California is the 6th
largest economy in the world. It's economy is larger than that of France or
Brazil. The little problem is that California is not a country. It is a State
in the United States of America. It has little offshore oil, yet its economy is
larger than States in the US that are famous for their oil reserves, like
Texas. California generates much of its revenue from non-oil products. It found
a way to absorb and domesticate much of the intellectual output from its
premier university, Stanford University, into saleable products within its
economy.
As a matter of fact, much of California's
economy is built around Stanford University. So with this, Silicon valley
developed. I'm sure you've heard of Silicon Valley at least once in your life.
Now with Silicon Valley came companies like Apple, eBay, Cisco, Lockheed,
Hewlett Packard (HP), Google, Netflix, Facebook, Oracle, Tesla...and the list
goes on and on ad infinitum.These are multibillion-dollar companies. The yearly
budget of any one of these companies might be larger than the entire yearly
budget of, say for example, Akwa Ibom State. I'm taking about companies that
are richer than countries. They are all in California. But that is just in the
technology industry where the technologies and inventions spewing out of
Stanford are caught midair and converted to money spinning enterprises.
But there is also the entertainment industry
in California. Yes, Hollywood is in California. The US movies industry
contributes about $504Billion to USA's GDP. Hollywood, as you know, contributes
over 70% of that figure. Most iconic movie studios are in Hollywood. As a
matter of fact, the "Big Eight" consisting of 20th Century Fox,
Columbia Pictures, MGM (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer), Paramount Pictures, RKO Radio
Pictures, United Artists, Universal Studios and Warner Bros are, or were, all
in Hollywood. These again, are multi-billion dollar companies generating
revenue for California.
Despite the above, California also thrives on
agriculture. As at 2014, California had nothing less than 77,000 farms and
ranches raking in about $55Billion in revenue yearly. It produces over 400
agricultural commodities, a large chunk of which it exports. It is the leader
in producing exotic fruits in America. Its wine industry is unique. California
wine is drunk with relish the world over. I used to drink some too.
This is just one State in America. You see,
California actually had a choice of sitting back and striving to get a piece of
the revenue generated from Texas' oil. It could have depended solely on Federal
allocation to survive so that every month end, it will send its Commissioner of
Finance to Washington DC to receive monthly allocation so that it can barely
pay salaries of its workers and nothing more. Then San Francisco would resemble
Ajegunle in Lagos. And there certainly would not be those beautiful sights and
sounds that make California what it is today. But No, not California. Not
America. California gives to the center and, because of its wealth, despises
the idea of depending on it for survival. The Federal Government actually needs
California to survive, not the other way round.
You see, America is structured in such a way
that States must look inwards to exploit their wealth for the good of its
citizens. There is no free lunch for the lazy States. There certainly is no
commonwealth. But there is your wealth, if you can create it. Under American
Federalism, you are the captain of your ship. But again, you are also the waves
upon which the ship will sail. That is America. The local government, the
government closest to the grassroot, is deliberately made the strongest level
of government. Items like Variances (adaptation of state law to local
conditions,) Public works (yes, public works!!), Contracts for public works,
Licensing of public accommodations, Assessable improvements, Basic public
services are all left for local county governments to handle. The State handles
weightier matters like Property law, Education,Commerce laws of ownership and
exchange, Banking and credit laws, Labour law and professional licensure,
Insurance laws, and Electoral laws, including parties and Civil service laws.
Items that the Federal Government, the center, handles affecting the States,
are actually very negligible.
Nigeria on the contrary will never do well
unless we restructure. We pretend to have a Federal system but we are actually
operating a unique form of unitary government, and it is weighing the polity
down. Can you imagine a country where the school curriculum is regulated by a
national central body and states have no powers to vary or amend their
curriculum? So, if the rest of the developed world is light years ahead in what
they teach their children from primary schools, and our Minister of Education
has absolutely no clue, the States must be burdened with antiquated school
curriculum until such a time (if we are lucky, before rapture perhaps!!) that
we have an Education Minister who would realise how far behind we are and bring
the curriculum up to date. Just take a look at the science curriculum for grade
students in advanced countries and you would cry for Nigeria. I recently read
of a high school in Japan which has amended its curriculum to include robotics
and drones technology. IN HIGH SCHOOL!! But our Professors here don't have a
hang on Robotics even! Students are still taught the very prehistoric rudiments
of physics and chemistry in our schools. And this is even in the few schools
that teachers and students still meet in the classrooms! For the few public
schools that are lucky to have labs, all you see are miserable nameless
creatures trapped in formalin, to which nobody ever pays attention. These
creatures suffer a double jeopardy having suffered the first misfortune of
being caught and preserved in formalin in Nigeria, and then thereafter
completely ignored, even in death! And because the control of our curriculum is
central, there is nothing potentially proactive or progressive-minded States
can do about this.
You would think this is not a problem until
you understand that Nigerians spend over ONE TRILLION NAIRA every year to study
abroad, despite there being over 100 tertiary institutions in Nigeria. Not one
is deemed good enough. You see, the reason why you have Cambridge, Harvard,
Princeton, Yale, Oxford, etc is not only for academic excellence of the
citizens of the countries which have these schools. No. They invest in their
institutions so that they can earn revenue from foreign students from countries
like Nigeria which has destroyed its educational system. Abroad, schools are so
important to society that the economy, business and lifestyle of whole cities
and even States completely depend on or revolve around schools. What would the
city of cambridge be without Cambridge University. Or Cambridge, Massachusett
without Harvard University. These cities depend on these universities to
survive. And imagine that Nigeria had invested in its universities and was
earning $1billion dollars a year from foreign students seeking to study here,
who would be fighting over oil in the Niger Delta? How many car manufacturing
companies would we have in Owerri near FUTO where students are constantly doing
and selling their research products to burgeoning engineering and manufacturing
companies? Recently, three students in Sweden conducted research and came up
with a product that could improve wear and tear on tyres. The product became so
successful that Volvo had to partner with these students to patent the product.
Now when this product hit world stage, can you imagine how much revenue sweden
would earn from these product? Do your research, most of the world-class products
we buy today off the shelf, at great cost, were invented by university
students. As you are reading this, do not forget that without Harvard
University, there would not have been facebook, and this our interface would
have been impossible.
But our students In Nigeria are not entirely
without inventions. We invented the Pyrates Confraternity, the Black Axe, the
Eiye, the Vikings and what not!! Students resume school with guns and bullets,
rather than books and scholastic ideas, as though academic institutions were a
war college. Lecturers fly colors as do students. And when the turf war begins,
people die in droves. But States can do nothing about this because some of
these institutions are controlled by the Federal Government. Even for the ones
controlled by States, you still can't do much because the security apparatus is
controlled by the Federal Government. The Federal Government will provide or
withdraw security from the State, depending on whether it is happy with the
sitting Governor. So every year, all sorts of characters are vomited from
Nigerian Universities to take their place in Nigerian society. So you have
Judges, Lawyers, Engineers, Doctors and so forth whose first and primary
allegiance is to their cult group, before the Country. The multiplier effect of
this, is a treatise for another day.
But suffice to say that as long as this
problem persist, let's forget about Silicon Valley in Nigeria, because there
will never be a Stanford University here to provide an infinite supply of ideas
and prodigies to feed the invention value-chain!
Nigeria cannot wake up from its slumber today
because it cannot lift its head. The entire weight of its existence is
concentrated in its head. From the viewpoint of government, the weight is In
Abuja. From the viewpoint of revenue source, the weight is in the Niger-Delta.
We need to urgently restructure and evenly distribute this pressure points and
weights to diffuse tension in Nigeria.
We need to revisit the exclusive legislative
list in the constitution and systematically reduce the responsibilities of the
Federal Government vis-a-vis the States. Resources have to be handed back to
the States that generated them but place an obligation on each States to
contribute an agreed percentage to the common federal purse to service
obligations of the Federal Government. There is no reason Education, Policing,
Prisons (only people convicted of federal offenses should go to federal
prisons!!), Ports, Inland waterways, natural minerals, even marriage (yes,
english form of marriage!!) and so many other items should be the concern of
the Federal Government.We will never develop with such weight that weigh us
down at the center. Nigeria can never raise its head in the comity of nations
because of the sheer weight of the head.
There is more to say, but scarcely any time.
But to emphasis the point i've been laboring to make, shall i say again that
there is absolutely no reason or need to fight for oil in the Niger-Delta.
There are so many things that can bring more revenue to States in Nigeria than
oil. South Africa has no oil, but it has Gold, and is richer than Nigeria. Let
us fight for a system that will promote both equality and equity. Let us
restructure Nigeria.
Contribution FIDEL ALBERT
