Governance in Nigeria: The Real Issues

It has been one splendid show. A soap opera gone viral . . . However, I am bothered. I am concerned that a mundane activity such as the current ministerial screening is generating so much attention nationwide. I am disturbed and wonder if we are moving in the right direction.

We need to face the real issues hindering our advancement as a nation. The states are responsible for most things that affect Nigerians on an ongoing basis and some attention should be directed at them.

-       Basic education – primary and secondary

-       Primary health care

-       Roads - most of the roads we ply in and out of our homes

-       Pipe borne water

All these fall under the ambit of our state governments and no one talks about them. It seems like the federal government always steals the show and enjoys the attention. They do not attempt to re-direct attention to the states. Maybe they feel it gives them relevance.  The state governments in turn shirk their responsibilities, taking full advantage of the entire farce.

While the state should ideally do most of the operational stuff (save for security, foreign affairs etc.), the federal arm of government should be more concerned about scoping out a vision as well as policy plans for the nation:

-       How the economy will diversify to becoming a manufacturing or services hub in the West African sub-region over the next ten years

-       How we plan to transform our weak institutions – the judiciary, customs, internal revenue service – over the next five years

-       How the ministry of transport plans to transform our disjointed road networks over the next twenty years

-       How the ministry of agriculture plans to modernize the sector over the next ten years

Such issues debated in the national assembly should be the things occupying our attention. Our focus should be to pass into law such policies that set the long-term direction of the nation. Once ratified, they set the course of governance regardless of the shift in power every four or eight years.

Several feeble attempts have been made in the past at setting such policies. However, they felt more like sideshows and not really the focus of those regimes. Policy should drive all subsequent actions of government. They are not ideas to be documented and kept in the archives while the governments busies itself commissioning roads and bore holes.

We do not really need to appoint technocrats to achieve the above. What we really need is a total change of mindset. Everyone is involved from the leader to the led. If the citizens like their rulers do not know what is required to run a nation, then no one will be held accountable. If sideshows like ministerial screening are the things that arouse our interest, then we will all have to settle for the incremental drip … drip … drip we call growth.