By Yekeen Balogun
Any nation that dwell on functional research work should by now try to find out why successive governments in Nigeria fails in a manner to suggest that previous administrations earlier condemned were always rated better than the current ones.Wasit physical, emotional, mental, psychological or metaphysical problem?I think it is both physical and metaphysical.
The causative physical aspect,which is the action period is the fact that leaders have constantly, consistently and persistently refused to honour the social contract between them and the citizens at all stages of governance. They usually allowed insincerity, deception mastery and greed,wrong prioritization, know-all- syndrome, sophisticated borrowed economic theories rather than practicable self developed home grown economic theories among others to hold sway.These outlives successive administration in increasing progression.The few seeming exceptions to this precedent general rule does not live to witness the end of their administrations.
The metaphysical aspect is visibly presenting as the consequences of the inglorious causative era when the effects of these progressive modicum of corruption manifests.How is this spiritual?Every physical actions taken are accompanied by appropriate reactions which have their spiritual bases in the metaphysical realm termed the natural law of Kama. Negative physical dispositions are followed by a concomittant negative metaphysical repercussions.For instance,spilling human blood unjustifiably and extra judicial killings could only aggravate bitter consequences even beyond the intervention of angels. The human mind originated from the state of tabula rasa before man decides to get it polluted by glutony and unwholesome ephemeral tendencies.Hence,we must leave God out of the misfortunes resulting from our individual and collective generational and infantile decisions advertently or inadvertently taken.This is always what happens to a nation whose leaders are tricky, grandstanding,deaf and dumb,stingy and wastefully corrupt,and deemed themselves as the custodian of wisdom. All these atrocities leads to perdition.
How is possible to improve the economy without constant energy supplies which is the mainstay of industrial growth and domestic comfort?Can the human livelihood be satisfactory with a seemingly intractable high level of insecurity or what happens to an economy that revolves around an alarming rate of unemployment?These are fertile ground for conflict reactions such as bandittary, kidnapping,armed robbery, and general anger especially in a volatile environment bedeviled by all round ‘pull him down’ political opposition that gives a dog a bad name in order to hang it.
When leaders fail to lift themselves off the hook and stranglehold of the cabalistic powers and authority,the source of worthlessness and principalities in governance that resets their destiny,it certainly makes leaders bystanders in the scheme of governance. Ironically however,those who thread or toe such dangerous path of a reversal route are being cut short in their prime as sacrificial lambs through local and foreign collaborators.
The ball is in the court of Nigerians to choose between support and solidarity with good leaders to succeed and leaving them to their fate. Supporting them could mean jettisoning primordial sentiments for patriotism and national interest. When this is not done,we “shall” continue to thrive with bad rulers called leaders.
You can only quash food insecurity by increasing local production so supply can outweigh demand. Releasing grains from the national reserves in response is a welcome development. But if not we’ll managed, implemented,monitored and controlled,the Oliver Twist business class will buy and hoard to maintain the chain of the existing sky rocketing price hike. For sustainability,other measures must follow simontaneously.One wonders why government always waites so long until things get out of hand before taking reasonable steps to alleviate people’s suffering. This is the time to systematically reopen the borders to open up the space for a shared business environment as we can not sustain a closed economy and allow espionage to cripple our economic wellbeing through sabotage.
The progression and expansion of the territories of non-state a tors in the ungoverned space undermining national security,now extended to to the governed space calls for serious concern. A great Nigerian philosopher/musical legend and icon,Barry Wonder predicted with precision and warned of the looming impending precarious danger on the state of the nation before the advent of the dreaded Boko-Haram in 1989.We all danced to the highly philosophical lyrics, sonorous voice and melodious music but disregarded,relocated,neglected and underestimated the potency of the message. It came to pass right before our faces. When militancy began in the South South as an addendum to the lingering age long South East self determination agitation,we failed to nip it in the bud. Later,North East became the center of attraction of insurgency and before we knew it, North West joined the frail until the North Central became a rallying partner. Now,the South West is also in the eyes of the storm. The actors have remained intransigent.What was erroneously seen as a regional affairs soon became a national emergency.The key causative agent was nothing but injustice decorated with tapestry.A society that breeds criminals,gun runners,rogues labours in vain to curtail them.
In democracy the politics of election is very interesting. Contestants compete among themselves for elective positions.When a candidate is finally duly elected by popular votes,he/she becomes a lone ranger competing against the entire citizens. This requires sobriety.
The current state of the nation standing on a precipe is fast becoming an embarrassment beyond any egregious palliatives as the solution.It is however not unexpected in an overcapitalized economy like ours where it’s extremely becoming difficult to control price of goods and services.The major brunt is bored by the poor who suffers the overbearing attitude of the rich for crazy and stupendous wealth at it’s expense.Yet,the busness elites who should hold the key to rches are many steps behind the overzealous politicians and public servants that surpretends the vault of the nation where women are playing the leading role than the men as it was then.In the face of this,there exist stupendous monetization and dollarisation of the economy in favour of privileged top government functionaries. The purchase of Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs) in dollar, an impetus against the naira remains fresh in people’s memories when local consumption could assuage for the spiral falling of the local currency. This surreptitious pilfering of the Commonwealth must stop,otherwise the nation will only be left with a tight corner option of choosing between revolution and terrorism.
Good leaders sees themselves as inheriting not only assets but also liabilities of their predecessors. We must go straight to the business of governance and leave politicking. To do otherwise is admittance to failure.
Nigeria’s President must go back to the drawing board and refocus,redirect and restrategize his vision through a well articulated blue print. He must leave sophistication and try and error alone by instigating and stimulating home grown solutions that are understandable by the common man and impactful on their daily lives including shun all comers advise.He must engage intelligence reports of happenings in the states to rework and redirect the financial flow of resources to the states of the federation other than statutory. The President must know that Nigeria is bleeding because the states are bleeding.
Any progressive leader that hobnob under the influence and camaraderie of some of the highly corrupt retrogressive leaders in the states can not make meaningful impacts in the life of the citizens because all his efforts will be subtly sabotaged and frustrated down the line. The states Chief Executives weilld enormous manipulative powers as they seal the destiny of State and National Assembly Members,combined with state powers to determine the gate of the President.
There seemed to be a consensus on devolution of powers from the federal to the States but no one has been speaking on doing same from the States to the Local Corruption which became imprimatur during the President Babangida era in 1985 has since gravitated to a state where whatever goes up never come down.No thanks to the Structural Adjustment Program (SAP) and other economic strangulations dictated by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.Any economic policy that does not have a human face and originating from international agencies for dogmatic compliance is bound to result in hicups which becomes hysteria for succeeding administrations.
It is time to take stock of testimonies of mixed feelings of fortunes and misfortunes which are evidences of our collective decisions. Whatsoever befalls a society today was the decision taken yesterday and will affect it’s tomorrow.For peace to reign,away from the hellish situations we bequeath for ourselves, there’s an urgent need to redistribute income fairly and equitably since all human conflicts always arise as a result of injustice.
We must take Local Government back to the 1976 active and glorious era of their existence, address the few grey areas with reforms to meet the 21st Century democratic best practices.The President needs to send an executive bill to the National Assembly to amend some aspects of the Constitution as regards the Local Government.They are creation of the Constitution just like the States,it is fair that derivation for mineral prospecting goes to this third tier while the states and the central government takes royalties or tax as the case may be since minerals situates in their geographical enclaves. Local Government supervision should be handled by the central government through it’s ministers and appointed liaison officers from the states and the Local Governments respectively.Taking over of the conduct of their election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)is desirable.
Financial and administrative autonomy for the local councils is sacrosanct but must be under the strict watch of the Economic and Financial Crime Commission EFCC) to prevent the emergence of local emperors as is the case with the state Chief Executives.All monies releasable to the states and local council’s by the federal government must be publicised by law in the media for effective monitoring, transparency,probity and accountability.The office of the Auditor General of Nigeria should be empowered to audit the council’s account quarterly to prevent recklessness in their financial transactions.
Finally,leaders elected,signed and sealed must deliver while deceitful ones should note that the agony of the first attack is not as potent as the repriesal for there’s always not a second chance to life.
Yekeen Balogun, lawyer