Author: The Nation

Two Sundays ago, four men and a boy set out on a self imposed task of going down four kilometres into the freezing waters of the North Atlantic off the coast of Newfoundland. Their mission was to go and inspect the wreck of the once majestic and at one time one of the iconic items of technology in the world, the Titanic. The ship streamed out of Southampton harbour all of one hundred and one years ago on its maiden voyage. On board were the cream of global high society who had paid a king’s ransom for the privilege of sailing to the United States on a ship fitted with opulence bordering on the obscene that was reserved for only the richest people, those that were obscenely so. Those people who had enough to spare for the chance to be spoilt, waited on hand and foot by lackeys whose very livelihood depended on the services which they were going to lavish on those socially superior men and women who lived to be served by others. Hidden away below deck in their own restricted areas of the ship were a multitude of people who clearly did not have enough and paid next to nothing for their passage and could be described as human ballast, on board to ensure that the majestic ship did not keel over on its side as it rode the waves in the manner of a conquering spirit. The trip was everything that the builders had promised and more. The Titanic rode the waves at a pace which was clearly astonishing even to the people who had never been to sea before but were thrilled to be part of a glorious history as the ship which apart from its glory and grandeur had been described by the builders as being unsinkable and any doubts about that claim were swept aside by the sheer size of that nautical leviathan, the largest sea going vessel, all clad in finest steel plates, ready to take on anything the mighty ocean could fling at it. It is worth noting that in the next few days a ship five times the size of the Titanic will be launched and fitted with all the gadgets that could be fashioned by current advanced technology. Such feats have now become so common place that outside the very restricted field of sailing enthusiasts, this wonder of modern technology has barely raised any inquisitive eyebrows. But that is another story. The Titanic on its maiden voyage streamed towards its destination under the command of a captain who in contrast to the grandeur of his ship was carrying the common place name of Smith. Captain Smith, intent on setting a new record for an Atlantic crossing demanded full power from his engineers labouring in front of the massive boilers which provided the power that was pushing the great vessel through the choppy waves. Nothing, it seemed was going to prevent the ship from eating up the miles which separated the ship from its destination. On board, the bands were playing, waists were moving in time to the music and dainty morsels were disappearing down the throats of those who had enough and a lot more to spare. Having been given the iron clad guarantee that they were riding the waves in an unsinkable ship, the passengers were determined to enjoy all the sweet things that had been brought within their epicurean reach.

Unknown to the revellers on the Titanic, they were sailing through a veritable field of icebergs and even if they knew, they would not have been worried about a thing. After all, there was that iron clad guarantee at the back of their minds that stood in the way of their giant ship. Apparently, Captain Smith shared their optimism and brushed aside the warning that icebergs were lurking around in their path. Given the prevailing circumstances, a collision with an iceberg was probably inevitable and the expected happened. The ship smashed into a gigantic iceberg many stories high and many of the steel plates with which the ship was covered were torn apart like tissue paper and water, so much water poured into the stricken vessel that within a short time the gigantic ship began its final voyage to the bottom of the Atlantic. More than a thousand lives were lost in the space of a few minutes. Loaded down with so much steel the ship smashed into the bottom of the sea broke in two and laid there on the bottom for more than eighty years until the wreck was discovered by some intrepid searchers, making use of the cutting edge technology which had become available. No sooner was the wreck discovered than people started taking excursions down there to gawp at the remains of the once proud ship and come back up to tell those who had not been down there lurid tales of what they had seen. One enterprising team, making use of the latest 3D technology retrieved the Titanic from its watery grave and presented it in all her terrible glory to satisfy the macabre cravings of people, many of whom had never seen the inside of a submersible vehicle of any description not to talk of even getting wet in the process of their visit to the wreck of the Titanic. Not satisfied with the dryness of the exhibition of the rusting wreckage of a once proud vessel which had ended its career by providing a final resting place for the unfortunate souls, including the hapless Captain Smith and the brave orchestra the members of which continued making music as the ship made its terminal dive as it plunged into the icy depths of the Atlantic. The fact that the broken ship was a grave site did not seem to deter people who could only be described as voyeurs to make the perilous journey 4,000 metres down to the ocean floor to take a look in real time at the remnants of one of the greatest tragedies in nautical history.

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Two Sundays ago four men and a boy crowded into a flimsy submersible vessel and were lowered into the Atlantic to satisfy their curiosity about what the sea had covered up for more than one hundred years. Each of the passengers had paid the kingly sum of $250,000 for the privilege of taking a short but perilous journey to where only a handful of men had ever been. The men obviously had enough but, just as clear as that was, it was also clear that their enough was nowhere near enough. Their extraordinary palates could only be titillated by the unusual, something which was only within the purview of ultra special people. They had virtually everything that money could buy but not satisfied with that they had to go out looking for something that could not have crossed the mind of people who not only did not have enough but could never had enough of anything including the bare bones of human dignity. The five people in that tiny vessel which was bound for the confines of the bottom of the sea, the last frontier within the confines of the gravity to which everything on earth is subjected to.

Not more than an insignificant handful of the eight billion inhabitants of the earth had an inkling of the escapade which those five souls had in mind to grapple with but all that anonymity was blown away almost as soon as they were launched into the deep. They had gone only a little way down their watery pathway when the tenuous link which they maintained with the surface was cut and they could no longer be reached. They were lost in the terrifying void of a vengeful environment creating a situation of a man biting a dog. The adventurers became instant news which was flashed around the world in a multitude of languages at the speed approaching that of a shaft of light. Light which could not be used to illuminate the path of our brave travellers who were travelling away from the world at a speed which could not be measured and hearing this, the world collectively held its breath in sympathy with men who a few minutes before were completely unknown to them. The little vessel in which the team was travelling was no longer within any physical range but the possibility of finding it even in the vastness of the sea was not zero and there was hope, faint as that hope was that contact would be re-established and the men saved. All around the world, people held onto the hope that the errant vessel would be found and the men brought back to the surface and saved from the destructive power of the sea. This hope was reinforced by the information that the men had enough oxygen to last them for five days suggesting that we could hold on to the hope that the men would eventually be rescued. The attention of the world was fixed on that little patch of the Atlantic even as hundreds, some say as many as 750 of desperate Pakistani migrants; men, women and children were hoping to find some succour for their insufficiency in Europe. They had paid a great deal of money to human traffickers as they held on to their own threadbare hopes of finding some form of green pasture in Europe where they were bound on some rickety, grossly overextended boat which promptly sank in the warm but still deadly waters of the Mediterranean sea. Nobody knew exactly how many people were on that boat as it was claimed that the children had been kept out of sight in some hard to reach parts of the boat as it sank under the waves. These unfortunate adventurers had resorted to putting their lives at risk because there was no food enough to satisfy the hunger of the common man in their country. The five men in the other doomed vessel had taken to the sea out of a surfeit of money to spend on acquiring the satisfaction of all forms of their needs. Having fed fat on all the dainties they could possibly need or want, there was a great deal of excess left over for them to think about putting their lives in danger for the sheer fun of doing so. The tragedy on the Mediterranean was over quite quickly and the world was only given any information about it after the event. In the case of the five people cooped up in their miniscule capsule on their way to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, the world was informed of their predicament and the world was drawn willy-nilly into the dark drama that was thought to be playing out under the waves. Very expensive rescue missions were mobilised to find the missing vessel and the world was kept informed of every bit of what the rescuers were doing to save the precious lives of the very rich people who had been seeking the thrills of adventure, just for the sheer fun of it. Ironically, two of the people on board the appropriately named Titan submersible, like the people struggling against the waters of the Mediterranean on the other side of the globe were from the same country of Pakistan. The people on that unnamed boat in the Mediterranean were fleeing from the demons of hunger in Pakistan whilst the billionaire and his son were squandering a veritable fortune buying an unnecessary death. Days after they went missing the world still hoped for a successful rescue seeing that the men had plenty of oxygen keeping them alive but a Hollywood finish of rescue in the nick of time could not be engineered as it was revealed that the Titan had suffered a lethal implosion which killed all the passengers within a millisecond which means that they were spared the knowledge of their own passing.

There are many over-privileged men, women and children who cannot be satisfied with their own sufficiency and must seek the type of danger with which their much less privileged compatriots have to live with everyday of their lives. In Nigeria we know that a small, no, a very tiny handful of men have more than enough to play with but they are in that position because they have found ways and means of denying sufficiency to others. My thoughts are of those unscrupulous men who have been scamming the country of her very livelihood through the much vaunted petroleum subsidy, the removal of which has now condemned millions of Nigerians to a life of struggle against the demons of starvation and insufficiency. When enough is not enough, the outcome is unmitigated tragedy sometimes for the people with too much but always for those who do not have enough.

• By Oguwike Nwachuku

Those who developed the concept of newspaper reviews on the television and radio stations, for all intents and purposes, mean well for the society.

To them, the reviews are part of measures to deepen conversation on the public understanding of the role played by one of the oldest, yet modem modes of communication, information dissemination, education and entertainment in our society

–  the newspapers.

Besides, it helps to bring the newspaper reading public to speed as regards happenings around them.

But more importantly, media houses, through the reviews, are directly and indirectly put on their toes or if you like, held responsible and accountable when it comes to stories they published, stories they missed, packaging of copies and if possible,  marketing of the brand.

Before now, those who featured as newspaper reviewers on television and radio stations were men and women of impeccable character. They were people with firm grip of the issues at stake and deep understanding of what the newspapers have to say, and to a large extent, the implication of what was published on the larger society.

That explains why most of those assembled to review the newspapers by television and radio stations were mainly media practitioners with track records of performance and excellence in the industry. I mean media professionals to the core and not those who became practitioners and answer media managers by hook or crook.

Today, not a few persons share in the thinking of yours sincerely that majority of those the public are served as reviewers of newspapers on televisions and radio stations have no business being there. I will explain shortly.

On Wednesday, June 28, 2023 to be precise, one of such persons who was featured as a newspaper reviewer on Kakaaki, an African Independent Television (AIT) morning programme, further lowered the standard of newspaper review when he completely went off tangent by making Governor Hope Uzodimma of Imo State the subject of the review.

Mr. Chuks Akunna, a supposedly Executive Director in Authority Newspaper, threw caution to the winds and descended on Governor Uzodimma in a manner that suggested he was paid to appear on the Programme to rain invectives on him while hiding under the Kakaaki Programme of newspaper review.

Even though Mr. Akunna claimed to be advising the Acting Inspector General of Police, Mr. Kayode Egbetokun on how to deal with the (in)security around the country, particularly as it concerns states of interest to him like Kogi, Benue, Plateau and Imo, he did not hide his disdain for the Governor of Imo State as he kept reminding the presenter and his viewers about how many times he had called the governor out on the programme. Obviously, he was saying so to impress those who have paid him to castigate Governor Uzodimma.

Mr. Akunna had used his outing at the Programme to expose where he further appears –  his political antecedent, friendship with former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives and former Governor of Imo State, Rt  Hon. Emeka Ihedioha.

It was even laughable when Mr. Akunna said that because of insecurity in Imo State, most dignitaries stayed away from Ihedioha’s mother’s burial, a clear fabrication on air when viewed against the backdrop of the number of persons who graced the burial if which Ihedioha himself acknowledged.

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It is in public domain that Mr. Akunna is a media consultant to the People’s Democratic Party and that alone says much about the gibberish he vomited during the Programme.

To demonstrate that he was hired to denigrate Governor Uzodimma using the  newspaper review on Kakaaki as cover, Mr. Akunna went into full scale politicking about (in)security in Imo State, coming to the thoughtless conclusion that the whole idea was orchestrated by the government of the day in Imo State for the purpose of re-electing the Governor in November. How callous an idea!

In a sane society, characters like Mr. Akunna that are easily bought and lack the discipline, temperament, training and experience to advise the public on how to deal with matters as complicated as insecurity, should not have any business appearing on such Programmes.

As someone who is cocooned in Abuja and only visits his State, Anambra State, at his convenience, it is obvious Mr. Akunna does not have the slightest knowledge of what the current (in)security situation in the South East is. If he really does, he would have been circumspect and not be in a hurry to conclude that Imo State is the nucleus of insecurity in the zone?

When every right thinking fellow from the zone is lauding Governor Uzodimma for not allowing his State in particular and South East in general to go the way of the North East as far as the impact of insecurity is concerned, because that is the wish of those Mr. Akunna is working for, he is still asking what Governor Uzodimma is doing as the Chief Security Officer of Imo State.

The tragedy of people like Mr. Akunna is that they talk before they think, speak without information, gloat over hearsay and beer parlour rumour and what is worse, think they are the best thing to happen to the society. I am sure that was what his mind was revealing to him as he was puffing at the Station and dancing around the matter before him.

Of late, we have seen too many Akunnas trying to make (in)security the centre piece of conversation for the November 11 governorship election in Imo State. We know for sure that what Mr. Akunna was paid to say at the camouflaged newspaper review in Kakaaki is consistent with what his ilk have been doing in the past one week around the State, but meeting with brick wall with the highly informed Imo electorate. It is simply a hard sell for them, something akin to pulling the horse through the eye of the niddle.

The riddle they are finding difficult to solve as they approach Imo people with their campaign of calumny with insecurity in the State is how to convince the highly informed Imo electorate that the projects that litter the nooks and crannies of Imo were not done by Governor Uzodimma.

Truth is that Governor Uzodimma has worked so hard to downgrade insecurity in Imo State. He has invested fortunes to protect the lives and property of the people he swore an oath to protect, but those Mr. Akunna consults for in Imo State have remained undaunted in seeing that (in)security is used as a factor to scare the people and discredit the government in power.

It is on record that the Nigerian Military, the Nigeria Police, the Accountants, the Lawyers, the Editors, the Catholic Bishops, and many other national and international associations have held their conferences in Imo State. I am sure Mr. Akunna and his likes knew and read about the events but mischievously chose to glibly brand Imo as the nucleus of insecurity in the South East because hatched job is believed to be in their DNA, hence they are amenable for hire by those who see Governor Uzodimma as their political foes.

Perhaps Mr. Akunna ought to be reminded that available intelligence suggests that the pockets of kidnappings, armed robberies, murders and other lethal crimes which the security operatives strive daily to contain in Imo State today are linked to hardened criminals with Anambra as their haven.

One of the greatest challenges the security agencies face trying to rid Imo State of crime today comes from the State’s border town of Ihiala.

Mr. Akunna should be bold enough to ask his Governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludu, what he has been going through since assumption of office trying to contain the huge criminality that has become part of the communities in Anambra where kidnapping for ransome has become a way of life and has completely replaced the people’s traditional vocation, which is trading.

While the criminal aspect of sit at home order has almost lost its potency in Imo State and other South East States, it is still morning in the day in Akunna’s Anambra State, yet he had the termerity to malign Imo State and the Governor as the centre of insecurity.

Let me remind Mr. Akunna, however,  that Governor Uzodimma is not going to fret over the November governorship election. He will win convincingly and overwhelmingly because the people will troupe out enmass to corronate him as their beloved governor with their votes.

He will not also be distracted by his unpopular view on Kakaaki since more weighty views earlier masterminded by his pay masters could not stall the laudable programmes Governor Uzodimma embarked on since taking over the reins of governance in Imo State in 2020.

As far as Imo people are concerned, the records of Governor Uzodimma’s superlative performance are there to speak for him unlike his co-contestants who have nothing to campaign with and so resort to blackmail the electorate with (in) security.

That said, newspaper reviews, like journalism practices, are about objectivity. They are about verifiable things and not conjecture or outright falsehood and fake review. They are not about robbing Peter to pay Paul which the likes of Mr. Akunna are trying to make the public to understand.

It is therefore high time the television and radio stations took more seriously the kind of guests they invite to take a look at the newspapers as the character of such guests also speak volume about the intention or otherwise of both the presenters and the owners of the organisation.

•Nwachuku, Chief Press Secretary/Media Adviser to Governor Uzodimma writes from Owerri.

The issue of political will by Nigerian leaders have remained a topic of discussion and debate for several years. While some leaders have shown a solid commitment to implementing policies and programs that benefit the country and its citizens, others had remained indifferent

 There have also been instances where the needed political will to take tough decisions and bold actions that were to improve the living standards of Nigerians were denied 

The Political will is applied when political leaders show their determination and commitment to take action on a specific issue or problem. To serve the greater good effectively, an essential tonic for political leaders to have both the willingness and ability to make difficult decisions regarding potentially unpopular policies is not only timely but necessary.

Thus, it is viewed in advanced economies as a crucial factor that drives policy decisions and actions aiming to solve societal issues and enhance citizens’ well-being within the governance framework.

To show political will effectively, leaders may need to take bold steps, such as taking a firm stance on a controversial issue or enacting legislation, and their willingness to endure criticism and opposition while fulfilling commitments is crucial. For example, political will has played a crucial role internationally in addressing climate change, poverty, healthcare, desertification, and education.

 In the case of climate change, political leaders who demonstrated a strong commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions have been able to mobilize public support, foster international cooperation, and incentivize businesses to invest in renewable energy and other green technologies. Denmark, Sweden, and Chile, Ethiopia, South Africa are leading countries in climate action from their climate policy strategies.

Several issues in the recent past demonstrated the paucity of political will from Nigerian leaders. There are many issues, if addressed decisively, looking at the trajectory of short, medium, and long-term development of the nation would make the country great again. For example, many people have debated the controversial issue surrounding the removal of fuel subsidies for years.

Advocates for ending subsidies maintain that it is not a productive allocation of government resources since it favors the rich more than the poor and creates chances for corruption.

Oil subsidy involves setting a price ceiling on petroleum products such as petrol and diesel imported by companies involved in selling them to people, and petroleum product costs are subsidized for consumers when the Government pays the difference between their actual importation costs and capped prices. The cessation of oil subsidies in Nigeria has been a contentious issue for many years.

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Advocates for subsidy elimination maintain that this practice does not efficiently use government resources as products to neighboring countries where they can be sold. They also maintain that the subsidy drives black market activity for petroleum products to neighboring countries where they can be sold, leading to shortages and long lines at gas stations in Nigeria.

Thankfully, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu assumed power with no thought of conquering power to exercise it alone but to bring together sufficient decision makers so that policy solutions to the dreaded problems are brought to bear in the nation’s interest.

His few days in office as president have indicated a prism of ability to make sound decisions. With this tonic, the administration has charted a course full of conceptualized ideas and an array of good people.

The Tinubu administration has to deal decisively with the issue of corruption that remains persistent in Nigeria, and it is considered one of the biggest challenges facing this country. Despite previous administrations’ efforts to establish anti-corruption agencies and introduce different measures to tackle corrupt practices, there has yet to be much success. This situation is frustrating for many Nigerians hoping for more positive results. However, the reason for this lack of progress is a failure among some leaders to exhibit the necessary political will to take decisive action and hold corrupt officials accountable.

Again, looking at the country’s commitment to mobilize more robust and more ambitious climate action to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement in response to climate change, the political will to deliver to this challenge has so far been stunted by the leadership misunderstanding of the global threat.

The Great Green Wall initiative aimed to address the issues of desertification, land degradation, and biodiversity loss, promote climate change resilience by ecosystems and communities, and improve food security in the frontline states of Nigeria has demonstrated limited success. Penalties for Oil spills by international oil companies under Nigerian laws remain ridiculous and incomprehensible. These few outlined issues were negated not because of a lack of knowledge of their impact but because of the elites’ selfish greed and the lack of political will to effect the necessary change and provisions.

Aside from corruption, there have also been worries about the political will to deal with other pressing problems, such as poverty and unemployment. Even though confident leaders have begun programs and policies aimed at addressing these problems, the pace of progress has been slow, and there is a perception among numerous Nigerians that additional efforts are required. With a considerable part of its population living below the poverty line, Nigeria continues to face challenges posed by poverty. One contributing factor is the need for more political determination to execute effective policies and programs to reduce poverty.

The tonic to our greatness will lie in the demonstrated will and ability of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Government to make difficult decisions about unpopular policies. Nigeria must shun away from illusory political will embedded in short-term fixes. The time has come for Nigerians to support the Government in accomplishing the extraordinary, the path of progress.

An opinion article for Sunday Publication in The Nation,written by Augustine Okezie and Bishir Gambo Salauwa

Dialogue has always been a fundamental means by which philosophers communicate philosophical ideas. One reason for this might be the sometimes obtuse nature of these ideas that most people find too difficult to handle or make sense of. And the literary form comes in handy in allowing the philosopher to speak the deep and fundamental thoughts to humans. And so, we have the great dialogues of Plato, David Hume’s Dialogue Concerning Natural Religion, Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations, The Analects of Confucius, and more. Dialogues also serves as a methodological tool that allows for interlocution and questioning. No one will forget Socrates in Plato’s dialogues. The dramatic framework allows Plato to deploy Socrates as the instigator of series of questions that would have been difficult to enact if the works have been written in the normal prose form. The Socratic method has come to mean a method of soliciting ideas through the means of questions and answers in ways that draw out assumptions and ideas behind them.

In this piece, I will be experimenting with this method of philosophical dialogue by bringing the helmsman of the new administration in Nigeria, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, into conversation. This dialogue concerns those issues pertaining to his personality and character, the new administration and his governance and policy objectives in rethinking the future of the Nigerian state. I agree this will be a daunting exercise since it involves teasing out philosophical “responses” to philosophical issues from the literary representation of someone who has several figurations in the public and political spheres.

President Tinubu is several things to several shades of Nigerians. He has been praised and blamed for so many things. And yet, he has become the president of the Nigerian state, and has been burdened with the responsibility of transforming the quality of life of Nigerians. It is the responsibility of every Nigerian now, and especially the sacred duty of an change agent-reformer-partners, to facilitate such transformation. This is the fundamental rationale for teasing out specific ideational figurations that could serve as templates for proceeding with the critical task of democratic governance.

Question: Your “Emi Lokan” proclamation has developed a life of its own that has radiated popular culture and the social media sphere since it was dramatically uttered in the run-off to the elections. There is an existential audacity to that proclamation that transcends its popular iteration. On the one hand, it speaks to a conception of a self that is undaunted by the herculean—a person who willingly throws himself into a space where even angels fear to tread. On the other hand, the “Emi Lokan” statement situates your person and politics within the political trajectory of a country you have engaged with for as long as anyone can remember. What does “Emi Lokan” reveal about your sense of self and your political location in Nigeria?

These are deep and multilayered questions. Let me say that my now acclaimed declaration derives from not any sense of entitlement, but rather a deep sense of patriotic affiliation with the Nigerian state, and my prolonged and ongoing engagement with her. This is not to say that there is anything wrong with entitlement. Words mean many things; and for me, I see no wrong in being entitled to contribute my own quota to Nigeria’s greatness. That is where that declaration came from.

There was a point in the trajectory of my becoming that it seems that my entire adult life has been taken over by my sense of what Nigeria can become. The self is not one single stream of consciousness. It is defined by many attachments and encumbrances. Nigeria, in a manner of speaking, defines me and my life purpose in many fundamental ways.

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Question: This leads to the second node of dialogue, still deepening the understanding of the self. Here, we should connect the self as political with the self as existential. Given the multiplicity of storms and political intrigues attached to your person, you personify the very essence of resilience. From several conflicts, betrayals to the presidency. What aspects of your preparation in life built in you such measure of charisma and stamina?

The point actually is that no one will ever do any great thing in life—or put himself up for other-regarding endeavors like leadership—without getting stoned. And not the least in a political space like Nigeria where a politician faces the toughest scrutiny especially for something as life-defining and as transformative as governance. And who can blame Nigerians? All the scrutinies and stoning are worth it to the extent that Nigerians deserve only the best from anyone who is worth his or her onions. I believe that, having being in the public glare for as long as I have, and having weathered so many public investigation into my intents and efforts and achievements, there is nothing else but to develop stamina, especially now that what I will do to alleviate the suffering of Nigeria will either make or mar me forever. The little achievements I have had so far in my political vocation have only serve to keep pushing me to do more. Nigeria and Nigerians deserve that. Resilience only matters when it translates, especially in political terms, to betterment for Nigerians. Permit me to borrow the wisdom of Elizabeth Edwards, the American attorney: “Resilience is accepting your new reality, even if it’s less good than the one you had before. You can fight it, you can do nothing but scream about what you’ve lost, or you can accept that and try to put together something that’s good.” This is what this new administration is determined to do. And I am putting my last blood into it.

Question: Your first few days in office has been tagged “the season of suspension” by Nigerians. There is an electrifying string of tough decisions that you already alluded to before the inauguration. From the fuel subsidy removal and its myriads of fall-out to the signing of the student loan act, you have communicated one of the most singular axioms in reform and change management—we cannot eat omelet as a nation without cracking some eggs! What dynamics of policy and praxis are we expecting? How can this momentum be sustained? 

Let me answer with an insight from Yoruba philosophy. When there is a profusion of trees fallen on one another, you resolve the matter by removing those on top. Nigeria’s post-independence predicaments are many, enormous, complex, protracted and traumatic. But they are not irresolvable. The idea is to first manufacture the political will to take the tough decisions, starting from the low-hanging ones that could clear the way for attending to the deeper issues. I have in mind, for instance, a deep-seated reform of the policy space without which this administration will fail woefully. But we have to get there steadily. Good governance does not happen in a rush.  I ask for more patience. I ask for critical but patriotic engagement. I ask for your support without which we will not go far. 

Question: Be sure that the entire nation is anxiously waiting for you to unfold your first eleven team, administrative and economic. From what we have seen so far, what will be the leadership philosophy you want to deploy to galvanize the momentum you have generated that ought to lead to good governance?

Good governance demands, as an imperative, teamwork within the context of a change space where a singular vision, policy intelligence and a collective energy will saturate the network of likeminded leaders to generate the governance spark Nigeria needs. I am a team player with a good eye for what can work and who can make them work. Good governance will not fly outside the dynamics of competences and skills—administrative, economic and institutional—that will drive the change management. And we are committed to look far and wide for those blessed Nigerians, at home or in the diaspora, to donate their expertise, experience and wisdom towards resurrecting our national greatness. We cannot afford any longer to play bad politics with the future of our children. Nigerians can make Nigeria great.

Question: This brings me to a strictly ideological question. What would need to change in the nature of engagement with external partners, development agencies and their ideological assumptions and economic conditionalities?

In a world that is inextricably global and conjoined, no nations can ever hope to succeed outside of the many significant bilateral and multilateral relations that keep the world running. However, no nation can also ever hope to succeed if it submits its sovereign autonomy and puts itself on an ideological leash for other nations. Nigeria must eventually arrive—and I am determined it will be under this administration—at a governance juncture where its policy architecture will determine and condition its global relationships. Who we want to become should determine the type of global relations we should have. We cannot ever hope to regain our strength if we keep operating according to other people’s vision and concept of us.

Question: What reassurance will you want to leave with Nigerians as your administration gather steams?

I think Nigerians want tangible and rewarding governance results rather than reassurances. Let me just simply say the ship of state is already out of the dock, and I definitely see some storms ahead. But we cannot scale through on leadership alone. Nigeria needs Nigerians too. This administration needs all hands on deck. I assure you that we will not be afraid to act fast, and surely and decisively on matters that will qualitatively transform all your lives for the best.

•Olaopa is a retired Federal Permanent Secretary & Professor of Public Administration tolaopa2003@gmail.com