25th October, 2010
Hardly can abandoned projects syndrome be eliminated in this country because of political differences and uncoordinated approach to development issues. This stems from our political incongruity and social heterogeneity that have been plaguing the people from the onset. But ironically interesting enough, the people meet and chart and fallaciously click wine glasses in felicitation with deceptive joy! Most of the succeeding governments are guilty of this disloyal act. With this how can we coordinate development?
When Mrs. Indira Ghandi, the most popular Indian Prime Minister at her time was assassinated on 31 October, 1984, I carried my tape recorder and interviewed the then Indian High Commissioner in Lagos Mr. Rhy. One of the questions I asked him was to assess Indira’s achievements. Mr. Rhy was quick to answer me that in India succeeding regimes have no separate development plans or policy of theirs but must only build from where the predecessor stops.
That means there is no cause for most of the flowery political campaigns of our politicians which they do not fulfill probably because they campaigned with highly borrowed money, whereby they knew they were telling lies to deceive the people. Campaign with party’s manifestoes could be responsible. But how many parties have theirs?
There is need for coordinated development plan for the whole nation in a carefully planned and coded policies touching all crannies of the society. This is where party manifestoes come in to elicit their approach. Any political party without its manifestoes by which it can be judged in the end is a mere mass movement with no genuine political agenda for the nation.
The advantage of the Indian example of unified and coordinated national development is to avoid the present staccato development which often, resulted in wasteful abandoned projects. Let us quickly see a few examples of successful road policies. Before 1960, there were no tarred roads in the provinces except probably in the urban areas for the Oyinbo to pass. This was the era of the PWD (Public Works Department). The whole roads nationwide were segmented for specific road labourers to manage. They dressed their own sections of the road and ensured that the bush in the road was cut daily to avoid giant grass towering over the road. There were appointed road overseers monitoring them and paying their wages as at when due.
Today, those PWD labourers don’t exist, while untended pot holes and overgrown weeds kiss vehicles all over the places. We have more money now than the PWD era, but the leaders pocket such money. One hopes that FERMA, the latest creation, would correct issues to place Nigeria on the pedestal of civilised societies.
Here are two simple policies that are seen working. One, when Alhaji Jakande became governor in Lagos State in 1979 he ordered that roads must be tarred from one edge of the road to the other not only the middle of the road as he inherited. Not that alone, any road to be tarred must first be built with effective drains on both sides. These facts were quoted from his pronouncements and not from any bureaucratic records. But Governor Raji Fashola has now wisely amended the quality of drain construction because the inherited ones collapsed too often thereby spilling water onto the road to spoil it again.
The other tested policy to be ascribed to the Jakande era in Lagos State was when he set th first ever Traditional Medicine Board under albino Chief Joseph Lambo who was himself a traditional healer. In registering traditional healers, Lambo refused to accept traditional medicine with incantations (ofo) which is strictly spiritist. Do not incise family mark on the generality of the people or patients. He allowed only the operation of herbal medicine with appropriate dosage for the safety of patients. This policy made traditional medicine safe in Lagos State where it was first set up in 1980 in Nigeria.
The purpose of this discourse is to advocate the existence or availability of a code of comprehensive national policies covering every facet of Nigerian life as regards national development. This will form a spring board programme of action useful for every remote corner of this country.
Funding must be planned and contributions from the Federal, the state and the local governments at convenient pro-rata, apart from annual statutory allocation as a policy under appropriate leadership.
There must be constitutional provision to enforce these things with given period of meeting for serious planning and adequate sanctions where necessary.
Who should formulate these policies that must have constitutional backing? It should be federal, state and local governments with bulk money from the federation account but coordinated by both arms of the National Assembly while known private experts, the academia and independent professionals must be co-opted members with equal rights. There should never be controversy over the chairmanship of the committee (not commission). It is a first class national service that everybody must be proud of being a member.
The policies must cover all aspects of the Nigerian life – no matter how seemingly minute!
At the end of their deliberations the documents must be forwarded to the National Assembly for enactment into law by both houses.
Any politician who is ignorant of such code of national development should not be in politics at all. Let us end the politics of cake sharing and money laundering which are symptoms of poverty and corruption.
As there must be primary health to take care of our people at the grassroots. There must be at least well equipped and adequately staffed specialist hospitals in Nigeria. Why can’t people refer difficult patients to Nigeria from abroad? Why can’t there be traditional and spiritual sections in such hospitals, we know that our big men go abroad to die because our life is peculiar to us.
If we cannot do these things then let us forget Nigeria! Why should some or the same people continue to deceive us? We have the resources!
Once upon a time in Nigeria secondary education, by far towered above today’s university education but then population was by far less and employment awaited secondary school graduates, while bus services was 24 hours in Lagos Megapolis where robbery was not known. Armed robbery is a post-civil war phenomenon.
The most significant achievement of Nigeria in her fifty years of existence as an independent nation is that the civil war of thirty months (1967-1970) failed to tear her apart. Civil strife has made the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia etc. to disintegrate. Various crises targeted to tear the nation apart have been swept into the drains of time. Congratulations to us in Jesus name.
Our former colonial master, Britain, seem to be the most peaceful country in the world today but it has no written constitution while Nigeria in contention and acrimony has many constitutions one after the other, with the latest one written in 1999 still being considered imperfect and calling for a review or a more acceptable one or even a “national conferenceâ€.
Britain bequeathed to us a parliamentary government which was simple and by far less costly to run but in our poverty we opted for the ego boosting American presidential system which is costly and wasteful, may be because oil money is available. The parliamentary system had room for three levels of social life – the rich, the middle class and the poor. It made life comfortable or at least tolerable without tears for everybody but the presidential system cuts off the middle class thereby you are either super wealthy or you are flatly, abjectly and almost hopelessly poor. That is a master and servant system or master and slave option! Here we are! That is our own presidential system! Every Nigerian imposes resilience on himself in the name of God – “Tomorrow will be better!†suffering and smiling in oil boom. This beast of many nations of the world and certain external forces. But our leaders need a change of mind. Hoarding public money for personal use is a curse.
By 1960 Nigeria lived a contented and peaceful life exporting her products from arable farming but mid-way through we discovered petroleum and so the oil boom brought to us social doom and hyper corruption in all facets of national life. Again, general poverty is the engine room for corruption in Nigeria.
Whither the National Orientation Agency, NOA? This is the opportune time to financially energise the organisation for national duty. It should be lavishly equipped to campaign to assist INEC and other similar bodies to succeed. It’s own campaign should be non-partisan so that Nigerians may register to vote as well as vote for parties or candidates of their choice without selling their votes, conscience and future.
As politicians campaign to capture people’s conscience the NOA should teach the people to be free minded and patriotic. Under the Federal Ministry of Information the NOA should flood all local government councils in the federation with its motorised powerful loud speakers with adequate staffing to senstise the people about registration and voting during elections. Money politics is an obnoxious political coup d’etat that has been plaguing our nation for many years. The NOA should discourage the practice. Enough is enough. Let us redeem our political image. Now is the time. It is never too late.
•Olubayo Lawore writes from Lagos. Tel: 08057501806