YNaija Editorial: Partnership among states‎ remains the antidote to bankruptcy

One of the dominant headlines over the past two years has been the dwindling allocation to states as a result of falling oil prices, and how this has affected the states who cannot meet their obligations without going cap in hand to the Federal Government begging for bailouts.

It has added new urgency to the issue of the viability of Nigeria’s 36 states.

For a while, the consensus has been that governors across Nigeria have been made lazy as a result of federal allocations, and decided not to bother with the hard work of developing the potential in their respective states.

Consider this report, which says that Lagos is the only state in the federation that generates more than it gets from the federal account, and more than 32 of the other 35 states combined.

All this points to the fact that our states still do not realise the imperative of generating sufficient economic activity to be able to stop relying on the centre.

This could be changing gradually as Lagos and Kebbi recently signed a memorandum of understanding concerning food production, processing and distribution.

This aims to produce 70% of Nigeria’s rice needs, and extend that partnership to other crops like wheat, ground nut, maize, millet, sorghum and sugar cane.

The logic behind the partnership is sound.

Lagos consumes an estimated 798,000 metric tons of milled rice per year, equal to around N135bn per annum, while Kebbi dedicated 600,000 hectares a year to rice production.

They are not the only ones.

Earlier in June, Abia governor Okezie Ikpeazu welcomed Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto state to Aba with Made in Aba shoes. This was a prelude to a partnership between both states on leather consumption.

Sokoto produces leather, and the Aba shoe industry uses a lot of it. It is perhaps even more impressive that this partnership is kicking off across party lines. Both Ikpeazu and Tambuwal are first term governors, and seem very focused on the progress of both their states.

Win-win situations like this can be an important part of future prosperity for Nigeria’s states. It will breed healthy competition as they do deals with each other to secure access to markets for their goods. The resulting increase in economic activity will lift more people from poverty.

At the signing ceremony, Kebbi state governor Atiku Bagudu said, “What we are doing is to pioneer a collaboration that will bring other states on board later as we believe that our potentials are enormous and we must have pacesetters to start that process of joint collaboration for our collective good”.

Away from the meaningless politicking that has no bearing on the lives of ordinary Nigerians, these types of collaborations are overdue and the hope is that these four states can show others the way.

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