Good people, good governance By LEONARD KARSHIMA SHILGBA

Nigerians staging a protest

I find it difficult to accept the common view that people hold that good governance is a singular rather than group responsibility. The people must invest consciously in the governance of their society. People always have the governance or leadership they deserve; it is all about you, and as Mandela said, “It is in your hands.” This position becomes more assured in a democracy where we choose or elect our leaders.

In Nigeria, the people make exaggerated efforts to conveniently avoid responsibility for their choices. The common excuses that elections are “rigged” or “manipulated” are becoming simply a cliché and nauseating! If truly elections have been rigged or manipulated to take away from the majority their right of choice, what have they done to show their displeasure? A rigged election should presuppose that the majority of the people have been robbed, excluded, and punished unjustly. But we have hardly acted as such. Good governance hardly happens where the leader does not feel threatened by the anger of the Majority towards him should he offer anything different.

Our laziness or cowardice says, “It is God that has given us our leaders.” It is difficult to disagree that Nigeria has consistently had a preponderance of horrible leaders without vision or understanding of leadership, and who are unarguably corrupt in their personal deeds, thoughts, and words. Does it mean that God dislikes Nigeria more than he does other countries where the leaders are afraid of mismanaging public trust?

Beyond the responsibility the people have of choosing their leaders and actionably rejecting the choices of the minority imposed on them, is the issue of the human resources at the disposal of the leader. Who will the leader use to execute his vision? A wise leader once cried out to God, “Help, LORD; for the godly man ceases; for the faithful fail from among the children of men!” We the people of Nigeria have become like a basket filled with tomatoes, many of which are rotten, that the leader must choose from for the delicacy he must prepare. Almost everyone the leader chooses sees the opportunity as a time to express their deep-seated greed that has been waiting for the right stimulant.

Right from the time an aspirant starts seeking among the people those that would understand his vision and help to promote it, he realizes that the people are more interested in his money than in his vision. He is swindled, exploited, and drained all through. Many people who come around posing as “volunteers” are simply pretenders who are as unreliable as the money that the aspirant must raise. What have the people truly invested in the aspirant or candidate that makes them deserving of good governance? And because the people have invested nothing or only a little that costs them nothing, really, they nurse no genuine and enduring feeling of loss when elections are truly rigged or manipulated. They are like hirelings who see no personal loss in their candidate’s losses. They have got their earnings from the aspirant or candidate whom they have already milked dry; they have cut their losses in advance. How blind we are!

When Nigerians are ready for good governance it shall rain showers of blessing.

There are seven elements of good governance:

1 Great Vision: Good governance begins with a great vision, which is about the people. Any vision that destroys the best in the people, deprives the people of the best, and deceives the people for self-attainment is not great.

2 Good Opportunities: Good governance must open up good opportunities for the people. Do the people have good education opportunities? Do they have good business and employment opportunities? The people must have good opportunities for self-improvement.

3 Good Vehicles: What are the tools available to the people for the task of creating public and private wealth? How good is the infrastructure for good living? How safe and beautiful is the physical environment? How much of technology is involved in the production processes such as agriculture and processing of the products from the fields

4 Great Minds: What genuine and creative efforts are being made to produce great intellectual minds in society that can create out of nothing, invent out of nothing, and make life more livable?

5 Genuine Accountability: Good governance involves accountable leadership by the leader and his team. Public opinion is the gauge of leadership. It is not good governance which suppresses public opinion, harasses the public critic, and threatens public protests. The good leader must ask his team, “Who do the people say I am?” A good leader must never say, “I don’t give a damn” otherwise he would be damned. Public revenues must be used for the public. Inflated contracts cannot be part of good governance.

In a democracy such as ours the legislature must not be populated with people of very low brains and little regard for personal integrity, who do not understand what their roles are. The call for a sovereign conference in Nigeria has become louder because Nigeria’s national assembly and state houses of assembly have failed to appreciate that their encouragement of corruption by either silence or active participation in padding of budgets and abandonment of public projects will surely bring this democratic experiment to an end if unchecked.

6 Genuine integration: Good governance does not encourage consciousness of the differences that exist among the people. Being different is not and should not be a disadvantage. A great leader does not exploit religious, ethnic, or gender differences. Nature itself has taught us the beauty there is in diversity. The abuse of the Zoning principle in our democracy is simply exploitation by those who should not be found in the corridors of power. If I have been born in a society or have lived in and contributed to that society, why must I be regarded as a “settler” in that society?

7 Gross waste elimination: Good governance does not encourage waste. Bogus figures of government workers across the nation constitute a drain on public revenue. There have been accounts of “ghost workers” in the nation’s civil service, and yet no official has been made to refund the billions of naira that have been spent to pay those “ghosts” whenever they have been “uncovered”. In order to free up resources for public investment for the greater public good, such conduit pipes, masterfully designed to suck from the people, must be blocked. And there is technology to effectively check this perennial “Ghost workers” syndrome. The leader must not be afraid to help government workers who have been only nominally employed but who add no value to society through such nominal service; he must re-train those to become useful to themselves and society in other sectors of the economy.

The people of Nigeria must collaborate across political party divide to build a society without discrimination. We must make our nation an exemplar of tolerance and good integration within Africa. I say in the words of the legendary Mandela that no one is born to hate; people only learn hatred, and are also capable to love. Arise and build your nation. The work of mending your broken walls has started. You must not give in to hatred; you must not surrender to manipulations of terror and fear. In particular, I call on the people of the North and South, Christians, Muslims, and the non-religious, to never forget that Nigeria is your land; so build it.

This is your country, make it proud. This is your ancestral land; do not live like slaves in it. Like President Roosevelt once said, “No one can make you inferior without your consent,” refuse to accept that you are inferior to any people anywhere you choose to live. Teach, by your conduct, your neighbors the decency of love, the reward of education, the harvest of diligence, and the joy of sacrifice. Tell to your children your beautiful stories. Your future is bright. Lift up your heads. You should identify the good and invest in it. It is in your hands. Thank you!

©Shilgba

Leonard Karshima Shilgba, PhD

Professor of Mathematics,
Director of Academic Planning and Quality Assurance,
Pioneer Ag Vice Chancellor/President,
Pioneer Vice President (Academics)
Admiralty University of Nigeria.

Tel: +234-7035939505;
+234-9074346000 (WhatsApp)

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