I have been soaking in the outpouring that has followed in the wake of the Ekiti elections. Here are what all the facts, all the theories, all the opinions, all the debates – taken together – keep pointing me to: 1. The outcome of the elections in Ekiti is the most positive thing to have happened to Nigerian democracy in a long time. If nothing at all, Ekiti offers us a site for excavating the history of the Nigerian democratic experience since 2003. 2. A four-year one term limit for gubernatorial service is more than enough if not too much. 3. One other area in which it might be useful to make room for whimsy is to challenge the assumption that the questions of what constitutes development and how it can be delivered have been definitively answered. That assumption has led to very little emphasis being placed on persuasion, co-created solutions, and to condescension on the part of the self-appointed, altruistic, know-it-all progressives and resentment on the part of the supposed beneficiaries of long term developmental policies. 4. The challenge of good governance in Nigeria is not the decoupling of the petro-state from the national system or the dismantling of the apparatus of rent distribution or the replacement of PDP patronage networks with APCs or vice versa. This is why people who have been tainted by serious allegations corruption, who have no track record of or evince no inclination towards prudent management of affairs get significant votes in relatively free and fair elections. 5. The challenge of good governance in Nigeria is not the building of long-lasting infrastructure. This is why people who have done little more than embezzle state funds, award contracts to family members and cronies and leave a trail of abandoned projects or shoddily completed ones in their wake are credible candidates for re-election or election to other public offices. What then is the challenge of good governance in Nigeria? The challenge of good governance in Nigeria is one of thoroughgoing public engagement and civic education. There might come a time when the challenge of good governance in Nigeria evolves to the point where other needs are paramount, but for now the job calls for public engagement and campaigns of persuasion on an unprecedented scale. Now is not the time to bother about introducing, building and maintaining transport infrastructure or good healthcare systems or stable power supply or transparent processes of delivering those. All that is required is the stimulation of debate and discussion at the grassroots on the needs for, costs of and mode of delivery of transport infrastructure, good healthcare systems and stable power supply. This is what the state ministry of information, the TV and radio facilities are for. Governors should be seen in bars, should be seen sharing a snack of roast yam on roadsides, should be seen in town hall meetings making a case for progressive development. Commissioning of projects (which wont be completed) and cutting of tape for completed projects (for which contractors were overpaid) are not as important in their relation to the delivery of infrastructure as in being fora for public enlightenment on the benefits of horizontal development. This is not the time to introduce BRT or light rail or good drains but to use the Mecca and Jerusalem pilgrimage board models for selecting people from every NURTW park, RTEAN chapter, ACOMORAN garage, and commuters from every LGA and interpreters for study trips to the Americas and Eurasia. Dont use state power to attempt to remove deadwood from the civil service or retrain teachers or those kinds of things. What is required is a sustained dialogue in different fora with the unions on their production of strategic plans for building the capacity of their members, retraining schemes and right-sizing of the workforce. The money required for engaging people in the discussion of long term capital projects and the institutionalisation of social welfare is probably less than the funds required for the actual implementation of long term capital projects and the institutionalisation of social welfare – it is therefore clear how to judiciously use the content of state coffers. Having done the four-year bid, the good governor should retire to Dalmatia and plant cabbages or whatever it is that ex-governors do. In short, what Nigeria needs right now is not the mythical philosopher king or the more humdrum servant-leader but a skilled interlocutor. Isn’t it true that Nigerians do nothing but talk? Well, freedom of expression is the foundation of progressive democracies.
Posted on: Wed, 25 Jun 2014 13:45:49 +0000
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