I STAND TO BE PROVED WRONG Nigeria is a highly polarized comity of nations along the ethnic loyalty. Good governance might always elude the “Giant of Africa” as long as we don’t look beyond ethnic loyalty. President Jonathan reshuffled his Service Chiefs, and all some people from the East are saying is that they are being marginalized. So also the southwest is crying out loud of being marginalized. The north is not feeling comfortable with the way their people are being shortchanged in governance. The so called minority groups are diehard supporters of their own regardless of performance or not. I therefore conclude that corruption and good governance will always elude this “Giant”. Why? Nigeria adopted United States system of government but we have forgotten some fundamental characteristics that make such a system to work in United States. 1. Culture, Practices and Values Our cultural beliefs practice and values are completely different. There are practices and values in United States that will definitely not work in Nigeria and vice versa. There are no federal Universities in United States. Colleges (Universities) are either own by a state or private individuals. So, there is no basis for pleasing every State of the Union to establish federal presence, nevertheless the United States federal government contribute immensely to educational system. Oil is not federally owned or excessively controlled in case of Nigeria. If you buy a land or property and oil is discovered, the oil discovered belongs to the owner of the property and not to a region, state or government but the government has a role to play in it. Any United States government official, be it local, state or federal that engage in extra marital affair is doom to step down, fail or disgrace out of office but it is not so in Nigerian governance. Therefore what is taboo in their own values is not in our own, why do we have to embrace their system of governance? There is nothing like royalty or chieftaincy operation in United States except among the native Indians. But we have royalty and chieftaincy practice like Igwes, Emirs, Obas, and Chiefs which are paramount in our lifestyles. So I strongly believe that the governance and our system should reflect our culture, beliefs lifestyle and values as a comity of nations. 2. Loyalty to Values From the rhetoric among different regions and ethnic groups in Nigeria, our system of governance needs to change. American people never bothered or care where their service chiefs come from, or whether the president and top of his lieutenants are from the East Coast, Midwest, South or West. That is not their priority; rather anyone who becomes a president or in the corridor of power directing and influencing the affairs of the Union must make sure that American Values, either conservative or liberal is maintained. But our loyalty is to a region, ethnicity or our own. I am not condemning that out rightly. We need to reposition, reorganized and possibly change our system of governance to sooth our loyal affiliations. 3. Lobbying vs. Bribery In American system of government, lobbying is highly recognized, promoted and embraced without being guilty of breaking the law. The system carefully allowed and made room for it to the degree of what the law allowed. Do we have that spelled out and carefully allowed in Nigerian operations? If we need to fully practice this American system, then we need to carefully engraft lobbying strongly in our operations and fully prosecute and penalized anyone who steps beyond the boundary of what the law allows or permits. Conclusively, good governance will never thrive in Nigeria except we recognized that our values, culture, practices and beliefs are different from the United States people. Don’t we realize that United States governments do not have Energy (Electricity Company but privately owned and regionally influential)? United States governments do not operate TV Stations. United States governments do not have national Carrier (Government controlled and run Airlines). Everyone serving in the United States Armed Forces usually sign contracts and could be out after their contracts to be on the reserved or renew it if they so desire. Loyalty is to a school of thought (Liberal or Conservative) regardless of what part of the country the leaders are coming from. This is the mindset of majority of people in America. But on our part, it is about our own, ethnic group and region. It is not absolutely wrong if that is the way we think or feel; we need to restructure our system of governance to soothe and accommodate our mindset so that good governance and corruption could be reduced considerately in order to compete in the affairs of the world. Or rather to your tents oh Nigeria.
Posted on: Fri, 17 Jan 2014 18:02:26 +0000
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