THAT LAGOS - KANO MoU FOR ECONOMIC PARTNERSHIP AND INVESTMENT

Some commentator wrote recently:
"East - West handshake appears threatened with West - North MoU."

Under normal circumstances, should that development raise an eyebrow? No, it shouldn't. However these are not normal times. Coming on the heels of a much belated meeting of minds between the administrations of 16 southern states toward working towards their common interests, this move, which appears to have the bold imprimatur of Buhari (with the inexplicable support of Vice President Osinbajo), seems to be designed for the sole purpose of scuttling southern solidarity. Whereas bilateral relationship between states does not have to be a zero sum game, the timing and other coincidences are eerie. Lagos and Kano have always been there. Why now?

This writer once lamented the inability or perhaps more appropriately unwillingness of various Federal Government administrations, led by northerners, to arrange to secure oil and gas pipelines to Kano as a way of ensuring the availability of electricity generated in captive clusters within Kano's vast Industrial Estates. But no, nothing was done until the majority of manufacturers in textiles, confectionery, piping, etc had folded up.

The truth of the matter is that Kano has nothing to offer to Lagos that the latter cannot buy on the open market. On the other hand it will take a lot of planning, (which Lagos fortunately doesn't lack) and years before Lagos, a powerful mega-state will overtake say the cumulative impact of Ndigbo, other Nigerians and foreign elements on the economic fortunes of Kano. An otherwise open relationship between states in a peaceful(?) federation has unfortunately appeared here as a conspiracy. That's an indication of how low this pseudo-nation has sunk. Can we blame the skeptics? Hardly.

The on-again, off-again Lagos to Kano standard gauge rail line which is once again being offered up to the public with a price tag of $2billion and counting, appears to be another Ajaokuta-esque escapade. It should however be of interest to the many-times-deceived populace especially citizens living and doing business on both sides of the route. If on the other hand Kano has extraordinary interest in this important rail infrastructure project, it should fund it perhaps with the support of its neighbours and international finance institutions like the World Bank, AfDB and the Kuwait Bank for International Development. It is obscene to continue to expropriate funds rightfully belonging to the Niger Deltans for that parochial purpose. We have not yet fully explained the Katsina Refinery to anyone. And then this.

In the past year Dr Jide Oluwajuyitan writing perhaps on behalf of unnamed principals in the Lagos and South-West political axis demanded a Special Status for Lagos. Many writers including this one accused Oluwajuyitan of being too clever by a half, implying that Lagos, leading the South-West, should simply insist on Fiscal Federalism within a Restructured Nigeria. I had added that within the right framework, Lagos does not need Nigeria Delta derived oil revenue.

It was in this new environment that Governor Akinwunmi Ambode started making the recent political noises about devolution culminating in the two meeting of governors of Southern states. The so called "Handshake Across the Niger" meeting at Enugu must be seen for what it is, a necessary Public Relations jaunt to sensitize the people that the southern governors and elite are truly serious about collaborating. It does not take a soothsayer to deduce that the Northern Establishment, which is permanently averse to any rapprochement between the South-East and the Niger Deltans on the one hand, and between the South-East and the South-West on the other, will WANT to do anything possible to upend that scenario. Is that what this Lagos-Kano MoU thing is all about? If it is, will the schemers own up? No, they will not. Whatever is the case, the jury is still out on this matter. However, only the paranoid survive! The rest get eaten.

Why would Lagos State Governor Ambode fall for this? What can Kano offer Lagos? I see unbearable pressure emanating from Aso Rock to destabilize the South-East and South-South and undermine their potential collaboration with Lagos, the acknowledged engine house of the Nigerian economy. Based on established precedents I would not be surprised if Lagos seeks to expand its already expressed desire to collaborate with Kwarra, Kebbi and Niger States in agriculture and Agro Processing. Far off Kano seems to be a long shot. This is in addition its understandable collaboration for common services with Ogun and other neighboring states, a matter of proximity. One then wonders what this new move is all about. A gamble? Will it profit Lagos and the rest of the South-West? Only time will tell. #