EDITORIAL: Figures In The Republic Of Magical Realism

 

• Fear and loathing in the oil sector

THE week about to end posters Nigeria as a country working with the tools of cooked-up figures resembling the sort of magical realism associated with the endearing novels of D.O. Fagunwa, Amos Tutuila, and Latin America’s Nobel Laureate and one-time presidential candidate, Gabriel Marquez.

In this eerie world of incursions into the realm of the absurd, the country has ceded its regulatory powers over the oil sector to a private company owned by a none-state actor who at a time had been declared public enemy number one! All very charming. The same former bad guy is also now patrolling Nigeria’s territorial waters. 

We have certainly moved from tragedy into farce. Frankly, the cessation of state authority to ‘Tompolo’ should have occurred two years ago. The state should not have waited until it is now shackled by huge debt servicing repayment burden and grappling with the possibility of technical insolvency to act. 

In view of the miscalculation, we might as well plead in mitigation heave a sigh of relief and say that “all is well that ends well”.

As in a blockbuster movie, the new national icon, Tompolo, has swung into action rounding up the bad guys and stemming the hemorrhage of the key national resource.

This is a silver lining for a political economy in dire straits and should be used as an opportunity for a review across all other sectors. 

It is now clear that the state indeed no state is omnipotent. The case for devolution of security to the states and their agencies is now incontrovertible and beyond all reasonable doubts. Outsourcing should now be extended to Amotekun and other security networks backed by the sub-nationals or groups of sub-nationals. Delay and foot dragging has come with a horrendous cost.

We must now embrace the devolution of functions and powers with “the fierce urgency of now”. There is nothing new about this for it is the way that federal states work and it has been proved to be efficacious.