Contemporary development literature is awash with the terms “governance” and “good governance”, while bad governance is being increasingly regarded as one of the root causes of all evils within societies. It has been stated severally in this column that a society that wants to develop must be organized, disciplined and educated. These three factors are considered as the trilogy of development in any contemporary economy.
Governance simply means the process of decision-making and the process by which decisions are implemented, while government is one of the actors in governance within national context. Good governance ensures that corruption within a given society is minimized as well as guarantees accountability and transparency in government. Good governance also confirms that the rule of law is adhered to, while strengthening weak institutions of government. When there is good governance over a period of time, there is bound to be positive narrative about a nation. On the contrary, when there is bad governance for a sustained period, the narrative about a country is negative.
For almost three decades now, the story about Nigeria has mostly not been impressive. For instance, when you travel outside the shores of the nation and you come in contact with citizens of other nations, their facial expressions change immediately they know you are from Nigeria. It is very embarrassing.
To further drive home this point, I was in Swaziland sometime in 1997 on a geopolitical study tour of some African countries with my colleagues but I could not make a phone call to Nigeria. You may wonder why it was not possible. It was because Nigerians living in that country imported fraud, popularly known as “419”, into Swaziland. Nigerians living in the country at that time had crippled most Swazis to an extent they never wanted to associate with any Nigerian. The government of Swaziland then placed a ban on public communication link between their country and Nigeria. For any Nigerian to make a call, you had to go to a police station or use telephone facility in your hotel. This was to track the call and, if need be, monitor your conversation. It was that bad. I hope the situation has changed now since the advent of mobile telephony.
Again, I met a guy from Switzerland while attending a conference at the American Management Association, New York, in July 2015. I introduced myself to him as a Nigerian and asked if he had been to Nigeria. He told me he had not been to Nigeria but that the stories they read and heard about my country were not encouraging. I wanted to know which stories he was referring to. He mentioned the arms deal scam. I was very shocked and embarrassed. It was not the mere mentioning of the issue that embarrassed me; he mentioned that “Nigeria is perhaps the only nation where US$2.1 billion meant for the purchase of arms to defend the people and the country was spent as a petty cash to procure other frivolous items not conterminous with national security”. I buried my head in shame. I wanted more information but he did not oblige my requests.
As a patriotic citizen, I thought of how to defend my country during the discourse but it was a bit difficult. This is because of the revelation and shock of the news. Moreover, I am not a propagandist. All I could tell the man was that my country’s stolen funds were with banks in Switzerland and other developed nations in Europe and America. This is true! We have read about Abacha looted funds and others on the pages of newspapers. I told the man that developed nations encourage our leaders to steal our common wealth and deposit same in their banks. In fact, Nigerian depositors now pay interests to these financial institutions in Europe for keeping stolen funds. I was not confident to discuss this with anyone until the immediate past National Security Adviser spoke on how he disbursed this colossal sum of money (US$2.1 billion).
You can see the problem of bad governance and leadership that lacks ethical standard. While blood of mortals was being shed in the North East, money was exchanging hands among the high and mighty in our society.
At this point, I want to speak to the conscience of our leaders and followers. Nigerians cannot be respected internationally as a people if we all continue to steal our common wealth and hand it over to foreign banks to keep. These stolen monies are used for development of other nations.
Some Nigerian governors thought that the words of God presented in the Holy Bible, that “a worker deserves his wages”, were only for the Pope and Christians. Most of our governors have forgotten that if the people are poor, the nation will be poor. This is the time in our nation’s history where leadership needs to display character and competence. Nigeria needs leaders and followers who are patriotic. Patriotism is the national side of nationalism, a feeling of pride, loyalty and love for one’s nation. At the core of patriotism lies the interpretation of the nation’s core values. Nigerian leadership needs to propagate a new idea to the public centred on sincerity of purpose, freedom an improved standard of living of the citizenry.
PMB has just presented the 2016 budget to the National Assembly. Nigerians have been informed that the proposed 2016 budget is a policy-driven budget. I humbly request that funds that would eventually be appropriated be used judiciously to execute all projects.
It is the quality of institutions and leadership currently in Nigeria that will determine the results in all sectors of the economy at the end of 2016. I will strongly advocate for ethical rebirth of all our leaders and followers. As we all prepare to celebrate the New Year 2016, Nigerians’ collective resolution should be to change the narrative of Nigeria for good. Indeed, if our narrative is not positive in the next for years, the PMB government may be deemed not to have been successful. PMB should be consistent and committed to good governance, to enable the media support him to give a brilliant narrative of our nation. Happy New Year in advance. God bless Nigeria.
