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From: maggie anaeto <maganaeto@yahoo.co.uk>
Date: Tue, 20 Aug 2013 17:43:06 +0100 (BST)
To: ayo_olukotun@yahoo.com<ayo_olukotun@yahoo.com>
ReplyTo: maggie anaeto <maganaeto@yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: GOVERNANCE DEFICITS AND CONSUMER WOES
GOVERNANCE DEFICITS AND CONSUMER WOES
Ayo Olukotun
The consumer or end-user has the last word on the efficacy of service delivery, no matter how many 'transformation agendas' the politicians claim to have carried out in the country. It is the unlucky end-user for example, who is bearing the full brunt of the lengthening deadlock in the negotiations or more appropriately dialogues of the deaf between government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities.
Healthy corporations that wish to get ahead spend time and effort monitoring consumer satisfaction with service delivery. They even conduct research trying to find out if obligations are being discharged, the quality and range of the services, the hiccups in the delivery chain, and what suggestions consumers have for improving services. Public institutions, in several countries it is well known, have adopted many of these efficiency and participatory norms to notch up on performance. But too often, the Nigerian end-user is left in the cold, with no one bothering about what he feels or thinks about the delivery or non-delivery of essential services.
Take, for example, the current scarcity of kerosene in various parts of the country and the attendant increase in prices of the commodity. In place of N50 per litre which is the price recommended at NNPC retail stations, kerosene was selling at the weekend at N150 per litre at various fuel stations in Lagos. One of our newspapers explained on Tuesday that kerosene is allocated at N40.9 per litre to marketers who should make a bonanza by selling at N50 per litre. "But rather than take their products to petrol stations," the paper informs "those who get the allocations resell at a profit of over 100 per cent." Familiar story about greedy marketers and colluding officials. The mystery, however, is that no one has been able to call these all-powerful marketers to order with the result that lower and middle class consumers of kerosene are paying through their noses for an essential product.
How about the persisting jinx at the Power Holding Company of Nigeria in which Nigerians are coughing out more and more money for less and less power? Many consumers have lost count of how many megawatts government claims it is generating; but they know for sure how much they spend on fuelling standby generators (are they standby really?) on a consistent basis. As a recent report in This Day newspaper correctly informed, "Today, power outages have metamorphosed into complete darkness in most parts of Nigeria while many cities and towns across the country hardly enjoy three to four hours of uninterrupted power supply."
Why is that so? Well, no one knows for sure but there is a riot of excuses – ranging from sabotage, through low water levels in our dams and shortage of gas to the occasional shutdown of power plants by some oil companies. But not to worry; both the power sector roadmap to stable electricity which has existed for several years now and the transformation agenda are on course, government officials tell us.
Do we want to talk about the woes of mobile phone users, which was the subject of an incisive opinion piece by Niyi Akinnaso, in The Punch on April 16, 2013? Well, several such write-ups, an investigation by the House of Representatives and countless distress calls from short changed consumers have done nothing to change the situation. The operators licensed by government blame diminishing power supply, overlapping taxation, the difficulties of introducing Mobile Number Portability (MNP) and vandalism for poor services. Regulatory authorities blame the operators as well as infrastructural problems for the rickety services. The blame game persists, but consumers continue to get poor services manifested in drop calls, and the need to yell 'Hello' at the top of one's voice in the hope of being heard by call respondents.
For a sector that is said to be a growth driver it is amazing that it has taken this long to give consumers their dues. Hopefully, the activities of consumer rights groups such as National Association of Telecoms Subscribers (NATCOMS) which recently demanded a compensation of N583 billion to subscribers for drop calls and myriad miseries will make a difference. Meanwhile, however, officials insist that there is nothing to worry about and that the transformation agenda is very much on course.
How then about the health sector, where a nationwide strike has been threatened by professionals? Between the Scylla of inefficiently managed, underfunded government hospitals and the cash and carry, unscrupulous practices of many private hospitals, Nigerians have had a raw deal.
Recently, a number of illegally operated hospitals were closed down, some of them staffed by 'doctors' who have not been to any medical school. That was good; but will that belated step bring back the lives of those who underwent surgeries at the hands of quacks? I recall that when I wrote recently about growing medical tourism to India, one Nigerian doctor wrote to say that 75% of his graduating class at the University College Hospital, Ibadan (UCH) are practising outside the shores of Nigeria. Isn't that what you get when professionals are undervalued and devalued by a political class that appropriates a huge share of the nation's wealth for its own benefits?
Returning to the ongoing strike by university teachers, is it not a shame that the finance minister Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is claiming that government cannot afford to pay 92 billion naira to resolve an impasse provoked by the failure of government to honour agreements it freely entered into? Contrast Okonjo's claim with the recent revelation by former minister for education, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili that our legislators earned one trillion naira in the last eight years while the presidential fleet is being maintained at 9.08 billion naira annually. In other words, the matter appears to be one of the low priority placed on higher education rather than the inability of government to afford what the teachers are asking for. The consequences of this neglect of tertiary education are further drop in the quality of higher education and the churning out in droves of unemployed and unemployable graduates.
The anguish of consumers arising from dysfunctional, absentee governance are traceable to the lack of a performance culture in government despite the much publicised signing last year of performance contracts by ministers at an event supervised by President Goodluck Jonathan. As I predicted in my write-up entitled 'Between performance contracts and non-performing culture' (Punch August 27, 2012), it is doubtful if that event will translate into an improved governance scorecard. Indeed, one can predict that with the rising tempo of political campaigns governance will increasingly take a back seat with attendant implications for the iterated agonies of the Nigerian consumer affecting every sector of national life.
There is a chance, though slim, that the 2015 elections will produce a government that sees the welfare of Nigerians as its primary reason for seeking and retaining office. If this does not happen however, Nigerians will have to increasingly voice protest through consumer associations and civil society organisations at what looks like a project of the governing class to turn a hugely resourced nation into one of the worst places to live on earth.
Prof Olukotun is Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Entrepreneurial Studies at Lead City University, Ibadan. ayo_olukotun@yahoo.com 07055841236