Tag: national

While our primary challenge as a nation is the weakness of institutional structures, there is hardly a doubt that this is itself linked to our cultural predilection for misplaced priorities in the arena of values. When our warped values endorse, but institutions condemn, to us, that’s just too bad for institutions. That is how we have carried on, at least in the last thirty something years.

Consider the following personal narrative which I had shared in this column before. After successfully completing the Secondary Modern School in December 1960, and not having secured admission for further education, I was hired as a pupil teacher by the late Chief I. A. Adelodun, the headmaster of First Baptist School, Isia, Okeho, to teach his class because, as headmaster, he had assigned himself a class while he was also an Honourable Member of the Western Region House of Assembly. He paid my salary of £5 per month from his pocket.

I would like to highlight a few salient points from this story. First, membership of parliaments in the First Republic was not considered a full-time job and members were expected to keep their day jobs. How they managed the two was between them and their conscience on the one hand, and between them and their constituencies on the other. But where any of them might have a weak conscience, their constituencies did not let them get away with cheating.

Second, because of the combination of a strong conscience on the part of many of those legislators and political appointees and uncompromising constituencies who monitored them, the values of hard work and honesty were preserved. Therefore, when in those days, we taught children J. F. Odunjo’s immortal lines “Ise logun ise” (work is the antidote to poverty), it resonated with them. When we taught them the lyrics “Bi mo ba ka we mi, bata mi a ro koko ka...” (If I am well-read, I am on the road to comfort), they were motivated, for they were witnesses to the stories of “rag to riches” because of education.

Third, however, those values have suffered disastrously in the face of newly discovered vices of indolence, dishonesty and selfish greed that have unfortunately been promoted and celebrated as modern values. A headmaster could not have done otherwise than Chief Adelodun did in those days. His conscience would not allow him even if he wanted. And the parents and school authorities would not have condoned an absentee teacher.

Now, however, we have some headmasters without other official jobs not only absenting themselves from their stations, but also condoning teacher absences. We have teachers seated in their boutiques three days a week at the expense of their students and getting paid at the end of the month. Far more serious is the contemporary phenomena of ghost teachers and ghost workers. We have evolved tragically in our embrace of greed and dishonesty as a new national value. And it appears we are not letting prudential considerations obstruct our dangerous sprint toward the edge of the cliff.

Fourth, but who are we to blame the crooked tail when the head is itself wobbly? The teacher in his classroom, the headmistress in her office and the clerk in his cubicle, are all variants of a mini iromi. They all dance to despicable beats coming from the drums of selfish greed and economic sabotage. It’s surreal. Legislators pass bills for their self-aggrandisement. They vote to give themselves raises even when they know that there are no funds to repair roads or provide potable water for their constituencies. They allocate to themselves funds for constituency projects but heaven helps anyone that tries to find the location of such projects in the constituencies. In the age of twitter and snapchat, the teacher, the headmaster and the clerk are very much aware of what’s going on in the corridors of power. They are naturally, therefore, cynical about sermons that tell them to be the change they want to see.

Fifth, as a corporate entity, we have lived our entire life spending beyond our means with an insatiable appetite for borrowing to finance our flamboyant lifestyle. We have never cut our national coat according to the size of our clothes. And because our productivity has not met up with, let alone overtake our consumption, we are in constant debt to other nations from which we import to satisfy our wants.

Though we can live comfortably without much of what we import, our vulgar wants must be fulfilled. And the big ones among us are in the lead for these desires of the flesh. So, the driver is an insider to the boss’ lifestyle and he cannot wait to have what Oga has. What course is open to him? Theft or conspiracy to kidnap Oga’s kids! In the economies that we envy, individuals go about in jeans and T-shirts, while saving for education, home, nutritious food and vacation. We go into debt for aso-ebi.

Sixth, while there are certain cultural values that have been passed on to us from our forebears and which we rightly think of as morally obligated of us to continue, we have, without much thought, taken them to insane heights. Naming of newly born, wedding and funeral represent the three most important landmarks of a person worthy of celebration. But while tradition recognises this, it does not impose on us an obligation to go into debt in recognising them. Unfortunately, this is what many folks have done, cheered on by the rest of us. We make feferity, apology to the late Chief Anthony Enahoro, our cultural pride, without the necessary constraint to rein in its excesses.

Seventh, meanwhile, we hold government responsible for our normal parental responsibilities without even bothering to do our part. Besides civil servants and private sector employees, who are forced to part with taxable portions of their incomes through the PAYEE system, it is only a few conscientious ones that pay taxes these days because we assume that there is oil revenue to take care of our national wants. And when there is lull in the oil market giving rise to recession, we grumble.

Eighth, as citizens, we aid and abet corruption with our inordinate and greedy demands from government and from candidates and elected officials. It is a rational law of economics that one invests to make profit. Therefore, when the electorate demand and receive gratification from candidates to give the candidates their support rather than support their positions on issues which would benefit them in return, those candidates are rational to consider the bribe they give voters as investment from which they must make reasonable profit. Do we then really have a good reason to complain when on getting to office, those elected officials dip their hands in the coffers of government?

Ninth, from the immediate prior paragraph, it seems clear that big-time corruption, the type that involves politicians in 10 figure theft of public funds, has its root in the petty corruption initiated by the electorate. The victim may have been the culprit in the first place. Without recognising the impact of citizen demand and the culture that tolerates it, we are not going to resolve the big problem. More importantly, without dealing with the cultural ethos that celebrate undeserved opulence, and the perverse values that thwart our original belief in the wealth that comes from hard work, we are not going to successfully confront and win the war against corruption.

Finally, we may then ask the question: what should be our national resolution for 2017 and beyond? First, we must create strong institutions that can withstand the onslaught of political jobbers parading as patriots. Second, we must reverse the vice of conspicuous consumption and vanity that presents itself as a fundamental cultural value. Third, we must affirm once again the truth that hard work is the antidote to poverty and teach the coming generations the same. Fourth, let us truly and in practical terms adhere to the declaration of our norm with a firm embrace of discipline, integrity, dignity of labour, social justice, religious tolerance, self-reliance and patriotism.

• Concluded

Nigeria enters 2017 in a bad shape, perhaps, its worst economic meltdown since the oil glut of the 1980s led to harsh austerity measures. With divine intervention, the country survived that period but learnt nothing from it. History has thus repeated itself.

I just attributed to divine intervention the nation’s survival of harsh conditions when, all things being equal, she should have collapsed. I could have cited chance or sheer luck. But it feels good to be reassured of a superior being’s interest in our survival.

As a former leader put the matter recently, Nigeria was created by God and God does not make mistakes, and the one who created the nation will not stand by to see her crumble. The God who has been our help in ages past is still our hope for years to come. If so, the various agitators for her collapse and disintegration in favour of more homogenous artifices may be wasting their efforts! Unless, of course, God changes His mind.

And change of mind is always a possibility for the divine who is self-controlled and owes none any explanation. Paradoxically, however, were a survey of Nigerians conducted today, a sizeable majority would favour a change of mind on God’s part, with preference for a dissolution of the God-officiated marriage by which the many became one. The reason is not far-fetched. They are tired of a country that is endowed with the potential for greatness, but has settled for smallness its entire life.

It’s no use cautioning cynics against impatience. They have been patient for more than half a century. It is counterproductive to counsel them against the unknown. They rationally respond that when the known poses an imminent threat to personal survival, the unknown cannot be worse. And there is little doubt that as it is presently constituted and operating, this nation poses an imminent threat to the survival of many of her citizens and residents. Just go to the street corners and the dung hills and you will find tears rolling down your face for God’s creatures. A loving God will change His mind in a jiffy.

But the good news is that it can be fixed, provided the root cause is recognised and dealt with sincerely. If Nigeria was created for greatness and if the greatness of the nation was to have a multiplier effect on the citizens, there must be a formula that the original author, who provided that, has been abandoned at some point. The remedy is to find it and apply it once again.

Let me suggest the following reasoning to find that formula: The greatness of a nation is a function of the goodness of its people. Therefore, for a nation to be great, it must have good people. But the goodness of the people is a function of the goodness of their leaders. Therefore, there must be good leaders. However, the goodness of leaders is a function of the strength of the institutions which create them and monitor them. Therefore, there must be strong institutions. Ultimately then, for a nation to be great, it must have strong institutions.

What is an institution? It is a system of rules and practices established for the purpose of efficient and effective governance. Strong institutions produce good servant leaders and prevent the emergence of leaders that see the nation as their personal estate. Strong institutions prevent the abuse of power.

Consider the case of electoral institutions, a pillar of democratic system of government. With a weak system of rules and practices governing elections, electoral corruption is unavoidable. For the better part of her life, this nation had a corrupt electoral system. It was the immediate cause of the first military incursion into politics and it nearly caused the disintegration of the nation.

We did not learn from that near-death experience which we repeated during the Second Republic, leading again to another military takeover. When finally we appeared to get something right about electoral system in 1993, the personalised rule of the military ensured that it never worked. The institution of the military, which produced strong leaders for the purpose of the defence of the country from external attack, found itself being asked to respect the institution of “bloody civilian” elections. The tail wagged the dog and it also nearly led to the disintegration of the country.

Since the beginning of the Fourth Republic, we have seen the rise and fall of institutional structures which had not been designed well to withstand the assault of egoistic leaders who prefer personal rule to the rule of law. From the Police to EFCC, from Code of Conduct Bureau to INEC, each has been tools in the hands of those they were supposed to rein in. It is not just at the federal level. The states and local governments are veritable grounds for the emasculation of institutions, including the judiciary, whose independence is constitutionally guaranteed. The latter has sadly been exposed as corruption-ridden.

The country has indeed been subjected to the ridiculous competition between the executive and the legislature in the matter of controlling governing institutions. Witness the ongoing effort on the part of the National Assembly to cow the Code of Conduct Bureau.

Surely, there is always self-interest and self-preservation lurking around the corridors of power. Just as I write this column, a news flash appeared on my screen. The Republican Congress in the United States voted to gut an independent ethics law that Democrats had put in place after a series of scandals some years ago. Republicans who now control Congress and the White House wanted Congress to control the Independent Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE). But what happened? There was an avalanche of criticisms, including two tweets from the president-elect. Republicans had no choice but to bow to public opinion and reverse their decision just within 24 hours.

Meanwhile, in our corner of the world, there is intense suffering in the land, with great anxiety for the future, and a frightening precursor to national upheaval which handouts cannot prevent. No human being is satisfied with the indignity of waiting for a handout from anyone. We are wired to be productive agents and not idle consumers. With good planning, strong educational and economic institutions assign people to tasks they are capable of performing without the intervention of god-fathers or god-mothers.

Whenever they suffer from human-made problems, as in the United States economic recession of 2008, citizen resilience, combined with the smartness of good leaders bring them back up. This is why the U. S. unemployment rate is now 4.6%, the lowest in more than 10 years. Our economic institutions are weak because leaders either have little or no clue, or are encumbered by self-seeking gimmicks that preclude respect for the objective laws of economics.

What then must be our national resolution for the year 2017?  From the experience of established democracies, we know that strong leaders produced by strong institutions risk a hostile backlash from the public when they attempt to weaken those institutions which have worked effectively and efficiently.

We must collectively resolve, therefore, to create and sustain strong institutions of governance going forward. This is of course contingent upon our collective willingness to give the Nigerian experiment another chance. The leadership slogan of an indivisible entity is just that. Without a willingness on their part to build the institutions that will ensure its indivisibility, it is all going to be a mirage. But the indivisibility of a country must be the outcome of citizens’ reflection on its meaning and promise for them. It cannot be commanded from above.

Assume then that there is the willingness to give the Nigerian project another chance. There must be individual and collective efforts to identify institutions that are required for democratic governance in a federal setting, and a determination to strengthen them. It will not be easy as the leaders at various levels may be tempted to place their self-interest above the national interest. They need to be persuaded to the side of reason. Otherwise, they must be shamed. No one is indispensable.