A RECIPE FOR A RESOURCEFUL, VIRAL, PEACEFUL AND WELL GOVERNED NIGERIA

Indifference to the state of things is never a panacea to its resolution. Things are never changed by fighting the existing reality, rather, to change anything, it is necessary that a new model be built that makes the old model obsolete. This is because the discovery of a problem is half its solution. A correct recipe or solution for a resourceful, viral, peaceful and well governed Nigeria would remain a delusion, a midsummer’s night dream, if the problems peculiar to her aren’t examined. These problems are what have consistently plagued and thus undermined her quest for development. To start with, the British amalgamation of Nigeria was not intended to create a nation in the sense of forging the multilingual variegation contained in it, into a people with a common vision and to see their selves as one. It was just one huge contraption for administrative convenience. Nigeria, composed of 36 states and 773 local governments is a federal state with a presidential system of government. There is nothing wrong with her land, water or even the air which her citizens breathe. Despite being endowed with plenteous natural resources like petroleum, natural gas, coal, bauxite, iron ore, lead, zinc, limestone, gold and tin, the Nigerian economy has suffered from severe regression since the mid 1980’s, with above 70% of her population living on below a dollar per day. The existence of poverty, diseases, injustice and misery is solely because some people manage to regulate the personal and commercial life of others. Hence, the problem Nigeria has is that she has being unfortunate with leadership. There has been a high incidence of leaders with tribal goals and visions, who are not only being corrupt and high handed but equally untrustworthy. Because of their misplaced value system, they are champions of tribalism, nepotism and favoritism. This causes alienation because you can’t possible expect someone who has been disqualified from a post just because of place of origin to be enamored of the Nigerian nation; competent people who are disqualified on the grounds of place of origin as the criteria cannot be willing materials on which to erect the unity of the nation. There is also the issue of political instability and incessant coup d’états which led to abandonment of economic policies embarked upon by previous administrations. Between 1960 and 1998, there were seven coups, Nigeria equally changed from parliamentary to presidential system of governance in 1979 to no avail. Even in the current dispensation, what obtains is a rape of democracy as the desires and aspirations of the people is waived aside by such ills as godfatherism, political thugery and stealing of ballot boxes. It is no wonder then that a concerned citizen on the brink of despair described the Nigerian version of democracy as “government of the few, by the few, and for the few”. Of all the constraints on the Nigerian democracy, perhaps none has inflicted a more serious drag on the pace and direction of Nigeria’s development than her official devaluation of merit and excellence as the price of her existence, than the Federal Character Legislation. This Federal Character Legislation, put up to ensure equitable sharing of posts and resources among its federating components is one of the Federal Executive Bodies established by section 153 0f the constitution. There is however discrimination as that legislation is not fully complied with, since some zones receive more funds than others. This is because some of the factors used to determine who gets what are not only irrelevant, but go against the tenets of justice, fair play and anti-domination; which the Federal Character Commission is supposed to enforce. For instance, when a factor such as landmass is promoted and given greater emphasis at the expense of population density which represents the true needs of a state, it means that some states are given undue advantage. This means that the most densely populated states have had to suffer grave inequality at source. This conceived inequality in the appropriation of the nation’s resources not minding who produces what, has led to gross unrest and fighting in the Niger Delta and increased the incidence of agitation of fundamentalist groups such as MASSOB (Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State Of Biafra), MOSOP (Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People), OPC (Odua Peoples Congress), AREWA, MEND (Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta), etc. Nigeria suffers from misplaced value system and lacks people based legislation. If not for misplaced value system, what then is the rationale behind Nigeria’s venture into space and the launching of satellites she didn’t build nor has the manpower to maintain? Instead of tackling its major problems of illiteracy, lack of human development and lack of proper budgeting for future use, she chases shadows, choosing rather to live in fantasy and delusion. Instead she paints various pictures to the outside world that seem to say, all is well and embarks on useless white elephant projects. What better proof of anti people legislation is to be sought after when a nation cannot give incentives to local investors and entrepreneurs as well ensuring that they are protected from external influence? But alas! This appears not to be the priority of the giant of Africa. Instead, there is incidence of arbitrary taxation and inconsistent monetary policies. The incidence of dumping in Nigeria has reached an all time high with the Indo-Chinese conspiracy at the vanguard of defaulters. China even produces different grades of goods; the superior quality for its American market which strictly enforces anti dumping laws and the inferior for the Nigerian market where anything goes. These substandard goods are ridiculously cheap and with no policy to protect cottage industries, the question of a balanced forum for competition is nonexistent. The bodies in charge of regulating this sector, Standard Organization on Nigeria, (SON), and Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, (MAN), are nonchalant. This combined with the fact that commodities ranging from toothpicks, beverages, canned fish and cloths are all imported, is the singular reason why industries are fast closing down with the attendant bitter consequences being that there is no work for her teeming population of graduates. What explanation can be given to the continuous duplication of ministries? Just recently, a new ministry in the coinage of ministry of the Niger Delta was added, making the total number of ministries equal to 28 and with 48 ministers. This is preposterous, because even the top countries of the world like the United States of America with 15 ministries and the most populous country in the world, China with 28 ministries, all have less. Again, isn’t it the height of irrationality to set up a ministry of the Niger Delta when NDDC, (Niger Delta Development Commission), still exists? The money that is going to be sunk into the building of ministerial buildings and the employment of personnel would have been used to put one or two infrastructure in place that could better the lives of these people. This is indeed the pinnacle of anti people policies. Nigeria is also distressed by many societal issues chief of which is her poor human rights records. Her high ranking officials and police have been held responsible for serious abuses including politically motivated killings, the use of lethal force against suspected criminals and hostage seizing militants in the Niger Delta, beatings and even torture of suspects, detainees and convicts. Also cases of genital mutilation of women, child labor, prostitution and human trafficking abound. Equally disheartening is the issue of sectarian violence and ethno-religious conflicts that have incessantly ravaged this nation. Thus, the only formula is and still remains a total re-orientation of the Nigerian people, to begin to have self worth, so as to stop seeing made in Nigerian goods as inferior and this all boils down to good leadership. We need purposeful leaders, who have the will power to effect changes and who will introduce an institution to sustain the changes. We need leaders who would place country above self, visionaries who would continually ask themselves what they can do for their country; not what their country can do for them. It takes a leader who is able to do things not for the sake of today, but for posterity. If we had such leaders in the 60’s, the civil war could have been averted. Imagine what could have happened in South Africa if a Thabo Mbeki were short sighted and self centered and refused to resign? That would have been the beginning of catastrophe! We need such leaders. But these leaders are not limited to political office holders because everybody who has the opportunity to take responsibility is a leader. We all are the problem; from the man who offers a bribe to the receiver of the bribe, even those who sign out money for inexistent contracts they didn’t implement, down to the man who sees things going wrong, justice being perverted and turns a blind eye. None is exempt; for the change we wish to see in the world has to start with us! Nigeria has to become economically and technologically independent if she must move forward. This is something that is quite attainable, provided Nigerians are given opportunity. If it worked for other countries like India, then it can work for Nigeria. In the building of India’s three steel industries, she had her local engineers watch while Germans and Scots built the first one, while for the second one, 70% of her Indian workforce participated. Finally, for the third steel mill, every construction was by Indian effort. Today, India not only builds steel mills, but even vehicles. That is how technology is transferred. Presently, India is equally one of the world’s software technological giants. But the Indian feat did not happen by chance. It took careful planning and the cooperation of the public and private sectors. Despite their different views on how IT could move forward, they had a common motive-pushing India higher. The Indian government not only set up technological incubators by creating a digital village in a place called Bangalore; it also positioned its indigenous software developers well enough to gain the recognition of the established operators in the west. The Nigerian government should adopt such an attitude and promote indigenous Nigerian technology by enforcing stronger anti-dumping laws and patronizing them. What sense does it make for these same individuals to be picked up by governments of other nations and subsequently contribute to the viability of their economy? What sense does it make to leave our health sector in shambles, forcing the efflux of our medical personnel abroad? Why go abroad for medical treatment instead of equipping our hospitals to meet such contingency, and ironically, be treated by doctors of Nigerian origin, after of course boosting the economy of the host nation? Nigeria has to embrace an agrarian revolution and so pass through the route the developed nations have taken, because a self supporting agricultural base is the springboard for technological advancement. Agricultural mechanization should be encouraged and some bad land tenure systems scrapped. It isn’t something to boast that 60% of Nigerians are involved in the Agricultural sector, yet she can’t adequately feed her citizens with what she produces, whereas Germany has 5% of its population feeding the whole nation. This isn’t magic, if ever there was magic, that magic was mechanization. The nation should look to other sources of electricity like solar energy, in other to ensure constant supply of electricity, which is a necessary stimulus for any nation that wants to be industrialized. A total restructuring of the nations educational sector should be done, giving emphasis to a technology backbone, not one that ends up making us continually dependent on the white man. Why should Nigerian engineers fold their hands and watch the influx of goods without thinking of tearing it apart and coming up with something better? But this can’t be done if our educational system teaches us only to swallow information without questions. The Nigerian youth needs to be motivated. Also, the Nigerian economy should be diversified. It shouldn’t be totally oil driven. The right microeconomic foundations that can spur wealth creation and prosperity should be laid. This would encourage higher productivity. This can be achieved by ensuring that there is discipline in the workforce. People should be paid for the man hours they put in. This will make workers more serious, as well as put paid to the criminal activities of ghost workers. There should be decentralization and devolution of power. This involves the increase of responsibilities and funds to the states in other to reduce the overload of expectations and demands on the centre. This will compel every state to fall back on its inner strength and creativity by discovering new ways of using existing resources. Finally, the tension between indigeneship and citizenship should be resolved in favor of citizenship in other to purge the Federal Character policy of a heavy underlay of ethnic coloration. Any man born in any locality is a citizen of they place irrespective of tribe or religion. Despite all this besetting problems, Nigeria has all it takes to truly be the giant of Africa she frequently flaunts herself as, if only she can tell herself the truth, and nothing but the bitter truth, imbibe it and apply the remedy which wisdom has since being longing to pass across. If all these are done, then accelerated efforts would have been made towards releasing the productive energies of Nigerians, who are naturally quite enterprising. Then can a recipe for a resourceful, viral, peaceful and well governed Nigeria be said to have been found. A stitch in time, they say, saves nine!