The Case For and Against Tolling

I have been thinking about road tolling a lot in recent days! I live in the Lekki corridor where the Lagos State Government (LASG) and its concessionaire-Lekki Concession Company (LCC), have announced that tolling will commence at the Admiralty Circle Toll Plaza on December 18. I am naturally not looking forward to that date!!! Tolling is not new in Nigeria-we had toll gates on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and other highways across the country years ago, until ex-President Obasanjo ordered their demolition! But those were inter-city highways through which commuters did not pass daily. Come to think of it, if toll plazas were re-erected on the Lagos-Ibadan or Lagos-Abeokuta expressways today, many Nigerians who live in Mowe, Ofada, Sango-Ota and other communities, and work in Lagos will pass daily through those toll gates. We have toll plazas on the international-domestic airport link road, but there are alternatives so no one is compelled to use the tolled road. I also recall some short link road somewhere around Oba Akran/Agege Expressway where tolls were collected by a local government in the 1990s, but again there were alternatives. The prospect of imminent tolling on the fast-expanding Lekki-Epe expressway corridor, in which numerous residential communities abound has raised passions in the area amongst residents and indigenous communities, such that the Lagos State Government had to suspend its earlier scheduled commencement almost exactly a year ago, in order for enhanced stakeholder communication and the completion of alternative routes. In spite of the one year delay (at a cost of N1.05billion in 2010 and N4billion in 2011 to the state treasury) some stakeholders remain unconvinced about tolling or fencing on the road. Emotions are perhaps understandably high, with opponents arguing that provision of roads and other infrastructure is government’s constitutional obligation; placing critical infrastructure in the hand of the private sector exposes citizens to the vagaries of the market place; tolling in Lekki is discriminatory since residents in wealthier neighbourhoods in Ikoyi and Victoria-Island do not pay road tolls. Others believe that proposed tolls are unduly high; tolling and fencing are a breach of citizens’ freedom of movement etc. More substantively is the need for an alternative road; tolling when only 6 kilometres of the road had been completed; and insufficient transparency around the contract with LCC. I do not support some of these arguments. Public private partnerships (PPPs-agreements between the public and private sectors with the purpose of delivering projects or services traditionally provided by the public sector) are a necessity in the face of financing constraints as governments all over the world seek to provide infrastructure to their citizens. PPPs foster faster delivery of much-needed road infrastructure; more cost-efficient design, construction and operation of road schemes; involve risk-sharing and transfer between the public and private sectors, along with leveraging private finance, enterprise, innovation and efficiency; and bring higher service quality and standards into public sector projects and services. According to a document, “Toll Collection Technology and Best Practices”, (Persad, Walton & Hussain) of the Center for Transportation Research, University of Texas at Austin, “road pricing is becoming a more appealing means of funding transportation since revenues from federal and state gas taxes have not kept up with growth in demand for infrastructure. Moreover toll financing allows projects to be built sooner instead of waiting for tax revenues to accumulate”. Tolling may also be a demand management strategy, encouraging car pooling and use of public transportation. The authors also note that “roadway tolling is expected to become more pervasive over time.” With the size, length and rate of expansion of the Lekki corridor, waiting for government to find the resources to expand and modernise the road may have been an interminable wait, and arguably more discriminatory! We have seen how in the telecommunications sector for instance, private capital sped up the delivery of infrastructure and services perhaps by decades over the rate of government provision! It is easy to forget how long we used to spend on the road before it was widened and improved-my travel time to my Broad Street office for instance (plus fuel consumption, vehicle wear-and-tear, stress etc) has been cut from one hour or more, to less than 30 minutes on average. The road is safer at night (one colleague was once shot by armed robbers right at the Lekki Phase 1 estate roundabout! The most tangible complaints based on my review of international best practices on tolling were the absence of an alternative road and perhaps insufficient transparency and communication with stakeholders. I believe these may have been due to initial learning curves. Fortunately the state government has developed a full infrastructure for PPPs-a law, an office and a procurement process and strategy that will mitigate such complaints. The development of infrastructure in Lagos is dependent on PPPs-power, rail, BRT, ferry services, Lekki Free Trade Zone, airport, seaport etc. LASG and LCC have now provided routes by-passing the toll plaza such that when you do not wish to pay the toll, you may veer off and return after the toll plaza. I would encourage LASG and LCC to engage in intense stakeholder and community engagement to address citizen concerns. However given the critical role of PPPs in infrastructural development in Lagos, I do not believe it is wise to allow this concession to fail.

Ojukwu and Nigerian Federalism (1)

Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu’s father, Sir Louis Phillipe Odumegwu-Ojukwu was one of Nigeria’s richest men of the pre-independence era. Born in 1908, before amalgamation of Northern and Southern Nigeria in 1914, Sir Louis aged 5, followed village womenfolk to the Nkwo market place, where a small unit of British soldiers led by a Major tied the hands of Sir Louis’ father and other clan chiefs with ropes, broke their dane guns into pieces and set them on fire! This was part of British pacification and humiliation of natives into accepting colonial rule. Sir Louis subsequently got some limited education, became a produce inspector in Lagos, worked for John Holt and then entered business, becoming owner of the country’s largest road haulage company. He died in 1966. Emeka was Sir Louis’ first son, born in Zungeru on November 4, 1933 after his parents’ separation. He started living with his father in Lagos at age 3, attended St. Patrick’s School, CMS Grammar School, and at 10 in 1944 entered Kings College, Lagos. In 1946, Emeka was transferred to Epsom College, Surrey, England where he stayed six years excelling in sports-sprinting, rugby, javelin and discus-gaining admission to Lincoln College, Oxford in 1952. He took BA from Oxford in 1955 and MA both in History having lived a multimillionaire’s son’s life, driving a Rolls Royce, enjoying feminine company, and spending pleasant vacations in Lagos high society. Contrary to Sir Louis’ desire that he join the family business, Ojukwu chose to join the Civil Service, seeking a posting to Northern Nigeria. Due to Nigeria’s federal structure, he was posted instead in 1955 to his native Eastern Region, to Udi as an Assistant District Officer. Udi transformed Ojukwu into an authentic Igbo man! Before then he was a black British gentleman and Lagos boy, who spoke Queens English and fluent Yoruba. According to his friend and biographer, Frederick Forsyth, Ojukwu for the first time, found the land of his ancestors, “I became aware that I was Igbo, and a Nigerian, and an African, and a black man. In that order. And I determined to be proud of all four. In that order.” At Udi, he learnt Igbo language, forsook routine office paperwork in favour of working with villagers and peasants, and learnt the true nature of the African reality. As would later happen with other Igbos, the Udi villagers trusted him and he transcended official colonial administrator, becoming adjudicator and leader. He was subsequently posted to Umuahia and Aba until 1957 and might well have stayed in the civil service, but for his father’s actions. Horrified at Ojukwu’s next posting to Calabar (where he feared that an Efik woman would “capture” his son), Sir Louis deployed his connections with the Governor-General, Sir John Macpherson, who immediately cancelled the transfer. Evidently Emeka’s choice of the civil service was to craft his own destiny, rather than walk eternally in his father’s wealthy and influential shadows. Frustrated at Sir Louis’ interference in his career, he decided to join the army. There is an alternative view-that Ojukwu already had designs on political power and as a historian knew the army would be a good route to his ambitions. Frankly the evidence as we shall later see, does not completely validate that theory. Ojukwu may have stayed in the civil service, which he appeared to be enjoying and his actions during the 1966 coup are not consistent with those of a military officer seeking political power. Ojukwu at least in his early military career was a pro-establishment officer who may have seen the army as the only authentic national establishment in the midst of Nigeria’s ethnic and regional divisions. Ojukwu’s father again tried to prevent him joining the army as a cadet officer, prompting his joining as a private in 1957! It was only after British military officers recognised the futility and dysfunction of having a Masters from Oxford as a Private in the army with illiterates as contemporaries and superiors that his entry was regularised and his father’s wishes overturned. Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu went through training at Teshie in Ghana; Officer Cadet School at Eaton Hall, England from February 1958 for six months; Infantry School at Warminster; Small Arms School at Hythe returning to Nigeria’s Fifth Battalion, Kaduna in November 1958. He was deployed in 1959 to Western Cameroun to join the hunt for rebel Felix Moumi at one point discovering over one million pounds worth of various European currencies which he sent back to Army Headquarters for which he received commendation, but (in early signs of corruption) reportedly never heard of the funds again. Ojukwu was already in military service at independence in 1960 and wrote in “Because I am Involved” that he “burnt my British passport and turned my back permanently on colonialism and neo-colonialism”; promoted Captain in December 1960; was staff Officer at Army Headquarters from 1961; became Major in summer 1961 (at which point his father reconciled with him); passed Joint Services Staff Course and was promoted Lieutenant-Colonel in January 1963 when he was appointed army Quartermaster-General. In January 1966, when the first military coup happened Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu was Commander at the 5th Battalion, Kano. •This is the first in a multi-part review of the life and impact of Ojukwu on Nigeria’s history and federalism

Alex Ibru 1945-2011

As students in the great Igbobi College in the late 1970s and early 1980s, we had some school “champions”-role models that our principal, the late revered Mr T A Ojo and tutors consistently held up as examples for us to follow. Usually old students of the school, they fired our imagination and ambition and gave us a sense of the reality of the words of our school song-“…wherever there’s an Igbobian, there also is a noble Nigerian…” In my time that list had some outstanding names-Justice Teslim Elias, Professor Adeboye Babalola, Chief Kweku Biney, Professor Bolaji Akinyemi and the Ibru Brothers. Chief Michael Ibru and Architect Felix Ibru were the most well-known of those famous Ibrus (with Michael in particular reputed to have been a charismatic Senior Prefect of the school) and few of us had heard of the quietly successful Alex Ibru as at 1981, when I left Igbobi College for the University of Ife, but he was soon to burst most powerfully into national consciousness. In 1983, Alexander Uruemu Ibru launched the Guardian effectively changing the face of print journalism in Nigeria. As a young undergraduate, I was a huge fan of the newspaper, and it is probably partly because of the Guardian that I am a columnist today. It was an intellectual’s delight and had a large body of first class brains, and opinion writers whose articles inspired me to want to emulate them “when I grew up”. The list was long-Stanley Macebuh, Yemi Ogunbiyi, Pat Utomi, Sonala Olumhese, Femi Aribisala and several others carrying on robust debate of unprecedented quality and insight on the pages of any Nigerian newspaper. It was the Guardian that effectively transformed news reporting and journalism from something done by graduates of the Nigerian Institute of Journalism (NIJ) and other post-secondary school types into an intellectual art in which university lecturers, PhDs and high intellectuals could partake. That trend may have started somewhat with the post-Jose era in Daily Times, but it was The Guardian that concretised and made it irreversible. The Guardian did not just redefine Nigerian journalism, it also attempted to retrieve national values from the vainglorious, materialistic and non-reflective path, the full maturity of which now threatens to destroy this country. The Guardian’s motto “Conscience, Nurtured by Truth” and its initial “simply Mr” were powerful representations of the papers values and of Mr Alex Ibru itself-simple and discreet; focussed on integrity and higher principles rather than vanity; abhorrence of the Nigerian “big man” syndrome; and a willingness to let your impact, rather than your noise speak for you! The fact that even the Guardian buckled under the weight of pressure to abandon the “simply Mr” policy speaks to the power, resilience and maybe the “irredeemability” of Nigeria’s power elite! Ibru reportedly founded the Guardian with a mission of making it one of the five best English language newspapers in the world. If the paper didn’t achieve that lofty height, it certainly came very close! Without doubt, it earned its appellation as “the flagship” of the Nigerian media. Very few Nigerians have gone into government and returned with their integrity and reputation intact. Alex Ibru was one of the few! In 1993, ten years after founding the newspaper, he accepted appointment as Minister of Internal Affairs and member of the Provisional Ruling Council under what later turned out to be Abacha’s murderous military dictatorship. Abacha evidently expected that having offered Ibru a high government office, he would turn his newspaper into a propaganda machine or at least a silent collaborator with the government. Ibru’s principled refusal so-to-do was high treason in the dictator’s goggled eyes, and Ibru almost paid with his life on February 2, 1996 (Igbobi College’s Founders’ Day-probably why the assassination attempt failed!) having left the Abacha government in 1995. While he was a serving Minister, the Abacha government shut down the paper in 1994 and security agents allegedly tried to burn down the paper. Alex Ibru was also silently active in the realm of philanthropy and especially spirituality founding the Trinity Foundation and Ibru Centre in Agbarha-Otor in Delta State in support of Christian theology, reflection and propagation, especially of his Anglican denomination. The youngest of the famous Ibru brothers of Urhoboland, Igbobi College and Nigeria, Alexander Uruemu Ibru aged 66 was born on March 1, 1945 and died on Sunday November 20, 2011. He was at Igbobi from 1960 to 1963 and later studied Business Economics at Trent Polytechnic (now University of Trent) and worked with his elder brother Michael before going into business in his own right and founding Rutam Motors Ltd. Alex Ibru was an untypical Nigerian, a quiet but courageous and principled individual, a change agent in the Nigerian media industry and nation, and a man of proven integrity. He proved that not all Nigerians are corrupt or corruptible; that those who abandon their integrity and values once they get into government probably never had those values; and that it is possible to stick to your principles in the face of intimidation and even danger.

Reflections of a Columnist

I have not written this column for four weeks, the first such absence since its inception in 2006. At first it was simply overwhelming work pressure; then a realisation that I was physically and mentally exhausted, and unable to secure the level of inspiration and stimulation required to gather my thoughts and put them down on paper-or rather my laptop!; in the midst of that, an overseas trip during which my schedule and activities made it difficult to write; finally a recognition that I really needed to take a break, reflect on the column and its primary subject-Nigeria, and re-assess the column’s purpose and strategy. Writing this column was not a random or accidental event. It followed a personal trajectory, and was a result of a deliberate decision, after much frustration at Nigeria, to acquire a voice, hopefully for good in our drifting nation. I had always been passionate about “current affairs”-I started reading “Daily Times” as a five year old, starting with the diplomatic and sports pages. News about Israel and the Palestinians, Europe, America and Asia, world leaders like Begin, Anwar Sadat, Gaddaffi, US and UK leaders, OPEC, the Arab-Israeli Wars, the boxing exploits of Cassius Clay aka Muhammed Ali, Joe Frazier, George Foreman etc always caught my attention. In domestic matters, it was the exploits of Haruna Ilerika, Yakubu Mambo, Victor Oduah etc and their teams-Stationery Stores, Mighty Jets of Jos and Bendel Insurance and the other “super” teams-IICC of Ibadan, Rangers of Enugu, NEPA of Lagos and Sharks of Port Harcourt that captured my attention. The end of the civil war; Gowon’s proclamation that 1976 was “no longer realistic”; the retirement of “Black Scorpion”-General Benjamin Adekunle; the Murtala coup and Dimka’s failed attempt were some developments that stuck in my young mind. When Nigeria returned to civil rule in 1979, politics became interesting. Then in secondary school, I closely watched the bold attempt by Chief Obafemi Awolowo to attain the Nigerian presidency. For a form 2-3 student in Igbobi College in 1978-1979, it was amazing how much interest I devoted to the politics and campaigns of that era! I read all the political news, had my own exercise book for my analysis, and on election days, stayed up all night recording the seats won by the various parties. By the time the military returned in 1983, I was already a law student at Ife and my focus shifted to economic issues in line with the times-oil glut, austerity, import licenses, counter-trade, structural adjustment, deregulation etc as our economy took a turn for the worse! As I graduated, attended law school and made my way to Benin for national service in 1986, I had made up my mind to try in my own way to affect public opinion. Thus started my “letters to the editors” of weekly newsmagazines from 1986-1990 until I settled on Nduka Obaigbena’s defunct THISWEEK. My persistent letter-writing indeed earned me an invitation from the editors of THISWEEK to their Surulere offices. But then, my public endeavours were truncated (or at least suspended) by a career in banking from 1989 and I begun to slow down and eventually stop my letters and articles. Until Abacha!!! In 1998, frustrated like most Nigerians by Abacha who had become a human obstacle to the country’s development, I again picked up my pen and wrote an intellectual critique of Abacha, which fortunately perhaps was rather too sophisticated for Abacha and Al-Mustapha to understand. Many of my banker colleagues wondered at my temerity, but then I got away with that one! A few months later, Abacha was dead, but he had forced me out of my sabbatical from public commentary and I would continue with occasional pieces on the op-ed pages of The Guardian. My writing picked pace in 2003, as I consciously began to wind down my banking career (as my self-imposed exit date from the profession approached-I had decided to become self-employed and “free” by the age of 40!) and I was impressed by the outlines of economic reforms then been sketched by Obasanjo”s economic team, to at first sceptical reception from the Nigerian media and public. I was initially alone in supporting the pro-reform case, at least in the media. When I agreed to start this column in January 2006, I was clear what it would be used for. It would be pro-economic reform and anti-corruption. It would seek to advance the policy ideas I had pushed in my political economy and business strategy classes at the Lagos Business School. It would seek to educate the public and policy makers on policy, strategy and the economy; and it would seek positive change in our politics and governance. Very many readers tell me the column has had an immensely positive effect on them and the nation. Indeed I was very gratified at the expressions of concern and even alarm at the column’s absence for a few weeks. I am not so sure however that all policy makers agree! And some others may have celebrated (prematurely) the end of our interventions. The column will of course continue. Our work is not done! The effort to establish good governance, sensible public policy and sound economic management, and a better polity in Nigeria is far from accomplished.

Policy and Economic Review

The global economic environment is decidedly more risky and the chances of a second developed world financial crisis are clearly elevated! In its recent World Economic Outlook (WEO) released in September 2011, the IMF warns that “the global economy is in a dangerous new phase” due to the convergence of slower recovery in advanced economies and “a large increase in fiscal and financial uncertainty which has been particularly pronounced since August”. Uncertainty derives from sovereign debt concerns in Europe-Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Iceland and Spain initially, but concerns now include Belgium and even Italy-and worries that European banks and financial system could be affected as they hold the bonds of these countries. Only Britain and Germany are not been mentioned and even then British banks may themselves be tarred in the event of sovereign default. Meanwhile oil and commodity prices appear to have peaked since April in the case of oil, and February for some food prices. Oil prices have declined for six straight months, with OPEC basket going below $100 per barrel for the first month close since February while the FAO food price index stood at 231 points in August, down from February peak of 238. The IMF WEO reviewed global growth prospects for 2011 and 2012 down to 4% with the structure of uneven growth between developed economies (1.6% and 1.0%) and developing and emerging economies (6.4% and 6.1%) projected for the next two years. The Fund states that risks are clearly to the downside! In spite of declining oil prices, lower global growth prospects, falling foreign exchange reserves and clear pressure on our exchange rates, the federal government released the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) for 2012-2015 in which oil prices were projected at $75 per barrel and exchange rates at N153/$ for 2012-2015. This was at a time the CBN was already selling dollars at close to N155/$! The MTEF however factored in supposedly less optimistic scenarios for oil prices at $70 and $65 per barrel. Cynics may describe the three scenarios-$75, $70 and $65 as all optimistic scenarios!!! The last time oil markets fell in 2008, they reached below $40 per barrel! In concluding that risks were to the downside, the IMF noted there would be vulnerabilities in some emerging economies-in my view Nigeria would be one clear possibility. As we were reminded in 2008, slower growth in developed economies means slower oil demand, which implies lower oil prices. The Nigerian economy remains structurally dependent on oil prices for government revenues, foreign exchange reserves and exchange rates! As oil prices fall, while oil importing nations rejoice, Nigeria experiences an oil price shock. We may be in line for another one if current oil price patterns persist! The CBN increased the Monetary Policy Rate to 9.25% on September 19 and shocked markets on October 10 with another increase, this time by 275 basis points! The CBN sticks to its stubborn (and perhaps emotional) rigidity concerning flexibility around exchange rates as it seeks to battle inflationary pressures. If CBN had taken the counsel of the IMF in terms of exchange rate flexibility and discouraging one-way bets against the Naira several months ago, perhaps the bank could have avoided its current exchange rate/interest rate quagmire! In the event, CBN has provided generous dollar subsidies to capital flight, export of corruption proceeds, currency speculation, foreigners, traders and consumption! The only worthwhile beneficiaries of this huge subsidy are manufacturers who constitute only 4% of GDP!!! Meanwhile a N15 margin has emerged between the official CBN rate and all other rates, providing an irresistible incentive to “round-tripping” and fuelling additional surge in foreign currency demand!!! The country has gone through eighteen months of extraordinarily high post-recession oil prices without a single dollar of additional savings, frittered away to the above-listed categories of lucky beneficiaries. Someday someone in CBN or the National Economic Management Team (NEMT) will recognise an unsustainable exchange rate management strategy!!! The economy however continues to grow above 7% with the star sector being telecommunications consistently over 30%; other high growth sectors include solid minerals, building and construction, hotels and restaurants, wholesale and retail trade, and real estate all between 10.4% and 12.3%. The problem remains that growth is not inclusive because of the structure of our economy (growth is dominated in weighted terms by sub-modern agriculture dependent on rainfall patterns, crude oil exports with no domestic value chain, and trading in imported goods; sectors which can generate jobs are either too small in GDP terms of growing too slow) and unemployment at 21.1% is too high. But policy appears to be rising to the challenge. The outlines of a sensible agriculture policy is emerging; power sector road map implementation appears to be proceeding; governance is beginning to look more competent; and there is leadership on the economic front. The financial sector has been a drag on private sector performance and may have boosted unemployment since industry turmoil appeared in 2009, but then resolution appears to have been achieved through nationalisations and the recently-concluded recapitalisations and mergers. We hope the industry will now be left alone to experience stability and growth, and to play its role of economic intermediation.

Steve Jobs 1955-2011

Nigerian society encourages cheapening of honours and lofty words-everyone is a “Chief”, “Alhaji”, “Honourable”, “Dr”, “elder statesman”, “chieftain”. Extraordinary words like “mega” “role model” or “icon” are so carelessly bandied as to become virtually meaningless. Every year hundreds of national honours, universities doctorates and traditional titles are offered usually to anyone who can donate large enough sums of money. When “Chief” became common, we created “High Chief” to differentiate the men from the boys! We have so devalued honour and achievement that it is often difficult to recognise true excellence. But like the Yorubas say, when you see an elephant you can not mistake it for anything else! Steve Jobs is the definition of the words “icon” and “visionary” yet he bore no title-he was simply Steve Jobs. My last obituary was for Tayo Aderinokun; alas Steve Jobs shared the same years of birth and death as Tayo, both deaths had links with cancer, and both were very wealthy men, within the context of their societies. I had a “relationship” with both men-Tayo was my boss in a professional banking environment; but like most citizens of the world, I only met Steve Jobs through his work at Apple Computers. I was however “intimate” with him as a business school professor teaching several of the many case studies written on the PC market, Apple and its truly iconic CEO. My first exposure to computers was not Apple products but the more conventional IBM, HP, Dell, Compaq and Sony personal computers and later laptops. Even though Jobs, his partners Steve Wozniak and A.C “Mike” Markkula and Apple Computers were industry pioneers, by the early 1990s, Apple had become more or less niche products leaders, restricted to devotees in graphics, design, printing, education and other markets where its strengths in graphical user interfaces, design dexterity and ease of use were highly valued. For corporate and professional users, especially in environments such as banking which depended on connectivity within the organisation and the outside world, Bill Gates, Microsoft and the IBM-compatible had basically wiped out Apple. Gates and Jobs had two differing visions of how the PC market would evolve and Bill Gates vision won overwhelmingly! Gates placed his emphasis on connectivity, open systems, the decoupling of hardware and software and a business model that depended on small, but regular annuity incomes. Jobs saw value in great design, productivity, differentiated products and large margins. When I started teaching business strategy in the early to mid-2000s, the case studies essentially cast Steve Jobs as a visionary who got it wrong in the PC market, drawing inspiration from industries (such as automobiles) where a superb product (say a BMW) earned premiums over less-differentiated cars, rather than looking towards perhaps telecommunications or broadcasting where value depended on the number of users and in the particular case of the then emerging technology market, their openness and interconnectedness. Many wrote off Steve Jobs, with Michael Dell of Dell Computers at one time mocking that Jobs should return money to shareholders and close down Apple! But in the event, the joke was on Dell (and we business school types!) as Steve Jobs re-invented himself in consumer electronics through the iPod and iTunes; then went back into computing and publishing with the iPad, and eventually to phones, through the iPhone! Jobs also had strong influence on other industries and companies-he founded NEXT when he was pushed out of Apple and eventually sold the company to Apple for $429million in 1997; he founded Pixar which produced animated films and had a serious impact on media and film industries, producing the popular “Toy Story” film series. Jobs later sold Pixar to The Walt Disney Company in a deal valued at $7.4billion in 2006 becoming Disney’s director and largest individual shareholder with 7% of the company’s stock. In 2010, Forbes estimated Steve Jobs net worth at $8.3billion, the 42nd wealthiest American and one of the richest men in the world. But Jobs significance was not in the amount of money he had in the bank. As he himself noted, “I was worth over $1,000,000 when I was 23, and over $10,000,000 when I was 24, and over $100,000,000 when I was 25, and it wasn’t that important because I never did it for the money“. Jobs was listed as primary or co-inventor on 338 US patents or patent applications for products and technologies as diverse as actual computer and portable devices to user interfaces (including touch-based), speakers, keyboards, power adapters, staircases, clasps, sleeves, lanyards and packages. His real essence was his typification of the American dream; creativity, innovation and the courage to follow his intuition; quest for perfection and desire to impact the world; ability to recover and rise again after every failure; and the final lesson that money can’t buy you health or life. In his words, “almost everything–all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure–these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart”

Dysfunctional at 51

Nigeria is not (yet) a failed state, but clearly failing and dysfunctional! Signs of system failure include inability of the state to protect its people and territory against sundry adversaries-regional militants seeking greater share of oil revenues; Islamic fundamentalists demanding a full Sharia state; armed robbers who take over public highways and banks; kidnappers who regularly and casually abduct citizens for ransom; an educational sector that has basically collapsed-most who can afford it (and many who can’t!) educate their children in countries as varied as UK, USA, Ireland, Canada, Ghana, Togo, Kenya, South Africa, Malaysia, Dubai etc and middle class families go abroad for medical treatment and simple health checks. The Judicial system does not work-litigation may linger for more than five years, and appeals to higher courts may elongate the process to decades; corruption subverts the state which has essentially been hijacked-apportioned for the benefit of those who paid nothing, but have basically converted the state for their own purposes! Policemen request, demand or plead for bribes on public highways; immigration officers solicit “gifts” from returning Nigerians and foreigners at airports; civil servants negotiate payments from citizens who require services from the state. There is no shared sense of common good and the only irreducible minimum is that the “national cake” must be shared equally in line with “federal character”, “zoning”, “rotation” and “consensus”. We cannot agree on anything-citizens’ perspectives are shaped not by any commonly-held values or national ethos, but by ethnic, religious, regional, state, or clan loyalties or alternatively personal interest. It is possible to reverse the process of state failure, but what worries me more these days is the all pervading dysfunction! Or perhaps that is just one more signpost down the road towards state failure!!! A system is dysfunctional when it doesn’t work normally or properly but contrary to normal design and expectations. Let’s examine some examples. Usually people with high risk appetite and entrepreneurial energy create businesses which generate economic activity and employment. Here entrepreneurial types become politicians! Only entrepreneurs will sell their houses and property in order to raise money to contest a party primary in which there are nine other contestants! And then borrow heavily to finance the actual election. Entrepreneurial energy is devoted not to business, but towards capturing a portion of the state. The successful “candidate” proceeds to earn stupendous return on investment, while the losers fight another day! In normal systems, contractors to federal, state and local governments should be business persons while civil servants are those with a passion for social services and administration but here most government contracts are executed by public officers, with the nominal contractors as mere stooges fronting for them. The same officers have responsibility for conceiving, costing and awarding the contracts and since they only can guarantee contract award and payment, they take the largest portion of the contract booty! The political scientist or constitutional lawyer will say the role of legislators in parliamentary democracies is making laws and providing “checks and balances” on the executive, but in Nigeria, legislators do make laws, but (as can be inferred from the relatively few laws passed by the National and State Assemblies since 1999) they may also be contractors as well, as illustrated by the Senate Education Committee and Rural Electrification Agency scandals. So instead of exercising “oversight” over the executive, a legislator may become co-conspirator in executive fraud. All these dysfunctional categories may indeed respond (with some validity perhaps!) that many journalists and newspaper columnists have become public relations consultants, and that much of what is said in newspapers and other media are paid for! The federal government insists on being in charge of every conceivable activity based on a defective constitution. You would imagine that federal authorities desire a long exclusive legislative list on which they alone legislate, as well as a concurrent list on which they can overrule state governments, because they actually intend to manage all those activities they have cornered via the constitution. Well wrong again! Virtually all federal agencies once deployed to the states are almost completely abandoned to state governors-police, customs, immigration, INEC, SSS and even military formations! Talk to any governor and you will understand that (except in cases where there is a political undertone) the notion of federal government is a myth in the states! State governors maintain and sustain virtually all federal institutions in their states, while ogas in Abuja “take care” of their budgetary allocations! There are other instances-state legislatures are de facto departments of state governors’ offices; governors recommend and “appoint” members of the federal cabinet; labour leaders posture for the benefit of naive members, while telling government privately to go ahead with any intended policy; many policemen are criminals; religious leaders are entrepreneurs and often the richest ones; many occultists are Pastors and Alhajis; Nigerians proclaim great religiosity but corruption is endemic; state governors ask for “true federalism” and then beg the federal government to take-over state universities and airports; NGOs are mechanisms for their founders and leaders to live comfortably; university lecturers and medical doctors are always on strike; police summarily execute armed robbers; SSS releases terrorists to Emirs! Nothing functions the way it was designed to work. Why are we surprised that Nigeria is failing?