Renowned economist and senior lecturer in Economics, the University of Jos, Dr. Wada Ademu, said the mismanagement of northern states' resources forced the near collapse of the area's economy. He advocates diversifying the economy; and to stop depending solely on allocations from the Federation Account. He spoke to ISA ABDULSALAMI in Jos.WHAT would you say is responsible for the current dwindling economic fortunes of the 19 Northern States'We quite acknowledge the fact that insecurity has its effect on the economy. But that notwithstanding, the question is, what was the performance of the economies of the 19 northern states before the crisis' How were they performing' What effort did they make in generating revenue'All of them were depending on statutory allocations from the Federal Government. And by the way, were they using it judiciously' They were not using it. What they were doing was to just try to get the money and use it their own way.It is only a few governors that can point to the fact that that money they collected they had used it for something. Go to Gombe State under Governor Danjuma Goje; you will see something there. Come to this place (Plateau State). After Governor Joshua Dariye's government, look at what Governor Jonah Jang has done now.Many of these state governors are actually doing nothing with the money. Let them tell us, provide evidence of the one they had got before; let them show what they had used that for. Before we even talk about dwindling of the revenue, what was the level of their internally generated revenue before now' Let them tell the Nigerian public. What were they using that money for'All of them were just relying on federal allocations; they were not making any effort of their own.Every state of this country has one kind of natural endowment or the other. They need to work on that to make them useful. Take the economy of Plateau State; who says it cannot dwell on Irish potatoes to earn a living as a state' Go to Gombe; you have the grains; you have the onions. Go to Kano; you have a large number of dams. Go to Benue; you have yams. Go to Kogi; the same thing obtains.The fact is that these people (state governments) are lazying around. They so depend on federal allocations that they don't do anything. You will be surprised to find out what constitutes their internally-generated revenue.How can you contract the revenue you are generating internally to an organisation when you have your civil servants on the grounds' All you need to do is to put them on line, remunerate them properly, encourage them to do the work, discipline those that offend and you get your money. But they don't want to do it. All they want is how much they can get from the federal allocations.Go to their state budgets annually, you will see the proportion they proposed to earn from their internally generated revenue; very meagre. That tells you that they are not prepared to even look inwards. Everybody was waiting to depend on the federal allocations. So, though insecurity may be a problem, there are also problems of laxity on the part of the northern governors.HOW much of the money is going into security because they claim the money is being gulped by security'Okay, how many of them are providing for security; I mean the security votes' What did they use them for' Their mandates were expanding. What is the level of security they were able to attain if the money was working'The point is that they were the same people that were using these (Boko Haram members) as political thugs that have mature into another level of criminality. Were they not there before other governments were there' They were there; these same people were there.By the way, there is this popular saying that an idle mind is the devil's workshop. Why won't these people create opportunities for them to work' Who wants to introduce himself as a criminal' These people are idle and they must feed and whoever is ready to pay them to deliver any job so that they can feed, they will so do. This is the job they have got now ' criminality, violence, killing, wanton destruction of property.That is the job they have for now. If you give them a legitimate job, they will so do. It is not about this artificial thing. There is no amount of palliative you give to anybody as long as it is not generating the income itself that can sustain it!Let these governors go and begin to develop their state economies so that their people can have something to do. They are cattle rearers, they are farmers, they are fishermen, and they were artisans. Let them create an enabling environment for these people to do their work. In that case, they can even broaden their revenue base.I have been talking about this country. No matter how much we develop the oil sector, it has the maximum capacity it can absorb in terms of labour force. If you diversify the base, develop agriculture, develop industry, develop the oil sector, every of these sectors will definitely have to employ people and we will have no problem of unemployment.Is that the way forward from the economic imbroglio'Yes. That is the way forward to grow their economies. They must diversify their own economies; they must invest in their own economies; they must be ready to put in money so that they can create opportunities for their own people.That is the way I see it; and not to rely on the federal allocations all the time.
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