Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Fw: Prof Olukotun's Column

Prof Olukotuns column is always enlightening.

I came across just  two or three words in this write up that gave me thoughts; 'lost opportunities' and 1979.

Are we allowed to think about the past and imagine 'if things had happened another way or if some things had happened' I wonder whether it is beneficial at all.

I have a few examples: if there was no first military coup in Nigeria in 1966?; if the defunct Unity Party of Nigerias candidate- Obafemi Awolowo had won the election in 1979 and if the peoples mandate to M.K.O.Abiola was not annulled. Iwonder whether these are part of the 'lost opportunities' or 'mishaps' in our history.

Just thinking aloud in the spirit of independence celebrations.

E. Babatunde JAIYEOBA PhD

Associate Professor/Reader

Department of Architecture

Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria

ebjaiye@oauife.edu.ng; tundejaiyeoba@yahoo.co.uk; +234 8037880023

On Thursday, 27 September 2018, 16:58, 'Ayo Olukotun' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> wrote:

Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android

On Thu, 27 Sep 2018 at 14:52, Ayo Olukotun

<ayo_olukotun@yahoo.com> wrote:

Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android      A NATION IN SEARCH OF A COMPASS FOR REDIRECTION.

                            AYO OLUKOTUN.

"No one will describe Nigeria, in large part, as a well governed country, or contend that the way in which many public institutions are administered- which is essentially what governance means, contributes positively to its development".

 Richard Joseph, John Evans Professor of International History and Politics, Northwestern University. 

        Monday October 1 is Nigeria's 58th Independence Anniversary. Expectedly, parades of school boys and school girls will be organized, speeches will be made by our leaders, and a carnival like atmosphere will be created. Of course, this is something of a ritual, but don't forget that rituals are needed, just like myths and memories to foster a sense of nationhood. Nonetheless, as distinguished political science professor, Richard Joseph, tells us in the opening quote, it is hard to think about Nigeria without alluding to lost opportunities, false starts, vision less leaders, dysfunctional structures and a host of other negative factors that have characterized our existence as a nation. But let us begin however with the uplifting side of matters, the happier narratives. If we consider events and dates, we can take a cursory look at October 1979, when Nigeria returned to civilian rule under an American type presidential system, emphasizing the choice of Nigerians to be governed under a democratic arrangement, May 1999, which ushered in the Fourth Republic, after 16 years of unbroken military rule. We can also look at October 1986, when Nigeria produced the first African Nobel Laureate, as well as September 2014, when we beat baçk the relentless advance of the Ebola scourge. There were other inspirational moments and advances. The vigorous role that we played in ending apartheid in South Africa and enhancing liberation from colonial rule on the African continent. There was also the founding of the Economic Community of West African States. 

         That is not all, although a good deal of successive oil booms were frittered away, mismanaged and stolen, we managed to build infrastructure in the form of roads, bridges and fly overs as well as schools, hospitals and universities, even if we have failed to maintain them. Democracy, once threatened by repeated military incursions has become the only game in town; we can debate the quality of that democracy, but hardly anyone speaks today with any seriousness of the possibility of the return of military rule. There is also the point that many Nigerian professionals driven into exile have become stars abroad and contribute in some way to the revaluation of Nigeria.

        On the not so exciting side, we can begin with Joseph's pinpointing of the governance lacuna as the primary cause of our developmental arrest, the failure to maintain quality in our multiplying universities, as well as the lack of an inclusive growth model that will speak to deepening poverty, the chaos in our cities, rising crime, unacceptable levels of youth unemployment and the lack of social policy that will provide safety nets for the desperately poor. In our politics, we have thankfully, some will say hopefully, done away with the years of blatantly rigged elections, in which what matters most is not the electorate but the politicians who declare whatever results suit their fancies. The early years of the Fourth Republic were marked by frantic concerns about whether elections will ever mean little more than the allocation of votes to the ruling party by political bosses. Happily however, and beginning with the 2015 election, and the introduction of card readers, elections have tended to reflect a great deal, the will of the electorate. It will be silly to pretend that the edifying trend has come to stay or that it is not reversible. All it takes for the yet-to be-consolidated gains to go down the drain is a group of politicians in the ruling party aiding a president who is determined that his party will win at any cost.

      As this writer has repeatedly admonished, President Muhammadu Buhari, and the All Progressive Congress, will have to allow their role as umpire to override their roles as candidates and contestants. A direct way of putting this is that the Independent National Electoral Commission, should be allowed the leeway that it requires to do its job honestly and professionally, without political interference, especially now that the whole world has put on magnifying glasses to see how things are going with our elections. Still on politics, we still have quite some way to go in bringing about credible political parties, thriving as institutions, offering alternative policy view points, that will enhance governance, deemphasizing the role of money and party barons in our elections. This will also mean that the constitutional ceiling on election expenses will be maintained, vote buying, violence and the falsification of results will have to recede to the barest minimum.

       Beyong that, there is the need, as many citizens have canvassed, to reinvent our federalism so that states and local government will not be mere appendages of an impeirous underperforming center. Considering that some of our more populous states have more people in them than some European countries, keeping subnational governments in the harness in which they currently exist is a tragic waste of resources. That is another way of saying that, like it or not, the agenda to restructure federalism can no longer be consigned to the back burner, where it has remained for much of our post independence years. 

     It takes more than a restructured federation to overcome the crisis of governance. Over time, state structures and institutions have become drastically enfeebled, to the point where they are overwhelmed by criminal gangs, insurgent groups, herdsmen militia , and other non state actors that routinely take advantage of an incompetent state. So, side by side with the recompacting of our wobbly federalism, state institutions, now in various stages of atrophy, must be rebuilt so that they can deliver welfare dividends that are often lost in transit between policy proclamation and implementation.

      The economy remains a one legged one, to the extent that it depends overwhelmingly on oil receipts whose volume or cycles of bust and boom, we have no control over. We have talked forever about developing the non oil sector, without doing much to bring it about, outside of recent advances in agriculture and telecommunications. The recent recession has taught the lesson that it is catastrophic for a nation to have a one track economic outlet, but am not sure we have learnt the lesson. A vigorous pursuit of agricultural revitalization, the granting of new life to a stagnant industrial status, are needed to construct buoyant underpinnings for a viable economic future. We already have such blueprints but a lot depends on whether we muster the purpose to put them to work for our collective good.

      There are other problems, but limitations of space will not permit me to deal with them in detail. Let it be said however, that finding the remedies for the rent seeking and extravagant culture in public institutions, tackling the demographic surge, building a nation where no person or group of persons is oppressed, are the cardinal imperatives of the new governance culture that we must urgently begin to institute.

     We wish our readers happy 58th Independence Anniversary.

Prof. Olukotun is the Oba(Dr.) Sikiru Adetona Professorial Chair of Governance, Department of Political Science, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago Iwoye.

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