Politicians and other stakeholders have reviewed the state of the nation at the recent Bola Tinubu Colloquium in Lagos. ERIC IKHILAE captures their yearnings for power shift and good governance.
How to salvage the country was their major concern. To the various speakers at the recent Bola Tinubu Colloquium, which held in Lagos, power shift is the answer. However, they were also unanimous in their conviction that only a mega opposition platform can translate the dream into reality.
The fifth edition of the colloquium was organised to mark the 61st birthday of the former Lagos State governor. The theme was : ‘Beyond mergers: A national movement for change-A new generation speaks’The key speakers sought to engage youths, with a view to stirring their interest in the quest to create the needed broad-based national movement required to engender a reversal in the country’s current management structure and paradigm.
Eminent ,including Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, Tinubu, Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos and Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Lamido Sanusi examined the country’s socio-economic and political arrangements, and agreed that all was not well. They suggested that urgent steps be taken.
The event’s anchor – the state’s Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice – Ade ,said the theme was in response to the recent merger of major opposition parties to form the All Progressive Congress (APC), a party expected to provide a better alternative to the ruling party.
He observed that the optimism for the future provided by the emergence of APC has, somewhat arose public enthusiasm in its ability to serve as the vehicle for a more broad-based movement for national transformation.
Young professionals, including the Managing Director, Frontier Capital Limited, Femi Edun; Chief Executive Officer, Venia Consulting, Kolawole Oyeneyin; lawyer, Myani Bukar; musician, Olubankole Wellington (Banky W) and Special Adviser to Ogun State Governor on Millennium Development Goals, Hafsat Abiola-Costello examined the issues the nation’s challenges and suggested ways out.
Prof. Soyinka, who was the event’s chairman, provided the opening remarks that sounded the tone of the days’ proceedings. He praised Tinubu’s fighting spirit; reflecting on the “days of struggle,” when they were labeled “political fugitives” and had to escape into exile. He also noted Tinubu’s creative ability and survival instinct.
Soyinka expressed displeasure expressed discomfort over the state of affairs in the country and warned that if the country’s leadership fails to take the necessary steps to halt the growing insecurity, it would end in a civil war.
To him, the nation’s leadership seemed unaware of the magnitude of the threat posed by the security challenge the nation was currently faced with.
Edun, who spoke on the topic: “Poverty and the Nigerian State”, lamented the ravaging effect of poverty in the country despite its wealth potentials.
He blamed the nation’s poverty on the failure of the leadership to create a functional and productive economy, where state’s institutions do not exist in names alone.
He faulted the nation’s economic model, which he observed has resulted in state where the country is now faced with the paradox of steady and sustained growth in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per head alongside steady growth in the incidence of poverty.
Edun blamed the nation’s leadership for the growing poverty in the land. He contended that nations remain poor because of the choices that the policy makers and economic actors in a nation make, an assertion, he said, is informed by the general understanding that sustained economic growth and development, which serve as means of lifting nations out of poverty, are achieved through choices made by those in authorities.
In addition, he observed other contributing factors to the country’s poverty. This, he said include that the country’s political and civil institutions are extractive and weak and there is endemic corruption in public and private sectors.
“Policy makers choose unsustainable and poor macro-economic policies and perpetuate a volatile and risky macroeconomic environment; the economy erects and sustains high barriers to trade and investment; little investment in education and that government spending is directed towards consumption and involves waste.”
Edun also identified “low security of life and property; little institutional investment in, and protection of the female half and the vulnerable segments of the population.”
He lamented the impact of poverty on the youths and their ability to exhibit their capabilities, particularly participating in political activities. He argued that poverty denies the youths their right to good health and education.
Edun argued that poverty did not only denies the youths a voice by making it impossible for them to denies access to education and the vital knowledge, skills and values required to be effective actors in politics and governance, it traps tem in unemployment, which ends in crime, violence and all sorts of anti-social behavior.
“Poverty traps the youth in a vicious cycle of defeat, degradation and despair. Poverty denies the youth the dignity and confidence to speak and act in their best interests,” he said.
As a way out, he suggested that the leadership should engage in a deliberate planning, initiation and execution of policies that help in the creation of viable and strong institutions. This, in addition with a “change of approach” at public governance, would result in the needed growth.
Oyeneyin lamented the plight of the poor and growing generation, who, he argued, have been and consistently denied the best f the country. He noted the threat posed by the book haram crisis to nation’s quest for growth, insisting that “it is a time bomb that is about to blow up.”
Oyeneyin spoke on: “Beyond the merger: The responsibility of the older generation on the younger generation.” He argued that the country’s governance and political systems were deliberately skewed in a way that excludes youths’ participation and prevents them from being heard.
He observed that while the country’s political leaders of today only tolerate the youths to the level of casting votes and using them as canon folders, they believe the young generation should not be allowed access to power. He noted that incidentally, most of them got into political offices when they were barely 30 years.
He urged those behind the merger of the opposition parties to court the young generation and ensure that they play major roles in the movement to retrieve the country’s destiny from the dogs. He said “this merger will truly deliver on its promise and failure is not an option.”
On why the young generation is important for the success of the merger, Oyeneyin argued that the youth Ideology; create access to the people, possess systemic delivery of leaders – not accidental, but deliberate leadership.
He suggested the creation of generational transition plan through the younger generation, this he said, was because “it takes a generation to move any country from third world. Make politics ‘sexy’ – the days of rice-based politically rallies are number.
“Let’s create a Democratic Party-Style Convention those appeals to the intellectuals and filters down to the grassroots now. God-fatherism – There is nothing wrong with positive God-fatherism. Joel Bricks was Obama’s Chicago godfather. ANC Model; Identify the leading light in this younger generation and begin to provide the right kind of mentoring now,” Oyeneyin said.
Bukar, who is also a development economist and policy researcher, addressed the topic: “The Issue of Citizenship and Identity.” He noted that a common trait in post 1999 democratic Nigeria has been the incessant occurrence and rising profile of violent conflicts in various parts of the country, which he blamed on what he termed identity-based conflicts. He blamed this on the country’s inability to effectively identify who a citizen is.
This, he said, informed why “any discourse on the emergence of a new Nigeria must pay close attention to this malady as it goes to the core of who we are as a people and how our polity is structured to deliver development for us all.”
“My submission is that the criteria for citizenship must be focused on the individual. Focus must be the equality of all individuals before the law and not sub national groups or ethnicities. Every Nigerian should belong to the same civil space and interact directly with the state without the mediation of the ethnic group.
“Consequently, residency not indegenship should be the operational basis for citizenship and the indigene/settler divide should be operationally and legally done away with. The constitution should be so amended.
“The abandoned 2004 Citizenship Residency Bill which stipulates among other conditions, 5 years of residency in a place as the basis for citizenship and full political participation probably deserves a revisit in this regard.
“Secondly, the federal character principle should be seriously overhauled if not totally done away with (to be replaced by a case by case, time based, contextual affirmative action policy).
“Third, we must reconsider the place of religion in the political and economic space and by this, I mean the existence of institutions like Christian and muslim pilgrim boards ought to be discontinued. Lastly, the land ownership system, I think, requires a critically looking into as well.
“On the economic policy front, the rent state must be killed paving the way for a multi resource economy operational within a system of individual entrepreneurship and the development of the local economy.
“May I at this juncture, recommend that we again revisit the recommendations posited here in 2010 by Prof. Hernando de Soto and specifically recommend that everyone here reads his book ‘Why capitalism triumphs in the West but fails everywhere else,’ Bukar said.
Mrs Abiola-Costello spoke on the theme: “The Millennium Development Goals: Where are we in the race and how can we go faster?” She identified youth, not oil, as the nation’s most valuable asset.
She noted that by 2030, Nigeria will be one of the few countries in the world that has young workers in plentiful supply, but argued that the country has not made considerable progress in meeting the MDGs.
Mrs Abiola-Costello argued that the country has no option by to accelerate the MDG goals’ attainment, which could only be achieved by creating a functioning economy.
“Nigeria has to produce a functioning economy, if it wishes to attain the MDG goals. WE have to make the economy work, so that the majority can work and earn money. The window of opportunity which Nigeria has is the imminent global food crisis which we make agriculture the new gold commodity, positioning our people for wealth creation.
“This is a golden opportunity to create wealth, employment, ensuring our children are educated, that the maternal and child health is improved etc. by preparing to bridge the gap that China and India may create in global food supply,” she said. She urged the people to ensure a positive change come 20015.
Wellington urged the youth to be involved in the political process, by first, registering to vote, and actually voting for the right candidates. Its either they do that, he said, or they sit back and let someone else “steal your voice.”
Wellington said youth should continue to protest peacefully against misrule, using social media (also new media) as a tool. “Become fully involved in the political process. Use whatever voice or platform you have constructively,” he said.
Sanusi faulted the current political arrangement, where people without known pedigrees find their ways to public offices. He suggested a review to allow that the best is enthroned.
“To speak about economics in isolation of the fundamental character of the state, a state that has been built by the Nigerian elite, by you and I, not just those in politics, a state that is neo-patrimonial, a state that is prebendal, a state that is not a vehicle for delivering development but for enriching a small minority, these are fundamental questions that need to be addressed.
“They are not questions to be asked by politicians. In fact politicians are the worst people to address those questions,” he said.
He urged the youths to be inquisitive, engage the nation’s leaders and get involved in political activities so that they could help bring about the needed change in the country.
Sanusi argued that the youth could effect the change the nation desires if they could organize themselves and form a political party. He noted that with their current population, they could displace the current old political players.
“When you had ‘Occupy Nigeria’, I was on the other side of the debate. But if you remember an interview I gave on Channels, yes, I disagreed with Occupy Nigeria on the question of fuel subsidy, which was just an opportunity for rent-seeking by a small number of people.
“But on 99 per cent of the things the young people were saying, those are the things we should have been talking about 30, 40 years ago. Everywhere in the world, political society is checked by civil society. Chief Awolowo famously said that a country gets the leadership it deserves.
“Yes, corruption is a problem. But do we understand that there are different types of corruption and that some are even more dangerous and disruptive than others? There is corruption in Russia, China, etc, but why are those economies eradicating poverty?
“What is destroying this country is that people are corrupt and doing nothing. We need to be asking questions. As civil society, what are we doing?”
Fashola cited the instance of India where the opposition was so strong that the party in government loses election when it does not perform. He said the opposition in Nigeria expects to get to that level.
“In India, the difference between the opposition and the party in power is so thin. So the party in government disconnects with its people at its own peril. It’s out at the next election.
