Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Tunde Bakare's speech

Prof:

We must keep in mind that "morally and uprightly minded leadership" is a necessary  but not sufficient condition for effective governance. Sufficiency requires institutional arrangements that adequately constrain these leaders (i.e., civil servants and political elites) so as to minimize any chance that they would yield to temptation and engage in the various forms of political opportunism (e.g., corruption). The country's laws and institutions must be able to effectively bring to book any individual, regardless of his or her social, economic, traditional, and political standing, who abuses his or her public position and engages in corrupt activities or acts with impunity. Put another way, the law must be supreme and no one, regardless of their standing in society, must be above the law. 

On Mon, Jan 12, 2015 at 8:49 AM, Segun Ogungbemi <seguno2013@gmail.com> wrote:

The Nigeria project requires a new mindset that is driven by morally and uprightly minded leadership.
The institutions as they are presently are extremely weak to make any significant change.
Corruption as we know it today consumes every sector of the economy and its spiral effects are found in family, religious, social and ethnic circles. From the grassroots to the height of political spectrum the ugly head of corruption is dominant.
The citizens of this country need a mindset of social and material values that are rooted in the spirit of excellence and perfection for social cohesion and unity of purpose. It is akin to the Highest Good of Plato that is capable of healing the most corrupt society anyone can imagine if the leaders at every level of society follow it as a compass. It requires education for constructive criticism, freedom of expression and association, understanding, commitment to peaceful co-existence, dedication to service delivery, sacrifice without bitterness etc on the part of members of the society.
If these ingredients of purposeful existence permeate every segment of the new Nigeria, the country will be heading towards greatness and I believe it is achievable.

Segun Ogungbemi Ph.D
Professor of Philosophy
Adekunle Ajasin University
Akungba-Akoko, Ondo State
Nigeria
Cellphone: 08033041371
                   08024670952

> On Jan 12, 2015, at 4:05 PM, Segun Ogungbemi <seguno2013@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> The Nigeria project requires a new mindset that is driven by morally and uprightly minded leadership.
> The institutions as they are presently are extremely weak to make any significant change.
> Corruption as we know it today consumes every sector of the economy and its spiral effects are found in family, religious, social and ethnic circles. From the grassroots to the height of political spectrum the ugly head of corruption is dominant.
> The mindset of social and material values that are rooted in the spirit of excellence and perfection for social cohesion and unity of purpose. It is akin to the Highest Good of Plato that is capable of healing the most corrupt society anyone can imagine if the leaders at every level of society follow it as a compass. It requires education for constructive criticism, freedom of expression and association, understanding, commitment to peaceful co-existence, dedication to service delivery, sacrifice without bitterness etc on the part of members of the society.
> If these ingredients of purposeful existence permeate every segment of the new Nigeria, the country will be heading towards greatness and I believe it is achievable.

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JOHN MUKUM MBAKU, ESQ.
J.D. (Law), Ph.D. (Economics)
Graduate Certificate in Environmental and Natural Resources Law
Nonresident Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution
Attorney & Counselor at Law (Licensed in Utah)
Brady Presidential Distinguished Professor of Economics & Willard L. Eccles Professor of Economics and John S. Hinckley Fellow
Department of Economics
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