By Lawrence U Ekeh
Section 192(1) of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria provides for the appointment of state commissioners. The aim is to enable the governor to appoint some individuals to assist him in his enormous task of governance.
Apart from the constitutional requirement, a good leader must delegate responsibilities to his subordinates. No matter how talented a leader may be, he or she cannot be master of all things. That is why during the swearing-in of his commissioners in 2011, the late Governor Patrick Yakowa of Kaduna State charged them “to generate ideas that would propel the speedy growth and ignite fire of confidence in their ability to deliver the dividends of democracy to the citizenry”. But if a governor is unable to appoint the right experts in different ministries, his aims may be defeated. Any appointment of a novice can affect how much the government can go in fulfilling its promises to the citizens.
Similarly, in his first tenure as the Governor of Imo State, there was an alleged lack of experience by one of Rochas Okorocha’s commissioners whom he first moved from Ministry of Environment to the Ministry of Culture and Tourism due to lack of experience in handling his previous Ministry. During the cabinet reshuffle, the same commissioner was among the five others sacked. Governor Okorocha told the media that he appointed a commissioner “who knew neither his left nor his right”. Such a mistake was an expensive one for the state especially as it might have led to delays and inefficiency in certain functions.
That was then but this time, the first policy blunder was their adventure in Turkey this year. I was in Nigeria at the time and was invited for the trip. My reply to my caller was that the trip was going to be a mere “jamboree”. Of course, Turkey is not a place to look for reliable manufacturing technologies rather importation of consumer goods. That is not industrialisation, is it?
In making political appointments one has to consider the government’s priorities. The main objective of Governor Okorocha’s first tenure was free education at all levels. This has been achieved and every right-thinking person in Nigeria particularly in Imo State acknowledges it. To achieve the free education target involved only calculation of total expected income of the state and total expected expenditure for the same period.
The objective of Okorocha in his second tenure, as everyone following news in Imo State understands, is the industrialisation of Imo State hence the slogan: Industry, Industry, Industry, Job, Job, Job. To achieve this objective, the governor’s ability to appoint the right experts will determine how far he can go in industrialising the state. However, the recent appointments do not match with Imo industrialisation quest. Industrialisation is not like free education. The puzzles that need to be put together are far beyond economic theories and practice that are currently prevailing in Nigeria. We must learn from successful nations.
However, learning from successful nations must not be mere copying of half-baked knowledge of how to fix the jigsaw together. My observation in 2012 was when the then Minister of Trade and Investment, Mr Olusegun Aganga stated that he was going to establish “Industrial Clusters” in all the local governments in Nigeria. Knowing that we have over 700 LGAs in Nigeria I was shocked and my reaction was to write an article in the BusinessDay newspaper which was published in two parts on 17 December 2012 and 24 December 2012. After exposing the minister’s lack of knowledge in “Industrial Clusters”, the project was dropped. This is how our policy makers make blunder upon blunder hence we are not developing like other oil producing nations. Another shocking experience was on the same “Industrial Clusters” but this time in Imo State. It was the so-called Imo Industrial Clusters at Naze. On seeing the sign board conspicuously written, I drove into the complex to have a chat with the management. I had two hours interview with one of the officials and in the end I told him that the name was a misnormer. It is not what the world calls “Industrial Clusters”. Another half-baked knowledge, I wondered.
Coming back to appointments, Governor Okorocha has just appointed a lawyer to be his special adviser on medium and small business. The question is, what has a legal practitioner got to offer in promoting business or attracting investors especially now that the main objective of the government is to industrialise the state? I do not know who is going to be the Commissioner for Commerce and Industry but I must expound on the critical role of expert commissioner in giving impetus to the governor’s quest for Imo Industrialisation. Such appointee should be able to contribute or construct Imo Industrial Master Plan (IMP}. The Industrial Master Plan should promote opportunities for the maximum and efficient utilisation of our abundant natural resources. The appointee should understand and contribute in identifying which sector must have inter-industry linkages within sectors as it is imperative that their potential be fully developed in order to exploit the state’s comparative advantages. The appointee should know the development of resource-based industries. The appointee should know about development of technology capability. The appointee should know how to balance imported and indigenous technologies. They should know the four components of technology transfer. Lastly the appointee should read my article in the Nigerian Horn of February 11-12, 2015 issue as well as my book titled Industrialization and National Prosperity (Lessons for Developing Countries)
Therefore the current rescue mission in Imo State calls for a greater sense of expert leadership. When these people settle down in their positions, they will help to ginger others on the crusade to industrialise Imo State. So now we are looking for two qualities – expert skills and passion. With such people around the governor, Imo State’s potential capacity to propel itself into a new decade of sustaining manufacturing and business growth and subsequently creation of employment in the states is assured.
These skills are important especially because the pace of manufacturing in the state has significant repercussions on other economic activities. Besides, Imo State does not have the limitations of a relatively small domestic market like Malaysia, which means our market is large as we should take advantage of Nigeria’s big size.
In conclusion, I sincerely believe that if Governor Okorocha can change the landscape of Imo State from the present non-industrial base to a more prosperous semi-industrialised state within the next three and half years, we will have something to tell the rest of Nigerians by 2019.
*Ekeh writes from London and can be reached via email: saff.luzek@yahoo.com