IKECHUKWU EZE and ALEXANDER CHIEJINA
The pact between the nation’s 36 governors and Harvard University on planned periodic training programmes for state chief executives in the United States has opened a debate among the populace on the propriety of such enterprise, writes IKECHUKWU EZE and ALEXANDER CHIEJINA
There is no doubt that Good Governance is the sine quanon for social, political and economic development towards the realization of the common good of the society. Against this backdrop, Nigeria, as a country, has seen numerous ineffective governments from various administrations thus, betraying the trust of the citizenry. With the abundant potentials in the country, she still has not been successful in transforming its resources for the general good of its citizenry and ensuring sustainable development in the long run. This is as a result of bad governance and responsive leadership in the past. This has no doubt resulted in the continued marginalization of the Nigerian people, increase in the incidence of poverty and the underdevelopment of the economy of the country.
Corruption, a social vice, becomes prevalent in a society when the people are not empowered to participate in the political process and have no means to hold political leaders and their administrations accountable for their decisions and actions. This is one of the strongest legacies of prolonged military rule which the country has experienced. Where political leaders do not honour their role as public trustees, do not adhere to the rule of law, and are still not ready to account for their stewardship, they provide a fertile ground for corruption. The result is the weakness in public administration, which provides public servants and other members of the public, the opportunities to engage in corrupt practices.
As a result of persisting maladministration, the nation has been saddled with sundry negative attributes of governance. Such ills include poor service delivery, ineffective complaints mechanism, social injustice, poor corruption reporting mechanism, manipulation of the electoral system as well as ineffective capacity building for leaders holding strategic positions in the country. In the words of former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan”Without good governance, without rule of law, predictable administration, legitimate power and response regulation, no amount of funding, no amount of funding, no amount of charity will set on the path of prosperity.”
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It is apparently in the bid to ensure a transformation from the old order which had held the country down for too long that the 36 state governors in the country recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the John F. Kennedy School of Government of the renowned Harvard University in the United States of America. The essence of the pact was for periodic training programmes for the states’ helmsmen, which would focus on governance and leadership. Also to benefit from the training, are key secretariat staffs of the Governors’ Forum and local business and political leaders.
Reports said the memorandum of understanding, which was supposed to have become effective on 22nd May, 2009, was signed in the United States, when Kwara State Governor and Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, Bukola Saraki, led governors Isa Yuguda (Bauchi), Adams Oshiomhole (Edo), Godswill Akpabio (Akwa Ibom) and the leadership of the forum’s secretariat on a visit to the university.
While Bukola Saraki and the Forum’s director-general, Asishana Okauru, signed for the Governors’ forum, Robert Rotberg, a Professor and director, Programme on Intrastate conflict of the University and Ms. Katie Naeve, the Programme Manager, endorsed the document on behalf of Harvard University.
The details of the MOU state that “Both the programme on intrastate conflict and the secretariat at the Nigeria Governors’ Forum will coordinate the logistics of the workshops on leadership, good governance, education policy and economic development including transportation of input from the Nigeria Governors’ Forum Secretariat, will formulate appropriate curricula for each of the workshops.” The first of the training programme has been scheduled for October, 2009. The second training programme will hold before June, 2010, while further workshops will take place between 2010 and 2011 and even beyond.
However the development has generated mixed reactions among the populace with most questioning the justness of elected officials funding such training from the public purse.
In his reaction Abiodun Fatai, a lecturer in the Department of Political Science, Lagos State University, Ojo Campus, who dismissed it as “a waste of resources” also saw it as “a way of undermining intellectual institutions like Lagos Business School, Nigeria Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru, Jos, Center for Development Studies, University of Jos and other universities and institutes within the country which can offer capacity building training on Governance and Leadership.”
Towing the same line, Umukoro Francis, a legal practitioner insisted that Nigerian educational institutions were capable of providing the same services the governors would be seeking at Harvard University. There is no doubt, he says that “Nigerian institutions can provide the knowledge base which our leaders can acquire to enhance effective governance of the people.”
He also attributed the clamour for foreign training among public servants as “the quest for estacode.”
Lagos lawyer, Bamidele Aturu sees it as an insensitive distraction on the grounds that
“a Governor ought to have his ideas on governance before running, if he does not then he can hardly be of any use.”
Bamidele who made his views known in a mail sent to Business Day further said: ” It is truly unbelievable that our Governors could even think of such a wasteful project as enhancing their capacities through a stint at Harvard or at any University outside our shores, at a time when governance properly so-called is at a standstill all over the country. We need to know who would be paying for the workshops and seminars-for that is what such stints invariably boil down to? How long would the Governors and their aides be off-duty? Even if the seminars are self-funded, I would still describe them as insensitive distraction and waste of resources.”
His views are in line with that of Valentine Ojo, a US-based university teacher who pointed out that the likes of Nasir el Rufai, former FCT Minister and Frank Nweke Jnr, former Minister of Information who are recent graduates from Harvard’s one year fellowship programme attended the school at their own expense after serving in the Nigerian government.
“There is a glaring difference between what the current governors led by Bukola Saraki (Kwara State) are trying to do and what previous government officials have done. The governors are proposing to be trained at the expense of the Nigerian government to perform duties for which they are already being paid.”
A new twist which came in the form of a denial from Harvard authorities has even elicited more reactions from Nigerians. Robert Rotberg, Harvard’s head of the Office of the University’s Intrastate Conflict Program had in a bid to explain the true position of things explained that though he had discussions with Nigerian Governors Forum, there was no official agreement or partnership to that effect.
His words:”The Nigerian Governors’ Forum contacted me recently about developing a training programme for their members. I have had initial conversations with them to gain a better understanding of what they are looking for and to explore the possibility, but there is no official agreement or partnership at this point.”
Reacting to the development the Action Congress (AC) in a statement said “If it was found that the Governors’ Forum had indeed lied about signing memorandum of understanding with Harvard when the training document was only a draft – as claimed by Harvard-then, the Federal Government should issue an appropriate reprimand to the Governors’ Forum to prevent a recurrence. Of course, we also expect that the development will attract public opprobrium for the governors.”
The party noted that “State governors who have distinguished themselves in Nigeria – for example in Lagos starting from Alhaji Lateef Jakande to Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and now, Babatunde Fashola – did not go to Harvard to learn how to govern after their respective elections. Is it Harvard that will tell a governor how to provide decent healthcare, potable water and necessary infrastructure for his or her people, especially when the Harvard trainer has never visited Nigeria? Does the Nigerian Constitution allow a sitting state governor to take a study leave.”
Not less miffed is Okeke Sylvanus, a civil servant, who described the governors’ trip to Harvard to sign an agreement on governance issue as nothing more than “another intelligent avenue for squandering of scarce public resources.”
He further lamented that the trip to Harvard University “may have cost the Nigerian taxpayers millions of dollars in airline tickets for the governors and their entourage and payment of bloated official allowances and hotel accommodation.”
A clearly outraged professional who pleaded anonymity charged the Governors’ Forum to “realise that with this recent accord with Harvard University, they have passed a vote of no confidence in our own universities as well as the numerous federal and private universities in this country.”
