Contrary to President Muhammadu Buhari’s claim on
Friday that his discussion with the President of the World Bank Group, Jim Yong
Kim, was twisted, a huge chunk of the financial institution-backed projects in
partnership with the Federal Government is based in the North, SUNDAY PUNCH
can report.
The President has always been accused by his
critics of favouring the northern part of the country, citing lopsidedness in
various appointments made by his administration.
The latest criticism took place when Kim,
divulged that Buhari had asked the bank to concentrate on northern Nigeria.
The Presidency, however, said what the President
asked for was “rebuilding of the beleaguered North-East.”
But critics argued that the explanation was not
tenable because Buhari was not a president of the North or North-East alone and
should be canvassing for development of all parts of Nigeria, equally affected
by different types of disasters.
SUNDAY PUNCH’s findings on Saturday on
the World Bank website, projects.worldbank.org, showed that out of the
14 World Bank-sponsored projects in the country, seven are exclusively for the
North, while six others are meant for the whole nation (South-West,
South-South, South-East, North-West, North-East, North Central and North West);
and the remaining one is for Lagos State. Titled ‘Projects and Operations’,
these projects were listed under June 2015 – June 2017 projects.
The implication is that in addition to solely
getting the lion’s share of the projects, the North also shared in the
remaining 50 per cent with the South-West, South-East and South-South.
The projects exclusive to the northern region
worth $1bn are: Multi-Sectoral Crisis Recovery Project for North-eastern
Nigeria ($200m; Borno, Yobe and Adamawa); State Education Program Investment
Project ($100m; North-East states); Community and Social Development Project
($75m; Borno, Yobe, Adamawa, Taraba, Bauchi, and Gombe); Youth Employment and
Social Support Project ($100m; Borno, Yobe, Adamawa, Taraba, Bauchi, and Gombe
States); Additional Financing Nigeria State Health Investment Project ($125m;
Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba and Yobe) and the Third National Fadama
Development Project ($50m; selected area in the North-East).
The seventh
northern project worth $350m is for the Kaduna State Economic Transformation
Program-for-Results Project $350m.
The KSETPRP, which was approved in June
2017, is expected to close on March 31, 2021.
Projects worth $2.9bn were earmarked for the
nation which northern states are also expected to benefit from. They are:
Better Education Service Delivery for All ($611m); Mineral Sector Support for
Economic Diversification Project ($150m); NEITI Reporting Compliance ($0.32m);
the Polio Eradication Support Project ($125m); National Social Safety Nets
Project ($1.8b); and $200m-Agro-Processing, Agricultural Productivity
Enhancement and Livelihood Improvement Support Project specifically designed
for Kano, Kaduna, Lagos, Cross River, Kogi, Enugu and three other states.
There was also the Third Lagos State Development
Policy Operation ($200m), a stand-alone project which was approved on June 26,
2015 and ended on December 31, 2016.
The World Bank documents did not contain any
programme or project specifically designed for the South-East, South-South and
the Middle Belt regions since Buhari got into power.
A document containing the details of the project
on the bank’s website explained the purpose of the Kaduna project thus: “The
development objective of Kaduna State Economic Transformation
Programme-for-Results Project for Nigeria is to improve the business enabling
environment and strengthen fiscal management and accountability in Kaduna
State.
This operation is fully aligned with the World Bank. Group’s Country
Partnership Strategy for the Federal Republic of Nigeria for FY14–FY17. This
Programme-for-Results focuses on increasing the number of jobs in the modern
private sector and boosting the productivity of traditional economic sectors.
Another important and complementary focus of the PforR is to support Kaduna
State to increase its fiscal space and enhance expenditure effectiveness to
boost investments in human capital and physical assets sustainably.”
According to the bank’s documents, the
$200m-MSCRP, meant for only North-East states, is to “support the government of
Nigeria towards rehabilitating and improving critical service delivery
infrastructure, improve the livelihood opportunities of conflict and displacement-affected
communities, and strengthen social cohesion in the North-East states of Borno,
Yobe and Adamawa; and in the event of an eligible crisis or emergency, to
provide immediate and effective response to the said eligible crisis or
emergency.”
Similarly, the SEPIV’s objective is to finance
activities to support the Federal Government’s emergency programme for the
North-East to address teachers’ needs in conflict-and-displacement-affected
areas; strengthen school-level management and accountability for the
improvement of education quality through school grants funding; “and to enhance
technical assistance to address the needs of the North-East.”
For the CSDP, the World Bank will finance the
costs associated with scaling up project activities in Borno, Yobe, Adamawa,
Taraba, Bauchi, and Gombe states to support the provision of basic social and
natural resource management infrastructure and services to returnees and host
communities with the main goal of assisting their resettlement, recovery, and welfare.
The fund, the document said, would also be “used
to provide trauma and psychosocial support to returnee households and
internally displaced groups and individuals, as a form of social assistance
intervention.”
Shedding light on why half of the projects were
exclusively allocated to the North and no special projects for the other
regions, the World Bank boss at a press conference in Washington DC, United
States, on Thursday, had disclosed that the bank focused more on the region
based on Buhari’s request.
“You know, in my very first meeting with
President Buhari, he said specifically that he would like us to shift our focus
to the northern region of Nigeria and we’ve done that. Now, it has been
very difficult. The work there has been very difficult.
“Focusing on the northern part of Nigeria, we
hope that as commodity prices stabilise and oil prices come back up, the
economy will grow a bit more. But very, very much important is the need to
focus on what the drivers of growth in the future will be,” the bank’s
president had said.
Weighing in on the matter through a series of
tweets, a former World Bank Vice President and ex-Minister of Education under
ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, Oby Ezekwesili, said, “I want everyone to know
that the statement made by the World Bank president is not as it sounds. I
should know; I was VP (vice president) there (the bank). Our president and his
government should seize the moment to conduct a diversity review of the
administration.
The current tension is, of course, triggered by context of
existing tension occasioned by our president’s poor management of our
diversity.”
Ezekwesili, however, berated Adesina for
worsening the situation, “The terribly indecorous press release by Femi Adesina
worsens a fractious debate. This FG (Federal Government) cannot be leaders of
toxicity in public debates. Healthy debates are important for managing our
diversity.
The government of President Buhari should rein in his media team and
re-train them to be effective.”
On Saturday, prominent Nigerians and the major
opposition party in the country, the Peoples Democratic Party, further
expressed their views on the matter.
Commenting on the cost of the projects, a
renowned professor of Economics, Sheriffdeen Tella, pointed out that inasmuch
as the North-East might require substantial rehabilitation, the same should be
for the Niger Delta.
“The figures show that $650m projects are
specifically for the North-East, while about $2.9bn worth of projects is for
the whole of the country, including the northern states. The ones for Kaduna
and Lagos states are state-requested loans, not federal. Just as the North-East
deserves special attention, so also is the South-South where oil spillage has
devastated many areas. There should have been specific financial commitment for
that also.
“The amount committed to the North-East is worth
it if we are to keep them from coming to the South to create social and
economic problems in the nearest future. But attention must also be paid to
specific problems of special areas in the South, more so when large proportions
of the funds to offset the loans will come from resources in the South –
particularly from the South-South with oil spillage problem.”
According to the Peoples Democratic Party, the
President’s approval of more World Bank projects for the North, as revealed by
Kim, was not in the interest of the country.
Reacting to the comment, the spokesman for the
major opposition party in the country, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, said, “We’ve always
said Buhari is not acting as the president of the country. He has demonstrated
that through his lopsided appointments. That’s all we can say.”
Similarly, a nationalist and elder statesman,
Chief Ayo Adebanjo, told SUNDAY PUNCH that Kim only confirmed what
people already know about Buhari’s preference for the North.
“Is it those he surrounds himself with? Is it
about the lopsided appointments he’s made? Buhari telling the World Bank
president that more attention should be given to the northern region shows
which section of the country matters most to the president. Buhari can never
change. He’s a sectional leader,” he said.
Speaking further, Tella noted that if what the
World Bank president claimed Buhari told him was true, such a gesture would be
unfair to other regions in the country.
“There are other parts of the country to focus
on. It is not the fault of Nigerians that the North in general is lagging
behind. The northerners should hold their state governments and political
elites responsible for any backwardness. Just as the southern states collect
money from the Federal Government, so do northern states. What have they done
with their resources?”
The Executive Chairman of the Centre for
Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership, Debo Adeniran, people should not be quick
to criticise the President.
“Let’s agree it’s nepotism and nepotism is a form
of corruption. I also believe that the common wealth of the country should be
evenly distributed. Be that as it may be, we must not trivialise equity. It’s
not out of place to allocate more projects to the North-East because of the
challenges of that area. It may not sound fair. We want the President to defend
his action.
He has a responsibility to justify it.
“You should now realise why people clamour for a
rotational presidency; give a madman a hoe, he’ll make ridges for himself. If a
president comes from the North or South, it’s expected he’ll take care of his
own first. Admittedly, this is antithetical to democracy,” Adeniran said.
Sunday Punch Report
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