The Nation Newspaper

Tag: imperative

  • Imperative of total restructuring

    It was believed that after the 1914 amalgamation of Nigeria, the amalgamation would be due for review or restructuring in 2014. The late Professor Tekena Tamuno, FNAL, a renowned historian was appointed to chair the 100th anniversary and probably review of Nigeria’s amalgamation and destiny by President Jonathan on the eve of the centenary celebration. In celebrating that anniversary, Prof. Tamuno delivered the lead lecture at the Nigerian Academy of Letters’ Annual Lecture on “Nigeria’s First Century: Critical Pluses and Minuses”, in Abuja on March 7, 2013 published in Nigeria in Evolution, Nigerian Academy of Letters Publication.

    In his lecture, Tamuno proposed what he considers more appropriate and more realistic name for amalgamated Nigeria. He set out some requirements to the effect that Nigeria must be widely seen as ready, with effect from January 1, 2014, to give a new name to their beloved “re-shaped and reinvigorated country”, which shall be named by the title “The Commonwealth of Nigeria” (Democratic Republic of Nigeria). Thereafter, its rightful owners shall be “we the people” as opposed to the unitary constitution foisted on Nigeria in 1999. With wide acceptance of this cardinal principle in our constitutional making, a proper role shall emerge to ensure the legitimacy of the unique new name and new constitution as Nigeria’s next outing or second coming in 2014. We are now in 2018, four years in default of a new constitution.

    It is interesting to know that the issue of restructuring that should have followed the expiration of 100 years of Nigeria’s amalgamation in 1914 has been kept in the cooler for selfish rather than national interest. The question has been, “who is afraid of restructuring?” Fortunately, what has now forced the issue of restructuring to limelight after four years of the life span of amalgamation in December 31, 2013, were Buhari administration’s lopsidedness, crass nepotism, favourism, clannishness, ethnic and religious cleavage. Even the reluctant gesture of his administration to suddenly accede to restructuring through a committee headed by Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai is highly suspect, owing to the lack of trust and confidence in his administration. Why is the president who has been a die-hard anti-restructuring crusader, now suddenly make a u-turn after 2 ½ years of brutal authoritative silence and anti-restructuring posture which runs counter to APC’s manifesto that had prompted many electorate, including the present writer, to vote massively for Buhari and the APC in 2015? It was believed that the APC would complete President Jonathan’s unfinished work.  Unfortunately, this was not to be.

    As of now the party, having wasted valuable time because of its leadership’s reluctance to embrace the popular will of restructuring, finds itself under extreme pressure to do the needful, just only a year to the presidential and other elections. On the issue of restructuring, some strong forces within the new political alliance (handshake across the Niger) from the Middle Belt (North Central) have said: “The military gave us the 1999 constitution; we need to have the people’s constitution which will spell out devolution of power and enthrone true federalism. The question of restructuring is not debatable, it is a deal that must be done and it is not in the hand of one person (Buhari, mine). We must have a future for our children and Nigeria must be in unity”. In the same vein, the leader of Middle Belt Forum, Timothy Gwandu, who hails from Southern Kaduna, while looking at the matter from the perspective of population, stated: “The 2006 census gave Southwest 22.5 million people, Southeast 16.3 million people, South-south 21 million people and North-central 33.9 million people, making it a total of about 99 million people while the Northwest had 33.4 million people and Northeast 11 million people, making a total of about 44 million people”. He therefore wondered how 99 million people will say yes to restructuring while 44 million will be saying no. He said the people of Southern Kaduna are in far more slavish condition than the rest of the country (See New Telegraph, February, 15 2018, p. 16, from “The Symbolic Hand Shake (across the Niger) pp 11 & 16).

    In spite of the advantage derived from skewed population figure based merely on land mass without human habitants in the north and which is the mother of all restructuring, religion and ethnic divide has affected the unity of the North, and this unfortunate situation has been compounded by the nefarious activities of the Fulani herdsmen who operated mainly in the North-central and some other Christian states in the Southwest, Southeast and South-south, but whose operation in the North-central, according to Prof. Abdulahi, has divided the North.

    If the activities of the herdsmen have divided the North, it has also divided Nigeria into North and South, including the North-central who have joined the new phenomenon of symbolic hand shake across the Niger, a phenomenon that may   trigger a loud and clear unified cry “to your tents oh Isreal”, unless Nigeria is truly restructured with the birth of true federalism. That would keep Nigeria together in their unity in diversity. Therefore, from all indications and available evidence, ranging from injustice, cheating, crass nepotism, clannishness, sectionalism, ethnic and religious cleansing to indiscriminate killings of innocent farmers, women and children with impunity by the Fulani herdsmen, the clarion calls for justice through restructuring by the affected states in these regional zones has become a done deal and a foregone conclusion. Anything to the contrary is now unimaginable as restructuring, through true federation, devolution of power, resource control and other ingredients that would ensure peace, unity in diversity and rapid developments in each of the federating units or regions of Nigeria as in Malaysia, Singapore and the rest of the Asian Tigers who have used unity and diversity in their countries for maximum profit.

    It is believed that lack of restructuring has led to a section of the country keeping Nigeria, with its “large population” educationally, scientifically and technologically backward, and even in sports. What we have now is underdevelopment as a whole, and the sorry case of forward never, backward ever! Having woken from their dogmatic slumbers, intellectually sophisticated Nigerians have been awakened to the stark reality that, without proper and total restructuring, Nigeria is heading to what Tamuno describes as “a critical point of darkness with serious implication for the security, safety and peace of society and the state”. In my view, any organism that ceases to fight for their existence is doomed to extinction. By the same token, any groups or section of the federating units which cease to fight for their existence is equally doomed! In all the circumstances, therefore, we can argue that truth in the matter of restructuring which, from all indications, is a done deal, can be resolved by means of a conflict for which well meaning, patriotic and detribalized Nigerians are well prepared, perfectly armed with potent intellectual weaponry. Nigerians have spoken and said enough is enough.

     

    • Makinde, FNAL, is a retired professor of philosophy, Ile-Ife.

     

  • Nigeria and imperative of happiness

    Sir: A latest World Happiness Report (WHR) that rates 155 countries on the strength of their happiness status, ranked Nigerians as the sixth happiest people in Africa and 95th in the world. Previously, in 2003, a World Values Survey had indicated that Nigerians are the world’s happiest people.

    How the country rapidly slid from being the World Happiest People in 2003 to being 95th in the world should be a thing of immense concern to all well-meaning and patriotic compatriots. There is, therefore, an urgent need for us to reclaim the lofty status of being the happiest people in the world. It is an aberration for us to lose that enviable position to any other nation for that matter. It is our birth right and we must do all within our powers to possess our possession.

    This is why much commendation must particularly be accorded the government and good people of Imo State for showing the rest of the country the way forward in this onerous task to salvage our mandate as the happiest people on planet earth. The recent appointment of a Commissioner for Happiness and Purpose Fulfilment in Imo State represents a significant watershed towards the all-important mission of retrieving our crown as the happiest species on earth. The governor and his crop of ingenious advisers surely deserve an Oscar for coming up with such a deft and innovative move. It is simply quite nifty.

    The Imo template is an enticing model that must be swiftly duplicated by others. After all, it is always said that one could copy something that is worthwhile. As for all the Local Councils in the country, they must without delay set up a full -fledged Happiness Department.   With recent rate of incidences of suicide, divorce, murder, rape, depression, kidnapping and other such discomfited cases across the country, it is quite obvious that a melancholic spirit currently pervades this once happy nation. It is, thus, quite imperative that something critical is done to redress the situation.  We must not allow sorrow and gloom to take over our land. We are happy people who are known for our intoxicating aura of happiness, and happy we must remain.

    Now, as soon as the federal government sets up its own equivalent of the Ministry of Happiness, it must ensure that a very humorous, witty and charming personality is appointed to oversee the ministry. This is would be a very strategic move.  For one, it would help fast track the confirmation of the prospective minister by the National Assembly, as his/her happy demeanour would easily disarm the distinguished legislators.  Therefore, it is suggested that any of Ali Baba, Falz the Bad Guy, Omo Baba, AY, Funke Akindele or such other distinguished comedians in the country should be considered as potential nominees for the coveted office of Federal Minister of Happiness.

    Since poverty and economic hardship are potent joy killers, it would be cheering news to the teeming masses across the country if, for instance, the federal government would come up with a scheme that could ensure that indigent Nigerians who want to get married but couldn’t do so for economic adversity would be assisted to do so. This could be done with a legislation barring indigent folks from paying bride prices and engaging in other such costly process that make getting married so frightening. In the alternative, government through the proposed ministry could opt to offset costs of wedding anniversary for all impoverished compatriots.

    Making the people happy is, perhaps, the most important task of any government. Nigeria must reclaim her status has a nation of happy people. Imo has graciously kick started the process. Others must follow suit.

     

    • Tayo Ogunbiyi,

    Ikeja, Lagos.       

  • Security imperative

    The police, not the military, hold long-term ace for civil security

     PYTHON Dance 2, a military manoeuvre, was conceived to stamp out criminality in the South East; but nevertheless perceived as purpose-specific, to halt the Nnamdi Kanu Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) menace.

    With the military high command’s announcement that Operation Crocodile Smiles would soon launch in the South West, tongues are beginning to wag over the putative militarisation of the Nigerian space.

    With Operation Lafiya Dole in the North East to check-mate Boko Haram, Python Dance sending the IPOB activists scuttling in the South East after a threatened Armageddon over the Biafra business and Crocodile Smiles to give criminals and allied clans a bloody nose in the South West, the alarm would appear not without cause, as the military forms the central plank of these manoeuvres.

    Indeed, speaking in Ibadan at the 50th anniversary memorial  of the death of ace poet, Christopher Okigbo, Prof. Wole Soyinka and Prof. John Pepper Clark, both poetic soul mates with the fallen Okigbo, expressed their worries too.

    Prof. Soyinka, no friend of military impunity or jackboot arrogance, decried what he described as military hauteur creeping back  to cripple civil society. Yet, it was supposed to be a democracy. He announced his wish to meet Gen. Tukur Buratai, the Chief of Army Staff, to discuss his militarisation worry with him.

    These would appear well-intentioned worries; and the federal authorities would do well to properly articulate the motive behind the latest security arrangements, so that critics and influential citizens like Soyinka can at least reason with the arrangement, if not back it outright.

    Still, from the spiralling level of insecurity all over the land, no right-thinking person would blame the Federal Government for the rather sorry turn of events. The case of Boko Haram is clear. No government could tolerate a criminal band, pushing violent Islamism to boot, to continue its blazing outlawry. Lafiya Dole is therefore perfectly understandable.

    The turn of events in the South East is regrettable. Still, it could have been worse, with Kanu and his IPOB turning that region into a high drama of tension, over the Biafra question. Unfortunately, the elders that should have cautioned and moderated his excesses either chose not to act; or acted too little, too late. Operation Python Dance would, therefore, appear a bitter pill to curb a putative breakdown of law and order.

    So, when the military high command announced the impending debut of Crocodile Smiles in the South West, not a few sensed some triumphalism, in the sense of the military as a pacification force. That, if true, would jar on the sensitive nerves of the civil rights lobby, always at cross purposes, with a law-and-order government.

    That dissonance is not unwelcome, particularly in a post-military democracy, where the military must constantly be reminded of its limits; and the government always warned not to succumb to short-term fixes, which could court long-term catastrophe.

    Still, Crocodile Smiles would appear not entirely an aberration, given the spiking of crimes, as kidnapping and oil bunkering, from which the South West was hitherto near-free. Then, with the almost daily report of the capturing of smuggled arms, from the Apapa Ports, the security situation in the region would appear dipping too.

    On that, Crocodile Smiles would appear more, a sound short-term measure to nip the menace in the bud; and less, a military operation to pacify. An earlier version of that manoeuvre had been used to uproot the notorious oil bunkering ring at the Arepo creeks, in Ogun State, after many casualties from both the police and the civil defence corps. When you factor in the kidnapping ring that twice, in less than a year, sneaked into Lagos State Model College, Igbonla, Epe and the criminal exploits of the Badoo gang in Ikorodu, it would be clear there was need for some ruthless action.

    Still, the pertinent question: where are the police, the prime civil security corps, in all of this? The bitter answer is that the police have been progressively weakened over the years that they would appear to have lost the capacity to deal with these ultra-violent crimes without help.

    That is unfortunate. Yes, the military could step in at the very short-run. But the right path to follow is rebuild the police; and re-equip them so that they could deal with that level of crime. That is the ultimate way to go, so that the military can be left alone to face external threats for which they are trained.

    But more importantly still: the government should deal with actions or inactions that trigger off alienations, which lead to agitations, that offer ready and convenient cover for crime.

    Aside from seriously addressing mass poverty, the government should also run a juster, fairer and more equitable shop, in which everyone has a sense of belonging. That way, crises would be nipped, without recourse to any extraordinary force.

  • Saraki: The leadership imperative

    The number of political appointees working for the average Nigerian politician has always depended on and couched in utmost secrecy. Typically, there is no information as there are no pointers as to how much taxpayers sacrifice to their daily, weekly allowances or monthly wage bills. Worse still, where town-hall meetings, which are often a scarce occurrence, happen, those subject matters never always earned a mention. No one but the politician knows. And, inquests into such matters considered an exclusive preserve of the public officer holder, who more often than not, seems accountable to no one and law unto self, have always hit the brick wall. That has been the Nigerian public office experience over the years.

    However, recently, following the steadily falling naira exchange rate to world currencies, public office holders were once more reminded of the need to trim down the number of their office hands. The call earned prominence as it became public knowledge that some states were still unable to pay salaries as a result of continuous dwindling monthly federal allocations. Unfortunately, skewed delineation of state boundaries constrained a few states from generating sufficient internal revenues to augment their allocations. Interestingly, too, it was not just the states that were caught in the financial drought wire. The federal government apparently, bleeding financially, was buckling down as most premium projects across the country suffered. No thanks to the steadily falling national revenue as per barrel oil sale bottomed at $50 in the international market.

    Obviously, the nation needed much more than mere talk. It was in desperate need of leaders, particularly public office holders, who can practically demonstrate patriotism by heeding to calls to trim down their office hands in remedial response to the prevailing economic mesh. As often is the case, such calls had always been pooh-poohed without hair-raising protests. But last week, the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, proved what could probably qualify as a classic case of exemplary leadership by trimming down the number of his office hands.

    Indeed, like other senate presidents before him, including senior top political office holders, Saraki had a choice to ignore the calls and act as though nothing was amiss. But seemingly nudged on by public and national interest, he set himself apart by identifying with posterity. This explains why he deserves commendation for pointing the way to how responsive a public officer should behave, and more so, as the nation clearly was under financial knife and needed practical and far-reaching redemptive measures to whittle down its huge financial burden. Interestingly, it was not the first time the Senate President was sign-posting responsible leadership. The former governor, like many of his colleagues still receiving pensions in their respective states, had equally outed out of the statutory pension as stipulated by the third schedule paragraph D (i) of Governor and Deputy Governor (payment of Pension) Law, number 12 of 2010 of Kwara State. The State Pension Law empowers the state government to pay pension to former governors and deputy governors of the state. But, in an act of selfless service, Saraki wrote the Kwara State government and requested immediate stoppage of such payment to his account and refunded all previous credits to his account back to Kwara State government. He explained that though they were lawful entitlements, his decision was based purely on morality as he was still serving the nation.

    Again, to further demonstrate responsible leadership, Saraki approved the layoff, last week, of no fewer than 98 out of the estimated 300 aides attached to his office. No doubt, the development would largely and positively impact on his office monthly wage bill, especially as most National Assembly Service Commission’s staff seconded to his office would revert back to bureaucracy where they were from the beginning and thereby freeing up funds for other crucial needs. Not only that, the best hands would be left to run the office and ultimately shut down human financial waste pipes that needlessly have the weevil effect on the nation, willy-nilly.

    But more than anything else, it signposts a wake-up call to all public office holders to act responsibly in the interest of the nation. With oil, the only revenue source for Nigeria selling at abysmally beggarly price of $50 per barrel, the move is even more important considering that in a dying economy as Nigeria’s, funds so saved could help inject life into the economy and ease up the vicious poverty and hardship in the land.

    In the last two years of Saraki’s Senate Presidency, the nation has witnessed what could safely be described as anxious responsibility towards public good and interest. NASS among others bills, has successfully passed into law more than 20 premium bills, including the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill, which aims at introducing new operational and fiscal terms for management of revenue from the sector. It had also passed the Customs Service Management Act, which aims at enforcing unconditional compliance to global best practices, as well, as the Ports and Harbours Reforms Bill; which focuses on protecting the rights and interests of service providers at the port, including but not limited to commercial port users.

    Again, the 8th Senate, it would be remembered, also passed the Secured Transactions in Moveable Assets Bill, to create a new species of capital that can be used in our financial system, as well as, moved to reduce the risks involved in doing business with companies that have the history of not paying back through the Credit Bureau Services Bill; the Witness Protection Bill, Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters Bill, and, the Whistle Blowers’ Protection Bill, among others.

    Apart from the constitution amendment Bill in which the senate adopted 29 Bills, the amendment of the Universal Basic Education Act which extended the right to free education across the country from nine years to 12 years for all children, and which the youngest Nobel laureate,  Malala Yousafzai commended Saraki and the 8th Senate, is most fundamental.

    While more endearing and responsible leadership roles are expected from the National Assembly, especially towards restoring trust, unity, patriotic zeal, and national pride, it is hoped that other public office holders would learn from the Senate President’s exemplary humility in trimming down his aides in national interest, voluntarily refunding his constitutionally guaranteed pension and the landmark achievements of the 8th Senate under his leadership. This is even more as the nation has never been so divided along ethnic and religious divides in its 56 years of chequered political history as today, and requires much more than legislative eloquence to earn the support and trust of the people.

     

    • Oba is Chief Press Secretary to Kwara State governor.

  • Imperative of free public education, recession or no recession (2)

    The teaching profession is now much more complex than it was before the Nigeria/Biafra Civil War.

    In the first part of this article last week, we concluded that John Tosho’s verdict that provision of free and compulsory public education is one of the constitutional duties of governments could not have come at a better time. For far too long, many states had paid inadequate attention to provision of free education, just as many parents, particularly in the northern part of the country had hidden under the excuse that nobody could sanction them for not sending their children and wards to school. These attitudes had made it easy for children of school age to work as street traders in urban areas, instead of being in the classroom as should have been the case in a country that seeks to join the world of development. The outcomes have been existence in the 21st century of millions of totally illiterate children and, perhaps, of more millions without functional literacy in states where free education was provided half-heartedly by governments that could not politically afford not to provide free education but could get away with not enforcing compulsory education. The overall effect of decades of half-hearted free education has been under-preparation of young people for the challenges of living in the 21st century. Today’s column is about what needs to be done by governments and parents to ensure that investment in free and compulsory public primary education bring required benefits to the country.

    As important to citizens as ability to read and write is as one of the outcomes of public education, focus today will not be just on literacy per se but on functional literacy. When the Emir of Kano at a lecture at Oxford University recently raised the importance of literacy of millions of Nigerians in Arabic language, he was concerned with literacy per se, as ability to read and write in any language. But there is no doubt that literacy in Arabic in a country that conducts its life in Arabic is more functional than literacy in Arabic by someone who lives in a country where Arabic is not the lingua franca and only serves the purpose of religious education. While millions of Nigerians who can read and write Arabic  are theoretically literate, in functional terms, they may not be literate in Nigeria where the language of governance and business is English. Such people will, however, increase the number of literate men and women in northern Nigeria if the country adds Arabic to its official language or if any state in Nigeria declares Arabic as one of its official languages, the way English and Hausa are today in most states in the north and English and Yoruba are in the Southwest. But this is a digression that is handy to illustrate the difference between literacy qua literacy and functional literacy, i.e. form of basic education that, according to UNESCO, “stresses the acquisition of appropriate verbal, cognitive, and computational skills to accomplish practical ends in culturally specific settings.”

    Now that more parents will send their children to school to avoid being sanctioned for violating the constitution of the land, governments’ funding of education has to respond to UNESCO’s recommendation of percentage of budget required for developing countries. threshold for developing countries. School enrollment should be expected to rise by at least 25%, thus requiring more teachers, more classrooms, furniture, mouths to feed at lunchtime, and modern teaching/learning tools. Governments need to ensure that the learning environment is modern and pleasing to behold by teachers and learners. All public schools need to be conducive to learning. Using recession as excuse for not increasing allocations to primary education may no longer be good enough to explain why children of school age are vendors of local and imported or pirated commodities along highways.

    With respect to appropriate pedagogy, rote learning may no longer be useful for the new global civilisation of creative and critical use of information. Interactive, dialogical learning requires more capital-intensive teaching tools than blackboard and chalk. It requires, as has been demonstrated in more advanced countries, supply of technology-assisted teaching/learning tools, something that cannot be optimised without guaranteed access to electricity. It is risky to wait for the megawatts that had been on the list of government’s to-do programmes from Obasanjo to Buhari. There is thus a need for solar-powered schools and solar-powered laptops for students and teachers.

    Furthermore, curriculum planning requires new thinking. Apart from teaching of English and mathematics, other subjects offered should emphasise local issues: geography, history, natural science, and civics. The language of instruction in the first six years of schooling should be in children’s mother tongues while the language that holds the country together, English, is taught as a subject at every term in the six years of primary education. Mathematics must also be taught at every stage. Any state that desires to add Arabic to its curriculum may do this as optional language for students while states that share borders with Francophone countries and believe that French will be an enhancer of multicultural literacy may add French to their curriculum in the last year of primary school.

    Like everything else in life, excuses for not doing the right thing do not lead to positive transformation of any aspect of life. In general, our country and many northern states had given avalanche of excuses for not giving adequate attention to public education. This is despite governments’ preference to ignore evidence of outlandish consumption of public resources by political officers and top bureaucrats. We cannot ignore the fact that the rest of the world is leaving Nigeria behind, faster than it did at Independence and in spite of Nigeria’s great wealth from petroleum for decades. It is in recognition of the yawning gap between Nigeria and other countries that parents and politicians with deep pockets in our country send their children overseas for education.

    One level of education that has been ignored, even in states with over half-a-century of free education, is pre-school education. At present, this is being provided by entrepreneurs, who understandably make pre-school learning prohibitive for the average citizen. Given research findings that pre-school education is a major cognitive and social enhancer for children between 3 and 5 years of age, it is necessary for states to commit to providing access to pre-school learning to citizens. All advanced countries are already doing this, to remain competitive in a global market.

    Finally, regulation of private schools must be an important part of the functions of governments, especially local government. Most successful countries have moved away from the philosophy of education, curriculum, and pedagogy bequeathed by colonial governments. The teaching profession is now much more complex than it was before the Nigeria/Biafra Civil War. It is about time that National Certificate in Education was replaced by four-year degree programme in education. Our policymakers in the ministry of education may need to visit Scotland, Finland, South Korea, and Singapore, to find out why these places are global leaders in primary and secondary education.

  • The Lagos imperative

    The Lagos imperative

    In my television show on TVC on Saturday morning, the point was made that everyone everywhere in Nigeria knows someone somewhere in Lagos. It shows that Lagos is Nigeria. Every Nigerian citizen is there either in body or in spirit.

    The Kano rich install palaces, the poor Abakalikian knows a relative, the Warri entrepreneur tracks his wares, the Ogbomosho socialite dances to its maestro.

    That makes Lagos Nigeria’s psycho-social city. Lagos is where we dance, we feed, we move, we fight and we make love as a people. It is our melting pot. It is “our town,” to borrow from the title of one of America’s quintessential plays by Thornton Wilder. The play looks at the town both as an intimate and a stage, just like Lagos. And Lagos is where we fake and play, where we are home and away simultaneously.

    When Nigeria falls, it betrays the first crack. When it rises, it cracks the first smile. It is the John the Baptist of the Nigerian pulse. If it is Nigeria’s special city, so why is Abuja unwilling to make it official?

    When the matter popped up at the Senate, it was dropped. Yet, all of those men in the Senate who railed against it are beneficiaries of Lagos. It is an act of ingratitude, an act of gratuitous politics.

    Let’s look at some facts. One, it provides 60 per cent of our gross domestic product. Two, it is the biggest economy in West Africa. Three, it houses some of the iconic brands and blue-chip companies. Four, it has the biggest port. Five, it has the most vehicles, consumes the most fuel, and the most food. While making a case for its status, the alpha Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, revealed that Lagos consumes N3 billion worth of food everyday, and that makes it over a trillion Naira worth of food a year.

    Six, it has the most complex infrastructure in the country. Seven, it is to this city we have the largest influx in Africa and third in the world. The people move there not to visit or for transitory business but to live.

    No city has this, and yet Abuja recoils from its duty to its most iconic place. When the matter came up for consideration, former Sokoto Governor Wammako said this was not the right time for Lagos to get a special status. For a man who was a governor, it is a shame. He should have explained better because no other time is Lagos more suited for the special place. I had made an argument in this column as though I anticipated the debate on Lagos, in my article, “Burden and glory”.

    This is a time of recession and, during dire economic times; the best place to focus is the big city. Lagos provides that example not only because it is a big city, but because it is a working city. It is the city with a working jobs programme with its N20 billion platform with Ifueko Omoigui. It has embarked on disruptive infrastructure programmes, with works going on at furious pace from the feeder road in Yaba to the mammoth flyover in Abule-Egba. It is Lagos, where other states are still chafing under militancy and kidnapping, that developed a smart programme with vehicles, gadgets and men to tranquilise its highways and the bloodstreams of its felons.

    Lagos has the population, and it has the companies and infrastructures. That is where governments can test their policies. In the last great recession, the United States took advantage of its big cities from Los Angeles to New York. According to the Brookings analysis of Moody’s Analytics data, the big U.S. cities gave America 1.3 million more jobs than before the recession kicked in 2008. History bears that out. The Marshall Plan designed to revive Europe after the devastation of the Second World War worked in cities from Athens to Berlin to London to Paris. It is partly the reason New York is seen as the world economic capital, Paris the city of light, Sydney the city of fireworks, Amsterdam of rivers and tunnels, Athens of history, etc.

    In cities, various people dare. They try things, they are not afraid to fail. It is where everyone wishes to rise above their places. As the Italian writer, Italo Calvino, noted “with cities, it is as with dreams…” The concept of Manifest Destiny coined in the age of Andrew Jackson, for all its ingrained bigotry, was largely a move of genius. It helped remake America into a place of many cities and varied prosperity across North America. According to historian Frederick Merk, it was inspired by “a sense of mission to redeem the Old World by high example…”

    Lagos has always that allure. It is the city where you have the accents aplenty, whether north, or south or east, or west, and they mingle in a chemistry of human harmony. Even in fashion, you see the aso oke as well as the Hollandaise, or the kaftan, and all blend into a sartorial statement quintessentially Lagos. Even for those who worship, Lagos is it. The churches do not always start here in Lagos, but once they see the light, they come like Paul of Damascus to the city. It is not for nothing that the anointing leads them to Lagos.

    There we domicile the theatres, the intellectual fests, the festivals, the radicals and the conservatives. Lagos has always been there because Lagos, of all Nigerian cities, is the city that never fails. As I joked with a few friends, while other states are in soup, Lagos is licking soup.

    Governor Ambode has shown not only transnational initiatives, but also international.  His government has shown compassion, contributing to alleviate national crisis as in the case of victims of Boko Haram. It also worked a big agricultural alliance with Kebbi State. Governor Ambode has shown the knack to set Lagos on a high map to battle recession, and the Federal Government just needs to join. Other states are in trouble and their citizens are pouring into Lagos, yet lawmakers like Ekweremadu, who oppose it, do little for their people and hide in the cosy shadows of Abuja power.

    Before the elections in 2015, PMB promised to pay special attention to Lagos. We are going to two years of his stewardship, he has yet to step an official foot on its soil. He still has the opportunity to do so. He should know that helping Governor Ambode in his abode bodes well for all of us. He should help Lagos help everyone. It is not a plea. It is an imperative.

     

    PMB and Onnoghen

    It is strange that Justice Walter Onnoghen is not yet being considered for the substantive job as chief justice. We are not in a crisis. There are no issues as to whether he is being investigated. If he is under probe, he should not even be in an acting capacity. Speculations are high that PMB wants him to play out his time as acting chief justice and the next man will walk in.

    We are hearing nothing on this matter from the presidency. Normally he should send his name to the Senate. It is not as if this is the case of any other job where he has to consider the best on a list. If he is thinking of going outside the Supreme Court, he should let us know in line with democratic practices. If he chooses somebody else, we should know why Onnoghen does not fit. They may have a good reason, but we need to know.

    PMB does not communicate well with us and, because of that, he allows speculations to bloom. It is out of sync with the democratic spirit. If he has something up his sleeves, we shall know in due course. We cannot kill time without injuring eternity, according to Henry David Thoreau.

    Let us know now, the job of CJN is too important a matter for trifles or the intrigues of politics. When PMB wants to do something, he does it in spite of public opinion. We shall know whether what he plans for Onnoghen is fair or out of sync with the spirit of the constitution.

  • The imperative of change

    The imperative of change

    Opalaba asked me the other day how I would describe my experience of change almost one year to its introduction into our political lexicon. Perceiving a deviously laid trap, I cleverly wiggled out. “What is your definition of change? What does it involve?” I asked him.

    “For me, it is simple. Change is the movement from an undesirable to a desirable state of affairs”, my friend responded. And on my part, I thought that I got him. So I agreed. “In that case, while there is still a lot to do, I can say that change is happening.”

    “Sure, I guess you could say that” Opalaba intoned. But I knew that what was coming after was going to be damning in the least. So I hit back first.

    “You cannot combine certainty with doubt in the same breath. You are either sure or you are guessing” I volunteered.

    “Your grammatical sensitivity, my foot”, Opalaba shot back. “This is serious business and you better see it as such. For the very future of progressive politics is at stake. What I am witnessing is different than what you choose to see.”

    My friend opined that it was not enough to define change as he did. “It is also important to give the conditions for its possibility. Leadership is important. Change requires leaders with the strong will and determination to go the whole length no matter what. Successful change requires humility and respect for the people, taking account of their suggestions and sensibilities. If change is meant for the good of the people, their voice deserves to be heard in the process of effecting change.”

    Opalaba then lounged into a litany of complaints. He acknowledged the fact that the government of change inherited too many undesirables, including executive impunity, legislative licence, institutionalised corruption, ethnicised politics, inflation, unemployment, wage compression, infrastructure decay, value deficit, violent clashes, etc.

    My friend observed that in the best of times, with a robust forex earnings capacity, the inherited pit is too deep for the nation to climb out of. In the regime of harsh economic realities, it is simply Herculean. But this is hard to explain to the victim of untold poverty and unbearable suffering. While the masses of our people are unemployed or self-employed in drudgery, the country in general, and the media in particular, does not appear to be perturbed by the condition of the wretched of the earth in our midst. Yet homelessness, hunger, and disease have been their portion in recent times.

    Resentful of the advantaged position enjoyed by the well-positioned, Opalaba observed that we know more about the undesirable condition of public servants who are owed months of salary payments because they have the voice to make their case and they have labour unions to fight their cause. But we do not have a union of the unemployed and the homeless. Yes, these have advocates in NGOs, but these are too busy on the large issues- the root causes—to bother about the surface matters of immediate need for food and shelter.

    Talking about wages, Opalaba agreed that “labour deserves its reward.” He noted that part of the challenges that the nation must face squarely is the impact of centralisation on the ability of states and local governments, the largest employers of labour, to meet their obligations. We have a system that centrally imposes financial obligations on states without taking into consideration their differing abilities. What is more absurd, the system that imposes uniform wages throughout the country’s public system doesn’t take account of the differing cost of living between Lagos and Lokoja or between Port Harcourt and Potiskum.

    “The consequence could not have been any different from what we have or less devastating. States devote 80 per cent to 90 per cent of their revenue to workers’ salary, leaving 10 per cent to 20 per cent for developmental projects. Of course, the rest of the population have a right to complain when roads are impassable or they have no access to drinking water or they have no effective protection against kidnappers and armed robbers or violent herdsmen because of an inadequate security regime.”

    But while the foregoing are issues of immediate concern, my friend was concerned that the people are being let down by the apparent absence of willingness to deal with them head-on. As he put it, “one expects that an issue that stands in the way of a progressive administration’s effective delivery of pledged services to the people would be its foremost concern. The assumption is that upon securing power, a progressive party that presides over the executive and legislative branches of government will make government restructuring for effectiveness a priority. That this has not been an urgent concern of the new administration in its first year is unfortunate and shameful.”

    As I urged him to clear his mind and assured him of my listening ears, he fired on. “In the matter of what is preventing a robust engagement with the serious and fundamental issues of refocusing government on its real mission your guess is as good as mine.” When I retorted that I didn’t have a clue, Opalaba struggled to avoid my distraction but simply cleared his throat and continued.

    “The progressive government at the centre took off on wobbly and crippled limbs. Things fell apart from the beginning due to insatiable greed and oversized ambition. The effort that should be focused on progress for the nation was spent on scheming the political survival of individuals. And in a bizarre turn of events, the government of change is on a collision course with reason. Or is it rational for an entity that is not suicidal to create the suitable condition for its demise?”

    “From the fight over position to the unabashed declaration of solidarity with a leader in contempt of the people, to the messy handling of the budget, there is too much noxious air in the political landscape. Disenchantment with the ruling party in its first year is evident around”, my friend declared.

    But he was not done: “One year into the progressive administration, the signs are terribly ominous. As if the gods are aligned against progress, agents of retrogression are on prowl. Taking on these evil agents and fighting them to the ground will take the strong will of the Primus inter pares whose charisma and past achievement catapulted back to power.”

    “Why is this an important task? In 1999, progressives claimed the six states of the Southwest. They embarked on great progressive policy implementation based on the cardinal programmes of education, health, rural development and employment. Their party did not control the centre. They relied mostly on federal allocation. Federal might was deployed against them, especially from 2002.

    “Of course, they also got carried away by primordial instinct syndrome. Relishing the fact that the president was a son of the soil, they promoted him beyond reason and got whacked by him. Abandoning the principle that brought you to power and running after chimera does not go unnoticed by the savvy electorate and the mischievous opponents who exploit electorate apathy to rig elections. It happened in 2003. And it can happen in 2019”, Opalaba, the mystic, warned.

    “Those who must worry about such a repetition of history are irrationally cutting their nose to spite their face. They are gearing up for 2019 even when they are not perturbed about 2016. But if they are not part of the solution of the challenges of 2016, do the pseudo progressives expect their party to be taken seriously in 2019? And if it is not taken seriously by voters who loathe disappointment, what’s the expectation of these ambitious politicians and what is their prospect of doing well in the polls in 2019? Unless of course their plan is to jump party ship again in 2019 as some of them did in 2014.”

    With an air of finality and arrogance that I have always despised, Opalaba fired the parting shot. “Just know that my fellow-citizens are now in the driver’s seat of electoral politics. Get your act right or be prepared to be booted out” Ouch!!! A classic fiend, he is!

  • Imperative of values

    Imperative of values

    Values are the foundations of social and national life. They make us who we are and determine what we will be. They can be positive or negative. We live by them and by them we thrive or degenerate. A society that derives its being from positive values can expect to thrive and prosper. On the other hand, where negative values are the driver of national wheel, it can expect to slouch toward the Hades of existence. By the same token, when a nation starts on a positive value orientation but goes on to embrace negative values, we may expect it to flounder and fall. This was the fateful course of the empires that were and are no more.

    From whence come our values? Are they natural and immutable or are they conventional and relative? In other words, are our values independent of human making and therefore natural, holding absolutely no matter the circumstance? Or are they dependent on human conventions and therefore relative to time and space? It makes a lot of practical difference how we theoretically answer these questions. It makes a lot of difference across cultures, across religions and across nations.

    For value absolutists, societal values are immutable because they are independent of human conventions and agencies, and are needed for societal survival and progress. Therefore, they cannot be overridden by any social idiosyncrasies or legal manoeuvres.

    But where do they come from and how do we get to know them? The answer varies. For many traditionalists and conservatives, values are divine. We know them through God’s revelation to the devout and wise ones. Recall Moses and the Ten Commandments. Or Prophet Mohammed and the Holy Koran. The prophets don’t lie and therefore society must abide by their mandates. Obviously here, the challenge of consensus strikes us right in the face when there is a conflict of revelations mandating a conflict of values. How do we deal with different revelations concerning child marriage?

    For secularists, the source of our absolute values is nothing but the reason and the conscience with which we are fully and lavishly endowed. To know the values that we must live by, we only need to consult our reason and be guided by its dictates. If we are honest and smart, we would not miss the mark. The problem is that we are not all honest and some are not as smart as others. As a result, we also have here the challenge of consensus when differing value conclusions are drawn from the same set of factual propositions to the detriment of social life. How come different reasoners reach different conclusions about the value implications of the fact of child marriage?

    In the last two paragraphs, I have deliberately framed the question of consensus in simple and direct language. I have avoided the issue of abduction, for instance, simply because it is contestable. Assume, however, that the case of Ese and Yunusa were not that of abduction but simply a case of love between two young fellows. Do we have a consensus of revelation and/or reason about the value of child marriage since it is not denied that Ese is a minor? And on the need for parental consent?

    It follows from the above that value absolutism of religious or rational dimensions has a challenge regarding consensus on values within a social space in which there are contending and competing spiritual forces or rational agencies.

    Value relativism recognises this conundrum but it doesn’t fare better. For value relativism, values are relative to societies and cultures each of which has the right and responsibility to determine what values are best for its survival and progress and therefore values may vary from place to place. While this position makes consensus within particular cultures and religions possible, it fails to take account of the plurality of cultures and religions that make a society. And the major mark of modernity is the plurality of cultures and religions within a social space as in the case of our multi-ethnic and multi-national space.

    Recognising the diversity of our cultural and religious values and the challenge of consensus across the divides that they represent, we opted for a device that should take precedence over all of them and bring us to a consensus on value matters. This is what our grundnorm, the constitution of the country represents or is expected to represent. We do not have a common spiritual or rational agency. But by appeal to our rational self-interests and what is needed to promote them in a multinational environment, we agreed to establish the guiding principles of social and political life which, therefore, supersede any cultural or religious dictates or divisions. Provided we allow the constitution to do its job of promoting our national values, we should be able to ride the storm of ethnic or religious diversity.

    It is to this end that the constitution gives us the Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State as the source of our national values and social orientation. It also establishes the rule of law as the basis of our interactions. In each of the dimensions of our economic, political, social and spiritual lives, we have the rule of law to guide our relationship with government and with fellow citizens. The onus is mostly on our governments through our political leaders to enunciate and pursue practical policies aimed at bringing out the best in every citizen. When leaders succeed, the nation and its citizens excel in values orientation. Otherwise, they experience anomie and alienation. Our contemporary experience of value deficit is an eloquent testimony to the failure of leadership.

    If we believe in the doctrine of the natural depravity of humans, then it is human nature to drift toward vice or negative values. Naturally then, we prefer consumerism to productivity. If economic sabotage through hoarding pays, we embrace it. Political violence and election rigging that scuttle democracy may favour a few as long as there is no consequence. Some may find it attractive to denigrate women and see them as sex slaves even when they protect their own daughters from harm. Unbridled materialism and opulence in the midst of mass poverty may not tax the dead conscience of the filthy rich. And prosperity gospellers may have no qualm about milking the poor cattle that they volunteer to herd. If our different cultures and religions pronounce differently on these value choices, the constitution and the statutes that it spawns are clear in their denunciation.

    I am not sure if it is only reassuring or true to suggest that our nation has seen the worst in terms of the negativity of our value system. Twenty years ago, many thought we must have gone through the worst when it was government itself that promoted the most heinous of crimes, including judicial murder of citizens for irrational self-interest. Now we have local and state governments doing just as much and getting away with it. Much more harmful is the collaboration of the judiciary through the bad eggs it harbours to perverse the cause of justice and mock the rule of law.

    Most of the values that the majority of our people live by are egocentric and therefore inimical to the social health of the nation. If everyone were to adopt those values, no one can expect to survive let alone prosper in this nation-space. Those negative values couldn’t have come from any natural or spiritual sources. But with individuals embracing them and political leadership not having enough moral courage and political will to unleash the power of the grundnorm and our statutes to deal decisively with them is not just embarrassing; it is destructive of our common interests. For with these negative values and the weakness of the will on the part of the government, we are creating the veritable means of our national demise. Empires and nations have risen and fallen as a result of the values that they embrace and promote. We have not even risen to the midpoint of our potentials. But we are already prepping hard for the big fall.

  • The imperative of economic diversification by DMO

    The imperative of economic diversification by DMO

    IN spite of the deluge of challenges besetting our economy, Director-General of the Debt Management Office, Dr. Abraham Nwankwo recently assured Nigerians that our economy is very resilient because the federal government is in control and Nigeria’s economy will continue to remain sustainable.

    Nwankwo’s verdict which shortly after the opening of a one-day enlightenment workshop for Nigerian students in Kaduna also stressed that the economy is not only resilient and diversifiable but has started a robust journey upward under the present administration.

    He said: “Nigeria should be very proud that it has a CBN, it has an economic system that in spite of the oil shock we had our economy still remains strong. Other countries that have been in similar position, countries like Venezuela, Russia, have had their currencies devalued very rapidly in the 30 days of the oil shock. But you can observe that it was until about three months or four months later that in Nigeria’s case that the CBN has to do some little adjustments in the exchange rate.”

    He further stated, “This shows that over these years, we have attempted to improve, to diversify the economy to centre on agriculture and that is a source of inspiration for all of us. The inspiration is that given the current administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, there is a certain change and Nigerians should use this opportunity to do better than we did in the past by making sure that agriculture continues getting modernized so that we have food security, so that we also produce enough for processing and manufacturing, which will ultimately bring about the desired job creation which is at the center of President Buhari’s Administration.”

    Predictably, Nwankwo’s advocacy has struck a familiar chord with the present administration and among major players within the economy. Buhari only recently assured the nation that his administration would enact new policies in the 2016 national budget, which will see to the diversification of Nigeria’s economy from oil to other sectors such as mining, manufacturing and agriculture. Addressing a delegation of French investors in Abuja recently, President Buhari said, “We are doing our utmost best to encourage diversification into non-oil sectors which can employ a lot of people, which will ultimately help to improve security because unemployment and insecurity are inseparable.”

    The president’s clearest indication of the economic policy direction of his administration yet was further reinforced by the President, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Alhaji Remi Bello who said that the fall in the price of crude oil, currently the mainstay of the country’s economy made diversification of the economy not only imperative but very urgent. In his welcome address at the opening ceremony of the 2014 Lagos International Trade fair in Lagos, Bello who spoke on the theme, “Promoting Nigerian Economy as a Preferred Investment Destination,” stressed that the theme of the Trade Fair underscored the importance of building an economy that is diversified.

    “The non-oil economy is generally more inclusive and integrated. It is characterized by high economic linkages, more stable and above all more sustainable,” he said. He called on government to fix the major impediments to productivity and competitiveness which he listed to include the parlous state of infrastructure especially public power supply, the challenge of substandard and fake products, poor state of roads, the high cost and limited access to funds, inconsistent policies and growing insecurity.

    The pledge by President Buhari amid calls by the DMO, major stakeholders within the economy had become more strident in the face the parlous state of financial affairs in the states. Thirty-six states of the federation had approached President Muhammadu Buhari in June to ask for a bailout following their inability to meet their basic financial obligations including the payment of the salaries of their employees and other pressing financial obligations. The President had acceded to their request by approving the disbursement of $1.6 billion paid into the Federation Account by the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) company to the three tiers of government. Buhari also approved a Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) N250 billion to N300 billion special intervention fund solely for the payment of the backlog of staff salaries and the restructuring of their commercial loans with the Commercial Banks into long tenured loans of 20 years.

    Following this window of opportunity, 23 states of the federation applied to the DMO for their debts to be restructured into FGN Bonds, and all 23 States have been screened by the CBN and DMO and have had their loans converted into FGN Bonds, whose maturity will be in twenty years time.

    In the aftermath of the restructuring of this short term bank loans into long term Federal Government of Nigeria, FGN Bonds, Director-General of the Debt Management Office, Dr. Abraham Nwankwo sees immediate gains accruing to the states. He indicated that this restructuring would cut the states’ monthly debt services burden by a minimum of 55 percent and maximum of 97 percent.

    Throwing more light, he further explained that the renegotiated facilities would equally result in interest rate savings of between three and nine percent per annum for the affected states and would help them regain fiscal balance. Besides the gains accruable to the participating states, he explained that banks’ balance sheets would also improve as weak sub national loan assets are replaced with high quality sovereign assets. Nwankwo explained that the FGN Bonds enjoy enhanced liquidity since they are traded in the secondary market, thereby affording the banks improved space to lend to other sectors of the economy as they are free to convert their FGN Bond holdings into cash in the secondary market.

    The commercial Loan-to-FGN Bond plan is envisioned as a short term fiscal stabilization. Beyond this palliative measure, the diversification of the economy will bring to bear lasting positive impact which will drive economic vitality and place the nation on a stronger economic pedestal.

    A review of government’s revenue profile in the last half decade shows a disturbing pattern of our over dependence on oil, with oil accounting for about 80 percent of our foreign exchange earnings and non-oil sector contributing 20.1 percent (CBN 2010).

    Given this stark reality of our dependence on oil, the Nigerian economy is vulnerable to slump in the price of oil in the international market as is presently being felt in all facets of our economy.

    Despite these given statistics, available evidence point to a marginal improvement in the contribution of non-oil sector to the growth of the Nigerian economy. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) attributed the growth in our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from 6.9 percent in the third quarter of 2012 to 7.1 percent in the fourth quarter of the same year to the increase in the contribution of the non-oil sectors, particularly the industrial sector. (NBS 2012). The apex bank in its report titled, “Economic Report Fourth-Quarter 2012” stated that non-oil receipts stood at N589.98 billion (24.4 percent of the total). The risk of over dependence on oil has already been amply demonstrated by our shrinking foreign earnings occasioned by oil glut in the international market. With over 60 percent of Nigerians living below poverty line according to World Bank group, any further slide would be catastrophic.

    The value chain to agriculture has the transformative capacity to open up the economy and generate various activities capable of creating jobs and enhancing our quest for industrialisation. This is the future path for our sustainable economic growth and should be explored. The Manufacturing sector is a major that will be pivotal to our drive towards economic diversification. It is a major employer of labour which gives numerous Nigerians the opportunity to participate in our economic development.

    In essence, a knowledge based economy has as it’s the main driver manufacturing as parts and components must be produced. We should as a nation based on functional specialization and comparative advantage take into consideration the critical factors of production to increase the number of products which we can produce locally. Tourism, our resources in the solid mineral sector, the maritime sector are areas waiting for its resources to be harnessed for national growth and development.

    The economic challenges confronting the present administration in the face of plummeting oil price in the international market are indeed formidable and requires concerted effort to diversify our economy. This will entail policies to promote expanded production in both agricultural and industrial sector. If we achieve higher level of production output, we will not only satisfy local demand for our goods with a reasonable balance for export. We must work hard to expand our exports beyond African and Asian markets. The present government should place greater impetus in our penetration of African markets to fully harness our comparative advantage.

    An immediate upgrade of basic infrastructure to functional level such as adequate power and water supplies is required for our industrialization drive to yield meaningful results. Only then, will our concerted effort and promotion of Foreign Direct Investment become more impactful to our national economy.

    It is on this note that this writer aligns with the call by the  Debt Management Office for the diversification of the nation’s economy. The time is not only ripe  but the new administration has created a conducive atmosphere for that.

     

    • Abdallah wrote in from Kaduna 

     

  • Imperative of new national paradigm

    “Only he deserves power who every day justifies it.” – Dag Hammarskjold 1905-61.

    Where is a sweltering Harmattan of expectation; a deluge of hope; a mountain of anticipation; and the profound euphoria that underscores the faith that the Nigerian people have in the change movement must determine the thrust of the present watch; yes the masses believe that with President Mohammadu Buhari and the APC comes a new paradigm that must redefine leadership and governance in this clime. It is believed and rightly so that it will no longer be business as usual.

    To hit the ground running we must realize the urgency of now, we must be conscious of the fact that when Nigerians chose change over continuity what happened in actual fact was a ballot-based revolution. We cannot assume that it was a mere political contestation that saw the APC taking the spoils, no it wasn’t. Nigerians voted for change against an era that turned governance to a Bazaar and liberalized corruption. Nigerians voted against corruption, such is the incontrovertible challenge on our hands, we must deal with corruption.

    We must create monuments of deterrence and monuments of reference across the Nigerian space. We must repudiate corruption, sleaze and fleece at all levels of governance and teach our countrymen and women the primacy of service to fatherland. We must overhaul the moral margins of state and national honours, if need be we must revoke all honours conferred on individuals who have been convicted for a crime, and refuse to honour Nigerians whose propensities are manifestly corrupt and egocentric. We must teach our children the nobility of hard-work and set a new praxis that repudiates corruption and corruptive proclivities.

    We must redefine our Federal Character normative such that at all times our enterprise must encourage excellence over mediocrity. It must always be the best man for the job irrespective of state, zone or region. We cannot lower the bar because State A or B doesn’t meet the criteria, Nigeria must be treated as a huge canvass on which only the best should paint. Our country must be treated as a huge national theatre where only the very best must perform; such is the minimum quid pro quo for greatness and progress.

    I know that we are a people with undying resolve to reach great heights. I know that we are resilient specie. I know that we are kindred of the Great Zik of Africa; scions of the sage Awo; kith of the pragmatic Sarduana; kin of the dogged Isaac Adaka Boro; and offshoot of the many greats that berthed this nation, so before us is the inviolable challenge to make Nigeria great again.

    The Green-White-Green must be seen beyond the fabric and treated as our collective identity. We must locate the path to the Isle of Peace, Unity and Good-Hope through a deliberate and conscious effort at thinning down the walls of creed and clan. We must raise our interactive bar to no less an estate where religion becomes a personal affair, and on our national stage make the second stanza of the National Anthem our national prayer.

    A Nigerian child doesn’t need to know if I am a Christian or a Muslim or perhaps a Traditional worshipper, the child wants to see a leader who cares, a leader that creates jobs, a man who doesn’t steal and a leader that empathizes. If you must know the truth our people are tired of rulers who profess one religion or another but whose daily regimen vitiates even the least expectations of their faith. The linchpin of the new national orientation paradigm must be service delivery, patriotism and commitment to the good of Fatherland; yes it must be country first.

    We must review the cost of governance vis-à-vis the emolument of public office holders; we cannot pay political office holders so much salary and allowance in a country so economically rudderless, bare-chested and anaemic and yet lay claim to seeking economic recovery and national growth, no, we must change the way things are done. The urgency of now is the imperativeness of a new paradigm, we must begin a massive rework of values in governance such that leadership must become responsive and responsible to the people, and such is the only permissible minimum.

    Those who see partisan loyalty as the first course in the national buffet must realize that without Nigeria the dining table will be scant or perhaps non-existent. We must therefore make the praxis of our three course meal; yes our full course, Patriotism, Service and True Brotherhood. A nation of patriots thinks more of the good of nation and its people. Service to nation is service to all, and above all true brotherhood devolves on both, when governance delivers on the promises of democracy beyond the banal bounds of partisan, religious, regional, ethnic and parochial prejudices, true brotherhood fosters.

    Like the prized dietary three course meal normative, our nation is a cord of three; yes we are a nation of three major tribes divided providentially by the waters of the River Niger and the Benue into three main regions, the North, the West and the East, we are a people of three major faiths, Christianity, Islam and African Traditional Religion; and remember how the Christian Holy Book put it, ‘the cord of two is strong, the cord of three who can break?’. Need I remind that the Muslim object of prayer the ‘Tesbiu’ is an unbreakable cord of three, and traditionally three represents the unison of spirit, soul and body not despising the other elements.

    Countrymen and women, please be mindful of this reality that no nation that is a cord of three major peoples and tendencies has ever broken up, most have survived gruesome wars, segregation and internecine conflagrations to weave the great nations they became, Britain, USA, Australia, South Africa et al are lucid mementoes; tell it therefore to those preaching the message of separation and to those drumming the gongs of self-determination that we are a great nation woven by an infallible God.

    The urgency of now compels a huge cross on this generation of Nigerians, it is much too profound now that Nigerians voted for change in the status quo ante bellum, before May 29, many infractions may pass unnoticed but today the margins are different and expectations mountainous, we must not only deliver concrete democracy dividends but we must unite the masses of our people and make the good of Nigerian the summum bonum.

    We must aggregate at no greater pedestal but that which must prize excellence over mediocrity, and make the greatness of Nigeria our collective primacy.We must congregate, Christians, Muslims, Animists, Traditionalists and the likes at the altar where nothing counts but the good of fellow countrymen and women. And we must assemble at the place where ‘though tribe and tongue may differ, in brotherhood we stand’; such is the basic practical minimum sine qua non for growth and progress.

    In the final analysis, we must seize the moment and make Nigeria the pride of all, citizens and foreigners alike. We must begin a massive overhaul of our collective morality and etch hard-work as prime on our corporate canvass. We must passionately rework the margins of leadership such that egocentrics would flee the political turf. We must rejig our economy by exploring other sources of revenue outside this sickening monolithic dependence on oil. We must reawaken the time tested values of patriotism as key to national growth and encourage discipline and discretion across the various strata of state and society.

    We must work so that in the end posterity will say of this generation of Nigerians, when the moment of change came, a vibrant people came at it, took it, and transformed their nation such that it never remained the same, nay this must indeed be done in the positive as the contrary is manifestly unthinkable, morally impermissible and divinely unpardonable.

    • Prof. Nwaokobia Jnr, Director General Change Ambassadors of Nigeria (CAN) writes from Lagos.