Being the text of a paper delivered by Dr. Carl Chukwuma Amayo at the NAS International, Netherlands Chapter seminar on Good Governance and the Nigerian State on May 22, 2004 in the Netherlands.
There are three topics in the theme of this discussion and they are
1) Good governance
2) The Nigerian State
3) The way forward.
I have for practical purposes decided to frame the questions that need answers.
1) Is Nigeria well? Whodunit?
2) What is governance and how is it applied to Nigeria?
3) How will the people of Nigeria be mobilized to yield benefits for Nigeria and Nigerians?
Is Nigeria Well?
The answer to the first question is Nigeria well? Is no and the evidence for that can be found in multiples of statistics floating around but I will limit myself to the yearly update on Nigeria by the United states Central Intelligence Agency that last year described the land Nigeria as undergoing massive soil degradation; rapid deforestation; urban air and water pollution; desertification; oil pollution. The document further stated that, water, air, and soil; has suffered serious damage from oil spills and that there is loss of arable land plus rapid urbanization. Land is our only resource as a people. When we loose it we are nothing. On land use arable land was said to have contracted to 30.96% and that permanent crops are just 2.79% others perishable crops 66.25% Death rate 13.76 deaths/1,000 population and life expectancy at birth 51.10 years.
Statistics also published by the CIA indicate that the average annual income in Nigeria is $1,690 compared to $27,854 of the developed world. Statistics on prevalence of communicable and preventable diseases including HIV and Malaria are frighteningly high and morbidity is a way of life. The Nigerian newspapers are full of tales suggesting that Nigeria breed crime, backstabbing, fraud, deceit, bribery, corruption, injustice, disunity, and lack of peace.
The library of US country studies published just one optimistic view that in 1995 12 million children in Nigeria were in primary schools 3.7 million in secondary schools and about 200,000 in colleges and universities. There are figures suggesting that 60% of Nigerians are literate and that a large number of these people possess skills.
While Nigerians are exposed to western education and a western way of life, the land, Nigeria, is wasting away and the Nigerian people are deskilled in all aspect of life and most importantly in the area of self-preservation and survival. Meanwhile urbanization is replacing community life style that works and in its place a system that does not have the required infrastructure and organizational will to function.
Governance
There are various reasons why the situation has come to this dangerous abyss but when compared to other societies, it is obvious that Nigeria lack a home grown ruling class that in addition to everything else should set the direction of the nation by detailing set objectives and the steps and aims necessary to achieve desired goals.
What obtains today is the governance of Nigeria by a political structure whose main objective is to take and plunder the land without giving back anything to the country.
According to the oxford English dictionary governance mean to rule over, be in power over, exercise control over and hold sway over. In other words governance is a form of dictatorship. As it applies to Nigeria, governance is a peculiar form of dictatorship presently exercising a domineering paralytic control and power over the Nigerian people. A few group of people and their families have decided to hold power over everyone else in Nigeria since the British dictatorship handed over power to them in 1960. These few individuals also inherited the same principle of divide and rule as well as the indirect rule system which foster tribalism, ethnicism, disunity and other by products including lack of peace, injustice, unfairness, bribery, corruption 419inism to just name a few of sowed and grown social environment that exist in Nigeria today.
Today’s political structure takes origin right from the post colonial days and in the South Nigeria for example the NCNC and Action Group recognized and recruited sworn loyalists who were distributed to each ethnic clan/zones who in turn recruited from villages and wards.
When these parties are in the seat of government political looting is transmitted downwards and during election these recruits manage the result of the election to favour the looting political structure. In the North until recently when few changes has begun to occur in the middle belt the Emirs and village heads continued from where they stopped with the British.
Nothing in that inherited structure has changed. The various military interludes in government did not affect the structure but merely substituted traditional rulers in place of the party loyalists. However where the previous immediate post colonial governors did manage to provide some public amenities these present political structure have only one objective and that is filling their pockets with the Shell distributed foreign exchange and to set up family dynasties of their own.
In addition to this political structure is the state machinery, a fearsome, lethal and ruthless organ that has a mind of its own that is almost alien to this world. They provide the muscle for the political structure. Then there are the activities of CIA and FBI. It is no secret that every man who has strategic position in the government of Nigeria both in the executive and political arm has a CIA or Scotland Yard or Mossad agent as confidante and as a friend.
Recent figures quoted by the Swedish information on countries show that there are 65 international agencies operating in Nigeria that have no economic or social relevance and that these figures do not include the security agencies or the activities of Israel, Arabs and the Palestinians that parasites on Nigeria. The bottom line is that the brain box and factors that programme the existing political and administrative structure of Nigeria are in foreign hands.
Action Plan For Change
There is urgent need for a ruling class that will effect change to halt the present state of affairs and to make Nigeria a place to benefit her people now and generation to come. I will recommend ways the we can go about change as preliminary tool for the improvement of the place Nigeria as well as elevating the quality of life.
There are many options for change and these include reactionary efforts where flames are more or less doused over and over hoping that things will naturally set right. There are the conformist reformists who by being there in the mist of rotten apple hope to stem the rot. Then there is the way in which a surgeon will effect change by looking at cause and effect and cutting off the root cause of the problem and stop the observable effects. Each method has their pros and cons but I am suggesting six action plans for change.
Deliberation
Active vibrant discussion based on what is the evident practice in Nigeria is urgently required to decide what has to change. For example the beliefs the people have about life, in particular their past, present and future, determines the outcome for survival. If a man decides that there is no hope in life and that life ends with him then he would live a life of fatalism and self-destruction.
Also if 10% of more than 130 million people have observed that they own the power to govern and flaunt that power as it is presently being practiced in Nigeria, then they have no choice than to strengthen their dynasties by appropriating the whole wealth of the nation to themselves.
That structure needs investigating and the required instrument for changing that structure is essential to stem the present eroding self esteem and belief of self as it exist in present Nigeria Questions Is the failure in Nigeria attributable to just bad government? Are there other factors worth considering and that need changing? Is it about prioritizing? Is it about a people and so leadership disconnected from their past and from themselves?
Dream
This means that those who decide to change Nigeria must be capable to dream and dream perfectly. All possibilities must be considered as to what would require changing and all models for change explored. Changes that must occur would consider factors that are against growth in Nigeria, sorting out ghost from the past and making the mind that moves Nigeria as authentic as possible. Individuals who must dream that their ancestors were great and set a vision that will protect the land of the ancestors from falling into the hands of strangers. That a land un-spoilt and un-desecrated will be passed from generation to generation penetrating one cycle of life into another.
That the ultimate objective is for a united African people of one genetic stock, one experience and one destiny and believe that this is the ultimate for justice peace and fairness that will usher in regeneration and revitalization to the land of Nigeria and the rest of Africa. Those who must dream must dream long and far and place their realistic goal post further from bread and butter stuff. In other words a group must decide to dream and consider all possibilities for change.
Discussion (National Sovereign Conference)
There must be loads of channels developed for active discussion on need for change, what has to be done and the discussion should have no boundaries and it can be called whatever name and whatever guise but discussion must go on in the classrooms, in the academia, in the streets and what everyone must be talking about would be change, change and change. It is out of the discussion that there shall foster the real ruling class that will now decide on the steps to take to achieve the required change. This ruling class shall then take action and pursues the steps required for unity, peace, justice and fairness as well as freedom from Big Brother i.e. Western civilization.
Description
After the task of deliberating on what has to change and when all possibilities has been considered then there must be focusing. Describing and forming precise opinion on what has to be done for change will follow consequently.
All models that has been used to effect change must be taken into account and the model most suitable for the Nigerian situation must be adopted to provide change. Moses was actively positioned to lead Israelites out of slavery. Who would have halted the Roman Empire but for God of Israel that sent Jesus to show the way and conquer the heart of the Romans. How did Chairman Mao isolated his people so that his people will organize in their own pace unhindered by big brother apparatus? How come that in early 18th century, some African rag tag slaves in Haiti were able to revolt against their masters and take over power?
Decision
Once a precise opinion on what has to be done for change is reached, the decision on steps to take to achieve the goals will be made and well understood. Would the steps include building bridges to our past and teaming up with the ancestors? Would it include spreading what enthuses Nigerians away from running after money and consumer goods of the west? What are the steps necessary to raise self-esteem and develop autonomy in the people of Nigeria? Would the steps include setting up parallel political structure and seizing power from the present group who hold it? Whatever, a decision has to be reached.
Do It
After the decision has been made, there should be no waiting around. Let those who deliberated, dreamt and saw vision and who described what has to be changed. Let those who raised platforms for the matter to be discussed then decide and do it.
In conclusion there is strong reason to suggest that all is not well with Nigeria a land that otherwise has potentials for growth. It is time Nigerians challenge their leaders and seek to restore the land and establish egalitarianism as it was practiced in the old days before the advent of the white man. There is therefore as a matter of urgency the need to set up a programme for change that will not fail and will become sustainable.
Dr. Carl Chukwuma Amayo is a United Kingdom based medical practitioner. He is very involved in charity works and a member of the NASIC-UK, the charity arm of the National Association of Seadogs.
