who polices the police, like who would educate the educators, is the question
we used to have corruption of the people who oversaw collection of taxes for imported goods, in the u.s., in the 19th c.
i don't know precisely why that ended. i don't know what stopped corruption of police in boston; in new york it was a reformist mayor.
for africa, i have heard maybe one talk on the topic by an economist, who had opinions on different classes of countries. i know too little to pass judgment on causes or cures. if i really wanted to know, i'd ask which countries seem to have best adddressed the issue, and ask what has worked best to end it. i've heard there is little corruption in rwanda, but the reasons linked to a police state run by kagame might be a bad model for other countries.
i'd like to hear from those whose know more about the topic than what i know, to learn better what works and what fails.
ken
kenneth harrow
professor emeritus
dept of english
michigan state university
517 803-8839
harrow@msu.edu
Sent: Friday, December 28, 2018 1:37:46 PM
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Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Prof Olukotun's Column (Pleasegive Professor Biodun Jeyifo's solution a try
dear olayinka
your ideas are good, and i think are similar to legal practices in europe where wealthy people have to give some accounting to their spending or income. the problem is, if there are corrupt practices, that the person assigned the job of checking on the wealth of a given stateholder will need, also, to be honest. honesty for a policeman, for instance, might be bought by the state by giving decent salaries. i believe bribery in the united states was reduced, ultimately, that way.
i read somewhere of an enormously wealthy foreign woman in london spending enormously, and being checked up on by the police and charged with some corruption.
but in the case of nigeria, which i know about only superficially, it seems to me that well-paid civil servants are less likely to be corrupt than those who are not. the same for teachers and professors.
i would love to know what practices, historically, have worked to end corruption--and not just in africa, but anywhere. perhaps some of the historians on our list can help answer that question. i am sure that political scientists on our great list can tell us how various states measure up.
a quick google search--very unprofessional, i know, gave this response for the 10 most corrupt. there is certainly a correspondence between wealth and stability. starting with the most corrupt:
1.somalia
2.sudan
3.burundi
4.chad
5.zimbabwe
6.equatorial guinea
7.drc
8.libya
9.angola
10.guinea
interesting that we have two oil states with immense wealth. we have among the other 8 almost all in or close enough to states of conflict.
when i went to transparency international, a reliable source i think, here were the bottom countires. nigeria isn't so hot, but it is not the bottom of the list:
143Kenya282625252727Sub Saharan Africa
143Lebanon282828272830Middle East and North Africa
143Mauritania282731303031Middle East and North Africa
148Comoros272426262828Sub Saharan Africa
148Guinea272725252424Sub Saharan Africa
148Nigeria272826272527Sub Saharan Africa
151Nicaragua262627282829Americas
151Uganda262525262629Sub Saharan Africa
153Cameroon252627272526Sub Saharan Africa
153Mozambique252731313031Sub Saharan Africa
155Madagascar242628282832Sub Saharan Africa
156Central African Republic232024242526Sub Saharan Africa
157Burundi222021202119Sub Saharan Africa
157Haiti222017191919Americas
157Uzbekistan222119181717Europe and Central Asia
157Zimbabwe222221212120Sub Saharan Africa
161Cambodia212121212022Asia Pacific
161Democratic Republic of the Congo212122222221Sub Saharan Africa
161Republic of Congo212023232226Sub Saharan Africa
161Tajikistan212526232222Europe and Central Asia
165Chad202022221919Sub Saharan Africa
165Eritrea201818182025Sub Saharan Africa
167Angola191815192322Sub Saharan Africa
167Turkmenistan192218171717Europe and Central Asia
169Iraq181716161618Middle East and North Africa
169Venezuela181717192019Americas
171Equatorial Guinea17N/AN/AN/AN/AN/ASub Saharan Africa
171Guinea-Bissau171617191925Sub Saharan Africa
171Korea, North17128888Asia Pacific17
1Libya171416181521Middle East and North Africa
175Sudan161412111113Middle East and North Africa
175Yemen161418191823Middle East and North Africa
177Afghanistan1515111288Asia Pacific
178Syria141318201726Middle East and North Africa
179South Sudan1211151514N/ASub Saharan Africa
180Somalia9108888Sub Saharan Africa
| 2017 Rank | Country | 2017 Score | 2016 Score | 2015 Score | 2014 Score | 2013 Score | 2012 Score | Region |
|---|
ken
kenneth harrow
professor emeritus
dept of english
michigan state university
517 803-8839
harrow@msu.edu
Sent: Thursday, December 27, 2018 5:52:25 AM
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Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Prof Olukotun's Column ( Pleasegive Professor Biodun Jeyifo's solution a try
toyin
consider whether the person bringing charges of corruption might be making false charges. it isn't enough to call for a purge of corruption without decent legal protections.
furthermore, even trump calls attacks against him a witch-hunt. well, there are such things of witch hunts. the attacks against so-called witches in zambia, as well as attacks on albinos...or attacks on muslims or christians, here and there, are clothed in the language of purification. consider mao's Cultural Revolution, the attacks on people often motivated by horrible personal reasons. in mao's case the presumed bourgeois tendencies were to be wiped out.
the desire to clean-up society, from the early jihads in west africa, and in nigeria, could be seen as part of that same attack on corruption--in the eyes of the jihadists.
what to do? mobilize, perhaps, but with built-in protections against lynching parades. not so easy to do without a civil society where mechanisms of justice are in place and protected from the abuse of power.
not impossible. i am thinking about the trial of diane rwigara in rwanda, which recently resulted in her being found innocent--the first i can think of where kagame's power did not pervert justice. a start? we'll see after the prosecutor's appeal is finished.
ken
kenneth harrow
professor emeritus
dept of english
michigan state university
517 803-8839
harrow@msu.edu
Sent: Wednesday, December 26, 2018 11:55:36 AM
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Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Prof Olukotun's Column ( Please give Professor Biodun Jeyifo's solution a try
Great ones, left, right and center:
This is the third of Prof. Olukotun's column in 2018 that has generated many responses. I have asked him to put many of the essays together in one or two volumes so that an important document on the era can be on the table.
He actually does what Prof. Osofisan has mentioned, so he may be off the hook on this.
When we shift narrative politics to the communities---families, where we all live, religious organizations, clubs—we see all the positive elements on display—celebrations and affections, etc. These communities must be empowered, to reorganize themselves to what produced Christ School, Molusi College, etc. Thus, my first suggestion is always community empowerment. Here, I am not reviving Ekeh's "two public" argument, but the organic.
Second, and I have met with serious disagreement on this—remoralizing those communities with indigenous cultural ethics. There is no space here for me to elaborate upon this, but its advantages are so many in terms of the survival of languages, literature, behavior, civic responsibilities. I hate to interject myself as an example here—by the age of 15, my cultural resources were so many that I could sing, act, write short plays, fight on the streets, make jokes without end, etc. Pentecostalism has taken over this "remoralization" but it brings out more of capitalist ethos than the cultural ones.
The third is how to recapitalize the poor, reconnecting them back to agro-business, rural places. Here is the center of hope, of imaginations, of motherhood and fatherhood, of the connections between small resources and big dreams.
I call all of you the Ayo Olukotun family. Happy holidays to Professor Olukotun, our progenitor, and to all of his fictional family members. I wish you all the gifts of the season:
the peace that makes us all live together;
the joy that the world gives to you and I; and
the hope that forms the core of our destinies.
As we look forward to 2019, may bad health not damage our good fortunes. May God show us mercy, and always overlook both our sins and faults. And as God dismisses our faults and sins, may we, as humans, also dismiss the sins and faults of fellow humans.
Stay well.
TF
Toyin Falola
Department of History
The University of Texas at Austin
104 Inner Campus Drive
Austin, TX 78712-0220
USA
512 475 7224
512 475 7222 (fax)
http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
From: Femi_Osofisan Osofisan <okinbalaunko@yahoo.com>
Reply-To: Femi_Osofisan Osofisan <okinbalaunko@yahoo.com>
Date: Wednesday, December 26, 2018 at 2:11 AM
To: "hassansaliu2003@gmail.com" <hassansaliu2003@gmail.com>, Richard Joseph <r-joseph@northwestern.edu>, dare oyetunde <talk2oyetunde@gmail.com>
Cc: "Prof Eghosa E. OSAGHAE" <osaghaeeghosa@yahoo.co.uk>, Willy Fawole <fawolew@yahoo.com>, Grace Omoshaba <gmso2002@yahoo.com>, "eyitayolambo@yahoo.com" <eyitayolambo@yahoo.com>, "ayo_olukotun-yahoo.com" <ayo_olukotun@yahoo.com>, Orogun Olanike <dam_nik@yahoo.com>, IbrahimGambari <ibrahim.gambari@gmail.com>, Innocent Chukwuma <i.chukwuma@fordfoundation.org>, Paul Nwulu <p.nwulu@fordfoundation.org>, Prof Akin Mabogunje <akinmabo@gmail.com>, Prof Bayo Adekanye <profbayo_adekanye@yahoo.com>, Innocent Chukwuma <innocent.chukwuma@fordfoundation.org>, "tunde_babawale-yahoo.com" <tunde_babawale@yahoo.com>, Jide Owoeye <babsowoeye@gmail.com>, Mr Felix Adenaike <felixadenaike@yahoo.com>, Wale Adebanwi <waleadebanwi@gmail.com>, Ayobami Salami <ayobasalami@yahoo.com>, Adebayo Olukoshi <olukoshi@gmail.com>, Niyi Akinnaso <niyi.tlc@gmail.com>, Oluwaniyi Osundare <oosunda1@uno.edu>, Kayode Soremekun <paddykay2002@yahoo.com>, Rotimi Suberu <rotimisuberu@yahoo.com>, Olatunji Ayanlaja <t.ayanlaja@gmail.com>, Ebunoluwa Oduwole <ebunoduwole2k2@yahoo.com>, dialogue <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>, Tunji Olaopa <tolaopa2003@gmail.com>, Ashafa Abdullahi <abashafa@gmail.com>, Mohammed Haruna <ndajika01@gmail.com>, Bolaji Akinyemi <rotaben@gmail.com>, Anthony Asiwaju <tonyasiwaju@gmail.com>, Odia Ofeimun <odia55@yahoo.com>, Ganiyu Go <dr_golat@yahoo.com>, Omatsola Edema <charlieedema@yahoo.co.uk>, Ashobanjo <ashobanjo@aol.com>, Yemi Ogunbiyi <yemiogunbiyi@gmail.com>, Christina Olaoluwa <tinabola@yahoo.com>, Banji Oyeyinka <boyeyinka@hotmail.com>, "Toks X." <toksx@yahoo.com>, David Atte <david_atte@yahoo.com>, "Prof. Tonia Simbine" <tsombe98@yahoo.com>, Femi Otubanjo <femiotubanjo@gmail.com>, Taiwo Asaolu <twasaolu@yahoo.co.uk>, "Dr Akinwumi A. Adesina" <adesina1234@gmail.com>, Attahiru Jega <attahirujega@yahoo.com>, Oye Ibidapo-Obe <oibidapoobe@gmail.com>, Hafsat Abiola <hafsatabiola@hotmail.com>, Taiwo Owoeye <sistertees@hotmail.com>, F&C Securities Limited <fc@hyperia.com>, "Prof. W.O. Alli" <alliwo@yahoo.co.uk>, Yomi LAYIINKA <yourme5@yahoo.co.uk>, Idowu Olayinka <aiolayinka@yahoo.com>, Cyril Obi <cyrilobi@hotmail.com>, Abimbola Asojo <aasojo@umn.edu>, Tade Aina <tadeakinaina@yahoo.com>, Adetoun Adetona <adetounadetona@googlemail.com>, Ariyo Andrew Tobi <tobaaan@yahoo.co.uk>, Friday Okonofua <feokonofua@yahoo.co.uk>, Tunde Rahman <tunderahmanu@yahoo.com>, Dhikru Adewale Yagboyaju <aswaj2003@yahoo.com>, dele Ashiru <ashirudele@yahoo.co.uk>, Akinjide Osuntokun <josuntokun@yahoo.com>, Bunmi Makinwa <bunmimakinwa@hotmail.com>, Olajumoke Yacob-Haliso <jumoyin@yahoo.co.uk>, Bolaji Ogunseye <erinje@yahoo.com>, Olajumoke Yacob-Haliso <jumoyin@gmail.com>, Femi Babatunde <ofemibabatunde@yahoo.com>, Prof Osinbajo <yemiosinbajo@yahoo.com>, Bankole Omotoso <bankole.omotoso@gmail.com>, "Prof. Segun Awonusi" <segunawo@yahoo.com>, Abigail Ogwezzy <abigaily2k@yahoo.com>, Adebayo <adebayow@hotmail.com>, "asoiaelkenany2007@yahoo.com" <asoiaelkenany2007@yahoo.com>, May <mayortk@yahoo.com>, adeboye Adeboye <funks29adeboye@yahoo.co.uk>, Toks Olaoluwa <olaoluwatokunboh@gmail.com>, Tope Olaiya <estyyolly@yahoo.com>, Tale Omole <taleomole@yahoo.com>, Assisi Asobie <assisiasobie@gmail.com>, Obadiah Mailafia <obmailafia@gmail.com>, Remi Anifowose <francoremy@yahoo.com>, Jadesany <jadesany@yahoo.co.uk>, OLAYODE OLUSOLA <kennyode@yahoo.com>, Toyin Falola <toyinfalola@austin.utexas.edu>, Toyosi Ogunseye <toyosi_ogunseye@yahoo.com>, Stella Olukotun <stelbeyke@yahoo.com>, Solomon Uwaifo <so_uwaifo@yahoo.co.uk>, Royal Gardens <royalgardensnet@gmail.com>, Vickers Vickers <mvickers@mvickers.plus.com>, Ayo Banjo <profayobanjo@yahoo.com>, Yewande Omotoso <yomotoso@gmail.com>, Adigun Agbaje <adigunagbaje@yahoo.com>, Esther Oluwaseun Idowu <bethelidowu@gmail.com>, Remi Sonaiya <remisonaiya@yahoo.com>, Noel Ihebuzor <noel.ihebuzor@gmail.com>, Tunde Oseni <tundeoseni@gmail.com>, Peter Ozo-Eson <ozoesonpi@yahoo.com>, Emmanuel Remi Aiyede <eaiyede@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: Prof Olukotun's Column
Sometimes I wonder: is the solution perhaps to just concentrate on building up some centres of excellence- you know, a few model schools, hospitals that work, etc.- rather than spreading ourselves out fruitlessly to correct everything? Or, secondly, don't we have some of these already - I mean, dedicated leaders, exemplary workers, commited teachers, truly outstanding figures among us - whose contributions we rarely celebrate, but choose instead to whip ourselves endlessly with our failures? How can we inspire our citizenry to needful action, to resistance, to hope in struggle, if all we offer repeatedly are these narratives of failure and corruption and despair? Is something missing tragically in the vision we offer to our people, these baleful lessons we present to our readers and our children? Aren't we, inadvertently and carelessly, promoting an image of bleak fatality, of inevitable dystopia, that ironically vitiates our ambitions for change? Why do we so customarily ignore or obscure the heroic moments? Why is negativity so salaciously pervasive? I wonder, I wonder...
May the season bring joy to all of us.
FO.
On Tue, 25 Dec 2018 at 21:17, Hassan Saliu
<hassansaliu2003@gmail.com> wrote:
My stake on the piece and others before it is that our country has been unfortunate with its governance system to the extent that the most basic issues such as rendering of efficient services and catering for the welfare of citizens generally are not being experienced. This may have to do with what an author has called unwisdom in governance. Or what else can be responsible for the high level of insensitivity that our governance environment has repeatedly displayed over time? I consider the electoral process that has produced unmerited electoral victories and docility of the citizens as causative factors. On the pathways, we need to get more involved in the political process by throwing up issues that border on accoutability that our political elite may not be too comfortable with. There is too much irresponsibility around the corridors of power that we need to pay attention to. This has inevitably been breeding the regime of cabals that is causing motion without movement in the land.
On Dec 25, 2018 18:02, "Richard A Joseph" <r-joseph@northwestern.edu> wrote:
Dear Noel:
What you say about the health sector applies to other basic services, as Prof Olukotun has emphasized repeatedly.
How to advance?
I'm in Canada for the holidays. As usual, I marvel and enjoy facilities and services that work. We've talked and theorized about "governance decay" under different rubrics. Collaboratively, we can identify sustainable pathways from the predicament.
Best wishes to All for 2019.
Richard
On Dec 25, 2018, at 10:07 AM, Noel Ihebuzor <noel.ihebuzor@gmail.com> wrote:Ayo,
I kept nursing the hope that I would come to a section of your write up where you would propose solutions and list some possible steps to arrest the decay that gave rise to the sad picture and tragedy you painted with such poignancy. I read to the end and did not see any such section.
What can account for such an omission? I guess that one reason must be because your writeup focused too much on shocking the reader and less on analyzing the factors that produced and produce the decay.
In situations of stark and startling failures in basic services delivery, descriptions of incidents unaccompanied by any causality analysis can produce very limited results. Solutions, no matter, hazy, need to be proffered. and to reach forward even to begin the first sketches of such a solution, we need to do some causality analysis guided at least by the two questions below -
What accounts for the comatose condition of our health delivery system? What are the immediate, structural and underlying causes of this perfection in dysfunction?
Answers to these questions that a sensitive and evidence-based causality analysis of the rot of our health system can throw up will certainly help us go beyond describing and pointing fingers to pointing out possible solutions!
We are all stakeholders and also, and sadly, unwitting victims of this decay. The honorable minister for health may not have all the solutions to the myriad of problems in this field. If he did, do you think he would turn a blind eye to the frequent exercises in health tourism by his principal and his associates? an be provided? Would he not deployed all his professional energy to make such trip unnecessary by working to set up centres in Nigeria where such services The problem must be beyond him....he may thus need help, and your write up stinted him of suggestions on how to deliver health results on the basis of sound problem analysis and strategic health sector reform/health systems strengthening. .
A very happy Xmas to you and all.
Noel
On Thu, 20 Dec 2018 at 4:58 PM, Ayo Olukotun <ayo_olukotun@yahoo.com> wrote:
On Wed, 19 Dec 2018 at 15:26, Ayo Olukotun
<ayo_olukotun@yahoo.com> wrote:
OLANIYI ASHIMI. THE FATAL COST OF GOVERNANCE DECAY.
"After payment for Federal Medical Centre, Abeokuta ambulance, I was told that the ambulance that had fuel had no oxygen, and the one that had oxygen had no fuel. I paid for extra oxygen, yet my brother died of lack of oxygen". Ajoke Ashimi, sister of Olaniyi Ashimi, final year undergraduate who died recently of health service decay. The Punch, Sunday, December 16, 2018.
This columnist's heart goes out this day to the Ashimis, who lost a family member, Niyi, a final year student of the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, in circumstances that reek of astonishing shortage of essential services, gaping incompetence and crass disorder. The decay of governance, let us note, is not an idle academic concept or a writer's indulgent construction; no, it is the reason for the untimely death of an increasing toll of Nigerians, high and low, including, as announced earlier this week, a former Chief of Defence Staff, Alex Badeh, who was murdered by yet unidentified gunmen. My focus, illustratively, in this piece, is on the hapless Niyi Ashimi, who in all probability would have survived an accident he and other students of his university sustained, had he received timely and reasonably efficient medical attention at two of the nation's apex medical institutions, namely, Federal Medical Centre, Abeokuta and the University College Hospital, Ibadan. Before giving snap shots of the alarming medical decay, that resulted in the death of Niyi, some of which is anticipated in the opening paragraph, it is interesting to note that almost a week after the Punch published the story, there has been no statement from medical authorities, as far as I am aware, on this tragic and heart rending loss of life.
In another clime, the top officials of the institutions concerned, or the Minister of Health would have been stirred enough to call for an investigation. Here, characteristically, there is no such luck. One of the most outrageous pieces of information supplied by both Niyi's sister and his friends, concerned the initial, so called treatment that he received, when he was rushed to the FMC with a broken leg. Niyi's friends, told Punch reporter, Tope Omogbolagun that "When he and others were rushed to the FMC, there was no test or observation conducted on them, the medical personnel on the ground just treated them without x-tray, medical evaluation and the rest, they only treated their injury". This, hard- to-believe perfunctory service was the beginning of Niyi's travail, who was writhing in pain from internal bleeding. It was not until nearly 48hours later, that it became clear that the late undergraduate had been bleeding internally.
That is not all, when the decision was made to transfer Niyi to the UCH, Ibadan, they could not find an ambulance that both had fuel and oxygen. The oxygen in the vehicle that had fuel was not enough to last the one-hour journey from Abeokuta to Ibadan, so an emergency condition made worse by initial negligence and incompetence, was further complicated by the shortage of essential items.
By the time the ambulance ambled its away to UCH, the oxygen had been exhausted and the patient's condition had sharply deteriorated. Matters became worse when reportedly, the authorities of UCH, failed to attend to the patient in good time, but rather dissipated, by seeking to verify the authenticity of the referral letter. In essence, too much precious time, was lost in the search for basic items and in waiting to get attention at one of the hospitals. It is interesting to mention that the late undergraduate, along with 12 other students, were not on a frolic, but were returning from an academic conference held in Ibadan, when the accident which needlessly claimed Niyi's life occurred.
The point however, is that too many Nigerians, have had their lives rudely terminated because of all too familiar stories of medical negligence and decay. Last year, to give an example, the family of Sandra David, sued the Nigerian government and the Federal Medical Centre, Abuja, concerning the death of the 29 year old woman, because of a ghastly mismanagement of the deceased's health condition. Earlier this year, an online journal, reported how several Nigerian have lost lives, body parts and loved ones, because of medical negligence. The problem is that those who are supposed to make comments or take action on these rising cases, usually keep mum whenever this depressing tragic stories hit the headlines.
Our politicians, when they reach the campaign ground, credit themselves and their administration with bogus achievements and fictional progress reports which have no bearing whatsoever on the daily woes of Nigerian citizens. If it does not shock the Federal Minister of Health, Prof Isaac Adewole, or President Muhammadu Buhari, that one of our Federal Medical Centres is in dire short supply of fuel and oxygen, leading to the death of Nigerians, whose lives could have been saved, then I don't know what can shock them. If governance is not about the distribution of resources and crafting of policies, to save and improve lives, then what is it? It is possible to see Niyi's death as a personal and family tragedy, but every one ought to know, that what is on our hands is a confounding national tragedy, in which our hospitals, even the best of them, are becoming little more than undertakers in which innocent Nigerians are despatched to their graves before their time.
Equally galling, is that, when the hard facts of this unfolding tragedy are published, our politicians pretend that those sobering facts, amount to nothing. This may be because they have enough resources to escape the medical bedlam at home, by jetting abroad now and then for treatment, or because they don't "give a damn" about the fact that too many Nigerians are dying from governance decay. Who knows which Nigerian will be the next victim of the ubiquitous medical dishevelment that one finds in our medical centres and hospitals. Niyi is gone but it is for a humanity stranded by the indifference, incompetence and gimmickry of its leaders that the bell tolls.
Unfortunately, it is doubtful, whether the forthcoming elections, will be about the issues that really count. Political rhetoric has found a way of evading or avoiding major governance issues that relate to those factors that make life longer, more liveable and more enjoyed. These include health, education, decent employment, housing and social infrastructure. The current disconnect between the political class and the people, will only be closed as they bring these issues into the front burner. If they refuse to do so, the people should organise themselves within and without elections to bring these neglected issues to the attention of those who claim to govern us. To the extent that the forthcoming elections will decide some issues of governance, it is important to take them seriously, so that we do not complain after the harm would have been done.
Even after the elections are over, civil society should ensure that we do not fall to the fate once predicted for docile citizens by an European philosopher that "In between elections, the British people are slaves".
Professor Olukotun is the Oba(Dr) Sikiru Adetona Professorial Chair of Governance, Department of Political Science, Olabisi Onabanjo University Ago-Iwoye.
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