…might this help?
P.A.C.T
PUBLIC-PRIVATE-PARTNERSHIP In The ARTS, CULTURE, & TOURISM
A NIGERIA TRANS-BORDER EXAMPLE
[CONSTITUENT ENTITIES
By PUBLIC here is meant all government parastatals and agencies responsible for the Arts, Culture & Tourism, including government university departments/centres/institutes of same disciplines. By PRIVATE here is meant all individual, group, associational, and organizational ventures in the arts, culture, and tourism, including private university departments of same. These also include public and private production/exhibition outlets, travel agencies, resorts, hospitality hubs, etc.]
THE NEED
Collaboration, Cooperation, Integration are the future and golden-nugget wagers of global enterprise and management; and given Nigeria's demographics of being 1 out of every 2.5/3 persons on planet Earth, nothing better gives the cutting edge to our socioeconomic advancement than the ideals and objectives of P.A.C.T quarried, as it is, in the one inexhaustible natural resource/endowment [arts-culture-tourism] for which we are envy of most nations on earth.
We have oft been inundated with 'government cannot do it alone' sermons, now we are saying that government and the private sector shall unite and acquit our nation, and like-minded individuals and groups abroad, in the best tradition of art-culture-tourism management.
THE CHALLENGE OF P.A.C.T
It is the generic global challenge of management everywhere to convoke new knowledge, new understanding, and new instrumentations to produce economic and social development and bring about savings and capital investment, in this case, with our Arts, Culture, & Tourism resources. As a hybrid organ of leadership, direction, and decision, the Management of P.A.C.T has a duty to submit to innovative functions, responsibilities, and processes, and achieve the compatibility-fit in all areas of our enterprise singularly desirable for success at all times.
Given the material-cognitive-spiritual-psychosomatic substance and context of the arts, culture, and tourism, and thus the more than utilitarian demand and supply form and content of our resource and enterprise, both public and private sectors share a common life-ground of resource world stuff; the only structural differential being the management styles of either one. But this is no challenge, insofar as interracial marriages succeed over and above mono-racial unions that fail. The success factor of a good union is in the two parties evolving own signs, symbols, and ethics of value, virtue, and measure that are mutually observed, respected, and grown. And this MAKING, P.A.C.T shall DO; especially as it is the hallmark of global management success that "the more management can use the traditions, values and beliefs of a society, the more it will accomplish. …We now know that all of us - Americans, Europeans, Japanese, and many others - have to learn management from each other." [Peter F. Drucker, Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices]
P.A.C.T VISION: That our Public and Private Sectors can work our Arts, Culture, & Tourism to make Nigeria cynosure of economic and social development that engages the world.
P.A.C.T MISSION: To create, standardize, promote, and channel for posterity appropriate products, services, processes, and environments that define, quantify, and qualify our Arts, Culture, & Tourism as game-changers in social and economic triumph.
P.A.C.T BUSINESS STRATEGY & ORIENTATION
The business of P.A.C.T weds symbols and realities. Symbols are so enmeshed in reality as to dictate what we think, say, and do. As this convener puts it in his recreational board game, SYMBOLS, Rebirth In Cultural Dialogue, "Symbols are at the heart of human existence. Symbols establish values, things, people, places, time, space, ideals, even the invisible. They are virtues or vices people ascribe. Symbols are tools for establishing. But, in time, these tools become masters, these means become ends, and the inevitable rupture in existence occurs. The 'ruin' at Babel sets in. This collapse, this disorientation then demands a new ordering of symbols. The cycle renews itself eternally. In the endless renewal in, of, with, and by symbols is human existence forever reborn." This is the sum and substance of our business strategy and orientation in P.A.C.T.
TOWARDS EVOLVING OUR BUSINESS PERFORMANCE LANGUAGE & METHODOLOGY
Inasmuch as Culture for us here is not merely the totality of a people's way of life but THE TOTALITY OF A PEOPLE'S WELL-BEING, their past, present, and future prosperity [termed 'sustainability' today] P.A.C.T Business Performance Language and Methodology are founded, crafted and engineered by Rhythm, which is matter, heart, mind and soul of Yoruba Being. Who will deny that all Life is PERCUSSION, "the striking of one body one element against another"? Percussion is impact, the measure of effect and affect in any process or act, real or imaginable. The beating of the heart, pulsations in veins and arteries, opposites in concert of search and rescue, are defining moments and behaviors of life in all its dimensions. Percussion defines what, who, where, how, when, and even the inscrutable why. Percussion is the enabler of sense, sensitivities, and sensibilities. Feel the rhetorical question, "What hit me?" Thinking, wording, and doing are all mechanics of percussion. Percussion as measure of energy defines, hits off, time and space independently and in correlation. Percussion is the nature of fact, the nature of rhythm, and the nature of perception. Sound is percussion, light is percussion, matter is, spirit is, peace is, love is percussion, because All is IMPACT, the full name of P.A.C.T. Thus is formed the Business Performance Language and Methodology of Public-Private-Partnership in the Arts, Culture, & Tourism, P.A.C.T.
BUSINESS PERFORMANCE LANGUAGE AND METHODOLOGY
This is the methodology that shall govern operations of the parts and the whole of this give and take, this humane reciprocation for collective good - the skill characteristics or working procedures that every participant across board and borders in this venture can, and would, learn to work for results and attain fulfilment with individually and mutually. This 'methodology' shall give manifest character to and continually evolve and re-evolve required golden-age 'brand' for our globally oriented collective self-acquittance.
This how-it-works methodology is borrowed from the principles and stylistics of the Timeless Theatre Of Funmi Odusolu [seminal product of his 'INCANTATION: Life-Force of Utopia'], a theory of creativity that essays ''a creative equation of interdependence of form and content, of matter and spirit, of all the differentiae in existence, yielding in its process of recreation new orders of perceiving and relating hitherto irreconcilable truths, the affinity for making new wholes.''
The mechanics of this 'affinity for making new wholes' [itself the exemplar of our own partnership criterion] comes of the interplay of 'fact', 'rhythm', and 'perception' [as tools of thought, word, and deed] in the elements of every one thing that we do [from 'generation of idea' through 'conversion of idea into invention by research,' and 'development of invention' to 'establishment of invention on the market,' also for 'key activities analysis,' 'contributions analysis,' 'decisions analysis,' 'relations analysis' and even 'redistribution analysis'] in this enterprise. Here, the 'Fact' [or reality-check] of karma or inevitable consequence of what we do in Society, the 'Rhythm' of self-destination [or reworking of the patterns of options presented by available facts for desirable results] in the particular activity concerned, and the 'Perception of Creative Audacity' [the ingenious turns of insight, hindsight, and foresight] in achieving set goals are the working terms of reference. Not at all a difficult art or industry, but demanding of creative thinking through at all times and events. This is the art of industry that can distinguish us and our deeds.
This fact-rhythm-perception methodology of 'work and working to create new wholes' shall be adopted as needful operational lingua franca between all collaborating parties, and so create a unique and shared language of interpreting and doing in our partnership.
MEMBERSHIP
There are two categories of FULL MEMBERSHIP and ASSOCIATE MEMBERSHIP.
a. FULL MEMBERSHIP is open to all groups, individuals, agencies, and organisations set out in the opening paragraph 'Constituent Entities' above who are primarily resident or carry on business within Nigeria.
b. ASSOCIATE MEMBERSHIP is open to same persons and organisations as above who are resident or carry on business outside Nigeria.
Membership Registration requirements can be accessed and completed from February 1, 2019, at https://www.worlddrumfestival.com
P.A.C.T is a trans-border project of WORLD DRUM FESTIVAL, registered under the corporate laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Convener
Funmi OdusoluOn Thu, Jan 3, 2019 at 10:11 PM Michael Vickers <mvickers@mvickers.plus.com> wrote:Thank you Ayo.Brilliant.You have set us squarely and firmly ontoThe tram-lines of reality.These were my thoughts and pleasAfter surviving the head-on collision ofThe Elections of 1964-65.Ears in Nigeria,In the Big World beyond,Were deaf.And they remained deaf untilIn the late 1990s,A Nigerian ear listened.Ears beyond remained tight shut.And that Nigerian ear introduced me to you.From that time on,I have been enabled to speak through many fora.Many ears remain deaf and hostile,But also many ears Nigerian and African have opened.And many of these have shown themselves to have far more acute hearing than mine.This experience has been my reward.And my special experience and rewardHas been to read this column by you, Ayo.You have re-set our clear destiny onThe Tramlines of Reality.You have given to this young man of 81 yearsThe very best New Year's Present ever.As shortly I head out on my daily walk over these Sussex Downs,Despite the bitter cold of the wind, the hovering Dark clouds,There will be a spring in my step,And I shall be warm.Thank you.And may you and the wondrous Oba Sikiru Adetona,A Great Man, a Great and Loyal Nigerian, and our Great Friend,Enjoy the Creator's blessings in this year, 2019,And for evermore.Baba m
Sent from my iPadELECTION: WE NEED CONVERSATIONS, NOT SWEET-NOTHINGS
by Ayo Olukotun
The current election season, no less than the previous one of 2014 to 2015, has been replete with tons of campaign promises, some unfulfillable, while most will go unfulfilled. If you take the major contenders in the presidential race, namely, President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress, and Alhaji Abubakar Atiku of the People's Democratic Party, one easily drowns in a pool of campaign promises. The APC campaign document launched with fanfare entitled, 'Next Level', contains promises covering a wide range of political, social, and economic aspects of our national life. Buhari is promising, despite the downturn in jobs, to create through the N-power, not just jobs for 1 million graduates, but something to do as well for 10 million Nigerians, under a public-private sector voucher system. Not just that, several millions of jobs are promised under the Anchor borrowers' scheme which would fast track job creation for 1 million farmers, another 1.5 million jobs for the livestock transformation project, yet several other millions of jobs through other programmes related to manufacturing and agriculture. Talking about job creation, one is reminded of a joke that made the rounds recently about a governor presiding over a state of less than 6 million people, but who in a fit of apparent absentmindedness, promised to create 10 million jobs! Going back to the next level document, there are promises to provide free healthcare for the poorest 40%, earmark 35% of all appointments to females, and remodel 10,000 schools per year with all of them harbouring students who are digitally literate. Not to be outdone, Atiku has come up with what is popularly dubbed as 'the Atiku Plan' which will presumably cure Nigeria's long-term and short-term ailments. In all, the plan consists of 45 campaigns promises ranging from noticeable improvement in transportation, restructuring, through job creation to industrial development, and dramatic increase in power generation. For instance, it is promised that by 2025, which is just 6 years away, manufacturing will have soared from the current 9% of GDP to 30% of the same.
Why is this a problem? Flash back to 2014/2015 election cycle, and re-read the garbage heap of promises made by the two major parties in that season. Buhari, and the APC promised at the time to crush Boko Haram within the first three months of taking power, to provide 3 million jobs per year, stop the importation of refined petroleum products, provide one free meal (including fruits) daily for public primary schools, among others. It is a waste of time to be talking about whether any of these promises, and many others made, were fulfilled. Similarly, Jonathan, and the PDP promised to eradicate corruption and poverty, rescue the Chibok girls, and 'link every commercial and administrative capital in Nigeria by rail so as to bring our people together'. Again, needless to say, that almost all of these promises are unfulfillable, and certainly so within a 4-year term. Please note that at the time these promises were reeled out to Nigerians, oil prices in the world market had dipped significantly, and the whole country was hovering at the brink of a recession; it didn't make any sense therefore, beyond titillating us, to overload the electorate with these bloated promises.
That is why we have compared this kind of political behavior to sweet nothings, which are trifling romantic statements that lovers make to each other, most of which they may not even remember the morning after. The difference however, is that in political affairs, unfulfilled promises have the disastrous effect of breeding cynicism towards political parties, institutions, and personnel, to the extent that their words, even when solemnly uttered, come to mean very little.
In point of fact, this is not a problem peculiar to Nigeria, considering that politicians, the world over, are creatures of expediency. That notwithstanding, a recent study whose findings are published in a leading political science journal found out that, for leading 12 established democracies, including the US, UK and Canada, the extent of fulfillment of campaign promises by political chief executives is considerable, ranging between 70% and 80%. It would be hard to argue that the same thing can be said for politicians in Nigeria, and several parts of the developing world. It would seem that in our terrain, promises are made almost in jest, and with the unwritten assumption that they are meant to be broken. This is an unfortunate development that is bound to wash over into the way in which citizens perceive politicians and what they say. This state of affairs is also a far cry from the attitudes of an earlier generation of politicians, who sketched out programmes, priorities and policies based on careful study of what the economy can underwrite. It is even conceivable, considering the decline in the reading culture that top politicians are merely reading out these days, platforms and policies written for them by hired experts. That problem would have been ameliorated had political personnel agreed to debate one another so that the electorate can gauge their sincerity and commitment to their platforms but, as everyone knows, we do not have such luck, as the two principal combatants, especially Buhari, are yet to both agree to a public debate on governance issues. So, what we have is a much recycled theatre in which those who seek to lead us are talking past us, over our heads, engaging in frivolous salesmanship, rather than conversing with us. The best campaign speeches are dialogues and informed conversations with the electorate, showing empathy and sensitivity to context and the people's plight. To give an example, what sense does it make to promise millions of jobs annually to citizens in a season where millions of jobs are being lost, without showing what will be done, first to prevent the hemorrhage of jobs, and two, to create a turnaround situation, which will bring about the climate, and the wherewithal to create jobs. To be taken seriously, such a promise must be attended by the kind of incremental learning that will show stages of possible advancement in growth, diversification, and entrepreneurship. In other words, our politicians must show that they are conversant with the sufferings of Nigerians, with their needs, as well as be ready to give explanations, where necessary, for why past promises were not fulfilled.
If we continue at the present rate of easily breakable and highly unrealistic promises, then we might be heading for the consequences of a revolution of rising expectations, in which the people, having been aroused, do not let go of demanding for the realization of illusory promises. To avert such doomsday scenarios, our politicians should talk, not by routine, but only after they have heard the people out, regarding their existential dilemmas and the daily frustrations that they carry by living in Nigeria. In many traditional African societies, a king is enthroned only after he has symbolically bowed to the people's wishes and aspirations through a rite. It is time for those who seek to lead us to hear us out, engage in dialogues, rather than do all the talking, and make promises only after they have correctly appraised our circumstances, making allowances for contingencies and emergencies.
- Prof. Ayo Olukotun is the Oba (Dr.) Sikiru Adetona Chair of Governance, Department of Political Science, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye
Thursday, January 3, 2019
USA Africa Dialogue Series - ROCKET-FUEL & THANK YOU--Re: TRAMLINES OF REALITY--Re: Prof. Olukotun's Column
Thank you, Funmi.
Indeed It might.
See, for instance, wonderful item just in
Which supports your point.
How many other such imaginative
and vitally useful bodies in Nigeria alone
Are out there and available to help
And to contribute in the modern mode;
The mode which your PACT would encompass/ promote/ represent
And to which it would inject much of the "rocket-fuel" of my much-missed
Late friend--whose presence is active in so much we seek to do today--
the Great Prof Okon Uya?
You've done it again, Funmi.
Reaching Beyond the Boundaries
And igniting More Great Light.
A wonderful and inspiring start to my morning.
You've pleased Okon and made my day already,
And no doubt the day of many others.
Thank you.
Baba m
Sent from my iPad
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment