Regional integration will minimize cost of governance — Joe Keshi

Dr. Joe Keshi, Director-General, BRACED Commission, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, has articulated that component states within a contagious entity need not duplicate projects or utility services that have similarities each of which can conveniently be provided by one state and shared by others. He emphasized that one state can provide a particular utility service, for example, electricity, another seaport, which can service the collective economic interests of all the states within the framework of regional integration. In so doing, Keshi said that concentrating on a particular utility service and relying on another state for something else, states will have the advantage of sufficient funds to provide varieties of services or projects to their citizens at minimal costs. Accordingly, regional integration reduces burden on individual member-states and encourages comparative advantage.
Keshi admonished that Governors should eschew from the ego practice of “I did this”; “I did that”. He advocated for transformational leadership in the South-South towards strengthening regional integration and taking advantage of proximity to the ocean in promoting economic growth and development. SUNDAY ODIBASHI met him in Lagos.

WHAT achievements have been made since the South-South Summit in Asaba?
A lot came out of that Summit. New ideas emerged and we have actually done a lot, particularly, on education. Several policies have been initiated towards improving the skills of teachers.
Certain things have been done for the region in order to improve teachers’ conditions; we have done a done a lot on agriculture and all other sectors.
The way we work is that when have consulted with stakeholders and agree on how to integrate by creating the standard and by standardizing what we need to do, we pass on to the states to implement.
Presently, the states are weighed down by the crisis of low revenue to implement policies across the country. My fear is that in some of them, the leadership of the state does not realize that this is the time to take a closer look on the whole issue of integration because in a situation where you don’t have money to do things on your own, you can work with somebody else to be able to get something done. But in Nigeria, we have this situation where everybody have the “I” mentality. I built this; I built that. It is not a question of building so many schools and say go and look at the school I renovated. It is not renovating schools, it is not building schools that is the issue but core investment on education, proper budgeting for personnel and other incentives. There are other things you need to do for education to really work in this country. And those are the kind of things we are trying to do; I hope that our leaders will focus on and move the whole integration agenda forward. That is where we are.

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How feasible is regional integration in Nigeria?
It is very feasible; it can work if you have leaders who understand the process, the benefits of integration. When you begin to have such leaders, it will work.

Does regional integration has any relationship with the issue of restructuring being clamoured for?
In a way, it is probably the first step towards restructuring. The states in a region begin to integrate, begin to do things in common. They probably begin to see that you can actually reduce the cost of running your state if they do things collectively. A good example is, but for the national grid, the electricity generation restructured in this country, Rivers State can provide electricity for the South-South region by improving the lines. Rivers can actually provide electricity to Bayelsa, Cross River, Akwa Ibom. The South-South can be self-sufficient in power if they are not pumping what they have into the national grid. That means that Bayelsa does not have to build a plant, just get the light from Rivers; Cross River does not have to spend money because it wants to build plant, but all the governors went ahead saying I built this; I built this; I want to build this when they don’t even need to build it.
So, integration will minimize the cost of governance, public expenditure will encourage channeling resources into appropriate needs projects.
All the seaports in the country, apart from Lagos, Apapa and Tin Can Island, the rest of the seaports are in the South-South; but every state in the South-South wants to build a deep seaport, that is six ports. Then, you have small others ports, that is about eight ports. What do you produce that will make eight ports sustainable beyond oil.
Conventional wisdom says that may be you all can come together and build may be one or two ports strategically that will service the economy of the whole of that region. If you go ahead and build six ports, and none of them will make profit, it will be a lost investment. So, this is the whole essence of economic integration and cooperation that we speak of more often.

So, what is the next level?
The next level is for the states to understand and to get involved. Akwa Ibom has gone far in trying to get resources to build a deep seaport; Cross River say they want to build a deep seaport. The truth is that from Uyo to Calabar on a good road, is less than 30 minutes’ drive. If you build a deep seaport in Calabar, it will be something like 15 nautical miles from the sea, which is about 500 meters. No ship will drop cargo here and go again to drop another cargo within such distant location. The most important thing is what do we produce in that region that for now can manage all the deep seaports we build. So, you can decide I will build the seaport, you will build something else and we integrate them and move on.
There is this belief that cities on international borders attract high economic activities and rapid development, what is wrong with coastal cities in the South-South?
It is not usually the case. However, Lagos has an unusual advantages in economic activities and development in comparison to the others.

So, why did other cities like Warri, Calabar fail to have similar advantages like Lagos?
The good thing is that they are also beginning to have good leaders along the line. The question is Port Harcourt has all the attributes like Lagos, Warri, to some extent, Calabar, why have they not developed that way. At the end, it boils down to leadership.