The Kalu Leadership Series: Of Weak Institutions And National Development , By Dr Orji Uzor Kalu

I was in the United States the entire period of the Easter season, and came into Europe on March 29. One thing I kept pondering throughout my stay abroad was what could be done to drive Nigeria’s economy and promote its democracy. I was amazed at the way almost everything in Europe worked: the Metro, steady power supply, security, discipline. among the citizenry, the well-paved roads, rail-system; name it. As I ruminated over these things a voice spoke to me: ‘why do you worry, the major cause of these problems is the absence of functional government institutions’.

As if predesigned, I arrived at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport last weekend to behold a city in total darkness. A friend riding home with me exclaimed that the problem had been with us for some time, especially since the current scarcity of fuel aggravated. As if jolted from a bad dream, I was faced with the reality of the present scarcity of fuel when I was told that the product now sells for between N180 and N250 per litre across the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). I saw the long queues of vehicles at the filling stations as our car waltzed its way through the beautiful Abuja roads.

Yes, beautiful Abuja roads! The roads are well-designed with ornaments of all kinds adorning them. But deep inside there is rot of unimaginable magnitude. The blame game is on. Nobody shows any remorse about his role in the current mess in which we have found ourselves.

Past administrations have a sizeable percentage of the blame. In fact, every administration – from military to civilian – contributed to the hopeless situation in which we are immersed.

I have taken time to think about Nigeria. I have also written volumes of articles about the problems of Nigeria’s socio-political development. Unfortunately, all of them revolve around corruption and ineptitude that characterise the operations of government. What else is responsible for these problems if not weak institutions?

Among them are the security agencies; democratic agencies such as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC); agencies of government which include Universal Basic Education (UBE), Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Small and Medium Scale Industries (SMSIs); Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA), Electricity Generation and Distribution Companies; etc. Almost all the countries in Europe run a perfect system, providing quality social services to their people. The United Kingdom presents a classical example. The rail system in UK, especially the London Metro, is worthy of copying by developing economies. It is not only convenient, functional, efficient, but cheap as well. They have the surface and underground trains that provide round-the-clock services to different parts of the city. The Piccadilly Line to Heathrow Terminals is one of the busiest, because of the number of travellers that use it daily.

Why did successive governments fail to provide functional and cheap transportation for our people, especially the poor? The cost of transportation in Nigeria ranks among the highest in Africa. Road transport, which is supposed to be the cheapest, is not easily affordable. The situation gets worse with the scarcity of petrol. The rail system in Nigeria is one of the worst in Africa as well. The existing rail does not meet the pressing demand. Nigeria’s rail system only thrived before and immediately after the war. The Line from Enugu to Makurdi to Kafanchan and then to Kaduna was the busiest then. Enugu to Port Harcourt was working until early 2000s when it suddenly went comatose.

The road networks in Nigeria are also very pitiful. This has led to countless fatal accidents per annum. The government seems to be handicapped. But I think it will pay us better if the present government can raise the bar and take the bull by the horns to make all federal roads accessible. The condition of major federal roads in the country is deplorable. When the roads are fully rehabilitated they will enhance economic activities and reduce carnage. Curiously, the rehabilitation of roads is not a priority of this government. Nevertheless, I believe that it will do something drastic to ameliorate the situation before its tenure runs out.

Let me quickly observe at this juncture, that the choice of former Lagos State governor, Babatunde Fashola as Minister of Works, Power and Housing was properly made. He has the capacity to deliver on his mandate and rebuild the infrastructure under his ministry. He has a huge task to do things differently this time around and stave off unnecessary distraction as he works to reposition his ministry. Light is no longer a problem to many countries of the world. They use all kinds of sources to generate power. They range from renewable energy and solar to the conventional sources – thermal and hydro. As a way of tackling the energy needs of the growing populations they have added nuclear energy. In all of these, the major driving imperative is to stimulate economic growth and provide basic comfort. What do we have in Nigeria: epileptic power generation all year round? Before the mid 90’s when the problem exacerbated Nigeria was able to meet its power needs substantially. At that time the then National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) rarely took light and when they did they would give an advance notification. The whole. thing changed towards the turn of the new century, 2000.

To address the problem of power the Nigerian government had undertaken many reforms, which in the end failed to yield the desired result. Today we have diversified into the decentralisation of the power sector. The octopus called NEPA was first rechristened Power Holding Company of Nigeria PHCN). This organisation was a limping giant. It became worse than its forbear, NEPA. Within a short time the undertakers had started asking for its interment. It survived canni­balisation and rather suffered from privatisation. Three independent organisations emerged from this exercise, namely the GENCOS, DISCOS, and the marketing companies. In spite of the privatisation, the problem persists. Indeed, it is as if the whole thing is muddled up. What happened was that the institution that gave birth to the three companies was very weak. It had been bugged by institutional corruption and deterioration of equipment before the idea was conceived to privatize it. It was like putting new wine in old skin.

The efforts by the Muhammdu Buhari administration to address the problem have failed to deal with the situation. Last week power generation failed almost to point zero. It was that bad. As I wrote, power generation had however increased to 2,875 megawatts.

This is a far cry from the near 5000 megawatts achieved at a point after the inauguration of Buhari. Authorities of the Federal Ministry of Power have always blamed the problems of the power sector on sabotage and vandalism. The vandalization of oil pipelines by oil thieves predated the Buhari government and has been a major obstacle to the effort of government to provide steady power. Nevertheless, I could not comprehend why this problem would persist despite the billions of naira paid to private security companies to guard the pipelines.

Even the navy, police, civil defence, and the Joint Task Force are involved in the hunting down of the vandals, yet the problem gets worse and worse. In my thinking the government should set up a crack team to come up with permanent solutions to the problems of the power sector. All the efforts made so far have failed to address the problems adequately. Another step would be for the government to formulate a legal framework that would prescribe stiffer penalties for those that sabotage the power sector. The issue of supply of gas to the power stations should be addressed immediately, because this is at the heart of the problem. There is no way the power plants can work optimally without sufficient supply of gas