Nigeria – A Country Of Anything Goes? By Simbo Olorunfemi

Where anything goes, in the name of
capitalism, the people end up in the
belly of the tigers.
Nigeria, at the best of times, is a
country where almost anything goes.
The economy is on auto-drive. The
drivers of the economy are high on
their own ludicrous ideas, which are
so fundamentally flawed, that it is
impossible for them to see reason
and consider alternative options
freely canvassed by many experts.
The political leadership has no vision
– no big idea around which its
world-view is formed. It has no
destination in view, it lacks any
discernible direction. As a result, the
public sector is largely a mortuary for
ideas. There is no cue to follow.
Ideas are seen only through the eye
of what benefits the individuals and
other vested interests. Policies are
largely driven, with the interests of
the oligopolistic few in mind or for
scoring personal pips, grabbing more
power or simply for the purpose of
personal aggrandizement. There is
little thought for the big picture.
Increasingly, this attitude has become
most evident in the conduct and body
language of a section of the public
sector charged with the responsibility
of regulation over the different sectors
of the economy. Ordinarily, these
agencies of government ought to be
watchdogs – CBN over banks, NERC
over the power sector , DPR in the oil
industry, SEC should regulate the
capital market, NCC to oversee
telecommunications, NBC saddled
with responsibility over broadcasting,
NCAA is in charge of aviation, and the
Consumer Protection council ought to
protect consumers. These are just a
few among the many others tasked
with ensuring that players in the
various sectors they regulate play by
the rules, and that consumers are not
only protected but that the
government itself receives what is
due to it from these players.
But with the watchdogs lost in the
sea of inefficiency, some cavorting
with those who they should keep
eyes on, and others permanently in
bed with the players in their sector,
Nigerians have been left unprotected,
handcuffed by the powerful and
repeatedly violated by rabid
capitalists. How can it be that with
the virtual absence of regulation (in
the interest of the consumers, as
opposed to that of their pockets), that
some people argue that the private
sector is the driver of development in
the economy? If such fallacy can
stand the rigour of proof in any clime,
it will definitely not be Nigeria. Who
will argue for this parasitic private
sector with its claws out to only suck
the people dry? How does the private
sector successfully drive development
outside of an enabling environment
and regulatory framework fashioned
by the public sector? What we have
is a government that has shirked its
responsibility at providing the
enabling infrastructure, but levies
licensing and sundry fees on players,
who are then left to trample on
Nigerians and free to play the waters
as they so desire, as long as the
regulators are not adversely affected.
Across board, the so-called organised
private sector is on its own – left to
roam and prey on Nigerians. They
are free to steal from their
shareholders, swindle investors,
short-change staff, over-invoice,
under-pay tax, cook books and
generally rig the system, while the
watch-dogs snore. It is difficult to tell
definitively if the regulators have
simply become lackeys of those they
are meant to regulate, plainly
incompetent, or just fagged out and
overwhelmed by the enormity of the
task they are faced with.
The rot in the banks is well-
documented. We have had banks
which were ‘set-up’ simply to be
robbed blind by pseudo-owners
masquerading as majority
shareholders. There are also many
so-claimed publicly-owned
companies, known to all as such, but
are mere appendages to private
fiefdoms of some of our ‘big’ men,
who claim to be majority
shareholders. These companies are
run from the bedrooms and pent-
houses of these men, with no checks
and balances in place, or only
observed in its breach. A lot of these
are companies are listed on the stock
exchange in name only. They run
their own course, mostly
unmitigated. Annual General
Meetings are deliberately slated for
locations inaccessible to the
shareholders, notice of meetings are
deliberately sent out late, when they
do, simply to disenfranchise
shareholders.
Weeks back, I received a notice of a
meeting on a “Scheme of Merger”
from BAGCO. For a meeting
scheduled to have been held on
February 19th, the invitation was only
received from the sender and
stamped by the Post Office on 22nd
February. Needless to say, the
company was not keen on the
presence of some shareholders at
that meeting. Those who know will
attest to such as the norm in the
sector. Some publicly listed
companies have not even bothered to
hold Annual General Meetings, while
a lot of those who make the effort, do
not bother to extend invitations to
shareholders. Registers are in tatters,
with registrars caught up in the
maze. Dividends, where paid, do not
reach shareholders. There is a huge
fund of unclaimed dividends waiting
to be applied to any meaningful
purpose, except making banks fat.
Several hurdles are on the path of
investors barring them from proceeds
of their legitimate earnings. Effecting
corrections in misspelled names is
labourious, warranting expensive
journeys and time a lot of the
investors cannot afford. Transfer of
ownership of shares from deceased
owners to their trustees involves
some tiresome and untidy processes.
Stockbrokers have capitalised on the
systemic disorder to defraud
investors. Some frustrate efforts to
transfer holdings away from them.
Shares have been sold without
authorisation while a number of stock
broking firms have simply closed
shop and gone underground.
Investors are left high and dry.
Few years back, a number of these
companies -Starcomms, DAAR
Communications, Resort Savings and
Loans, among others raised money
from the public via private
placements and public offers. Who
knows what is happening with these
companies today? Why so much
secrecy about when AGMs are to be
held? Who knows what is happening
with those fund managers who made
away with the funds invested by
Nigerians? What is the fate of
ordinary Nigerians conned into
investing in the capital market? We
only hear of a forbearance package
for stock-brokers who were largely
instrumental to the fraud that led to
the collapse of the market, what of
the ordinary Nigerians who lost
savings and retirement benefits to the
Capital market scam? Who speaks for
the people? Where is the regulator in
this mess? Where is SEC and NSE?
Where is the Finance Ministry? Where
is the AMCON to buy the debt of the
masses and not just that of the BIG
men?
The capital market is only a
microcosm of the all-round rot in the
private sector, appropriately so too,
since the players there cut across all
the sectors.
Efforts have been made to tackle the
deliberate and systemic fraud that
permeates banking. But a lot of the
dirt is actually hidden under the
carpet. From rogue share-holders,
fraudulent managers to debtors who
all collaborate to play the system, the
Nigerian banking industry is an
ephemeral castle erected on the
quicksand of anything goes. At the
moment, a lot of the so-called
majority shareholders, owners and
their proxies, professional debtors
(who borrow with a mind-set of never
paying back), round-tripping experts
and managers are robbing
shareholders and customers,
declaring obscene profits,even when
the nation’s productive economy is
on its knees. Those who should know
are in the know – it is all a lie. Those
who know will tell you it just does not
add up.
The system is lax. Anything goes.
The oil industry is in the hands of
international oil companies who
declare to us what they want.
Everyone who matters is on their
payroll, the Americans tell us. They
pass crumbs to the nation and
scavengers who hover around, from
time to time. When it comes to the
downstream sector, the private
sector, pretending to be active,
colludes with the regulator to rig the
system. Making fraudulent subsidy
claims, over-invoicing, round-tripping
forex, and deliberately owing banks
are some of the ingredients they have
mixed up to conjure profits for
themselves. No one cares to put them
in check. Where are the ‘subsidy-
thieves’ of yesterday? Soon, they will
remind us how the removal of the so-
claimed subsidy is the ‘SURE-P’ to all
the problems.
The evidence of a rabid, primitive
form of crass capitalism is all upon
us. It is unregulated. It is wicked. It
does not give a damn. On account of
this, the Nigerian consumer is short-
changed every corner he turns. From
the fuel-dispensing station, where he
gets less than he is made to pay for;
the telecommunications companies
who charge him for services not
rendered; power holding company
that has arbitrarily fixed tariffs,
refused to make available pre-paid
meters to him, forcing him to pay
outrageous bills every month; the
Federal Road Safety Corps which has
forced new number plates and
driver’s licence on him; the Lagos
Motor Vehicle Administration which
compels him to pay N200 every year
for SMS to remind him to renew his
vehicle licence, it is a system
calculated to rob the Nigerian of what
belongs to him. The bank dips its
filthy fingers into its customer’s
account and takes for itself what it
likes in the name of sundry
charges.The Nigerian pays school
fees, health bills, insurance charges,
house rent, air fares difficult to justify
by reason or quality of services
rendered. The Nigerian is slapped at
the airport, treated shabbily by
airlines, and preyed upon by the
embassies, who have taken a cue
from the way the homeland treats her
citizens.
Public governance is at an all-time
low. Corporate governance is one big
fat lie. Sadly, the effects of the
abdication of duties by those elected
to govern and administrators in the
public sector are even more evident
in the laxity that characterises the
private sector and the impunity with
which most of the players carry on.
The so-called organised private
sector is only another side of this
poorly-mint coin. Whichever way he
turns today, the Nigerian is simply on
his own.
Simbo Olorunfemi is a Poet and
Communications Consultant.