USA Africa Dialogue Series - FW: Prof's column

On Thu, Jun 28, 2018 at 2:08 PM, orogun olanike

<dam_nik@yahoo.com> wrote:

PLATEAU KILLINGS AND EZEKWESILI'S MORAL URGENCY

AYO OLUKOTUN

By a curious twist of history, Nigeria may be back in the terminal days of former president Goodluck Jonathan's inept watch. Then, as the Boko Haram insurgents triumphantly and murderously occupied one Nigerian town after another, trailed by heavy causalities, all we got from the presidency was the squeak that 'Boko Haram would soon be a thing of the past'. Usually, the press statements which were cold comfort anyway, sounded flat even prearranged, as if they had been written before the latest atrocity was committed. Until Jonathan was voted out of office, Boko Haram, in spite of a dying minutes' pushback, motivated by electoral calculations never became a thing of the past.

Today, we do get some action and presidential visits from the Muhammadu Buhari administration, as one middle belt community after another is flattened by suspected Fulani herdsmen. But the action comes after the event, after mass killings, and spectral atrocities that evince the scent of war. Then, there is a swinging to action, law enforcement is mobilised, surviving families are condoled, a few arrests are made, and then silence, until the next round of mayhem and massacres.

I don't think Buhari is unconcerned about the sprawling killing fields of North Central Nigeria, of which the slaughter of over a hundred people in Plateau state, is the latest, gruesome manifestation. Buhari himself has recently forcefully spoken out to rebut charges that he is doing nothing about the escalating disaster in the middle belt. However, whatever steps are being taken or contemplated, including possibly the overhaul of the security agencies, are coming too little and too late to arrest the slide to serial bloodletting undergirded by allegations of ethnic cleansing and land grabbing thrown at Fulani militias.

Inertia has several cousins such as benign neglect, feet dragging, wisdom after the event, shoving to the back burner or acting just to be politically correct. Illustratively, we can ask the question whether the deployment of a special military task force, could not have occurred on the very day the news of the tragedy filtered around the country, and the nation's leaders all gathered in Abuja for the closing session of the All Progressive Congress national convention. Better still, since the widespread and intense massacres of communities in Plateau were characterised as revenge killings (revenge for stolen cows) by, the Miyetti Allah, could not security institutions have gotten a whiff of the planning and battle rehearsals and saved the nation and humanity the illogical and bizarre conclusion of bloodshed on a scale that beggars belief?

In contrast to halting and staggered responses to humanitarian tragedies, such as the plateau carnage, was the resolute action, and virtually lone protest on Tuesday of former education minister and convener of Bring Back our Girls, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili. Defying mounting odds of possible arrest and brutalisation, Ezekwesili walked from Eagle Square, Abuja to the gate of the Presidential Villa to deliver a message to Buhari to, in the name of all that is good, "stop the killings". Ezekwesili's courage and defiance is about moral urgency, commitment and passion for what is decent, humane and right. She could have found a thousand excuses not to act so boldly, she could have calculatingly, in the hope being appointed to a government position, should the APC win the 2019 elections, reneged. But she edified us all by sticking out her neck for justice, and voting for an orderly and well governed Nigeria. She deserves our kudos, even as she throws a challenge, impliedly, to civil society, nationwide, to rediscover its lost mission and mandate of bringing truth to the very precincts and barricaded walls of power. At this point however, this writer digresses to bring in a short take.

"Sadly, Nigeria evokes the paradox of the Democratic Republic of Congo, a treasure stove of minerals and precious metals that nonetheless remains desperately poor. Indeed, the Brookings Institution has recently categorised Nigeria as the poverty capital of the world". The speaker is Dr. Olusegun Demuren, a former Director General of Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority at Wednesday's Faculty of Social Sciences Open Lecture, held at Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago Iwoye. Addressing the theme, "Public Governance and Sustainable Development" Demuren, following two welcome addresses by the Dean, faculty of Social Sciences, Professor I. A Ademuluyi and the Vice Chancellor, Professor Ganiyu Olatunji respectively, zeroed in on the obstacles to sustainable development in Nigeria. He referred to such drawbacks as the lack of access to electricity of  42% of the population, the lack of innovation and data driven policymaking, the accountability and transparency deficits as well as the low level of nationalism.

 The guest lecturer argued that the more Nigeria is able to overcome the hurdles to sustainable development the more she will cross the threshold from her present backward status to a modern and efficient sate that looks increasingly like the club of powerful nations. Regretting the rising number of Nigerians who have relocated abroad to pursue their studies or in search of fulfilling careers, Demuren submitted that it was time that Nigeria stood up to be counted. With reference to the aviation sector which is his purview, the lecturer averred that it is possible for Nigeria to mount a national carrier similar to what the Ethiopian lines is doing in Africa and beyond, provided there is emphasis on the building of a professional corps as well as efficient management which is not subject to the whims and caprices of political authorities. The bane of the aviation sector, he explained, is related to management issues, made worse by political authorities that micro manage it, the shortage of adequate data on which to ground planning and the dearth of skilled professionals. Considering his track record, the nation will do well to take seriously Demuren's panaceas.

To return to the initial discourse on the plateau killings and its aftermath, it is important for the authorities to consider the civil trust and perceptual underpinnings of viable security institutions. Security is more than the deployment of raw force and sophisticated equipment; it includes a partnership between security institutions and stakeholders. With reference to the massacres in the middle belt, it is important that trust be restored and maintained between the local population and law enforcement authorities. Hopefully, the touted restructuring of the nation's security edifice will take on board this problem of trust, to the extent that no side in the recurrent conflict suspects that they will not get fair play.

To be considered too is the regionalisation of the security architecture in favour of the North, in contradiction to the stipulated federal character objectives of the 1999 constitution. The projected security reform when it is eventually carried out should tackle this loop sidedness which has been mentioned often in public debate on the tragic killings. It is a paradox that notwithstanding, that most of the states involved are ruled by APC governors, alienation, and frustration characterise the relationship between the centre and the state.

Finally, policy which should become more proactive than contingent should aim to bring the issues to the front burner of national attention underwritten by a sense of emergency and compassion for the victims of these monumental disasters.

 

 

Prof. Ayo Olukotun is the Oba (Dr.) Sikiru Adetona Chair of Governance, at the Department of Political Science, Olabisi Onabajo University, Ago-Iwoye.

 

 

 

 

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On Thu, Jun 7, 2018 at 17:17, ayo_olukotun@yahoo.com

<ayo_olukotun@yahoo.com> wrote:

 

 

Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone.

From: ayo_olukotun@yahoo.com Sent: Thursday, 7 June 2018 13:12 To: Ayo Olukotun Cc: Joel Subject: Fw: Prof's column

 

 

 

Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone.

From: orogun olanike <dam_nik@yahoo.com> Sent: Thursday, 7 June 2018 12:54 To: Ayo Olukotun; Joel Nwokeoma; betapikin30@yahoo.com Subject: Prof's column

 

EASING OUR MANY GOVERNANCE BURDENS

AYO OLUKOTUN

Short, prefatory remarks on President Muhammadu Buhari's welcome, if somewhat belated recognition of democracy martyr and hero, Chief MKO Abiola are in order. Side stepped by every government since 1999, it is apt and historic that Buhari has not only made June 12 Democracy Day, he has also conferred the ultimate national honour of Grand Commander of the Federal Republic, posthumously on Abiola, putting him on the same pedestal with former presidents.

We may, as some are doing, smell the rat of claptrap, electoral overture to the Southwest, in the decision, but that does not make it any less worthy or nourishing of a national psyche too often brutalised by injustice and scandalous indecisions. In the same salutary vein, the honour of Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger bestowed on human rights lawyer, Gani Fawehinmi and Vice presidential candidate to Abiola, Baba Gana Kingibe, came as tasteful icing on a much relished cake.

In a country degraded by shabby compromises, Abiola's distinction was in shunning alluring shortcuts and side payments to insist on the mandate given to him by the Nigerian people. In this sense, he is the father of our contemporary democracy. Could Abiola's recognition have come earlier? Yes, if former presidents had not short-sightedly shuffled the decision off the front burner. Characteristically, our leaders temporise about qualitative and ennobling governance decisions; it took 12years for the polity to pass the Freedom of Information Bill into Law, it has taken 19years for the system to crown Abiola. Maybe someday, a president will decide to restructure Nigeria, in order to save it from self-destruction.

Going on now to the topic of the day, have you noticed that governance challenges are usually described these days as 'burdens'? So we have debt burden, disease burden, and several other woes, described as burdens. A burden is an encumbrance, a drag or draw back that a nation is struggling with; the bigger the burden, the more of a hindrance it is to development. Obviously therefore, it is in the interest of nations to mitigate the number and the magnitude of burdens that they carry. For example, the World Health Organisation in its global observatory describes Nigeria as a country with a heavy disease burden, characterised by the prevalence of communicable diseases such as diarrhoea, HIV, lower respiratory infection among several others. It also notes correctly that many untimely deaths are a consequence of the spread of these diseases. Given such a profile it will have been logical for policy makers to seek to reduce the burden in order to prevent the country from becoming a slaughter house occasioned by diseases and epidemics. Unfortunately, however, we do not have such luck as our health sector is rated as among the most fragile in the world. As this columnist has repeatedly pointed out, health spending has remained paltry. That apart, the sector is ravaged by workers' strikes to an extent that one does not know when one strike ends and another takes off. As known, the Joint Health Sector Unions only last week, suspended a nationwide strike that lasted for 44days causing great harm to an already overburdened sector. That is not all, a few hours after JOHESU 'suspended' the strike, the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors served notice of a looming strike. According to the Union, the 21days grace given to the Federal Government to resolve outstanding issues has expired, forcing it to embark on yet another strike. Although our system has a tendency to blame or demonise workers going on strike, the truth of the matter is that there is an underlying justice about most of these strikes, especially in a context where many skilled health workers have already voted with their feet by finding work in other countries where they are more valued. Hence, while it may be an exaggeration to say that government is watching the health sector bleed to death, there is no doubt that it is complicit in the decay and anomy that has overtaken it. Relating that to our narrative on burdens, we have a situation where an important segment of our National life is travelling from being heavily burdened to creeping chaos and greater affliction.

Still on burdens, there is much talk these days about Nigeria's galloping debt burden, especially in the wake of the warning by the International Monetary Fund that out debt burden is becoming unsustainable. For example, data available from the World Bank put our debt stock at 21.8trillion naira at the end of last year, representing an increase of almost 80% in 30months. The Finance Minister, Mrs Kemi Adeosun is not worried about this dramatic rise in our debt profile and continues to argue that government is on top of the heavy borrowing business. However, it is disturbing that government is either considering or may already have carried its borrowing spree to the pension funds in its coffers. What this means is that in the absence of sound management and transparency, workers may, in the future, face the possibility of defaults in the payment of pension benefits. To be noted in this connection is the ever rising debt service obligation, which last year constituted close to one-third of the budget. A fragile recovery in the economic sector is challenged by a heavy debt over hang with consequences for now and especially for later on. It will be more comforting if policy is now targeted at reducing the speed at which we are accumulating debts in order to slow down the mortgaging of our future.

There is also undoubtedly a burden of leadership incompetence dating back to several decades. Successive governments have come and gone without scratching the surface of our challenges, leaving us in a greater lurch than they met us. The same issues and burdens about which our newspaper editorials and columnists wrote copiously a decade or more ago have refused to go away. Electricity remains epileptic, this column is being prepared through the use of the so called standby generator which is far from being standby, water to drink is in short supply, infrastructure remains dilapidated, insecurity of lives and property has flickered past the danger mark, while for most Nigerians day to day life is clouded with uncertainties.

The way to measure the true quality of life of Nigerians is not the fact sheet of government publicists claiming sundry achievements; it is in the lived realities and existential down turns that Nigerians struggle with. Sadly, however, the burden of leadership incompetence does not appear to abate. Ideally, the easing of our many governance burdens should have been the pre-occupation of those who seek to lead us. But there is no such luck here. Some of these aspiring leaders do not even have a manifesto and have a very poor grasp of the depth of Nigeria's governance burdens.

Beyond the not so promising elections of 2019, progressive intellectuals and civil society activists should build social movements with a genuine change agenda superior to the glib promises of the politicians that are never fulfilled. If Nigerians are tired of being taken for a ride, then they should do something about it through active citizenship and coalition building.

 

 

Olukotun is the Oba (Dr.) Sikiru Kayode Adetona, professorial Chair of Governance at the Dept. of Political Science, Olabisi Onabanjo, University, Ago-Iwoye.