As nations begin to face seemingly intractable, essentially existential challenges, academics and professionals in whom the nations have invested heavily are faced with the moral duty of putting their expertise and experience at the disposable of the leadership of these nations. Nigeria is at present in one of those critical moments and expects nothing less from the country’s academics and professionals. Rather than pre-occupy themselves with whining and producing doomsday prognostications from fertile imagination or even working actively to undermine the nation, one group of academics and professionals asserted their critical stake in Nigeria by rising up to the challenge of critically interrogating and analysing the nation’s problems and proffering pragmatic solutions based on the patriotic vision that this nation can and shall thrive.
This group, the P-BAT Academics and Professionals, consists of former Members of the Governing Councils of Universities, former and current Vice-Chancellors, Professors and other categories of Lecturers across the academia in Nigeria and the Diaspora, seasoned administrators in the public and private sector, former and serving public office-holders, and professionals of various callings within and outside the country. The group has been organising in-house “Pre-Conferences” and “Mini-Summits” which have produced “Policy Advisories” which have been invaluable to different Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu (PBAT) administration.
On 15 February, 2024 in Abuja, the group, which, out of public view, had been intervening in a number of ways to make the country work better in the interest of all, convened a one-day summit with the theme, “Activating the Policies and Promises in the PBAT Renewed Hope Agenda.” The Renewed Hope Agenda has eight components. According to President Tinubu, in a Statehouse publication of 28 November, 2023, “The Renewed Hope Agenda of my administration is defined by our commitment to unleashing our country’s full economic potential, by focusing on job creation, access to capital for small and large businesses, inclusiveness, the rule of law, and the fight against hunger, poverty and corruption.”
The task which the P-BAT Academics and Professionals volunteered to embarked upon, with funds raised among themselves, is, in the words of the National Coordinator of the group and Convener of the summit, Professor Yemi Oke of the Faculty of Law at the University of Lagos, Akoka, Lagos, “to continue to volunteer in deploying our intellectual and professional advantages to influence and/or ensure the success of the Tinubu Administration … [through] our Clusters in line with the 8-point Renewed Hope Agenda.” Professor Oke further noted as follows: “At inception, the Group tasked itself with the sole objective of generating critical, intellectual inputs to support [then-candidate] Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu to win the Presidential primaries and the general election to become the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
The 8 clusters around which the summit deliberated include agriculture, water resources, applied science and high technology; power, oil and gas, environment, sustainability management and transportation; healthcare, citizens wellbeing and housing; economic development, public finance, trade and investment and foreign trade relations; national security, defence and communication; national orientation, information, youth and sports development, and culture, creative arts and tourism; education and training; and justice, law and order, constitutional reform and public governance.
Dignitaries at the 15 February, 2024 summit included, among others, Alhaji Atiku Bagudu, the Honourable Minister of Budgeting and Economic Planning; Professor Ayo Omotayo, Director-General, National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru, Jos, who was the Keynote Speaker; Professor Tunji Olaopa, the Honourable Chairman of the Federal Civil Service Commission; Dr. Tope Fasua, the Special Adviser to the President on Economic Affairs in the Vice-President’s Office; Dr. Olajumoke Oduwole, the Special Adviser to the President on Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC); the Chief of Air Staff, represented by Group Captain Duke Daniels; the Inspector-General of Police, represented by Commissioner of Police Ihebom Chukwuma; and the Commandant-General of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), represented by Commandant Charles K. Opara.
Moreover, the Senate President Chief Godswill Akpabio was represented by Chief Femi Odere, the Senior Legislative Aide to the Senate President on Stakeholders’ Engagement and Mobilisation, and the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Benjamin Kalu, was represented by Mr. Daniel Akwari, the Special Adviser (Politics) to the Deputy Speaker. The programme was also given royal affirmation by the presence of Her Imperial Majesty Olori Ambassador (Dr.) Omolola Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi who represented His Imperial Majesty Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, Ojaja II, the Ooni of Ife.
In his keynote speech, Professor Ayo Omotayo remarked that “the easiest thing to do is to criticise,” and that he was impressed that while others had opted to engage in vexatious criticism, P-BAT Academics and Professionals had decided to own the government and come together to ask, “What can we do to make government succeed?” He further noted that as a country, “we are not bereft of policies. What we are bereft of is policy coordination.” In his view, this lack of policy coordination or “silo-mentality of MDAs” has led to the deleterious trend of different MDAs manifesting mutual distrust and engaging in “unnecessary protection of territories”. He noted that this tendency eventually leads to each MDA pushing its personal agenda as national policy, and creating policy summersaults. According to Professor Omotayo, such lack of “policy carry-through” is accentuated by uncritical public pressure arising out of communication problems or lack of awareness of public policy or available opportunities. This, in his opinion, could be addressed by e-governance.
According to the United Nations (UN), “E-government can … be defined as the use of ICTs to more effectively and efficiently deliver government services to citizens and businesses. It is the application of ICT in government operations, achieving public ends by digital means. The underlying principle of e-government, supported by an effective e-governance institutional framework, is to improve the internal workings of the public sector by reducing financial costs and transaction times so as to better integrate work flows and processes and enable effective resource utilization across the various public sector agencies aiming for sustainable solutions. Through innovation and e-government, governments around the world can be more efficient, provide better services, respond to the demands of citizens for transparency and accountability, be more inclusive and thus restore the trust of citizens in their governments.”
Asked to deliver his goodwill message shortly after the keynote address, the Minister, Alhaji Atiku Bagudu, was reported to have said that he would prefer to listen to further paper presentations first. In this regard, the compere of the ceremony noted, with admiration, that the Minister took notes all through the expert presentations that followed the keynote speech. In his remarks thereafter, the Minister appreciated the P-BAT Academics and Professionals for going beyond teaching and research and beyond criticising, and coming together to show how the products of their work can help to solve specific problems confronting the nation. According to the Minister, “it is the ability to stand up before a group such as yours that gives us energy.” He then assured that his Ministry was available to engage any stakeholders who show interest in advancing the cause of the country. Further appreciating the efforts of the P-BAT Academics and Professionals in organising the summit, the Minister remarked, “We are humbled to be reminded that we can do better.”
Commending the P-BAT Academics and Professional’s invaluable volunteering effort, Group-Captain Duke Daniels remarked: “Stakeholders must find their roles, taking it upon themselves to make contribution to make sure that governance benefits the citizens.” He further noted that the Air-force was a highly technological service, and that sustained efforts were being made to equip personnel appropriately to contribute effectively to tackling the issue of insecurity in the country. Responding to calls at the summit for the establishment of State Police as a means of battling insecurity, CP Ihebom Chukwuma, who is a Commissioner of Police in-charge of Community Policing, stated that the establishment of State Police was a political decision, and that if the decision was taken by the political leadership to establish it, the Nigerian Police Force would key in. Commandant Charles K. Opara also commended the efforts of the P-BAT Academics and Professionals and noted that the NSCDC has established an Agro-Rangers unit which would, among other functions, address the incessant farmers-herders’ conflicts.
Understandably what was of paramount importance to Her Imperial Majesty Olori Ambassador (Dr.) Omolola Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi was the steady erosion of our culture, a culture which ironically is increasingly gaining patronage outside Nigeria. She said she hoped that the nation would not have cause in future to have to buy back these cultural assets at a huge price.
Dr. Ademola Rabiu, Ex-Officio Member and Organising Secretary of the Management Team of the P-BAT Academics and Professionals, who is also the MD/CEO of Africa Rays Consulting in Bellville, Cape Town, South Africa, was full of gratitude to the distinguished personalities and all who contributed to the huge success that the summit was. According to him, the summit was a response to President Tinubu’s appeal that all hands must be on deck to steer the ship of the Nigerian State ashore. Referring to the Honourable Minister Atiku Bagudu’s observation that spending on education in the Nordic countries was exemplary, Dr. Rabiu noted that it was important for Nigeria to adopt, as far as practicable, what was working in those countries whether it be in education or the economy.
It is remarkable that while the P-BAT Academics and Professionals summit was going on, President Tinubu was meeting with state governors to review the current difficulties Nigerians have been facing and take coordinated steps to bring about relief. This is important, because many Nigerians have criticised the majority of state governors who appear to have been largely unconcerned about the pains being suffered by citizens and inhabitants of their states in spite of the significantly increased financial allocations from the Federation Account. The moral burden which governors bear in this regard is placed in bold relief by the deliberate emasculation of Local Governments by many state governments, thereby aggravating the despondency of the citizenry.
The pains Nigerians are currently suffering have also been attributed to deliberate efforts to undermine the Tinubu administration. Those who are deliberately sabotaging the policies of the current administration should realise that government is a continuum and that if such saboteurs continue in their perverse ways, by the time the people they like get into power, the problems of the nation may have mutated so much that their darling administration may not be able to effectively solve them.
