Development in an age of Goliath:

Goliath- the Gittite, is the most well-known giant in the Bible- a champion out of the camp of the Philistines whose height was six cubits and a span (see: Samuel 17:4). The Goliath symbol, which represents a dominant character as described above, is captured here not as a basis for any scriptural commentary- his battle with David, but as an analogy to reflect on the current socio-economic and political situation of Benue State.

It is a discourse on the tragedy of corruption and governance (referred to as management throughout the article)- the stunted growth that has threatened the relationship between the people and their managers (my use of the word “manager” in this context refers to the State Government), which for the Benue-pessimists has left the people with no hope for survival. It is not possible for anyone to doubt the severity; however, the celebration of the ill-gotten wealth has proven too dangerous to our existence such that the struggle for solution cannot be left exclusively to the political class or a fraction of the ruling elite.

It is a consensus that Benue is the paradise- food basket of the nation, but the story is of an absolute gap between the rich and the poor and for those experiencing the utter physical deprivation of abject poverty is numbingly familiar. We live in a society that has enormous potential, yet there is very little evidence to show that our political commitment is near any positive social and economic agenda for the good of the people. Indeed, our state economy looks radically different from twenty years ago.

From the foregoing, the one big question is: why do we have so much resources, yet there is widespread deprivation? To answer the question, there is need first of all to interrogate our sense of democracy- how the socio-economic and political process at work benefits the few Goliath to the disadvantage of the many Davids. For most economic and political analysts of the Benue situation, the lack of foresight and economic divergence is the major threat to our economic progress, social cohesion, and political stability. Policies that are supposed to spread prosperity and opportunity are no longer sufficiently effective. This article argues that a different approach to economic development is of absolute importance towards changing the appalling trajectory.

In this context, social cohesion becomes increasingly important, as it can underpin growth perspectives and build the foundations for a fairer society. It implies a sense of community and equality of opportunities for everyone. Thus, there is need for progressive shift in the state economic centre of gravity toward the local regions (Local Government Areas) of the State. As I argued in the article, collaborative governance (see Ansell & Gash 2008) and shifting wealth provides opportunities to strengthen social cohesion, and working towards this goal is an ambitious undertaking that requires a long-term political commitment, capacity for coordinated policy making and a substantial fiscal effort (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development- OECD 2011; Webster 1984).

This is a big challenge for the state but this article provides constructive policy makers with recommendations for ways that will allow the state to create and strengthen social cohesion for the well-being of all; fight exclusion and marginalisation, create a sense of belonging, promote trust, and offer its members the opportunity to live.

Growing Inequalities: A Pressing Challenge?

As indicated earlier, it is remarkable that in our present everyday discussions, we the citizens of Benue State make particular reference to the socio-economic growth/development of three to four decades. For sure, the days of Aper Aku (1979-1988) et al. have remained the famous chorus on the lips of the Benue people, especially the visionary young men and women who mostly had no contact with these personalities but premised their economic and political debate on the legacy they have left behind. How their unprecedented development approaches established important and progressive structures that addressed the needs of ordinary people.

Unfortunately, what we have witnessed in succeeding structures is the tragedy of corruption- the age of political Goliath. The privatisation of public property with utter impunity and the abuse of public funds leaving the majority of people in great disadvantaged position, with low levels of income or no income at all. Apart from the severe economic effect on the poor, it has created also an extremely bad blood amongst people within the state, thereby causing enormous damage to our multi-cultural relations and deepening for fault lines for the rationalisation of ones ethnic man or woman even when there are enough evidences for us to challenge their corrupt and condescending behaviour.

These high levels of inequalities have been firmly established in our society and in our relationships, preventing intra-cultural, inter-cultural and intergenerational social mobility. One of the most interesting things is that we can identify different grievances united around a common concern: social inequity. Hence, how do we explain this in a language that will harmonise our different agenda to establish the one common tool that will break down the barriers that suffocate our chances to our basic needs? As I argued elsewhere, we have abundance of talents in the state (characterised in the numerous development stands around the state), so it is necessary to engage the capacity that we have in order to revolutionise the current status quo. To have a synergy of development opportunities (both within the centre and across the local regions) that supports government structures.

 

From the point of view of progressive development, one of the ways to generating powerful insights into development and a distinctive perspective on policy is to allow the interaction of economy-wide forces that will create geography of people that are at different structural positions in the wider econom(ies) ladder of roles and functions (see Scott & Storper 2003). These addresses the uneven pattern of development and the core questions of sustainability. Benue local regions can be allocated into different economic platforms, depending on their level of development, where each offers a distinctive set of attributes and developmental constraints and opportunities. It means that no one-size-fits-all policy will succeed in addressing the pervasive regional disparities that are undermining overall economic growth in the state.

From the analysis above, it is evident that the rising inequality has put Benue State in a conundrum. As we watch other states across the nation enjoy economic and social fortunes since the return of democracy in 1999, the objective reality for Benue is that over the last two decades we have missed opportunities and witnessed uninspiring and disappointing performances. Whatever the questions and answers we have heard on social media and other political platforms, ours has been under stalled an unimaginable bleak growth, which has put all citizens to the test. There is no time better than now for us to suffocate the corrupt monstrous structures by denying them of any political oxygen to allow for the establishment of those structures that will respect people and their basic human rights.

Strategy to Reduce Inequality

One of the key recommendations here is that there is need to design whole-of-government strategies to reduce inequalities. Make no mistake; we are all aware that there are innumerable policy documents on shelves paying homage to the dust since they are only meant to build-person initiatives and not common good as often portrayed.

However, what is necessary and I recommend here is a people-centred policy that facilitates investment in education and skills development to promote employment and employability; creation of more productive and rewarding jobs; to reform our tax and benefit policies to improve the distribution of income; the provision and equal access to high-quality public services and strengthening social protection programmes that will help provide equal opportunities for all citizens in the state; and building social cohesion. The main logic here according to OECD (2011) is that reducing inequalities will require tackling informality, expanding the social security system, and reducing underemployment.

As individuals, we must approach the inequality challenge in a comprehensive manner. With good and better life initiative, we must look at the distribution of well-being, going beyond the monitoring of income measures of welfare and accounting for inequality in other basic needs. It is obvious that the Benue panorama is complex, but it is important we present or channel our capacity in the right direction so that we can be tools that will facilitate the building of social cohesion for overall common good.

Building a Social Cohesion

From the point of view of reasonability, building and strengthening social cohesion requires a long-term vision and commitment. The reality is that while some policy interventions or reforms can generate results relatively quickly, others do not. As such, creativity for the sake of progressive development becomes necessary, for instance, building a more inclusive education system to increase the education levels of the disadvantaged. This is a long-term vision and commitment to policies and it requires a stable macroeconomic environment.

The fact here is that coordinating policy across a number of domains can pose significant challenge, but it is important that social cohesion is a valuable goal in itself and contributes to maintaining long-term economic growth. This article stresses the need for coordinated policy making in four areas: education; fiscal and tax policy; employment and social protection; and citizens participation. These are the tools needed for the building of social cohesion and because policies in these areas all interact with each other in their effect on social outcomes, it is important to emphasise that each policy area needs to be designed with regard to the others (see OECD 2011; Webster 1984).

Education

One of the most important and lasting legacies for every human being is education, which is vital as regards social cohesion. Hence, the opportunity for quality education must be available for everyone who has the capacity and willing to take the challenge. No one can argue against the idea that a good percentage of our population has formal education because since the conviction is that increasing educational attainment is an important way to reduce inequality in market incomes in the long run, particularly as returns to education have changed as a consequence of shifting wealth. But apart from enrolment, there is need to examine the quality of our educational system and needs. We must pay particular attention in relation to educational outcomes for the sake of greater productivity, better growth prospects and improved chances in the labour market.

The responsibility of any manager is to ensure that citizens are treated equally. Unfortunately, this is not the case especially in the area of our educational system. The multiplication of private schools, as the most lucrative business, with skyrocketed fees is a common example of management failure in the state. However, there is need for an evaluation of our system to ensure that children have equal opportunities to build their human capacity or capital, regardless of their socio-economic background.

There must be constructive interventions to help diminish the importance of background/class and encourage the young people, especially the most disadvantaged, to acquire quality education. Apart from lowering the cost of schooling to encourage enrolment and completion of primary, secondary and higher educational levels, another very crucial point is to create opportunities for young people to identify their individual ability (vocational skills) alongside formal schooling. This will help establish programmes that will play key role in building a society where everyone is effective, efficient and self-supportive.

Our constructive effort must also acknowledge and be in line with the general norms of the society. There is need to close the gender gap in education in our state.  This is particularly important, because equal access to education for boys and girls can help break the inter- generational inequality, which is one of the causes of poverty amongst women in our society. Indeed, the gender-sensitive school policies and facilities will foster social integration and also impact social cohesion. Inclusive education will help build our youth as regards their sense of belonging to a society and respect for diversity for the sake of positive perceptions of others within the system and society.

One cannot deny the fact that our society has made conscious real headway in improving gender equality. However, we cannot also deny that providing incentives for more change is crucial. Our cultural norms and existing social institutions with challenging discriminatory laws and unequal power relations structures must make shift for new wave of thinking. That is, change should be initiated first of all in the area of education in order to increase women access to transforming and productive opportunities (such as employment and entrepreneurial programs for sustainable income) in order to put a check on the social institutions such as forced early marriage.

Fiscal and tax policy

For economic and political analysts, it is not a novel insight that greater fiscal space opens up a window of opportunity for development and stronger social cohesion in developing societies. That is, for development opportunities to materialise, fiscal policy reforms are of great importance (OECD 2011). This is an urgent matter of consideration in our state, especially that resources produced within the state are not in themselves sufficient for any sustainability talk. Writing as an outsider, I may give the idea the benefit of the doubt, but it is important to point out about the possibility of creative, affordable and sustainable programmes that will make up the fiscal-hole. What is critical here is to ensure a long-term financial sustainability of social programmes, and avoiding the elusive widespread volatile revenues, which fluctuates beyond the managements skills. If our tax revenues, for example, are comparatively low in converging our economic handles, there is no reason why we cannot reform our tax policy by broadening our tax base or increase tax rates with total checks and balances by our managers.

It is important to warn that we are dealing here with a sensitive and most important item, which if handled appropriately, can lead us to our desired transformation or, if not, can lead the state to ruination. In this context, our levels of trust as regards how taxes are raised and how revenue is spent must not be undermined by the regulatory bodies. Complementary income and expenditure practice must be an inevitable beacon that directs our responsible personnel in this field. Anything less than this norm will only translate the act into lower revenues and unskilled fiscal policies which are generally less effective and templates for gross inequalities. Ours is a formal democratic institution, hence, our fiscal policy must reflect the interests of the people who are excluded from the political process or have limited access to collective instruments for influencing policies. We must refrain from servicing the interests of elites and powerful lobbyists.

As records (OECD 2011) show, tax administration reform is a powerful way of establishing fairness, transparency and tax morale especially in developing societies. For our managers to be effective therefore, there must be a coordinated effort to strengthen the relationship between the people and the administration. I am not, in any way, undermining the lack of trust in our society, but our managers must engage in concrete reform campaign such as setting up semi-autonomous tax collection agencies, with more transparent tax collection strategies. It is important not to emphasise that this must not exclude better public services, which is essential as regards creating a virtuous circle for tax compliance and service delivery. There must be a strong bond between services received in return for taxes paid.

Thus, for our economic and fiscal institutions to facilitate social cohesion policies, there is need to acknowledge the role of macroeconomic fiscal policy, which creates the conditions for sufficient and predictable fiscal space to finance development expenditure priorities related to social cohesion. This relates directly to issues of education or youth employment programmes, social pensions and unemployment. Our management bodies must adhere to the global fiscal rules which compels constituted authorities to save during good times so they can maintain public investment during economic downturn.

One thing we must not forget is that there is a social contract between citizens and the state, which entails more and better services in exchange for better tax compliance. This is the only way that leads to a virtuous circle that boosts social cohesion as well as growth. If the contract is honoured, the citizens stand ready to support the state to innovate, redesign and implement better policies for inclusive growth, development and ultimately better lives.

Employment and social protection

The deep-seated unemployment and social protection issues in the state calls for a debate on whether there exists the idea of labour market that facilitates the wage-setting, distributional and allocate roles that are necessary for progressive development. Indeed, it is difficult to talk about protection of workers in the state. It is impossible to talk about any systems, which seeks to provide income security through social protection for the many people who spend their life serving the state.

One thing our managers must learn is to engage in global debate so as to learn about positive principles that guide good administration. Here, the idea of traditional instruments of labour market regulation (particular minimum wages) cannot be ignored. According to OECD (2011) report, minimum wages are a useful tool against working poverty even when compliance is limited. It acknowledged how countries like Brazil et al. have used minimum wages to raise the living standards of workers. It is important, however, to be clear about the implication, which is that a large increase in minimum wages can be costly or cause negative employment effects especially when misused. The implication depends on the degree of enforcement and labour market segmentation. What we must not ignore is that this increase in income should not be a substitute for effective social policy.

I do understand that in our context, it is difficult to discuss about social protection, but it is necessary at the same time to acknowledge that access to basic social services is something achievable in our society if we place our priorities right. The simple truth here is that our resources are capable of providing a number of affordable tools for our managers to effect this change for the good of our society. To a large extent, we share the same history with Latin American societies (e.g. Brazil & Mexico) who have shown it is possible to extend these social services to a large number of populations with no negative effect on their GDP. The fact is that we cannot ignore these examples, so it is time for our managers to begin to think of entering into bilateral relationship with countries where we can learn how to manage our adequate resources and also on improving the efficiency of public spending, rather than with those whose capitalist agenda is to feed their own insatiable quest.

Citizens Participation

We live in a society where our managers have assumed the role of political Goliath placing our success ever more in an elusive position. However, as the Davids of our society, our sling for the battle is to continue to argue in favour of the idea that the most effective tools that constructs and supports the pillars of a society is an inclusive policy agenda. To be able to create a sustainable, socially cohesive society, the need for dissenting voices is fundamental. Civic participation and constructive political feedback mechanisms are essential for the growth of any society. This is particularly true in our context where economic growth and social dislocation demands innovative responses. Even though it is difficult to talk about how we can engage in activities as regards harnessing these important relations in our society, there is need to keep emphasising about the importance of building this social cohesion for an inclusive and coordinated policy making process, which brings in the views of all stakeholders who will be implementing the policies to the final beneficiaries.

This sounds like an unimaginable task in our society, but we cannot ignore that fact that civic participation and decentralisation are the most powerful tools for improving service delivery in any given democratic society. For there to be an affective social cohesive policy agenda, Benue needs effective managers and coordinated action across the multiple policy domains. The economic and political think tanks will agree with me that quality public service underpin successful public action. So, our Benue must focus on strengthening the civil service by improving human resource management in public employment and implementing “performance based budgeting” (OECD 2011) mechanisms. Even though the benefits are far from being automatic (its a long term sustainable growth), Benue must engage in fortifying our institutional capacity through decentralisation and local capacity building. That is, the collective effort of the main stakeholders of our society: the managers, business organisations and civil society groups. Hence, our managers have the responsibility to build an environment where people can actively participate and speak out, and the managers held accountable.

The management process that we see now is turbulent and prone to conflict. It is important to warn that managers who ignore questions of social cohesion risk having to face social instability. It must not ignore the suffering of the masses and the toils of those who commit themselves to specific works to keep the state alive. It must not underestimate the citizens capacity to mobilise people and exert pressure for more open and transparent governments policy or for an increase in standards of service provision. For the reasonable minds who are attuned to historical facts, the recent pro-democracy unrest in Hong Kong and the 2011 Arab Spring revolutions are sufficient examples of peoples’ desire for inclusive political processes. This is a very strong people policy that can force a difference in event of enduring inequalities proving too politically dangerous to ignore.

My fellow Benue citizens, the main responsibility we have is that we are in urgent need to fight poverty and rising levels of inequalities. Development aid policies have helped developing societies reduce extreme poverty, strengthen institutional frameworks and develop a middle class. Shall we try this? There is enough in our state for every ones’ needs, but not for every ones’ greed. As we work to create new frameworks and policies, may I remind us of Mahatma Gandhi’s words: inequalities are not inevitable; they are not the result of the laws of nature or the laws of economics. They are created by people through bad policies, indifference and greed. Therefore, it is time to put an end to this peril. Effective public policies, inclusive multilateral cooperation, and new economic rethinking, can do wonders. Let us join our forces together on this quest for equality and justice for everyone. Benue is a bunch of talent but only our collective effort will create us into a David that will interrogate and cripple the Goliath that seeks to destroy us and our future.