, but the North as well.