TRANSCENDING ETHNO -NATIONALISM TO GOOD GOVERNANCE

It is time to close the chapter of uninspiring leadership,

As we celebrate 57 years of our independence, it is important to reflect and remember where we have gone wrong and what areas we need to re-work to achieve independence goals of the country founding fathers. However, Nigeria has repeatedly shown shaky signs of outfitted vulnerability and governance paralysis particularly on the myopic choice of national leadership and the evident lack of strategic thinking in repositioning the country for national prosperity and progress. This year independence anniversary will stir varied opinions and emotions across the nation particularly with the politics of herdsmen, agitations for secession, and calls for devolution of power and restructuring, Boko Haram extremism and above all, the legislative- executive rascals that have held the nation captive.

These interminable symptoms regrettably have ranged from the failure of successive governments to foresee and respond to the core issues of federalism and its relationship with cooperative and competitive resource endowments and realistic autonomy. Nigeria’s episodic democracy has become disorderly and persistently entrenched in existential falsehood and currently at a monumental political crossroads.

While these symptoms and realities are worrying, their consequence is fearful. Are these merely the elite leadership spasms and malignancies that inevitably affect any nation in its uncharted evolution process? Otherwise, could they be evidence of a political betrayal by the ruling elite with the potential to cripple Nigeria’s long-term search for nationhood? Indeed, the triumph of independence appeared to many at the time a delightful symbol that Nigeria and her people were destined for greatness. Self-rule victory fanned nationalist hopes for a great new Nigeria. The nationalists, despite their genuine patriotism, were of necessity self-conscious, and they could never find roots in their new Nigerian sensibilities and the way to nationhood have produced fractured and a bitter and expensive democracy.

Unfortunately, those leaders who had been brothers in the liberation struggles became competitors in new power struggles. Furthermore, it also happened that the regained freedom and democracy were jeopardised by fraudulent one-party military enterprises from the ill-fated coup of 1966. The inevitable result was ethnic - nationalism and we lost the second liberation of authentic independence because of internal autocratic tendencies of the military, their opaque collaborators, unending transition and unconstitutional arrangements.

Truthfully, the administrative structures that metamorphosed into states dangerously threatened by any notion of a monumental national unity and various attempts at independence to forge a national ideology also failed woefully. What is more, the emerging parochial and mediocre leadership was increasingly characterised by explicit clash between an authoritarian culture of unequal and obscure primitive accumulation of wealth at the detriment of national development and the unfortunate craze for power and quasi - democratic practice until date is centered on parochial and ethnic interest without the love for country.

Crucially, one of the knotty issues of the moment is constitutional democracy that needs to be resolved quickly and indeed urgently before the political sliding doors descend into chaos. The bloated membership of the Senate and the Federal House of Representatives is a serious burden on the nation. The politics and leadership of the national and state assemblies have become increasingly suspicious particularly with their conduct, remunerations and oversight functions that are tied up with corruption, lack of accountability and responsibility. Perhaps at no time in the nation’s political journey that public administrators as well as legislators have failed the country than now.

Dreadfully, one of the major narratives of the moment and the most vexed questions besieging the Nigerian enterprise is resources nationalism and correcting the lopsidedness that is skewed against the federating units. In my view, these are expressions of the sad reality of the Nigerian condition, a trend most evident is the skewed relationship in favour of the centre without due hold on social diversity for genuine nation-building, where equity and fairness is first and second nature. In most respects, Nigeria is a strange, but a unique country. The historiography is often quick-tempered depending on the political lens of the analyst. However, there is a convergence on the vexed questions of resources nationalism, objectionable federalism and indeed restructuring.

While the ugly past and the present are constantly being questioned, a new paradigm shift is mandatory to drive our nation thoughts and to embrace a value proposition towards a collective pursuit of the common good. The focus on fighting corruption in our nation- building efforts appears good, but recognising the root causes of agitations for secession, resources nationalism, grazing rights and indeed a wide range of calls for restructuring of the Nigeria enterprise are in my view prospects for genuine reconciliation and the time is now. Therefore, the proposal and the key priorities for this year independence celebrations should be constitutional reforms that foster long- term national aspiration template in the fields of governance, truth and reconciliation, restructuring, and resource nationalism in line with international best practice.

Overall, the most obvious reforms is a new constitution cleansed of ethnic and religious impurities and we should avoid the triumph of leadership self- righteousness that pervades the political landscape. The reality of the moment for our country is that we stand condemned by wasteful episodic legislative and executive consumerism and the present urge for self – destruction and self- deconstruction are worrisome.

Lastly, the 57th independence celebrations should be about closing the sad chapter of Nigeria’s past and about opening new healing pathways of reconciliation and good governance that inspire truth and justice.

THE POLITICS AND LEADERSHIP OF THE NATIONAL AND STATE ASSEMBLIES HAVE BECOME INCREASINGLY SUSPICIOUS PARTICULARLY WITH THEIR CONDUCT, REMUNERATIONS AND OVERSIGHT FUNCTIONS THAT ARE TIED UP WITH CORRUPTION, LACK OF ACCOUNTABILITY AND RESPONSIBILITY