By Oseloka H. Obaze

My evaluation of infrastructural development in Nigeria as a social scientist inevitably is from a philosophical perspective, using John Locke’s Second Treatise of Government, wherein he defined political power. Variables or parameters from that definition include four key phrases namely, right of making laws; regulating and preserving of property; employing the force of the community; and public good.  To these, one may add two other variables critical to good governance; vision and commitment.
As experts tell us, “Infrastructure is basic essential services that should be put in place to enable development to occur”; and “Economic development of Nigeria can be facilitated and accelerated by the presence of infrastructure.”
As experts also contend, “Infrastructure contribute to raising the quality of life by creating amenities, providing consumption goods (transport, energy and communication services and contributing to macroeconomic stability.” Apropos Nigeria, we are informed that “Under investment in infrastructural development could be a bane to her vision of becoming a top 20 economy by the year 2020.” The reality is that infrastructure or lack thereof, will continue to impact on Nigeria economically and socially. For now, remain aware that Nigeria has experienced arrested development due to infrastructural deficits.
Aside from Nigeria’s poor maintenance culture, the challenge confronting our infrastructure is threefold: open sewers, a stinking environment resulting from open defecation due to a dearth of public conveniences and negligence of the rights of the handicapped.  Nigeria stinks, even as we are informed that “Eliminating open defecation is the main aim of improving access to sanitation worldwide and is a proposed indicator for sustainable development goals. Presently, with 39 million, Nigeria ranks fourth behind India (190 million); Indonesia (54 million), and Pakistan (41 million) in the highest number of people defecating in the open.  It’s hardly incidental that our sewer system today serve primarily as waste disposal receptacles; and.  We build gutters to nowhere, thus allowing the existence of drainage causeways that pose danger to human security.
Whereas expert opinion informs that “Public buildings should be accessible and barrier free to able and disabled people, as a nation we rank very low in providing access to public and private buildings, despite handicapped persons comprising 18% of our national population.   Studies conducted over the past decade, confirm that out of 164 public building only 40 had access ramps, and at the entrances, “only 45 buildings (18%) had ramps and steps for access to able and disabled people.
The remaining 82% are with only steps to cater for able and disabled people.” The contention is that severe “challenges include the horrors of architectural buildings, which have discouraged many challenged persons from having education.”
The flood of 2012 wreaked havoc on businesses in the Onitsha Industrial Layout.  Anambra State incurred damages estimated at N26 billion, “with the industrialists being the worst hit.” Anambra State Government under Gov. Peter Obi supported the industrialists with remedial embankment and cleanup costs of N100 million. Since then, no discernible flood embankment infrastructure has been installed to stop a reoccurrence of flooding damages. Remarkably, flood embankment at the Onitsha Main Market built by the colonial masters in the 1950s, sufficiently prevented the 2012 rising flood from surging into the market.
Regardless of what we do as a nation; or coveting the inspiration and visions that transformed Singapore and Dubai, if we lack leaders with vision and commitment, we remain at risk of underperforming and underdevelopment. Thus, we can’t speak of infrastructural development without grasping the sectoral priorities and niches, affordability and areas of comparative advantage.  We must define our focus sectors, where we can exact “high impact value.”
We must seek requisite synergy and complementarity between the government and the organized private sector, and indeed, with private entrepreneurs aimed at collaborating purposefully, while sharing the responsibility for building our national infrastructure.  It is a fallacy to expect government alone to build the national infrastructure.  Government’s role remains that of regulator and partner in operating the Nigerian economy, and creating the enabling environment. But consortiums and private investors also do have a vital role to play; which is to say that there exist crosscutting niche sectors where government, consortiums and individuals can collaborate in Public Private Partnership.
Of about fifteen core infrastructural areas, only one — the creating of free trade zones and industrial parks — could be said to be the exclusive preserve of government, since it entails legislation.  The outer core infrastructure sectors —  communication, rail, gas pipelines, sewage and waste management, gas storage and processing, mining and basic material, ports, waters resources and oil refining – are multidisciplinary areas where governments, consortiums and private entrepreneurs can partner.  In our deregulated power and communication sectors, our power generating companies (GENCOS) and the distribution companies (DISCOS) are still struggling; and we are yet to fully catalyze the “use of ICTs for different aspects of national development”.
Today, the best railway system in the world, the Japan Railway Group (JR Group) is not run by government.  The majority of the companies that form the JR Group are privatized.  Why is this relevant? We cannot develop our infrastructure fully, if we continue running them as social welfare entities.  We cannot advance our national infrastructure, if the motive behind the privatization is to enrich individuals, who masquerade as investors, but lack the capacity and will to grow and sustain the infrastructure.
On record “only 10 out of the 400 companies privatized so far were assessed to be on relative sound footing.” Moreover, unending bottlenecks stymie infrastructure, which is a key driver in economic growth.  We have not only encountered these bottlenecks in Nigeria, but we certainly contend daily with exchange rate volatility and energy cost and irregularity of electricity supply. So whither Nigeria’s infrastructural development?
Certain commitments are called for; we must commit to making and enforcing pertinent laws.  Nothing can be achieved, if the right laws are not in place and if laws in place are not respected and rigidly enforced. Government as well as professional bodies like Nigerian Institute of Architects (NIA) have a role to play in upholding extant laws.  We must properly regulate and preserve property.  Why build new infrastructure, when we can’t maintain, regulate and preserve existing ones? Barring an earthquake, a newly constructed road collapsing within the first five years of its completion, underlines structural failure and inherent defects.
Obaze is MD/CEO of Selonnes Consult Ltd.

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