Sayo Aluko
In the course of the past three weeks, I've had to visit three Nigerian cities, Abeokuta, Owerri and Oshogbo and as my journeying drew to a close, I was able to conclude from all I saw, that, as per thriving well as a country, Nigeria has huge hopes after all.
Without emotive equivocation and over-analytic sentiments, the governors of these 3 states are actually governing.
The fruits of governance in these cities (and their states in general)are readily palpable, easily relatable, and are simply glaring.
Any sane observer would agree that leadership in these cities is
audacious, radically pragmatic and just wonderfully visionary.
I made observations on why these states I visited thrived still, despite the "Nigeria isn't working" infamy. These observations include;
1. These states are governed at the helm by time-tested technocrats and not the usual career politicians who just emerge from a political food-chain to snarl at "power".
2. The states are governed at the helm by cognate individuals who boast years of consummate hands-on experience in delivery with expertise, even before they assumed gubernatorial roles;
3. The states aren't governed by the usual career politicians who only lousily boast years of experience in moving up a political ladder, together with a retinue of smear songs they've learned in the course of their "political career".
I've been and still remain a sucker for productivity in governance, a stance that makes me always stick out my neck for competence in the choice of our leaders in Nigeria, and thus, I've never believed in mere political schematics and permutations as sole indicators for who a leader should be. And so, I was elated to see my belief in productive governance being outcome-oriented in these cities.
I know that we've got many of these Janjaweed politicians who claim almighty know-how and always capriciously crave to sit like queen-bees on states' leadership structures, yet, in these three cities, technocrats are their servant-leaders, a reason why governance therein is top-notch and largely effective, and this confirms a plausibility of rightness, of hope.
I've never been a fan of the Nigerian kind of politics neither, simply because, over here, it is more "played" than "practiced"; but, the laudable sightings in these cities confirmed that there's hope, that politics can be truly practiced by willing technocrats, solely through the mirror of result-oriented performance and governance.
And before I embraced these observations and conclusions of mine above, I also had the same doubts an average Nigerian would have, the doubt that reminds one about few technocrats who have failed in the corridors of governance, and how being a technocrat doesn't necessarily guarantee the kind of sagacious leadership I saw in those three cities.
Thankfully, I remembered the adjectives "sincerity" and "willingness", and that made my doubts doused. I had agreed in my mind that only sincere and willing technocrats will do their jobs at the helm in any Nigerian state, irrespective of "politrickal" stereotype. And, that is where hope stems from.
The Nigerian challenge can be broadly and mainly grouped into two fundamental parts, a people-problem and a system-problem; and, it takes someone who sufficiently understands and accepts this grouping, to fashion out and implement plausible solutions. Such is the case of Senator Ibikunle Amosun, Owelle Rochas Okorocha and Ogbeni Rauf Aregbeshola, the governors of Ogun, Imo and Osun states respectively.
Firstly as an example, one system-problem these three visionaries have similarly chosen to tackle rabidly is substandard infrastructure, especially as touching transportation / road networks and urban development.
While "astonishing" was the word that came to mind when appreciating the emerging beauty in Rauf's path-finding Oshogbo constructions, "crazy" was the only adjective that constantly rang in my head as I saw the innovative ingenuity, frenetic pace, radical approach and mammoth size of both Ibikunle's Abeokuta and Rochas' Owerri constructions. In the overall, the audacity of these works just stings you; so much you can't help but "wow" at them. Little have I settled in these capital cities that you get awash with testaments that say similar works are being wrought in all other cities in these states with similar degree, or even better!
Then, talking tackling a people-problem, these three have instinctively identified thorough education as the only way to get peoples' minds emancipated. Much good can be achieved with an education-emancipated followership, and this, these governors are doing excellently, to say the least. While I can't say much about Ibikunle's education feats (which are largely an improvement compared to previous administrations), I'm actually short for words to describe what Rauf and Rochas have achieved in terms of education. Restored prestige for the teachers, relief for the parents, sophistication for the students, all done in a truly state-of-the-art environment; new schools, all with identical, conducive and endearing architecture, built to replace worn old ones. Rochas has actually alarmingly built over 200 of such schools in just 3 years, while 305 is his target!...oh! how "crazy" comes to mind again. Then, there's Rauf's "opon- imo", a digital tablet pre-installed with graded educational and instructional tools, given to all students to aid learning with speed. And then, this education is truly free in these states, from tuition (up to the tertiary level in Rochas' Owerri (Imo)), to examination fees, feeding (twice daily in Rauf's Oshogbo), learning materials, etc, all free. In short, running a private primary or secondary school in Rauf or Rochas' jurisdiction, is tantamount to running at loss, because it's simply needless; news have it that even President Jonathan mistook one of such Rochas' government primary schools for a private university!
Testimonies are vividly replete about their feats in other aspects of governance, health, empowerment, etc. There is an evident quality of governance in these three states I visited, and the people therein are really enjoying it - their fresh trust and identification with government confirms it all - a freshness that is true, so true a visitor like me felt it too.
I don't wish that anyone gets me wrong; this isn't cheerleading or an overt high-sounding praise at all. I've always maintained that any governor or political office holder, irrespective of political party or affiliation, must accept the plethora of challenges attendant with their offices, and while I believe moderate appreciation should be meted out to those who really do their job of these lot, I still stand against cheerleading for them.
So, my point is that we appreciate leaders who truly perform, eulogize their competence indexes and then consider within us how to maintain a competence-culture in leadership through our voice and thumbs. No more, No less.
But why am I really stating all of these examples of truly impactful governance? It’s Hope, that's it. Hope for the actualization of a Nigeria that works. Hope achievable, if sincere and willing visionaries cum technocrats form our leadership. Hope made true through our votes, through our choices as citizens. Let me quickly make a point here - I'm so sure that there's a level citizens' votes largely reach, that makes it simply "un-riggable" (permit my English, please). I mean, if we citizens get sincere and bold enough to choose tested, trusted and thorough technocrats as leaders, no amount of rigging by desperate career politicians can upend such practical desire for the best. We need to faithfully and doggedly attempt this first, before we whimsically and faithlessly surrender to the sentiments of rigging and the "no be naija?" hoodoo.
Fortunately, making these choices as citizens gets easy mostly nowadays; I mean, considering our examples for example, Rauf has been a practicable engineer who masterminded the new-look Lagos of today as a long-serving commissioner for works before Osun came-calling, Ibikunle has been a didactic accountant and world bank administrator before Ogun, and Rochas, a renowned public administrator with revered philanthropic love for education, long before Imo entered his fray. It can only be easy to vote for this kind of competent technocrats over mere career politicians.
You may wonder why I'm insisting on technocrats, well, dear ones, I've come to realize that it takes more than just good-will to be an outcome-oriented and focused leader in any cadre of government in Nigeria. More than this good-will gospel that most of these career politicians and ex-militias sing, (with due respect to some of them), it just takes a professional who has a mind of his/her own, to brew and effect solution-ridden blueprints with less "special advisers", less "godfatheristic” shoulder-hovering, and with less naira drama.
Citizens, we can do this, walaitalai, we can always and only vote for competence even if it seems the unpopular or not the politically loudest choice. It has worked in Lagos, unpopular but visionary Tinubu in 1999, unpopular but competent Fashola in 2007, and now an even more unpopular but consummate technocrat, in the person of Akinwunmi Ambode, a young, energetic and accomplished administrator who is revered for his level-headedness and intelligence, is already touted as the peoples’ favorite to succeed Fashola. Lagosians are ready to vote for him en masse, and that's what I'm talking about. Readily voting for what or who will work apolitically and within the reins of competence.
As we are poised to achieve this though, we must be wary of our oversubscription to the extremes of ethnicity, zoning, insincerity and religion that has rendered our psychological, cultural, political and social evolution sadly inert and/or painfully slow. We must severe ourselves from this limitation in order to see through the clarity of competence other than basking in the quicksand of clueless and propagandist "politricking".
Point remains that United Arab Emirates (sorry, Rome, I mean) wasn't truly built in a day, and as per Rauf, Rochas and Ibikunle and their states, they've started their own building and I wish them God-speed!
Then, as touching actualizing this as a nation too, we must truly work towards it, we mean it, we are sincere, we point no fingers, we do all these, and then, we can pray.
It is well.
No comments:
Post a Comment