The Nation Newspaper

Tag: challenge

  • Leadership challenge in Nigeria

    The National Intelligence Council (NIC) report, ‘Mapping Sub Saharan Africa’s Future’, which painted a depressing picture of the African continent, had engendered several discussions. Using indices such as globalization, patterns of conflict, terrorism, democratization, AIDS, evolving foreign influences and religion, the report specifically estimated that Nigeria could fragment in the next 15 years. This categorisation of Nigeria as a prospective failed state had raised concern and even apprehension at the nation’s top policy making levels. Before now, the failed states phenomenon in Africa had often been associated with countries like Somalia, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Angola, Burundi and Congo at different stages of their evolving histories.

    Leadership plays a pivotal role in the descent into failure and collapse. Africa’s political history is replete with leadership crises. In Mobutu Sese Seko’s Zaire, Samuel Doe’s Liberia or Somalia, the ruler-led-oppression provoked a countervailing reaction on the part of resentful groups that led to the eventual collapse of the state. Governments are unable to set in place transparent and accountable institutions capable of securing economic progress, governing effectively, and protecting their citizens.  This lack of capacity is amplified by recourse to authoritarianism and repression, dramatic economic decline precipitated by indiscriminate corruption, and the adoption of exclusive (ethnic) policies to assure self-succession tendencies.

    In the absence of patriotic and charismatic leadership, corrupted elites model the state to serve their narrow interests, instead of the interests of the citizens.  As a consequence, the state itself is unable to fulfill its purpose or perform those functions of protection, delivery of basic social services and provisions of institutions to respond to legitimate demands and needs. The failure to perform these functions creates three major gaps in most African societies, notably ‘security gap’, ‘capacity gap’ and ‘legitimacy gap’.

    Security gaps have been most evident in Africa, because of the inability of African states to preserve effective sovereignty and order within their territories, situations that other states, non-state actors, and simple criminals seek to fill with violent, hostile, or illicit acts.  Capacity gap exists when a state fails to play a central role in meeting the needs of its citizens. In the same manner, legitimacy gap provides an opening for political upheavals and crisis. This gap exists when the state fails to maintain institutions that protect basic rights and freedoms, hold individuals accountable for their actions, enforce laws and ensures broad- based citizen participation in the political process.

    Nigeria provides a perfect case study on problems of leadership because only few countries in Africa have experienced greater trauma in the attempts to fill the gaps examined above. Years of military rule and the attendant problems of corruption and accountability had widened these gaps.  In his book Power And Leadership In Nigeria, Chuba Okadigbo (1987: 134) examined the role of leadership in Nigeria and concluded that: “The lack of national cohesion, indeed of any bold attempt by raising institutions or leaders to really unite Nigeria, is indicative of leadership failure in Nigeria, i.e. of failure of personal leadership as well as institutional or structural failure”.

    Professor Chinua Achebe came to the same conclusion in his book The Trouble with Nigeria, when he simply identified the problem of Nigeria as failure of leadership.  The Nigerian problem, he concluded, “is the unwillingness or inability of its leaders to rise to the responsibility, to the challenge of personal example, which is the hallmark of true leadership”. Still on the problems of leadership in Nigeria, Mahmud Tukur (1999: 393) argued that generally most governments in Nigeria have failed to take “an activist conception of the purposes and functions of the state…the basic inclination (is) to regard the sphere of social morality as lying outside the purview of public concern”.

    To underscore the importance of the leadership element, reference is made to the South East Asian nations, where the quality of leadership had brought dynamism and greater prosperity even in the face of globalisation. These countries have also made a tremendous progress in building sturdier and more capable democratic institutions. By contrast, African countries have either stagnated or failed, due to an interplay of demographics, poverty, disease, and most importantly, poor governance.

    The NIC report’s projection that Nigeria would fail as a state in the next 15 years had drawn attention to the country’s enduring problem of leadership.  Interestingly, Robert I. Rotberg in his analysis even categorised Nigeria as a state that collapsed in the 1990s, but gradually recovered and is now weak.  If Rotberg’s categorisation is accepted with all its flaws, the question to ponder is, can Nigeria relapse into failed state as predicted by the NIC report and what is the critical role of leadership in averting this situation?

    Two responses are likely to quickly emerge reflecting the positions of the two dominant paradigms for analysing Nigerian politics. The realist paradigm would argue that Nigeria cannot fail, because it has all the physical characteristics of a continental or middle power: large population, a vast land area, huge mineral resources including petroleum, growing industrial work force, vast arable land and a large military force.  Underlying these characteristics is the widely held assumption that Nigeria being the ‘giant of Africa’ would not be allowed to fail by the West because of the consequent effect this would have on the West African sub-region. By contrast, the radical paradigm sees Nigeria as essentially a dependent state whose future, growth and influence are rather unstable and unsustainable. Such a state it could be argued is likely to fail or collapse. In deference to these two paradigms, the position this paper takes is that although Nigeria has potentials, its growth and influence cannot be assured unless it has a Strategic National Leadership that can harmonise and utilize its current capabilities to realize its national interest.

    The history of failed or collapsed states has clearly shown that failure or collapse is not equivalent to the absence of physical national attributes or capabilities. Many of the failed countries in Africa like Zaire and Liberia are rich in natural resources such as diamonds, oil, gold etc.  In the same manner, ethnic, religious and cultural homogeneity is not a guarantee that a state will not collapse as Somalia had shown. In all these cases the vital missing link was leadership, where political leaders were unable to deliver political goods or close the gap on the essential issues of security, capacity and legitimacy.

    Like most African countries, Nigeria is experiencing difficulties in the delivery of political goods for its citizens, despite the abundance of natural resources. At the level of security, while Nigeria is not confronted by an immediate external threat to its sovereignty, internally the government is battling with the problem of providing security for the lives and prosperity of its citizens. The problems of armed robbery and banditry are effectively challenging the nation’s internal security mechanisms.  In addition, there are other forms of ethnic and religious strives that threaten the state.  However, the most fundamental security problem is the proliferation of ethnic militia and separatist movements in the country.

    According to Nnamdi K. Obasi (2002: 1), “the proliferation of ethnic militia, vigilante and separatist groups has been one of the most significant failures of Nigerian society and politics in recent years.”  These groups subvert the rule of law, create violence in Nigeria, and thus constitute threat to national security. Crucially also, is the fact that Nigeria faces the problem of meeting the needs of its citizens due to years of mismanagement, profligacy and endemic corruption.  Thus inadequate capacity to meet social welfare need of citizens or sustain the intermittent reinforcement of social goods and services had resulted in the erosion of public confidence and popular support.

    While Nigeria does not fit perfectly into any of the categories considered, it would be no exaggeration to say that the country exhibits some of the characteristics of a weak state as identified by Rotberg, notwithstanding the imperfections in his thesis. It should be noted, however, that categorising a state as failing, does not necessarily doom it irretrievably to full failure. Failure is a fluid halting place, with movement forward to weakness and backward into collapse always possible.

    The problem of failed states remains a core security problem of the 21st century, not only to the countries that suffer the fate, but also to the international community. Failure and collapse are undesirable results for states, but fortunately they are preventable. Human factors rather than structural flaws or situational insufficiencies are almost invariably responsible for the slides from weakness (or strength) towards failure and collapse.

    The most fundamental measure required in confronting the challenge, and averting the Nigerian state from failure and collapse is strategic and progressive leadership. The importance of strategic leadership is that it identifies and harmonizes national capabilities to achieve the national interest. The following recommendations classified as long-term are proffered to meet this challenge.

    1. Create effective national institutions that can meet citizens’ needs and take full part in the workings of the international community.
    2. Undertake concerted development, broadly understood as progress toward stable, accountable society.

    iii. Restructure the polity to ensure equity, justice and fairness.

     

    • Ambassador Wando, MFR, mni is a diplomat.
  • Anambra 2017: How parties are tackling zoning challenge

    Anambra 2017: How parties are tackling zoning challenge

    As the political parties prepare for their primaries, debate over zoning has become even more vociferous. Associate Editor, Sam Egburonu, examines how the various parties are approaching this knotty issue and reports that it will help to determine the candidates that will eventually emerge for the November 18 governorship election

    AS the political parties prepare for their primaries ahead the November 18, 2017 Governorship Election in Anambra State, scheduled for this August, one issue that seems to have dominated debate is the zone that should produce the next governor. Closely linked to the zoning debate is the caliber of the candidates the parties fill present to Anambra electorates.

    APGA dilemma

    Barely three months to the election date, the ruling party in the state, the All Progressives Grand Alliance, is in a serious dilemma over its leadership and its choice of candidate. The serving governor, Willie Obiano, who has expressed interest to contest for re-election on the party’s ticket, hails from Anambra North Senatorial District and had led the argument that the zone should be allowed to complete its two term tenure for equity’s sake.

    Until May 22, 2017, when Justice A. R Ozoemena of Enugu High Court granted an order of mandamus asking the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the Police to recognise Chief Martin Agbaso as the Acting Chairman of APGA, Governor Willie Obiano, who has supported the leadership of Victor Oye, was considered an unopposed governorship candidate of the party. But with Agbaso and his team now in charge of the party’s National Secretariat in Abuja, there is fear in Awka Government House over the governor’s hope of contesting the November 18, 2017 election as the party’s candidate. Some insiders also alleged that with the development, there is also the possibility of giving the ticket to an aspirant from another zone.

    As would be expected, the governor’s political machinery has been working round the clock to halt the development and secure Obiano’s ticket. The battle for Obiano’s candidacy has manifested in several facets, including political maneuvering and legal battles fought and won in courts.

    By last week of July for example, two high courts in Anambra State sitting in Nnewi and Awka gave rulings aimed at stopping Agbaso from conducting the governorship primaries of the party for the November 18 election.

    Although Oye insists the Enugu High Court ruling did not stop him from being the authentic National Chairman of the party, since, according to him, he was not a party to the case in Enugu, his faction of the party headed to court to stop Agbaso. However the court-recognised National Working Committee of APGA still maintains that Agbaso remains the party’s Acting National Chairman.

    It would be recalled that the party’s NWC had earlier taken exception to Oye’s resolve to approach the two courts in Anambra State after the Enugu High Court’s ruling. In a statement issued in Abuja and signed by APGA’s Acting National Publicity Secretary, Onapuruagu Prince Ukaegbu, the party had described the decision of Oye and his group to challenge the judgment of the Appeal Court at a lower court as ridiculing the Nigerian judiciary, stressing that it would not join hands in bringing the Nigerian judiciary to ridicule, as the judgment of the Appeal Court supersedes whatever judgment the group will get at the lower court.

    Ukaegbu had said: “Ochudo Martin Agbaso remains the National Chairman of APGA until the Court of Appeal or Supreme Court of Nigeria decides otherwise.

    “The party’s programme and activities for the November 18, 2017 governorship election in Anambra state are unstoppable.”

    The current crack in APGA can be traced to the time the party’s National Working Committee suspended Oye, for what it described as “gross misconduct.” The decision was taken at one of its monthly meeting in Abuja, following what it described as “constitutional breaches and inordinate practices of the chairman and other national officers.”

    The Deputy National Secretary of the party, Jerry Obasi, explaining the reason for the action, had said “the suspension was necessary in order to save the party.”

    Already, analysts are suggesting two scenarios that may play out: a situation where two candidates may either emerge in Anambra APGA or Obiano may be forced to look for another platform to seek re-election. News of Obiano’s planned defection to other parties had been bandied and denied severally. A concerned observer, Dr. Udochukwu Nweze, told The Nation during the week that “the two possibilities are grim developments for the political party that have governed the state for about 10 years.”

    So, as the party’s primary, which was earlier scheduled for August 15, by the Oye-led NWC approaches without the resolution of the leadership crisis, most observers who spoke to The Nation during the week agreed with Nweze that except the ruling party does something fast to resolve the crisis, it’s fate and that of Governor Obiano or any other candidate that may emerge from the party’s factions are evidently in a precarious situation. They said if the party ends up with two or more candidates, it will give strong opportunity to the opposition parties in the state who are already celebrating the crisis in APGA.

    APC: the pressure builds up

    Perhaps more than in any other political party, keen observers of the current political developments in Anambra State told The Nation that the pressure over the choice of flagbearer and the zone to take the slot is more in the All Progressives Congress (APC) where many heavyweights have filed out to contest for the ticket. The contest became so competitive that the party had to set up a committee led by former the former Governor of old Anambra State, Ifeanyichukwu Nwobodo of Enugu State to interface with the aspirants and help prune down the number before the primaries. We gathered that the task has not been an easy one.

    A source, who pleaded not to be named, told us that one of the first major tasks the committee had to tackle was whether or not APC leader in Anambra State, Senator Chris Ngige, who is also the serving Minister of Labour, will contest the primary. Besides Ngige, the issue of which of the influential aspirant should step down for the other has tasked the members of the South-East Committee whenever they meet with the aspirants as a group and in private. The Vice Chairman of the committee and former Governor of Abia State, Orji Uzor Kalu, gave a hint of the challenge in one of the meetings in Abuja, when he was quoted as saying rather jokingly that the task of the committee would be made more simple if the aspirants can lock up themselves in a room and elect a single aspirant for the party.

    Our investigation shows that the powerful leaders in the state believe APC, as the ruling political party at the centre, is the most likely platform to dislodge the ruling APGA today and hence the mass defections of Anambra moneybags and top politicians to the party.

    But while the prospect of APC, as the-party-to-beat in the forthcoming election, seems clear to all, insiders said what may nail it is the way it would ultimately handle the vociferous zoning formula agitation and the caliber of candidate it finally throw to the ring.

    Already, there is what Dr. Neweze described aspirants’ parade in APC. According to him, “two factors account for this. One is the crisis that sharply divided the once formidable Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state. Although the ruling of the Supreme Court may be said to have resolved the leadership crisis in the party, it came rather too late for the party so long as November 2017 governorship election is concerned.

    The second reason is the fact that the incumbent governor, Willie Obiano, is determined to fly the ticket of his party, APGA. Every serious contender for the office of governor now knows that it would be more realistic to pursue that ambition in another political platform. The leadership crisis in APGA today is an added booster and a pointer to the possibility of defeating APGA in November. So, many aspirants see APC as the most powerful alternative platform. This is understandable because APC is not only attractive because it is the party in power at the centre but also because it has emerged a very strong party even in the state, especially after the last registration and revalidation exercise,” he said.

    By June this year, about 20 aspirants have been linked with the ambition to pick the party’s ticket. A few months back, over 15 aspirants were confirmed as making concrete moves to contest for APC governorship ticket this year. The state party chairman, Mr. Emeka Ibe, who made the revelation then, told reporters that some aspirants include political heavyweights like Senator Andy Uba, from Anambra South; Dr. Chike Obidigbo, from Anambra North; the 2014 governorship candidate of the PDP, Dr. Tony Nwoye also from Anambra North; former Senator Uche Ekwunife, who served in the Senate on the ticket of the PDP and former PDP governorship aspirant, Dr. Obinna Uzor.

    Other important aspirants he confirmed their interests in his party include APC National Auditor, Chief George Moghalu, Chief Ifeanyi Ubah, Engr. Barth Nwibe; Engr. Obinna Onunkwo; Chief Ralph Okeke; Paul Chukwuma; Ifeanyi Ubah, and Prince Donatus Okonkwo.

    Although over 20 members may have indicated interest to contest for the ticket of APC then, either formally or informally, our investigation at the beginning of July this year shows that less than 10 of such named aspirants have visible structures and supporters. They include Senator Andy Uba from South, George Moghalu, also from South; Dr. Chike Obidigbo from North and Dr. Tony Nwoye also from the North. Others are Engr. Barth Nwibe, former Senator Uche Ekwunife, Chief Ifeanyi Ubah, and the current Minister of Labour, Senator Chris Ngige, from Anambra Central, whose possible interest has been a source of interest to the other aspirants.

    Most of the sources who spoke to us this week said Anambra North and South are the ones insisting on being allowed to produce the candidate as a way of respecting what they described as the acceptable zoning formula in the state. Advocates of zoning it to the North, who produced the current APGA governor said APC would be committing a serious blunder if it tried to dislodge Obiano by using a candidate that would translate to denying the North of their second tenure. But the advocates of zoning the candidature to the South are of the view that the zone under former Governor Mbadinuju did not complete a second term. So, according to them, it would be fair to go back to the South before returning to the North.

    The debate, we gathered, has been intense in APC. One of the aspirants from Anambra North, who spoke to The Nation off record on Thursday, said that all the other political parties have conceded to zoning their ticket to the North. According to him, “It is worrisome that only APC is still prevaricating on this very important decision which will guarantee victory for the party at the governorship poll”.

    PDP still a big player

    Notwithstanding the defection of many of its influential leaders and aspirants before the resolution of the leadership crisis by the Supreme Court, an insider source told The Nation on Wednesday that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is still very strong in Anambra State where it once reigned supreme. With the resolution of the crisis, its plans and possible candidate will soon be unveiled. Early June, the party had boasted that it was set to take back power from APGA.

    The Organising Secretary of the party in the state, Prince Samben Nwosu, said this during an inaugural meeting of the party’s executive council of Nnewi North Local Government Area.

    He revealed that the party, “in a move to actualise the dream of taking over Anambra in the next election, has reconciled factions in the party to become a united big family under one strong indivisible umbrella.” According to him, “Anambra is primarily a PDP state, so APGA in power merely capitalised on crisis and fractionalisation which rocked the PDP in the past. I am happy to inform you that every shade of interest has been taken care of in the newly constituted and inaugurated executive council which has automatically taken care of issues of our party splitting into many factions, as a result of that, many of our members who are on sabbatical in other political parties have started discussing with us to facilitate their return,” he claimed

    He also slammed the current leadership in the state, alleging failure of governance which he said will aid the plan of PDP to retake power from APGA. “Failure of APGA is the gain of PDP because it is now a common knowledge among the good people of the state that they need a credible alternative to a government that is only working on billboards. PDP will give them that alternative,” He boasted.

    UPP also hopeful

    Besides APGA, APC and PDP, another party that is making waves in the forthcoming governorship election in Anambra is Chief Chekwas Okorie-led United Progressive Party (UPP). By the first week of July, it was confirmed that at least eight aspirants, including former Corps Marshall of Federal Roads Safety Corps, Osita Chidoka, had lined up for the party’s ticket.

    Speaking after collecting the party’s nomination form in Abuja, Chidoka said: “Anambra people are desirous of a new beginning and the time is now. Our state with its exceptional human and natural resources needs a very creative and resourceful government to achieve its full potentials. What we have as governance today is a mere celebration of the ordinary.

    “We want to move away from celebrating the ordinary to instituting a system that works for our people. We want to build a system that provides the opportunity for our innate capacity and potentials as a people, to be fully developed.

    “Our model is one that makes sure that the individual is the center of all government policies and projects. We want a state that is transparent and all-inclusive with a government that ensures that every Anambra person is given the unhindered platform to excel in his chosen sphere of endeavor”, he said.

    “Anambra people are desirous of a new beginning and the time is now. Our state with its exceptional human and natural resources needs a very creative and resourceful government to achieve its full potentials. What we have as governance today is a mere celebration of the ordinary.

    “We want to move away from celebrating the ordinary to instituting a system that works for our people. We want to build a system that provides the opportunity for our innate capacity and potentials as a people, to be fully developed.

    Chief Okorie, who described Chidoka as ‘the real Tiger,” the symbol of his party said he represents the ideals and manifesto of the UPP, adding that the party was set to win the November election.

    Considering the intense politicking, it seems certain that the election promises to be one of the most intriguing notwithstanding the threats of pro-Biafran groups.

  • My biggest challenge as governor, by Obi

    Former governor of Anambra State, Mr. Peter Obi said that his biggest challenge as governor was the battle to change the mindset of the Anambra people.

    Speaking while addressing students of St. Michael’s Model Comprehensive Secondary School, Nimo, Obi explained how tough it was trying to make his Executive Council and others who worked with him to understand the concept of accountability and responsibility in governance.

    Mr. Obi expressed happiness that the battle he fought to return schools to the missions has been yielding fruit in the improvement in infrastructure and general performance. He thanked the Church for their efforts, and called on the wealthy to support the Church to make the society a better place

    He said, “When I expressed the intention to return schools to missions at a State Executive Council meeting only three out of 30 members supported me. Even Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) threatened to go on strike if I tried that and actually did. But I knew I was right and insisted until I had my way. Today I am so happy to see the transformation in this school since I took the bold but unpopular decision.”

    In his remarks, the manager of the school, Rev. Fr. Francis Obi Okoye thanked Mr. Obi for coming. He said Anambra people would ever remain grateful to him for his disposition towards education which has continued even after he left office.

  • ‘The challenge of security, peace, in times of economic recession’

    ‘The challenge of security, peace, in times of economic recession’

    To Prof John A. Ayoade of the BOWEN University in Iwo, Osun State, political power can be reconfigured, though not without resistance, but it is not as easy to reconfigure the economy. The professor Emeritus, in this article, entitled:  “The challenge of peace and security in times of economic recession: The Nigerian experience”, says Nigeria must adopt a mission to drive a renewed vision and elect visionary leaders to truly evolve as a nation.

    Nigeria has been a political enigma from its colonial origin. It is not an organic whole and it has failed all efforts at integration, although the colonial founding fathers never intended it to be integrated. Unfortunately, their Nigerian successors invested more in the division for sectional political advantage. This was because shortly before political independence, politics as a process of allocation of powers and national resources has been appropriated as an allocation enterprise for sectional interests.

    With time, the gap between national and sectional interests widened to a point that national interest tended towards zero. This was worsened by the fratricidal internecine conflicts between and among the various sections of the country. What was the hope of Africa at independence became the sick man of Africa which suffered a military coup within six years of independence and became a subject of international mediation, first at Aburi, Ghana and later, in Kampala, Uganda. The likes of such countries as Gabon and Ivory Coast were availed diplomatic opportunities to meddle in the domestic affairs of Nigeria. A country which had hitherto prided itself as an expert in brinkmanship was at the verge of ‘sinkmanship’. The hope to join the higher League of Nations at independence vanished.  Succour came only after three years of civil war which was followed by a hurried post-conflict peace that did not address the causes of war.

    The conflict which has been simmering since then only awaits a trigger that is not too remote in the Nigerian political firmament. The drums of conflict are beating louder, publicly daring the authorities of the Nigerian State. As if the issues will go away, the Federal Government is carefully avoiding addressing the issue directly.

    The on-going political altercations arise from the fact that Nigeria has not evolved into a nation and neither has it attained a stage of integration that can drive development. As far back as 1947, the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo said that Nigeria was a mere geographical expression. It was, in fact, a country of diverse nations.

    Much later, he advised that the Nigerian Constitution should be constructed along the lines of the nationalities comprising Nigeria. Nigerians agreed with the country’s diversity. They however optimistically played it down by extolling the aspiration of unity in diversity when in reality it is a progressively diversifying diversity. As it turned out, the adversarial nature of the country continues to manifest in the continual incessant demand for the creation of new states from the old sates based on cultural differences and incompatibility. The language of demand on all occasions was so antagonistic that it is strange that resultant sates remain components of the same federation professing unity in diversity.

    The country of three regions at independence now stands at thirty six states with a recommendation by the 2014 Constitutional Conference that it should be increased to 54 states. Nigeria therefore operates a curious political arrangement of unity by division or, more appropriately, division in unity. It will appear that secession itself is an extension of the demand for the creation of separate states. Secession is only a difference of scale and not type because both are rooted in incompatibility. The multiplication of states in a country with a fixed boundary is an indication of a fissiparous relationship which is the root of national poverty and recession.

    By 2015, about two-thirds of the thirty six states could no longer meet the salary needs of the state civil service. The situation proved the point that most of the states were mere civil service states as petty traders and food sellers suffered shrinkage in their sales and income. The situation also proved the fragile nature of the economy because governments in Nigeria are the single largest employers of labour with a weak private sector. The prominent visibility of the public sector in employment is a result of the high profile and privileges of the colonial civil service. The post-independence successive governments in Nigeria did not help matters because they often vaunted the omnipotence of government without encouraging the diversification of skills, entrepreneurship, and public-private partnership. In the past, communities established secondary schools, constructed roads, and awarded local and overseas scholarships.

    Of recent, the governments arrogantly asked communities to hands-off such developments. It suddenly became an offence for parents/teachers associations to be involved in the development of the schools.

    The demand for the creation of states is both an indication of diversity as well as the conception of the state as a milk-cow. Most of the demands are based on the propensity to have a share of the ‘national cake’. The lexicon of the demand for new states shows very clearly the consumerist goals of the protagonists. Little or no attention is paid to social and economic viability of states but the income derivable form the federal purse.

    Occasionally, one hears such pious phrases and clichés like bringing government close to the people; equity; ethnic geo-political balance and federal presence among others which sidestep economic realities. All such demands are based on ethnic or geographic competition for siphoning federal resources. The end result is the mushrooming of unviable mini-states that serve only the needs of the political elite of such states. It is no surprise, then, that Nigeria has one of the highest per capita costs of governance with very high overhead cost, high recurrent cost and little capital cost. There is therefore relatively little national infrastructural investment resulting in mere subsistence governments.

    The different constitutional efforts for political integration have not yielded positive results because the benefactors devised the measures. These measures include the zoning of political offices, federal character, rotational presidency and other equalisation measures. Let us look at the zoning of political offices first. Zoning is neither a constitutional, nor statutory requirement. It was a device introduced by the defunct National Party of Nigeria (NPN) in the Second Republic. It is therefore more of a conventional advisory to political parties. It could enhance electoral appeal of a political party in contrast to another party that does not adopt the zoning formula. Being voluntary and advisory, the implementation has been haphazard. The lack of clarity of its implementation was one of the political shibboleths of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan’s bid for a second presidential term.

    First, there was the definitional problem of a second term. Second, there was the problem of observance of an agreement duly entered into. Finally, there was the problem of which was the legitimate zone to present the presidential candidate. Apart from the particular problem arising from the Jonathan presidency, zoning is also not necessarily clear-cut in a multi-party situation since each political party could decide its order of zoning.

    Thus in 2015, the All Progressives Congress (APC)  selected Mohammadu Buhari from the Northwest while the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)  selected Dr. Jonathan from the Southsouth. Each party’s zoning arrangement may therefore contradict, which means, in effect, that zoning may be mutually neutralised by the parties.

    The much celebrated constitutional federal character requirement for appointments was meant to serve as mortar for the various nationalities. The constitutional clause was to the effect all executive bodies should mirror the diversity of the country by ensuring that appointments are made from all geographical parts of the country. The executive bodies must be representatively reflective of the plural nature of the country, such that no part of the country dominates the government while other parts are excluded or under-represented. At the drafting stages, this was conceived as the non-exclusion principle. The aim is to create a sense of belonging and a sense of collective ownership through participation.

    The clause therefore became an employment bill for the political class and a rationale for bloated executives. Nigeria therefore has a very high ratio of executive to the population that gulps funds for development. It has therefore contributed to national poverty and recession.

    Apart from that, it has not worked as the expected political adhesive or coagulant of diverse nationalities. It would have been strange if social homogenisation resulted from such ethnic polarisation. In fact, it could not have served that purpose because the ethnic groups or the geopolitical groups which are proxies of the ethnic groups form the basis of allocation. The application of federal character, therefore, inadvertently prioritises ethnicity and consequently, a source of acrimonious disagreement among the nationalities who complain about the computation and weighting of the federal character requirement.

    A major consequential source of complaint is that quantity is not synonymous with quality, such that arithmetical equality does not translate to qualitative equality. Neither is federal character interpreted to cover less divisive factors of diversity like ideology and stages of development of the various parts of the country.

    The trend of the discussion so far, is that the root of poverty and recession lies in the structure and administration of the Nigerian state. There is an incongruity between the design of the country and the post-independence vision and mission of the country. Such a mismatch is clearly demonstrated in the relationship between the purpose of federalism and the practice of federalism in Nigeria. The practice of federalism in Nigeria is bedeviled by the boss syndrome which results in the hierarchical ordering of the governments of the federation rather than the co-equality of governmental jurisdictions.

    This is complicated by the misperception of the role of government as the dispenser of personal, ethnic and sectional advantages. The system operated as if private sector productivity was either optional or unnecessary. And worse still, the political elite divided the country into political fiefs called states to multiply salary pay-points and inadvertently reduce the capacity of the resultant states to drive development. Nigerian governments became veritable harbingers of poverty by multiplying salary pay-points. Extractive political institutions as we have depicted above, tend to produce extractive or rentier economic systems. Even if there is growth under extractive institutions, they cannot endure because growth requires innovation which ipso facto, results in creative destruction that will destabilise established power relations. The established elite will therefore resist innovation. Extractive regimes also tend to make instability inevitable because they generate fierce competition, forcing the extractive elite to defend its unmerited privileged position. The contingent outcome of instability is decline of productivity which tends to end up in poverty.

    Neither has Nigeria attained the level of clear functional statehood. The fragility of the Nigerian state as depicted above has made scholars at different times to describe it as a soft state or a failed state by others. The state is a complex entity and there is hardly an agreement on its purpose and scope.

    For the purpose of analysis, the state can be seen roughly as a dichotomy with internal and external aspects. Its internal aspect is represented by the government while the external aspect is the country. The government is the highest ruling authority and executive agent of the country. Being the highest authority, it possesses internal sovereignty and the extent quality of its rule of the domestic society is a function of its legitimacy which determines the nature of state-society relations or the relations between the decision-maker and the decision-taker.

    Jean Bodin, espousing the juridical view of the state, identified the chief mark of state sovereignty as the power to give law to all citizens, generally and singly. Thus, the state is vested with the power to create, interpret and enforce the law. In addition to the power to legislate for all, it also has the sole power of coercion or the monopoly of legitimate force such that in the view of John Austin, the state is the superior commanding the inferior. The control of force is a consequential power to strengthen legislative power. All, except the agents of the state are disarmed, private armies are prohibited and the power of constraint is domiciled in the state alone. The monopoly of force has however not prevented dissidence in Nigeria because domestic weakness arising from unresolved national question and political power configuration is exploited different elements in the country. The state monopoly of force is challenged at different times and places.

    For more than two decades, the Niger Delta militants have challenged the authority of the Nigerian state and have succeeded squeezing some concessions for laying down their arms. But, this has been temporary as the success has become an incentive for more armed challenge. Similarly, from about 2009, a group known as the Boko Haram employed Islam as an instrument to challenge the authority of the Nigerian state in the Northeast zone. At some point, they controlled about 14 local government areas and hoisted their flag with intent to create an Islamic State. It was a challenge of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Nigeria. The power of the state to guarantee peace and security to the citizens is also regularly threatened by gangs that infested Nigeria with kidnapping for ransom.

    It started in the Niger Delta as a strategy of the militants to press their case. Oil workers were abducted and killed when ransom was not paid. Now kidnapping has become a national menace with kidnappers demanding huge ransom in foreign currency and even establishing detention camps within the city. With these threats, the Nigerian state appears to be losing claim to its raison d’etat which is the guarantee of the lives of citizens and property. The loss of empirical statehood explains the scanty inflow of foreign direct investment (fdi) and consequential heightening of poverty.

    It is not only the juridical function of the state that has been challenged. Equally so, is the physical property of the state which is the fact that the state is an area with a government, population and a means of keeping order. The citizens are part of that physical state because they live within the geographical boundary. Membership of the physical state is normally compulsory for all that live within that geographical boundary. Obedience to the laws is mandatory, disobedience is punishable, and secession attempt is treasonable.

    Of recent, even the physical extent of the Nigerian state is not sacrosanct. There are open and audible announcements of intention to secede from the Nigerian state in the finalistic language of no return. The Federal Government is handicapped in confronting the open breach by the reality of the extra- constitutional configuration of the country rather than by dereliction.

    Nigeria therefore exhibits all the signs of a sub-optimal state driven by extra-constitutional considerations and consequently unable to perform the minimal constitutional duties of statehood. It continues to muddle along because of a demonstrated unwillingness to deal with the fundamentals of building a state from the congeries of nationalities at war with themselves.

    The complex dilemma of Nigerian state is that the architecture of political power is not coterminous with the architecture of the economy. The troubling paradox is that the area that is perceived to be less economically endowed exercises political control over the economy because there is unequal distribution of power and unequal distribution of resources.

    Unfortunately, while political power can be reconfigured, although not without resistance, it is not as easy to reconfigure the economy. Although political power is required to reconfigure political power, power is hardly ever conceded or freely transferred particularly in a conflict-ridden polity where power confers immeasurable advantage. Power, by its nature, never lacks patronage because it is highly sought after, even more so in a deeply-segmented society.

    The resultant negative effect of the high pitched competition in such societies is poor and/or sub-optimal decision-making. Parties negotiate all issues and since every sectional actor wants the maximum benefit, facilities are sometimes splintered below the level of functional efficiency or located most inappropriately while crucial decisions fail the rationality test. Even the punishment of crime is seen through ethnic and regional lenses. The Nigerian governance system is a conducive environment for breeding poverty and violence. Poverty derives, in part, from maladministration just as violence could be a product of bad administration and perceived inequity

    Nigeria is a paradox. It is the seventh most populous country in the world and the sixth largest producer of petroleum in the world. One is tempted to say that it has no reason to be poor. However, the lack of good governance, general insecurity, and stupendous accountability challenges pushed her into the league of the poor. One hundred and twelve million Nigerians making 67.1 per cent of the population lived below poverty line by 2016.  Poverty has maintained a steady increase with 54.7 per cent in 2004; 60.9 per cent in 2010; 60 per cent in 2015 and a whopping 72 per cent in August 2016. Nigeria is not just one of the poorest countries; it is also one of the most unevenly developed countries of the world. The poverty prevalence in the country ranges from 46.9 per cent in the Southwest to 74.3 per cent in the Northwest and Northeast. Another source puts the national average at 46 per cent while the prevalence of the six geo-political zones is as hereunder: Southwest (19.3 per cent); Southsouth (25.2 per cent); Southeast (27.36 per cent); Northcentral (45.7 per cent); Northeast (76.8 per cent) and Northwest (80.9 per cent).

    The average for the South comes to 23.95 per cent while the average for the North is 67.8 per cent which is nearly triple the average for the South. The sharp contrast between North and South is one of the causes of political instability in Nigeria. Even when the North has been broken into nineteen states and the South into seventeen states, the threat of the North remains. Nigerians continue to complain and fear Northern political clout, Northern numerical superiority and Northern political advantage. Whenever Northern prowess is contrasted with Southern human and material resource advantage, southerners feel that they derive less than their contributions to the Nigerian state. That feeling of deprivation is a source of socio-political tension in the country. Be that as it may, there is evidence of affluent poverty throughout the country. Most houses on the major streets of Nigeria are defaced with shops for retail pure water. Able-bodied college graduates sell telephone recharge cards and commercial motorcycles called ‘okada’ or ‘Going’ have replaced taxis and buses on our streets. Nigerians now take jolly rides on ‘okada’ making telephone calls and sending text messages as the go. I believe that some can now even take a nap as the ride.

    Both structural political and economic imbalance threaten the peace of the country. It is equally important to factor into this discussion that political conduct shapes and is shaped by political context. It is more interesting to go behind the formal structures into the actual processes of politics.

    Karl Marx appears to have correctly stated that men make history although not in circumstances of their own choosing. He therefore identifies mutuality between structure and agent. Every action is therefore a product of the mix of structural and agential factors. We have taken some space to explain the structural factor which is the setting in which social, political and economic events occur and are meaningful. It is necessary to look at political conduct defined as the actor’s conscious effort to realise his goal. In commenting on the Corruption Perception Index (CPI), Transparency International (TI) confirmed that the lower – ranked countries are ‘plagued by untrustworthy and badly functioning public institutions like police and judiciary’. This is a conflation of structure and agent. Oftentimes neither structure nor agency alone can explain a phenomenon. For example, the rate of unemployment in Nigeria rose from 10.4 per cent in 2015 to 14.2 per cent (11.549 million people) in 2016 but it is not every unemployed person that engaged in crime just as some employed people also engaged in crime. This means that crime can be explained from both structural and agential perspectives. It must be emphasised, though, that work is the best route out of poverty and according to Guy Ryder, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Director-General, ‘access to decent work opportunities for all … is the most effective way to increase participation, lift people out of poverty, reduce inequality and drive economic growth’.

    Nigeria ranked very low on Good Governance, Global Peace and Corruption. The World Bank identified six key indices of good governance as follows:

    • Voice and accountability
    • Political stability and lack of violence
    • Government effectiveness
    • Regulatory quality
    • Rule of law
    • Control of corruption.

    Good governance is simply the legitimate socio-political citizen expectation from the state and which the state has responsibility to deliver. The Ibrahim Index of African Governance in 2016 ranked Nigeria in the 33rd position among 45 countries in 2016 putting Nigeria in the last thirteen African countries. On Global Peace Index, Nigeria ranked 151 out of 163 countries in 2014; 151 in 2015; 149 in 2016; and 149 in 2017. Nigeria’s best performance was in 2016 and 2017 with a placement in the last fifteen (15) countries. It is axiomatic that a population with adequate basic needs is most unlikely to resort to violence to solve problems. We may therefore say that, to some extent, that violence is a possible sign that basic needs are not met. Nigeria has about 3.3 million internally displaced persons which is Africa’s largest ranking behind Syria and Columbia on a global scale. Nigeria’s performance on Corruption was equally poor. In fact President Muhammadu Buhari was blunt when he said that ‘Corruption will kill Nigeria unless Nigeria kills corruption’. Corruption has grown to mega heights and Nigeria is better identified by corruption than by her national flag. Even as early as the 1980’s Alhaji Shehu Shagari saw the need for suggesting an ethical revolution to combat corruption. Unfortunately, the desire was not backed by political will.

    I want at this stage to argue that our conception of violence is too narrow. We often see violence only as actions that draw blood, destroy life and limb. There are however actions that sap more blood over time from a larger population.

    I include corruption, poverty, and bad governance among such slow, soft and sure incapacitation agents. We have said a few things about soft or silent violence. We may now turn to hard violence which within a short time snuffs out lives, displace populations and disrupt economic activities. Nigeria has had quite a number of such violence in recent history. They include: the Maitatsine; the Niger Delta militants attack; the Boko Haram insurgency; kidnapping and the recent Nnamdi Kanu’s demand for Biafra. All of these are insurrections that take advantage of the domestic weakness of the state. The state has a compulsory hold on citizens and when that hold loosens by acts of commission or omission, citizens who have reasons, genuine or otherwise, resort to self-help.

    It is the natural opportunistic moment. Thucydides said in his book entitled: The Peloponnesian War “Of the gods we believe, and of men we know, that by a necessary law of nature they rule wherever they can”. The Niger Delta crisis is a product of illogical neglect resulting in on-going illogicality of demands. Curiously the ancient Nigerian Mineral Act allocates the ownership of all minerals on land and below to the government. The law is an example of the greed of the modern state. The law would perhaps have been better to also include all moving creatures on land including the people. The law almost equated the State with God as defined in Psalm 24.1 which states ‘The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein’. Three things are wrong with this massive appropriation. First, the nationalists opposed it when the British passed the ‘obnoxious’ law in 1944 but they did not abrogate it after independence. Second, it failed the test of history because in the First Republic, the derivation formula gave 50 per cent of the proceeds of minerals to the land/state of origin. The explanation for the present 13 per cent wobbles against precedence. Third, any law that does not have a human face does not belong in the human race. Derivation is not a pocket money concession from a higher authority to a lesser authority. It is a right to restore the mining areas to a tenantable position, as it were. Finally, the law violates the ‘golden rule’ of treating others as one would like to be treated. At the Afe Babalola Committee of the National Political Reform Conference in 2005, the question was asked whether the North would have accepted 13 per cent derivation if oil were discovered in Kaduna rather than the Delta. Significant members of the Committee quibbled rather than answering the question directly. The above queries easily turn the law into an instrument of expropriation.

    The reaction of the Niger Delta militants from Isaac Boro to date threatened the survival of the Nigerian State. The reality of modern statehood is that bad laws must still be obeyed until those laws are changed. Violation of a bad law is an offence just as the violation of a good law. There are however two avenues to changing a bad law. It is either changed via persuasion and due process or by violent means outside the realm of law. Whenever the second option is adopted, the law will take its toll because it is a challenge to the sovereignty of the state.

    Maitasine and Boko Haram are different in cause, course, modus operandi and ideology. While the militants operated on principally on grounds of rights, justice and equity, Matasine and Boko Haram advanced a sectarian position. They argued for a supposedly purer Islam. It was clear in the case of Boko Haram that the goal was territorial and religion was a camouflage for territorial ambition. This was a clever choice because religion is one of the most difficult institutions to confront. Religions are meant to be divine orders beyond disputation. To dispute it is to incur divine wrath which must be avoided by all believers. Religion is therefore, the most effective agent of socio-political mobilisation. Apart from the appeal to spirituality, Boko Haram was not successful at propaganda. It argued that western education was a sin without proposing a viable alternative. Its tactics and strategy also contains elements of weakness. It bombed churches and mosques thus violating Islamic laws that make non-combatants immune from attack and protect Muslims from attacks by fellow Muslims. It employed a scatter strategy of attack in Abuja, Kano, Bauchi and Potiskum among other areas. Although it struck terror in the public, it did not advance its goal in terms of consolidation. The kidnapping of the Chibok schoolgirls was a strategic blunder that earned Boko Haram negative international attention. As long as the girls were held captive, Boko Haram remained in the international media. Boko Haram strategy was very destabilising resulting in mass movement and contributing to large camps of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). Its activities lasted that long because of the lack of cooperation of the host communities partly because of the fear of reprisals and partly for political reasons. By December 2016, Boko Haram was declared officially degraded. This is not to say that it is gone for good. By the nature of insurgencies which have no central command, every fighter tends to become a General still fighting on. Insurgencies last long. Chinese communists fought for 28 years, Vietnamese communists for 30 years and Sandinistas for 18 years. So, it is not yet Uhuru from Boko Haram.

    Another source of insecurity in the Nigerian state is the terrorism of kidnappers. It started as a tactic of the Niger Delta militants to fund arms purchase, force the oil companies out and earn money to run the organisation.  They kidnapped expatriates and got the employers to pay ransom for their release. It eventually escalated and gangs developed in other parts of the country, including faraway Northern Nigeria. It soon became the most lucrative business that was not quoted on the stock market. The telephone became the most effective facilitator of kidnapping with a war against the middle and upper classes. The qualification for kidnapping is the ability to pay huge ransom. Information is required for a successful operation and the recent communication explosion has aided the nefarious act. Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp and email among other means  have become sources of required information and those who are unwary expose themselves.

    The last and perhaps the most difficult of these threats confronting Nigeria is the recent Nnamdi Kanu phenomenon. Kanu established the Independent Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) to demand for the sovereign state of Biafra. He was incarcerated for that demand and he is currently on bail. He has been playing host to youths who want the actualisation of Biafra. The older and more experienced Igbo are treading softly. The experience of the civil war cannot easily go away. The Yoruba often warn in like circumstances that those who witness Sango (god of thunder) disappear underground will not insult Oba Koso. Any Igbo born after 1970 can only learn about the civil war from moonlight stories told after a good meal of pounded yam. That is different from direct experience. It is only when myths are tested against reality that they are validated. Just recently, Kanu instructed the people of Anambra to shun the November 18, 2017 governorship election as a sign that the Igbo have nothing to do with Nigeria any more.  The National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Grand Alliance which is the ruling party in the state, Mr. Ifeatu Obiokoye, wrote that the call was ’irresponsible, and devoid of intellectual focus’.  He went further that Kanu had no authority to speak for the Igbo of the Southeast. Obiokoye emphasized that the Biafra concept was a metaphor for the demand for equity and fair play in the Nigerian state and not a separate movement. He continued: “We are concerned about the continued existence of Nigeria under the present structural arrangement.” He finally advised Kanu to drop the ‘Emperor’ perception of himself. Biafra is not new to Nigerian political narrative.  Secession had always been used as a bargaining tool in Nigerian politics. It was Ojukwu’s blunder to go beyond threat that led to the civil war.

    Nigeria has a quantum of security challenges. The Federal Government has to be strategic in handling those challenges. Some require constitutional adjustments, others require mere legislation, while yet others require negotiation. In adopting any of these measures, political actors must place country above self and clan and place tomorrow above today and yesterday. Nigeria must adopt a mission to drive a renewed vision and elect visionary leaders.

     

  • Entrepreneurs, students get fresh challenge

    A contest for startup entrepreneurs and students across the country will hold on April 24, 2017 at Oriental Hotel, Lekki Expressway, Lagos.

    The contest which  is organized by FinTech Associates, a Nigerian FinTech solution provider, the Digital Finance Institute, a digital finance think tank based in Canada and Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria Centre for Financial Studies is part of the First National FinTech Conference.

    The Startup Pitch Challenge invites startups entrepreneurs that are involved in financial technology to apply for a chance to pitch their solutions before a panel of expert judges at the FinTech Nigeria Conference event.

    “The challenge allows startups to have some stage time to showcase their innovative technology and receive valuable feedback to refine their solutions and scale, as well as to join in growing the ecosystem in Nigeria,” the Executive Director and Founder of the Digital Finance Institute, Christine Duhaime, said.

    The  Knowledge Events Executive of Fintech Associates, Detan Akinhanm, said: “This initiative is planned to tap on the creativity of the Nigerian youths and we look forward to product pitches that have the potential to change the financial services landscape”.

  • Firm to tackle housing challenge

    Firm to tackle housing challenge

    Determined to join the battle to reduce the housing deficit in the country, a Lagos real estate company, Cross and Churchill Estates Limited, has launched a triple assault on the problem. It has three estates of 50-unit apartments at Lekki Peninsula on the Victoria Island-Ibeju Lekki corridor.

    The projects are the Orangeville Residences (Berkshire Apartments), which phase one has been completed, Shepherd Apartments, also finished, and Fort Alexander.

    Berkshire Apartments consist of 24 units of standard and affordable two- and three-bedroom apartments. Shepherd’s Apartments II have 16 units of three-bedroom apartments, and the Fort Alexander boasts of a 10-unit apartments.

    The Berkshire Apartments and Shepherds Apartments are to be inaugurated next month.

    Berkshire Apartments are located at Okun-Ajah (on Okun-Ajah- Coastal Road), Eti-Osa Local Government Area, while Shepherd Apartments are sited after Adiva plains/Beechwood Estates, Lakowe Lake Resorts and Mayfair Gardens.

    The estates feature stand-by generator, water treatment plant, paved floor, drains and walkways, parking space for two cars per apartment, security post and CCTV system. This is why its promoters have labelled the estate as “a haven of affordable luxury.” Besides, its location of just about five minutes before Amen Estates and about eight minutes before the junction of the proposed Lagos Airport, makes it investors’ delight.

    Its Managing Director, Mr. Taiwo Ogunbodede, said his firm has built a sterling portfolio of properties by creating value at vintage locations and distinctive communities. He explained that while his team specialises in building highly desirable developments and structured transactions, it takes the greatest pleasure in creating beautiful communities that enrich lives, relationship that lasts and, above all, building trust. This mission, he further said, is why Cross and Churchill ensures it understands the needs of its clients and works diligently to achieve the results they desire. Hence, the firm has, over the years, developed the knack for creative and out-of-the-box solutions to housing requirements.

    “Orangeville Premium Apartments adorns one of the most prestigious areas of Lagos and Nigeria – “The Lekki – Peninsula”.  Coupled with the humongous opportunities that abound in this vicinity, the Lekki-Peninsula has created massive residential and commercial real estate opportunities, making it a magnetic hub. The Berkshire Apartments is a chic edifice spreading across three floors which blends modern attitude with traditional delight to create contemporary living with high specification facilities.  Our bespoke living room/dining room, which was crafted with your extra coziness in mind,” Ogunbodede said, adding that the Shepherd’s Apartment II is a masterfully crafted luxurious home offering  a blend of modern attitude with traditional neighbourhood comforts and brings a new meaning to urban living.

    Cross and Churchill has also ensured that the apartments fits into people’s pockets in terms of affordability by reducing the commitment fees to as little as 10 per cent. “We reduced it to make entry level easy. We also offer our customers, the best in price in terms of finishing,” he said.

  • Our character challenge

    In 1994, Rwanda erupted into one of the most appalling cases of mass murder the world has witnessed since World War II. Many of the majority Hutu turned on their Tutsi and moderate Hutu neighbours, killing an estimated 800,000 people. It didn’t end there; it also created a huge refugee crisis when the Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) troops entered Kigali, the capital. Hundreds of thousands, if not millions – mainly Hutus – fled to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) creating another crisis there.

    How did Rwanda turn things around in less than 20 years through character education? What can Nigeria can learn from it? For even the most casual of observers, there are striking similarities about what happened in Rwanda in most African countries including Nigeria. So how did Rwanda turned the tide and is today one of the choice tourist destination in Africa?

    A number of measures were adopted. Rwanda consciously embarked on national integration and orientation rather than focus on reprisal attacks and vengeance. The British Guardian – while commemorating the 20th anniversary of the genocide – put it this way: “Born in the years since the genocide, children are educated in schools that are strongly encouraged to desist from using potentially divisive labels. Pupils are discouraged from identifying themselves as Hutu or Tutsi and are instead asked to focus on building the future of a common Rwanda. To this end, in 2001, the government unveiled a new flag and national anthem.”

    Next was the establishment of special village courts called gacacas. With strong encouragement from the government, survivors across the country then accepted the perpetrators back into their communities. There are unbelievable stories – by African standards – where perpetrators and their victims now live side by side in peace and harmony. This is complemented by the practice of doing regular community work, which was grounded in the Rwandan tradition of ‘umuganda.’ This was reintroduced not only as part of the effort to rebuild the country but as a way to foster a community spirit. Once a month, Rwandans are called upon to perform communal tasks such as building a house for the needy, laying a road and other activities that bind people together.

    My intervention today is on the need for character education. Again, even the most casual observer knows that we have deep seated problems in Nigeria. Most of these problems are self-inflicted, endemic and systemic. Both the leadership and the led are guilty. Take a look around and tell me if you’re not embarrassed by some of the people elected who now parade themselves as leaders. Have we had it this bad?

    I love what one church in Nigeria is doing. Knowing that it is most times difficult to change the views and perspective of full grown adults, it focuses instead on teenagers and young adults. It deploys huge resources to let them know always that what they see around them daily is an aberration and not the norm. The church sometimes takes them on excursions to developed countries for them to have a practical sense of what they’re being taught and encouraged to believe in. This to me is one of the best forms of character education.

    Character education is a learning process that enables students and adults in a school community to understand, care about and take action on core ethical values such as respect, justice, civic virtue, citizenship, and responsibility for self and others. Upon such core values, attitudes and actions are formed which then serves as the hallmark of safe, healthy and informed communities.

    Character education lessons include universally accepted character traits or core values such as respect, honesty, responsibility, and fairness. Think of how you would want to be treated by others, and there’s a good chance those actions are part of a character education lesson. It is more than slogans as it strives to assist children truly understand what good character traits are, and must help them think through how to live a life based on good traits. It equally focuses on teaching kids how to make good choices when faced with difficult situations.

    Our nation is gradually falling apart because of gross character deficiency. Can we honestly say the majority are trustworthy, have respect for authority and each other, take responsibility, act fairly, are caring, and are good citizens of the country? We all know the answer. But these are the superstructure or pillar which progressive societies rest upon. In essence, character education focuses on trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness/equity, caring and good citizenship.

    These six pillars of character education include topics about being honest, doing what you say you will do, respect for others, using self-control, being accountable, playing by the rules, treating people fairly, forgiving others, and more.

    We have a growing youth population whose world view are systematically being shaped by pervasive meaninglessness and twisted logic of crass materialism and demented social values. “Leaders” giving praises to god after spending time in prison, Senators dancing and displaying exotic cars they ‘worked so hard for.’ How they ‘worked so hard’ to get them we all know, yet they would be voted back to power again and again.

    This shouldn’t be surprising because we’ve chosen the road of less resistance as we continually nurture anti-intellectual environment that glorifies everything but learning. Even where we learn, some products of these learnings are an apology. It wasn’t the case two decades ago.

    I believe that the moral and ethical challenge we have today can be effectively tackled through character education to save succeeding generations. We should imbibe character education because of the positive impact it would have toward a child’s emotional, moral, and intellectual development. I came across a research which indicated that schools that teach character education in one of the western countries report higher academic performance, improved attendance, reduced violence, fewer disciplinary issues, reduction in substance abuse, and less vandalism.

    The research indicated further that students’ who attend character education schools report feeling safer because they know their fellow students value respect, responsibility, compassion and hard work. From a practical perspective, it’s simply easier to teach children who can exercise patience, self-control, and diligence than adults whose views and perspectives have been shaped and fixed.

    Prof Nail Fergusson, a Harvard historian in one of his book “The Great Degeneration: How Institutions Decay and Economies Die” said the real issue for societies is the quality of public reason. He shows how the degeneration of western society occurred or could occur. What stands out from his analysis however is that the quality of institutions for coordinating social transactions makes the critical difference between prospering and declining societies. So, when societies think clearly and act intelligently, they create superior social institutions to solve their problems. But when public reason is weak then problems persist or compound.

    The dilemma of public reason in Nigeria is very evident and troubling. The quality of debate is also depressing. In the place of logic there is anger, emotion and fury. This is where a vibrant civil society comes in. The focus of civil society is formulating policies and programmes that affect social and economic outcomes for the people. It plays its role best when it plays the policy game and not politically partisanship. Of course, policy is politics. But that is only to the extent that policy seeks to achieve broader political outcomes. Not just partisan outcomes.

    But the question to ask is where the civil societies in Nigeria are. When are we going to get there? We can only get there if we look at one of the core issues which is character. Character defines the man, and where there’s an absence of character everything falls apart.

     

     

  • ‘Hate comments‘ll worsen Nigeria’s unity challenge’

    The Muslim Students’ Society of Nigeria (MSSN), Lagos State Area Unit has appealed to religious leaders in the country to stop making inciting statements.

    Its President, Dr Saheed Ashafa, told MSSN National Executive Council (NEC) and National Working Committee (NWC) members at the weekend that hate speeches were becoming worrisome.

    He warned that no religion would benefit from the consequences of hate speeches.

    Ashafa said: “We all should realise that Nigeria is passing through a very tough and challenging period. As religious institutions, we should mitigate tension and not heighten it. Our role should be to calm and enlighten our faithful on the path of peace.

    “Killings in any part of the country should be condemned and not given a place in any society. Those fanning embers of crisis should desist from that to save this nation from sinking beyond recovery. Our unity is more needed now than ever. We must not worsen the economic and unity challenge Nigerians are faced with.”

    Ashafa subsequently hailed members of the MSSN NEC and NWC for their sacrifice, adding that Nigeria leaders needed to emulate them in selfless service.

  • The reading challenge

    During the regime of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, the National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS)was launched as the administration’s roadmap to a private sector-driven economy. The noise was heavy and most Nigerians knew about it. So it was shocking when a ministerial nominee didn’t know what it stands for. The nominee – an economist – said NEEDS meant the difference between human needs and human wants! Expectedly, he failed the screening.

    What did that amazing screening process tell us? It tells us in very clear terms that many people in high offices do not read and are uninformed about happenings around them. Yet they are decision-makers, and many of them confidently pontificate ill-digested concepts they want to impose on the society, mainly ideas already overtaken by current knowledge.

    It was against this background that I read Pius Adesanmi’s article “A Nigerian, Library and Lawmakers” in Sahara Reporters on Christmas Eve; and what a nice read it was. Adesanmi’s argument is that Nigerian politicians, unlike their counterparts in Canada, do not read. They don’t do research either. Nigerian legislators don’t make use of libraries either for research or for any other purpose. Most even employ aides to read and analyse issues for them. They hardly read the tacky statements issued on their behalf until it becomes controversial. Beyond the politicians however, there’s no doubt that the lack of reading has become a national problem.

    There is, therefore, the urgent need to make conscious efforts to return our citizenry to reading. We must re-ignite interest in the search for knowledge over the race for material acquisitions which is what engages most Nigerians. Those who cannot read should not lead. Those who cannot read, cannot write because there is no knowledge to pass on to others, and no intellectual springboard with which to transmit it. No road to proper and all-round knowledge excludes a good reading culture, notwithstanding whether the material is in soft (electronic) or hard copy.

    Today, it is hardly surprising that we have a generation of youths that detest reading; be it newspapers, magazines or novels, or even the textbooks prescribed for their school subjects! Instead, they prefer to spend much of their time browsing irrelevant websites on the internet or watching meaningless films on television. Don’t get me wrong; browsing the internet is very useful if one goes to useful sites. We all know it is however full of distracting and even destructive websites like sites that lure young and fertile minds towards terrorism.

    Why do most people detest reading? Different factors contributed to the decline among Nigerians. Economic factors, for instance, makes it difficult for some to personally buy books while some see books a “irrelevant” in the “rapidly changing world” as someone told me recently. I simply told him to compare the “rapidly changing world” with the past and tell me which was more stable and better. Taking him down memory lane, I revealed that even during the Native Authorities era “reading rooms” were established in local communities to encourage reading, but they’re are now extinct.

    Local government authorities of today fail to recognise the significance of reading rooms and libraries to individual and societal development. All they’re concerned about is how to get their monthly allocations and share it without undertaking projects that has direct bearing on the welfare of the people. Even where public libraries exist, they are stocked with outdated and unattractive reading materials.

    Millions of naira has been spent on the National Universities Commission’s (NUC) Virtual Library Project (VLP) that was launched in 2001; and since no one appears to be looking in that direction nothing substantial is there to show for the huge sums spent.

    For the records, VLP was launched to bolster the quality of learning and research in Nigerian schools through the e-books that the project aimed to provide. VLP was abandoned soon after it was launched, but in 2012 the NUC injected N500m into the project.

    The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) also has a Book Development Fund while the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) has a project to revive reading culture. Both have however not yet made the desired impact though funds are expended every year. Again, do Nigerians care about reading to ask what is happening there? It is perhaps another avenue where “idle” funds are “utilised.”

    Knowledge – as the popular saying goes – is power. Those who are blindly chasing money today – and they are in the majority – would one day discover that those who pursued knowledge through close contact with books would eventually decide what happens to society.

    Because of our disdain for knowledge – which books largely impart – we are gradually losing, some say we have already lost, our sense of critical thinking. Most of us simply swallow hook, line and sinker whatever the government, religious, economic or business leaders say without critically interrogating them. Should we always believe what they say without subjecting same to logical reasoning? Why are we often scared to gun for the best? Why do we celebrate mediocrity? And why are our institutions of higher learning not encouraging critical thinking?

    Socrates, it was who set the agenda for the tradition of critical thinking. Simply put, it is to reflectively question common beliefs and explanations, carefully distinguishing those beliefs that are reasonable and logical from those which – however appealing they may be to our native egocentrism, however much they serve our vested interests, however comfortable or comforting they may be – lack adequate evidence or rational foundation to warrant our belief.

    Socrates’ practice was followed by the critical thinking of Plato (who recorded Socrates’ thought), Aristotle, and the Greek skeptics, all of who emphasised that things are often very different from what they appear to be and that only the trained mind is prepared to see through the way things look to us on the surface (delusive appearances) to the way they really are beneath the surface (the deeper realities of life).

    From this ancient Greek tradition emerged the need, for anyone who aspires to understand the deeper realities, to think systematically, to trace implications broadly and deeply, for only thinking that is comprehensive, well-reasoned, and responsive to objections can take us beyond the surface. Can anyone question the fact that we need deep thinking in Nigeria?

    Francis Bacon, in England, was explicitly concerned with the way we misuse our minds in seeking knowledge. He recognised explicitly that the mind cannot safely be left to its natural tendencies. In his book, “The Advancement of Learning,” he argued for the importance of studying the world empirically. He laid the foundation for modern science with his emphasis on the information-gathering processes. He also called attention to the fact that most people, if left to their own devices, develop bad habits of thought (which he called “idols”) that lead them to believe what is false or misleading.

    He called attention to “Idols of the tribe” (the ways our mind naturally tends to trick itself), “Idols of the market-place” (the ways we misuse words), “Idols of the theater” (our tendency to become trapped in conventional systems of thought) and “Idols of the schools” (the problems in thinking when based on blind rules and poor instruction). His book could be considered one of the earliest texts in critical thinking, for his agenda was very much the traditional agenda of critical thinking.

    Moving forward, parents should play a role by providing relevant reading materials such as story books with fascinating content to the age and psychological needs of their children. Monitoring the number of hours spent by children watching films on television or playing video games may also create more reading time for children. Universities, schools, National Library of Nigeria as well as the state library boards should all equip their existing libraries with relevant materials that cater for the interest of all categories of readers.

    In communities where libraries do not exist, local government authorities should at least provide a reading room. Societal progress is not possible with our poor reading culture. In this new year, I encourage every literate Nigerian to take the reading challenge and read at least one book every week.

  • America and the Trump challenge

    The difference between Hilary Clinton and Donald Trump, the two contestants for America presidency is clear. Nothing brought the difference home more vividly than their final appeal to the electorate after their last week final debate. Clinton advertised the record of her achievement in public service along with her manifesto: “…You know, I’ve been privileged to see the presidency up close and I know the awesome responsibility of protecting our country”, Clinton intoned with confidence.

    “I have made the cause of children and families really my life’s work; I will stand up for families against powerful interests, against corporations. I will do everything I can to make sure you have good jobs with rising incomes, that your kids have good educations from preschool through college. I hope you will give me a chance to serve as your president”.

    But from Trump, came a message of fear and of divisiveness: “We’re going to make America great. We have a depleted military. It has to be helped. We have the greatest people on earth in our military. We don’t take care of our veterans. We take care of illegal immigrants, people that come into the country illegally, better than we take care of our vets. That can’t happen… We are going to make America strong again and we are going to make America great again”.

    Perhaps the difference between the two also brought out the major weakness of democracy, the new god worshipped by more than half of the nations of the world. Free and fair elections, the hallmark of participatory democracy which often involve group bargaining or ‘a do or die’ approach – a euphemism for outright rigging as we have in Nigeria, sometimes throw up a nightmare. Here we have the experience of 2011 when we ended up with a Goodluck Jonathan who turned up to be a scourge of our nation. But even America, the home of democracy is not immune to this phenomenon. The process threw up a George Bush who did not know his left from his right and ended up committing America to two avoidable wars that turned Afghanistan and Iraq into failed states and foisted terrorism on the world.

    Writing for the New York Times back in 2008, Ian Kershaw, a professor of modern history at Sheffield University, and the author of Hitler, the Germans and the Final Solution reminded us how skilful politicians in the mode of Adolf Hitler proved adept at using democratic structures to erect forms of authoritarian rule and went on to advise on the need for international cooperation to restrain potential “mad dogs” in the world before they bite. Back then, he had Vladimir Putin of Russia and the late Hugo Chavez, of Venezuela in mind. That was long before the emergence of Donald Trump, a creation of disgruntled, racist, Islamaphobic, college uneducated white workers and their Tea Party that ignited what many have described as a civil war in the Republican Party. His emergence with is message of hate has sent fear down the spines of many in the world especially Western Europe with greater stake in who becomes the next American president.

    We must understand where Europe is coming from. The horrors of the Second World War foisted on the people through the follies of a mad man are still fresh. Unfortunately, there are just too many parallels between Donald Trump and Adolf Hitler, credited with the slaughtering of 11 million people including the six million Jews incinerated in a gas chamber.

    Let us start with the environment. There is a frightening parallel between the social dislocations in Hitler’s 1929 Germany and Donald Trump’s 2007 and 2008 US. Just as the defeat and humiliation of Germany in the First World War and the great economic depression provided a fertile ground for Hitler to exploit the misery of his compatriots for political power, Trump has tried to exploit the political divisiveness within the Republican Party following the loss of power to Barak Obama, international terrorism and economic insecurity, fallouts of George Bush misadventure and bad policies. But for Trump, the scapegoat is Obama. Lying without shame and sounding like Hitler before the Jew final solution, he says ‘we have problem in this country. It is called Muslims. We know our current president is one, he is not an American…They have training camps where they want to kill us; we want to take our country back’.

    Like Hitler, Trump does not believe in political parties. Just as Hitler used Nazism as springboard to take over power, Trump hijacked the Republican Party to secure the party’s presidential ticket. Just as Hitler didn’t believe the party needed to serve the people, Trump after using the party to achieve his aim, assaulted the core values and the soul of the Republican Party. Like Hitler, he humiliated the real leaders of GOP. And just like what Hitler did to his party leading members, Trump has attempted to stop Speaker Paul Ryan, the highest ranking Republican from getting re-nomination ticket.

    Hitler had a ‘barstadisation’ policy for children born in Germany but of non-German parents. He believed they were inferior to German children and cannot be given citizenship because citizenship was by blood of the Aryan race. Trump like Hitler is against the Fourteenth Amendment which confers citizenship on all children born in America. Trump wants all such children deported.   Reminded of his constitutional limitations, he says because the constitutional process is too slow, he would explore other methods if he wins.

    Both are against freedom of expression and the press is their whipping dog. If Trump like Hitler has his ways, the state should control the press and use it as instrument for propaganda. Both have no regard for the famous declaration of Thomas Jefferson, the American founding father and the principal author of American declaration of independence (1776) that “were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the later”.

    Trump’s ‘I am the only one who can fix America’ is not markedly different from Hitler’s delusion that he was ordained to protect the Aryan race. Just as Hitler blamed the Jews for most of the problems and evils in Germany as well as the world, Trump blames China for unemployment and Obama perhaps for stopping two wars. He then broke into lamentation: ‘Our country is in serious trouble, we used to have victories, not any more”.  How can Trump have victories when there are no more wars, if one may ask? Trump like Hitler, engages in rabid nationalism bordering on fascism.

    And finally, Trump and Hitler did not believe in democracy. For Hitler, ‘democracy will in practice lead to the destruction of a people’s true value’.  His plan as reflected in his ‘Mein Kampf’ was to “destroy democracy with the weapons of democracy”. In other words, secure power through democracy and then become a dictator because for him “One works best when alone” – a rejection of participatory democracy. Trump like Hitler probably wants democracy as a means to an end. There can be no other more compelling argument than his current attempt to undermine the foundation of the democratic process by insisting he will only accept the outcome of the coming election if he wins.

    As Matt Brundage has also reminded us, had “Hitler, the quintessential anti-democrat, who ascended to power as swiftly succeeded in World War II, he would have foisted his views and policies on an unprepared world”. American voters on November 8 have an opportunity to save their country and mankind from a dangerous man whose belligerence and ignorance may lead to Third World War.