Nigeria’s present fraudulent governance mosaic also depict “how decisions are made in government and business” and “systemic corruption and a lack of openness and accountability, arbitrary policymaking, and the deception of those who are ruled.” The country is so badly governed that it is morally, fiscally and physically bankrupt. The malgovernance component speaks to the intrinsic attitude of groupthink, doublethink, doublespeak and precepts and, ultimately, the lack of consequences for profligacy and grand larceny within the government.

It is such malgovernace that resulted in almost N14 billion of public funds being paid into private accounts in 2023 in direct contradiction of extant financial regulations, which states that “personal money shall in no circumstances be paid into a government bank account nor shall any public money be paid into a private account.” The policing institutions of government are all too complicit, so much so that, as clichés go, one begins to ask: “who will police the police?” Checks and balances as well as regulatory ethos of ways and means all stand bastardized.

Nigeria also suffers from global deficit. Her political and fiscal currencies are in tatters. She has leveraged out her goodwill and assets. Oil revenue generation are at best halting. Her national savings are vastly depleted. Her contingent liabilities and debt exposure stand at an undisclosed sum of N100 trillion. Nigeria is currently ranked fifth, globally, with her highest ever inflation rate at 90% up from 28.9% in December 2023. Her currency, the naira, is vastly devalued; having lost 98% of its value in eight months. She has consistently grappled with budgetary deficit overhang resulting from over-padding and related sharp practices. A case in point: budgetary earmarks are now not only outsourced but traded off or sold to the highest bidders. Earmarked in-state and in-zone constituency projects are being executed out-of-state, out-of-zone and out-of-jurisdiction. The three arms of government are incestuously and criminally intertwined.

Advertisement

Under the present dispensation, Nigeria has been profligate with her public expenditure, mismanaged her limited resources, allowed grand larceny among public officials and borrowed recklessly. Resort to fuzzy math and perceptible quick-win policy solutions hardly pan out. Some policy options are so hare-brained that they are denied or withdrawn as soon as they are made public. Shock-laden monetary and food inflation continue to spiral upwards posing the ultimate tripwire for an unfolding national crisis. Food inflation stands at 34%, five percentage points shy of the national all-time high of 39.54% during the draconian Abacha years. Pockets for food protests are unfolding and might soon turn into full-fledged national food riots.

There is hardly a solution in sight.

The temptation to characterize Nigeria as a failed state is compelling. But she is not quite there yet, even as the pertinent indices point to that possibility within a short span. The ultimate tenet of democracy is the freedom to choose; so Nigeria’s present realities are resultant from leadership, policy and governance choices made by Nigerians directly or vicariously.

Nowhere to hide, as anarchy looms….

Advertisement

A core danger facing Nigeria is that state capture, hinged on primordial interests continues to foreclose the nation’s ability to rally to collective, strategic and bi-partisan solutions to the prevailing challenges. Already, insecurity and the role of non-state actors are making pockets of the nation ungovernable. Such vagaries are spreading cancerously, even to perceived safe havens like Abuja. Resultantly, Nigerians are opting to fly more, despite the huge financial implications, because travel by road nationwide is now fraught with kidnapping and other forms of security challenges.

Perhaps the greatest danger is that Nigerians are helplessly watching their country slide towards perdition, while the incumbent leadership fiddles carelessly. Prospects of an unscripted and indeterminate outcome are deeply troubling. Monarchs, clergy, clerics and gated estates are now common targets for those in the criminal fringe. The upshot is that the poor and the rich now share a common fate: looming anarchy arising from pervasive insecurity; that is a product of the prevailing MMB syndrome. There is no place to hide as anarchy looms. What happens next in Nigeria and the inherent dangers are too dire to contemplate. The centre cannot hold much longer; of that, most Nigerians are certain, even if they fear voicing such apprehensive sentiments publicly.

• Obaze is MD/CEO, Selonnes Consult – a policy, governance and management consulting firm in Awka.

Advertisement