The Perception of Development: Nigerian-Style
One of the most interesting but intractable things about development in Nigeria is the pervasive perception of both what it is and should be. What is development? Why are Nigerians always left behind? These are questions best answered indirectly.
When many educated Nigerians (not the over-100 million illiterates within the country) still judge leaders by the initiation or completion of construction projects, we know why modern politics is beyond the country. Can anyone ask themselves, by what projects they judge leaders of any advanced nations? They pass acts in parliament to fund projects, out of certain revenues, to achieve certain goals, specifically. Acts of parliament or legislatures! Acts and policies are the core institutions in the governance of democracies, not stand alone projects.
It takes fourteen years to start and complete a nuclear power station. In a four-year term system, who claims credit for it when completed? If it takes 18 years to eliminate illiteracy in a country after the start of the project, who takes credit? Two, three, or four-year projects by themselves are not responsible for developing nations. So why are many educated Nigerians so narrowly focused on them as evidence of development?
Credit taking or eponymous legacy creation is the leading cause of the discontinuity projects policies started by predecessors. When an incumbent has to nothing demonstrate will send out the meme “Mr A started the project, but [He] Mr C completed it” or “Mrs D swore it into law, but [He] Mr R implemented it.” That is credit stealing. One of the reasons some are skeptical about the cry “get your PVC” is that even if elections are free and fair, and voters put aside ethnicity and religion, Nigerians will still vote projects. It is a matter of perception.
What role does the clamour for capital projects by many educated Nigerians play in the serious development of Nigeria? Little, very little. What is the point of buying a Boeing 737 if passengers cannot afford the airline fees or there is no staff to fly the plane? Let us look at some realities here. First, foreign concerns, which are equivalent to spending vast sums of oil money outside the economy, undertake the major capital projects in Nigeria. Is that good for trade balances?
Thus, capital projects are the primary source of external debt burden but do not end up becoming rich sources of internal revenue. The power stations, roads, refineries, pipelines, industrial parks, stadiums, dams, non-Apapa ports, and steel complexes. They all provide the nation with derisory services and do not spin revenues. The extremely archaic achievement of tarring roads and building bridges in Nigeria is habitually ephemeral. Voters praise many of the roads the governors of the day built a few years back. Today, the roads are now brooks, streams and rivers when it rains and dust tracks when it does not rain. The tar was washed away a long time ago.
Second, development in its proper sense has always been about “Human Development.” Health, education, affordability of goods and services, personal income. Plus employment, quality of life, the standard of living, security and well-being. There was a time in Britain when there were no employee protections, no pensions, no maternity leave, no social housing, no National Health Service. No polytechnics/technical colleges, no public schools, no police force. Today, due to and for the sake of human development, these institutions endure in Britain. This is not a comparison but a direction of necessity.
The reason people migrate to the US in large numbers for over a century is better wages and human development opportunities. Not the Golden Gate Bridge, the Route 66, the Hoover Dam or the Empire State Building. Where are the institutions that foster human development in Nigeria? Many Nigerians are still heading overseas seeking human development benefits, not civil engineering marvels. Better ways of life abroad attract immigration, better ways of life of life keep people at home.
Can anyone tell us the Nigerian leader who has delivered on those aspects of human development apart from General Yakubu Gowon. Then one would have a point. As Nigerians, for politics’ sake, they still equate development to feats of civil engineering. Who benefits from these feats of civil engineering in the short to long? Less than 2% of all Nigerians.
Still, on capital projects, former Soviet republics and Eastern Bloc nations were and are full of infrastructure developments. Nevertheless, their economies are not buoyant, and their quality of life and standard of living is not high. Well, when compared with Western nations. When the Soviet Union was about to collapse, it was human development the citizens cried out for. When the demands of the cries were no heeded, it was time for Glasnost and Perestroika. So much for infrastructure and capital projects. As we note, capital projects only benefit citizens (human development) when they can afford their use and can undertake these projects themselves.
Capital projects facilitate development but not all by themselves, as many Nigerians expect. Capital projects were the core of South Korean and Chinese economies, for example. But Korea and China put Human Development first; look at their home skill base and the services and incentives available to workers. They did not need expatriate workers to build, run, maintain and upgrade their infrastructure, because of their enabling national education and training policy outcomes and the political will of the leaders. They developed their nations all by themselves (we do not dismiss the role of foreign invest and technology transfer received). Is that not real and experienced development?
Take a good example. Nigeria privatised NEPA / PHCN then the Big thieves bought it for themselves. They soon found that Nigeria severely lacked local skills/expertise to run/maintain the privatised assets. And they were unwilling to hire expatriates at ten times or more the labour costs. Those few Nigerian-based professionals who could run the power sector were seeking and sought jobs overseas. Yes, in search of human development opportunities with much success. Unwittingly, Nigeria was to privatise blackouts.
Close the railways in the UK or Japan or Brazil or India for two weeks, and their economies will grind to a halt. Close the railways that are the landmark of Buhari’s government, and the Nigerian economy will not notice. How well are the National Stadium, National Theatre, Akpabio’s Stadium, Babangida’s ECOWAS Conference Centre, Kainji Dam, the New Railway links serving Nigeria? Badly because the local citizens cannot build, manage and maintain them, nor can they enjoy them with any consistency.
Nigeria has perennially for over 40 years had approximately the most unsafe roads in the world per capita through death toll and injuries. Who among those Nigerians reading this article has not lost at least two friends or loved ones on Nigeria’s roads? Human Development improves life expectancy, Nigeria’s roads help reduce it in the country. Is that development too? If anyone wants to praise a Nigerian leader, show us one who has improved the living standards of Nigerian citizens, then infrastructure will count.
When improvisation is a law of development, it becomes expedient and irredeemably disastrous at its worst. Habitual improvisation means three things for leadership and governance. Do as I like, target the least acceptable standards, and the future will take care of itself, not us in power. Token governance. Rome was not built in a day, Nigeria was not built in a century.
Again, using Korea and China as examples, it is clear the infrastructure counts in development and why? However, the emphasis of this article is Human Development. Infrastructure development without human development leads nations into waste, “poverty traps”, rent-seeking stagnation and White elephant schemes.
Infrastructure development carried out in line with corresponding human development advances a country, nothing else that is known to man. What is the point of pounding enough yam to feed five thousand people but not providing soup to eat it? Nigeria has too much bitumen, countless professors of civil engineering, and has earned well over $1 trillion in oil revenues. Still it has the most unsafe and backward roads in the world.
The infrastructure some are hailing today, look at them in 5- or 10-years’ time and evaluate. Think this out: when the National Theatre, Lagos was built, it cost Nigeria £73 million. At that same time the Barbican Centre was constructed for just £5 million to the British taxpayer. Has the National Theatre promoted the arts or entertainment in Nigeria (beyond FESTAC ‘77) or generated revenues for the government? It is a wreck. Compare it with the Barbican Centre, which is a world-class venue of arts and entertainment, the largest of its kind in Europe, a major tourist attraction and spins money. Nigeria is so proud of its brains and schooling. It may seem the more classrooms at any level of education that is built, the less skills Nigerians have.
Government Trade Centres (later named Technical College) of the 1950s, 60s and 70s Nigeria were so good that British companies gave their graduates labour to work in their heavy and light industries directly without further training. Graduates of the abundance of schools in Nigeria today have to train to do cleaning jobs in the UK. That is equivalent to the deciviIisation of our graduates and trainees and citizens. It is not the fault of the Nigerian student, graduate or professional. They were once excellent and capable. Alas, we now have too many citizens hail Nigeria’s deciviIisation as progress. Does any bother to understand why this is happening?
If the perception of and what it should be are not appropriate, how can its expectations and implementation ever achieve its rightful goal, human development?
Grimot Nane