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From: Tope Olaiya <estyyolly@yahoo.com>
Date: Mon, 24 Jun 2013 07:31:31 -0700 (PDT)
To: ayo_olukotun@yahoo.com<ayo_olukotun@yahoo.com>
ReplyTo: Tope Olaiya <estyyolly@yahoo.com>
Subject: AREGBESOLA AND SEARCHING QUESTIONS AT OSUN GOVERNANCE PARLEY
AREGBESOLA AND SEARCHING QUESTIONS AT OSUN GOVERNANCE PARLEY
AYO OLUKOTUN
Building a knowledge economy, it is now increasingly appreciated, connotes the interfacing of town or the marketplace and gown, a sartorial imagery of the academic community. The old model whereby town and gown stood in splendid, mildly resentful isolation of each other is increasingly giving way to a phase of profitable if still uneasy collaboration in the difficult search for answers to complex issues of development. Examples of such partnerships abound around the globe and are captured by such terms in academia as participatory or applied research as well as by the mushrooming of academic programmes devoted to urban crises, leadership training and service provision, among others.
Renewed appreciation of the expansive possibilities of town and gown partnerships was brought to me, last week at a Human Capacity Development Workshop, held at the University of Osun, Oshogbo campus where along with two other senior academics, I gave a paper on "Democratic Participation and Issues in Grassroot Politics". Organized by Knowledge Plaza whose founder Tola Adeniyi, a former lecturer at the University of Lancaster, England and arguably Nigeria's longest running newspaper columnist straddles town and gown, the workshop brought together academics, local government personnel, state officials and professionals.
The event also afforded this columnist the opportunity to gain a perspective on the tempo of governance in the state, especially in the context of the performance debate between the Raufu Aregbesola-led administration and the opposition. One of the delights of the workshop was the keynote speech by Aregbesola, who rising up to the billings and intellectual appetite of the audience spoke in the accents of a development studies academic and raised several queries about Nigeria's arrested development. Narrating the experience of his childhood years in Ikare, Ondo state, in the twilight of the colonial period and early independence years, Aregbesola said that even in those fringes of the western regional government, the quality of life was good. Electrical power was sustained and regular in spite of occasional blackouts; treated water was available at the taps; the roads constructed by the Awolowo government were smooth and of durable provenance; while the schools under the free education programme were run efficiently. Indeed, the schools, boasted some of the most beautiful buildings in neighbourhoods, which were themselves attractive.
In sorry contrast to this situation, Aregbesola said, our towns and cities today are populated by neighbourhoods which are degraded, with the schools featuring the most degraded, often desolate buildings in rundown neighbourhoods. Besides, basic amenities such as light, water and good roads, he said are lacking several decades after the termination of colonial rule. Dismissing the possible response that rapid population growth is the problem, Aregbesola argued that if suitably harnessed, a large population ought to have been a distinct advantage rather than an albatross. One way of putting the poser is: How come Nigeria was better governed and Nigerians enjoyed a higher standard of living under a colonial government than today?
Needless to say, that, this sharp query to successive Nigerian governments reverberated throughout the workshop as we settled down to consider how best elected leaders within the confines of a subnational authority can make a difference. However, since Aregbesola did not in the space of his address provide answers to his own questions it is pertinent to remark that Nigeria prospered better under properly decentralized federal arrangements, which allowed the regional governments the leeway to innovate and set standards than under the unitarist cousins of authoritarian rule which followed. Awolowo's social welfarist government of the 1950's seized the opportunity of self governing regional entities with both hands and turned the western region into a developmental model for the continent. In fact had that model not been rudely interrupted western Nigeria could have morphed into something like Dubai or one of the Asian Tigers by the 1980's.
Interestingly, noteworthy strides were similarly recorded in the two other regions in the 1950's and 1960's mainly because we got the governance structure right. There are of course other explanations for the sharp dip in welfare standards – such as the caliber of leadership, the corruptive value system and the political economy of oil which snapped the link between taxation and accountability, considering that the main resource earner, oil is viewed and spent like a gift of nature.
Necessarily, however, Aregbesola's engrossing queries about declining governance and welfare also interrogate him since he is not a bystander or academic model builder but an authoritative decision maker, even if one within the limitations of a subnational government running on shoestring economic wherewithal. On that score, Aregbesola's opponents claim that he has not achieved enough to give a good account of his stewardship, while his sympathizers insist that he has transformed the state in giant strides of reinvention. That the debate is taking place in a directly political context suggests that both sides are likely to be exaggerating their claims. There are of course undeniable areas of internationally acclaimed dividends such as the opon imo (tablet of knowledge), a handheld digital platform consisting of an electronic library covering all the subjects taught in secondary schools, a test segment with thousands of questions and an interactive segment which allows students to ask questions from their instructors. Walter Carrington, United States former ambassador to Nigeria recently hailed the free distribution of the 'opon imo' in secondary schools in Osun state as "an innovative strategy to put Osun pupils on the forefront of the digital age".
Viewed in the context of the ongoing rebuilding of public sector schools, which are notices in Oshogbo, for example, there is little doubt about the genuineness and pay-offs of the government's intervention in this area. It is also correct to claim that the state capital is in the throes of renewal with the most conspicuous examples being the old garage and the railway station. The latter has benefitted from the construction of an overhead bridge over the rail lines as well as a well lighted park which seeks to recreate aspects of Allen Avenue, Lagos at night. The projected construction of an Osun airport if it arrives on schedule is likely to further open the state capital to the world and quicken the prospects of investment.
Less successful, even if desirable, however, is the unemployment scheme in which youths are paid N10,000 in return for community and neighbourhood services. Aregbesola's critics have dubbed this as little more than undignified and exploitative labour, referring to the paltry amount paid to each participant. It is forseeable, however that a beefier resource base could have more clearly brought out the imaginative dimensions of building safety nets for the millions of restlessly unemployed youths roaming around the towns and countryside.
In short, the foundations of transformation are being laid through a revitalized tempo of governance driven by a visionary programme but weakened, given the top heavy nature of our federalism, by an insufficient revenue base. To connect this with Aregbesola's own narrative of his Ikare neighbourhood in the 1950's and 1960's; more than vision is required to transform Nigeria, and recreate the quality of life we once enjoyed. Restructuring of the federation is vital.
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