Nigeria’s quest for good governance has continued to hang in the balance over poor process of selecting leaders and lack of accountability and responsibility by those in the saddle.
Panellists at the BusinessDay national discourse on Nigeria’s COVID-19 response made these observations, Tuesday, while speaking on the topic ‘Governance and Optimising Nigeria’s Response to COVID-19’.
The panellists comprising former political office holders and stakeholders in governance said for Nigeria to come out of bad governance, effect of which is evident in the difficulty in the containment of COVID-19 pandemic, there must be a total overhaul of the system. The sessions was moderated by Olisa Agbakogba, senior partner, Olisa Agbakogba Legal.
Peter Obi, a former governor of Anambra State, said the failed government seen in Nigeria today is as a result of the cumulative effect of leadership failure over the years, caused by poor recruitment process.
According to Obi, no matter the kind of plans one puts or has in Nigeria, with the kind of leaders Nigeria has, nothing good will come out of it, insisting that there must be an overhaul from the federal to states down to the local government.
While likening Nigeria to a plane carrying passengers by pilots that lack direction, the vice presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2019 general elections said, “Our leadership selection must change”.
Identifying failure in leadership responsibility, Obi cited a scenario that every local government in Nigeria receives at least N100 million monthly yet the state can’t afford N15 million to set up a testing laboratory for COVID-19.
“Also, a ventilator which cost about N10 million, many states can’t afford, yet we saw their State Assembly buying and sharing a fleet of cars,” he said.
He noted that Nigeria’s low budgetary funding to health and education, the two sectors necessary for improvement in human capital development, is like that of a failed state.
Compared to South Africa, Obi said Nigeria’s spending on education and health combined in the last four years is not up to the $17.6 billion earmarked by South Africa for just its health sector alone.
Obi, while speaking on the governance structure in the country, said Nigeria needs to look out for a new political arrangement that will decentralise the power of the Federal Government.
The former Anambra governor stated that the Executive Order 10, signed by President Muhammadu Buhari, was commendable, as this would assist in channelling needed funds to the judiciary, independent of the state government, in the discharge of their duties, and called for an Executive Order on savings and investment.
Also speaking, Oby Ezekwesili, a former minister of education, said it was impossible to get good leadership in Nigeria if Nigerians do not get the right people into public positions.
Ezekwesili advised that Nigeria must focus on the longer term and plan for the future to be able to deal with challenges when they break, such as the dreaded coronavirus.
The former presidential candidate in the 2019 election said there must be constitutional provision on how Nigeria uses the proceeds it gets from the sale of crude oil.
Ezekwesili said the plan to diversify the nation’s economy had not been done because the citizens have not demanded a standard of performance from their leaders.
Speaking further, she said the country needs strong citizen engagement that is data driven and analytical, stressing that leaders must carry the citizens along in governance of the country.
While stressing that citizens need to be at the centre of good governance in Nigeria, she said, “We need to have a structure that is inclusive. Nigerian leaders must think beyond oil and urgently deregulate the petroleum sector.”
Ezekwesili said there is nothing to celebrate about the fight against COVID-19 in Nigeria when a large percentage of the population is still locked in severe poverty, saying Nigerians need to have structures that work for them in the 21st Century and guarantee accountability and prosperity.
On his part, Philip Asiodu, former minister of petroleum, said bad governance in Nigeria is associated with the decay in the Civil Service which is the engine room of government and called value reorientation for better output.
Asiodu who decried the high cost of governance as one of the indices of bad leadership called for review of the salaries of political office holders beginning from the president to other government officials as done in the early 1960s where political leaders reduced their earnings by 10 percent.
He also called for the return to old ways of doing things in the early post independence era where quota allocation was not the yardstick for employment and appointments but things were done on merit.
“The destruction of the Civil Service in 1975 compounded again in 1988. It is so painful, for instance, in 1975 we abandoned value. They abandoned the discipline or value and the dramatic puncture of the civil service brings in the idea of making hay while the sun shines. People were dismissed or retired whether you are good or bad… this brings about corruption,” Asiodu said.
“We should review the salary structure from President downwards. What we have now is most wasteful. When we talked about these things, we do not mean rocket science. We should just go back to the simple honest says,” he said.
On his part, Aliyu Modiboo Umar, former FCT minister and chairman, Raviya Media Services Limited, said there is a void in governance in Nigeria, and to solve it, the country needs to look critically at the recruitment process in the civil service.
According to him, there needs to be a bridge in the gap between political authority and central bureaucracy in the country, a situation where the political elite is influencing the processes in the civil service.
He disagreed with the fact that Nigeria is not planning, saying the country is rather not planning in the right way.
“The same template we have been using for our budget has not changed since the 60s,” he said.
Speaking on the country’s educational system, the former minister explained that Nigeria needs to critically examine its training institutions. He said Nigeria has hundreds of schools but they are not teaching anything as the same curriculum is still being used.
Ofoviwe Aig-Imoukuede, director, Africa Initiative for Governance, who raised concerns on the issue of governance in the country, said without proper governance, nothing can get done.
According to her, Nigeria has failed in all the qualities of good governance as highlighted by the World Bank, which include accountability, regulatory quality and transparency.
While blaming Nigeria’s poor governance structure on lack of investment in the country’s public and civil society, she said, “All the processes in Nigeria’s civil service are weak, from recruitment to remuneration among others. Until we start to invest in our public and civil service, we will not get the needed results we require.”
Also speaking, Jibril Ibrahim, senior fellow, Centre for Democracy and Development, said there was no need to recommend a new model for good governance as the country’s constitution has clearly spelt out that “the welfare and security of the people shall be the primary responsibility of government”.
He observed that the Nigerian government has, however, failed in this responsibility, citing a case where the Kogi and Cross River State governments have been denying the existence of COVID-19 in their state against the positions of health authorities, thereby putting the welfare of the people at stake.
JK Randle, chairman, JK Randle International, noted that many items put in Nigeria budget are not always implemented. He recalled that the accessibility to government has dwindled over the years.
“In the olden days Zik, Awolowo, even the governors-general were accessible to the citizens; they listed their address to the people, even the ministers and cabinet officials, people were free to come and chat with them,” Randle said.
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