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.
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