Any one too young to be politically aware by October 1960, did not experience the dream envisaged by Nigeria, because the rot had set in, and in fact induced the coup d’etat of 1966 which Nigeria’s manipulators blame on the misconstrued Igbo domination. An objective look at Nigeria’s development history should reveal the parts played by pioneer leadership in the events that characterized post independence era, and eventually positioned the country where it is today.
Nationals in the age-group sixty years and under, fall within the above reference and invariably constitute majority in the nation’s demographic spectrum. Therefore the current majority cannot visualize the glorious nation envisaged in the approach to independence, trapped as it is, in the euphoria of a dream destroyed by sentimental greed. The only available records are official versions doctored to distort perceptions of events that occurred, as dictated by ethnic and/or religious expedience.
Researchers have difficulty sourcing authentic materials from the various accounts of the same event, presented to suite multiple perspectives sponsored by vested interests. It is from this faulty base that those who care, must extract relevant deductions, and piece together a near wholesome account to make some sense of the history. Thus stakeholder are effectively denied facts that should heal the past, bridge the social divides, and facilitate economic growth.
Impaired social healing undermines political and socio-economic progress, yet, past leaders have remained economical with truth that should lift the nation out of the ensuing lock-down. One thing is certain, the nation must heal fully, even if the process hurts the few, in order to develop without hindrance, for such constitutes necessary sacrifice. Unless past mistakes are identified, successive administrations lose the benefit of hindsight in the search for growth potentials. Since nothing under the sun remains hidden forever, this nation will yet manifest her potentials, and time will tell.
A liberal estimate of life expectancy in the country is below sixty years and when one considers the impact of the ongoing Boko Haram insurgency, coupled with sporadic communal conflicts, this estimate could be much lower. Biblical scholars rationalize this state, by quoting three scores and ten, as the divine prescription for man, and regard life beyond seventy as extra time. This notion derives from poor interpretation and presumes a myopic appreciation of the realistic and achievable longer and better life through relevant dieting and efficient public health-care delivery. The penchant for short-cuts in our social order undermines this dreamful reality and blocks the logical reference to an ideal minimum expectancy for man.
Lawmakers in the majority may have a little idea of the envisaged good Nigeria, since only those who shared in the dream may effectively relate to it, and media projections, however accurate, often never convey the realistic perspective. Pioneer politicians had been denied a formal handover, in the violent military transition of dictatorial administrations that inevitably fumbled for lacking the benefit of hindsight. The first installed a federal unitary structure and induced regional differences, and the second effectively divided the nation along ethnic and religious boundaries in prosecuting the civil war that polarized the Nigerian social structure. The nation is where she is today, a failing state reminiscent of lost opportunities.
Current politicians belong mainly with the second post independence generation; delinked from its past and conditioned to focus on the much touted oil money and how to cart it away. None considers possible improvements for the country they call their own. Curriculum developers distracted from fashioning an educational protocol capable of raising patriotic citizens for the budding nation, and focused on training young nationals to pass British or American tests, whose underlying principles bear little relevance to the national objective. The need to intensively research and consult widely towards building national sovereignty must take relevant priority without negating the value of quality education which need not be tied to British and/or American perspectives, in the journey forward.
We are a rational, objective and accountable people, able to distinguish between paper qualification and quality delivery in determining leadership positions. Remuneration becomes a function of job description as leadership falls in with quality delivery. Thus a qualified individual may start low, but rise rapidly in an establishment, if motivated to consistently deliver quality performance, provided the system acknowledges merit, though unfortunately our nation continues to be ruled by sentiments.
Until impunity is relegated and thoroughly shamed, the hydra-headed worm of corruption will continue to hound the polity. Responsibility enables order and if allocated appropriately in a system that respects quality delivery, a dependable hierarchy is established to enable good governance and a stable polity. Every office including the highest, becomes responsible to the state, whose power rests with the people to make leaders see themselves as serving the people. On the contrary existing partisan structures have cultish trends, which surrenders absolute authority to the electoral victor.
The process empowers an individual to whom all players swear undivided loyalty, and those so recognized, obtain power to indiscriminately abuse without fear of reprisals. His immunity derives from top hierarchy, a culture influenced by military protocol in the Civil Service, as required to drive the dictatorships. This fact induced insecurity in the civil service career, it removed service guarantees and cowered career civil servants into exploiting their positions to obtain personal needs; if as a consequence, he or she is fired, there is consolation in not leaving empty-handed.
Besides these sorts, there are those who kiss up to authority in exchange for security and stability in their situations. It is therefore, not surprising that a state commissioner, after confirmation by the State House Assembly, prostrates before the state governor’s spouse as a demonstration of loyalty and hopefully secure his appointment. It is unfortunate that some elected state executives draw gratification from this shameful act. Admittedly, the state executive’s spouse deserves respect but certainly, not the mockery of ridiculous worship, therefore, a commissioner who engages this practice cannot be worth his salts, even if the appointment be sustained for life, on the ability to please the executive.
In this existing system, pleasing the boss takes precedence over doing the job right, and those who subscribe to this principle ignore responsibility to the people and align with executive intentions, however negative. The State and the People take precedence over unaligned executive positions and such a stance has saved executives from embarrassing moments. A good and objective executive allows such interjections as may warn against an impending error.
People readily shortchange the state in the drive to fill their pockets, and forget they are within the state, which so undermined, could crash and take down all that is within; a situation similar to sabotaging one’s ship in the high sea whilst on board. Wisdom directs that every act contributes to protecting the state, the sovereign umbrella, but human nature abhors the reference and often subjects to sentiments governed by parochial values to validate control via checks and balances, which remind individuals of their responsibility to the state.
In the old system, the role of the Tenders Boards in the administrative management prevented unilateral contract awards by those who abused and overstepped the boundaries of responsibility. The boards scrutinised and awarded contracts following the practiced due process, in which stake holders, consultants and board members analyzed bids to determine the best qualified. Today, due process is a written phrase deployed to cover abuses which subject the country and her people to untold hardship in the poverty induced and perpetrated by peddlers of impunity. The privileged parade executive jets, mansions, and exotic cars in a fabulous show of luxury in a net value summed up and dismissed by the simple phrase;
‘Oh! He is one of them, the corrupt government officials of Nigeria.’
The concept of empowering people is grossly misunderstood in government circles where politicians win a mandate embark on second phase to propagate cheap popularity. This short-cut bypasses the consolidated and authentic means of lifting the community out of ignorance neglect and poverty into enlightened well being. Since an enlightened polity converts to a hot bed for politics of deceit, politicians prefer to empower a hand-full of praise singers and move on without committing to relevant issues, thus they keep the polity stagnated, unless the people identify needful objectives and work to actualize the.
The youths are frustrated and rendered vulnerable to predators who operate in European and Middle eastern underworld of human trafficking. If minimum provisions be available in the home sector to stem this market, a viable work force would be retained to build the nation’s sagging economy. The power sector holds the key to economic growth but successive governments politicized associated issues to enable money laundering and sustain the syphoning networks that keep the nation poorer over time.
The old power system was deployed by corrupt leadership and their agents of the corporate world to shield illegal deals, fronting the power and aviation industries. Government influence secures documentation and approval to procure machinery and spares; in the Power and Aviation industries, gas turbine generators or airplane engines do not come cheap. The secured documentation permits the transfer of enormous amounts, in millions of dollars to finance the supposed procurement, which often fails to materialize and some unknown party takes the blame. At home the media refers to unspecified capital flight since it is unsafe to criticize the system objectively or otherwise.
Customs and Immigration Services, need not worry about devices or products manufactured in Nigeria (outside classified artifacts and treasures), going out. Chances are that every indigenous product legally taken out, represents potential a trade multiple; therefore, such trends ought to be encouraged. A diligent check on items coming in is necessary, but there should be a difference between applying the law and abusing it with regard to returning nationals. A citizen returning from a holiday trip with two or three suit cases because she shopped for family and friends, is not the presumed importer who should be taxed for imports, simply because the officer needs to impress his superiors, as regards target returns, promotion or personal aggrandizement; it amounts to harassment.
The law is made to guide and must be applied with a human face; in the same manner, people in government must serve the public and not see themselves as masters. As the nation moves into the future, nationals must focus on mutual respect and learn to banish fear in the effort to stabilize the polity. Fear drives negative impulses, breeds suspicion and rationalizes corrupt practices.
Imagine for one moment that everyone has a good home and education, a secure employment, unhindered access to good health care delivery and comfortable transportation and communication facilities; he would not succumb to fear, as his basic needs are available on demand. He suffers no distractions at home or at work and is able to objectively evaluate without fear or favour; hence by extension, a nation with a secure workforce stands efficiently delivers high productivity, builds a clean society and secures socio-economic stability for the average individual. This makes the great nation and benefits nationals from the dignity and respect so derived; the only requirement is for each and everyone to do his little bit with honest diligence, honour and pride.
This country needs good leadership to develop a socio-political system, which recognizes every national as a citizen, de-emphasizes religion, without abusing ethnicity and cultural relevance and able to leave sentiments out of national politics, embrace autonomy among federating states to stimulate development through healthy competition and counter the attempts to exploit differences in the polity by emphasis on the internal homogenous structure within the states.
Lawmakers need to look into certain traditional and cultural situations and proffer solutions by enacting constitutional provisions to guard against extra-religious and extra-cultural conduct, which allow the unscrupulous to exploit perceived loopholes and lapses in the system. Extremists hide under the cloak of religion or ethnic culture to perpetrate criminality. Religious and cultural practices must conform to state regulatory standards, moderated by individual or sectorial considerations, guarded in the principle of live and let live, subject to the social and physical realities of a given environment. If religion forbids participation of sorts, the individual or group should have the discipline to abide by the dictates within the law and restrain from involving others.
There is enough to share in every sphere of life, therefore it is selfish and greedy for any one group to want it all for itself. Politicians exploit perceived differences rather seek the benefits of the common heritage within the geographic space to build the envisaged nation. Driven by greed, the political class thrives on discrimination; one group against the other and within the groups, members discriminate against each other on the basis of status, ethnicity, religion or educational background. For the distance that must be covered, the intelligent Nigerian needs touch with reality and honest consideration, having regard to the nation’s socio-political and cultural diversity in devising a positive direction for all.
Perhaps the most courageous venture in any administration would be to restructure the country’s existing six geopolitical zones, into a six state structure. If this is done, the obvious advantages would be huge savings in administrative costs, since the number of executives would drop to seven ¡from the current thirty-seven. The six state legislative houses could be so constituted as to have the total number of legislators reduced to less than half of the number in the status quo. The number of senators would also drop to further generate savings, but the obstacle to this proposal rests in the fact that no member of the national assembly will be party to a process that might negate his relevance, even if it is the best national option.
Very important also is the State Executive Council which would be trimmed and rendered more efficient to provide yet more gains in every conceivable sphere. The dividends of democracy do not reside in the number of states or the size of the collective legislative units, but on the wisdom and loyalty of every serving unit coupled with the efficiency of the institutions that run and regulate government and business services. A trimmer government body would reduce corruption as bad eggs would stand out like sores. Those who clamour for state creation cannot prove that they mean well, since the existing structure has unviable states. The days of sharing oil money at Abuja are over and the need to look keenly inwards has come. The proposed six states structure must constitute autonomous federating units and make the governor’s job more involving, as regards the knowledge of the environment and the people under his jurisdiction. The state executive will be seen more amongst his people, and not in the Federal capital jostling, bowing and scraping, cap in hand to obtain federal allocations, as it stands today.
He would dig into his state, look for the means to improve the local economy and generate the resources required to run the affairs of state. Current governors live virtually in Abuja and have very little idea about the economic potentials of the respective states under their jurisdiction. A system with state autonomy would rest responsibility squarely on the governor and eliminate the frequent excuses hinged on delayed federal allocations. This autonomy allows state legislature to link executive remuneration to the derivable state resources, discontinue reliance on federal allocations and in any event, make the state house less attractive to a good many gluttons. Better that it should be so, since citizens only need those willing to serve.
The end