By Dele Sobowale

We are looking asking for an eighteen-month moratorium before we can start paying , so that we will be able to strategise…To develop the IGR is not overnight, it is a long term programme that one has to plan for…and we cannot say we are going to cut salaries and wages.” Governor Yari, Chairman of Nigeria Governors Forum, April 28, 2016, in Abuja.

The road to hell, whether for governments or individuals, is sometimes paved with good intentions. When President Buhari, late last year, offered a bail-out to states to enable them pay accumulated salaries and wages, most economists and finance experts realized that it was a stop   gap measure and would turn out to be the beginning of more requests or demands for more relief from the states to the Federal Government.

Two weeks ago, the Minister for Finance announced a one month waiver of monthly deductions for the loans taken by states as part of the bail-out agreement in late 2015. She also made it clear that the Federal Government might not extend the waiver beyond one month. Poor Mrs Adeosun, she obviously has never heard about the story of the ‘Traveler and His Camel in the Desert’.

As the story went, one night, when it got very cold, as it often does in the desert, the traveler set up his tent to sleep and tied the camel to a tree nearby. A few hours after, the camel poked its head into the tent and said, “Good master, you are warm in the tent, I am cold outside. Can you at least allow me to warm my right ear?”. “Ok, go ahead, but please, let me sleep”. Shortly after, the camel again called.

“Beloved master, one ear is warm, the other is cold. By morning I will be deaf in one ear. Can I put my head in the tent so both ears can be warm?” “No problem, but, please let me sleep.” Soon, the camel said again. “My legs are numb with cold; I will not be able to carry you tomorrow unless I warm the two front legs.” “For God’s sake, warm them, but, let me sleep. I have a busy day tomorrow.” By then, the traveler was already pushed to one small end of the tent. At last, the camel announced. “What is the use of two warm legs, when I need four to move, I must warm the hind legs as well.” Without waiting for an answer, the camel stepped into the tent; and kicked the traveler out in the cold.

The FG provided one month’s forbearance in response to the pleas by some of the most desperate states. While Buhari and Adeosun were indulging in self-congratulations for their generousity, governors were planning to make the next set of requests. They are now asking for eighteen-month moratorium on payments, sharing of the balance in the Excess Crude Account, ECA, now at $2.259bn [N451.80bn] and review of the sharing formula on account of which the FG collects 52% of revenues and states 26 per cent. Naturally, like the camel, they want to use more of the “tent”.

And just in case, Buhari has not got the point of their (is it non-negotiable?) demand, Yari said flatly, “we cannot say we are going to cut salaries and wages” – as if the FG is under constitutional obligations to help states pay salaries and wages. In other words, the governors want to avoid the tough decisions that would ultimately have to be made.   The incumbent governors, want to pass the bucks to the FG and their successors – while pretending to forget that the Federal Government has its own financial problems.

When Buhari humbly pleaded that “You all know the problems we have found ourselves in. You have to bear with us”, he might as well be speaking to thirty-six deaf people. The last thing the governors want to do is to bear with the FG. As much as possible, they want to continue to operate the states in the same reckless manner to which they were accustomed.

Yari had removed from the discussions one of the causes of the problems of states when he announced that “we are not going to cut salaries and wages”. Perceptive Nigerians would recall the appointment of several hundred Special Assistants in Adamawa State under Nyako and one thousand people in Osun state as Special Assistants. Each of those initiatives was advertised as “Job Creation” when it was in reality political give-away.

All the states of Nigeria had, since 1999, employed Special Advisers or Assistants to perform duties which were left to career civil servants under the parliamentary system. Ahmadu Belo, Awolowo and Azikiwe never Advisers to govern the old Eastern, Northern and Western Regions — same territories now under 36 governors each engaging dozens of political vultures as Advisers.

Additionally, none of the founding fathers needed a private plane. Military governors also had no need of planes and helicopters. But, from 1999, nothing less than six state governors have acquired planes even when there is no airport in their states. The maintenance cost of one of those expensive Executive toys remains unknown.

That is not the end of profligacy. No Premier, in the First Republic had a fleet of more than six cars. Governors of the poorest states in Nigeria would make any car dealer grin with envy. I once counted forty-five (45) vehicles in one Governor’s Lodge in Imo State.

There is no need to list seriatim, all the financial irresponsibility of state governors when the price of crude was over $100 per barrel, as well as the dereliction of duty of the state legislatures.