The InfoStride Forum

 








 

Protocols.

 

I thank the Obafemi Awolowo Institute of Government and Public Policy for hosting this international conference on "Leadership and Governance in Africa." I also thank the Institute for asking me to give the closing remarks.

As already evident from the Keynote Address by one of Nigeria's most distinguished scholars and academic philosophers, Professor Olufemi Taiwo, and the preceding comments by others, Chief Obafemi Awolowo was a leader whose life and times constantly remind us of the best traditions of leadership and good governance. Long before good governance became the popular mantra of the global network of neoliberal institutions as a response to the general absence of effective and efficient administration in both public and private institutions in the global South, a leader such as Chief Awolowo not only brilliantly conceptualized and theorized the elements and dimensions of good governance in Nigeria, and indeed, in the rest of Africa, he also demonstrated these.

Long before it became a fashionable neoliberal consensus for international development agencies, such as World Bank and the IMF, to promote governance as "performance," that is, to use Robert I. Rotberg's words, "the delivery of high quality political goods to citizens by government," Obafemi Awolowo already theorized human beings as the sole purpose of governance and showed how the enhancement of the capacities of human beings to live and live well in all dimensions, socially, economically, politically,  spiritually, physically, medically, and mentally constitute the fundamental conditions of the existence and survival of any modern state and government.

As already articulated by the Keynote Speaker here today, in only about five years in office, Awolowo insisted and showed that the political goods that governance must deliver include, "security and safety, rule of law, participation and human rights, sustainable economic opportunities and human development" (Rotberg, 2009). We are all too familiar with the practical examples of these for me to go into the details. For those who are either too young to know the details or some of our guests from abroad who are not too familiar with these, I urge you to read the many books written by or about the man after whom this institute is named and who continues to represent the touchstone of good governance and excellent leadership, not only in this country, but in the rest of the continent. I particularly recommend his magnum opus, Path to Nigeria's Freedom, and others such as The Strategies and Tactics of a People's Republic, Path to Nigeria's Greatness, The People's Republic, Thoughts on Nigeria's Constitution and The Problem Of Africa: The Need for Ideological Reappraisal.

If there is one word which captures the fundamental purpose of Awolowo's political life, it would probably be one of his own favourite words, egalitarianism – which he insisted in the anthem of the Unity Party of Nigeria, should be our "national watch word." He elaborated this in the anthem that he helped compose as "equality of good fortune, to each his [and her] just reward." If I am asked to sum up the grand purpose of leadership and governance in the context of Awolowo's political philosophy, I will describe it in four simple words: public good and private welfare.

For those of us who are the political heirs of the man described as "the best president Nigeria never had," we recognise that Awolowo already provided the ideational foundations for good leadership and good governance in Nigeria. Our task in this generation has been how to elaborate these foundations and reconstruct them in the context of new challenges and new opportunities. Whether in the context of political structure, particularly democratic federalism, in the nature, order, purpose and limits of government as evident in the rule of law, the rights and duties of citizens, or in the directive principles of state policy which should be geared towards the economic freedom, good health, liberty and welfare of the people, the struggle that some of us have engaged in in the last three decades is based largely on this heritage; that is, a settled conviction in which the one and only purpose of political leadership and governance is the delivery of political goods.

However, because of many factors in Africa, including, in the case of Nigeria, the challenge of properly federalizing the Awoist ethos, the absence of good leadership and good governance at the national level has so preoccupied international agencies, scholars and even local observers such that in describing and also dismissing leadership and governance in the continent, and in this country in particular, we often overlook contrary evidence at the level of the local state. This is an unacceptable oversight because Awolowo's political life teaches us that even when the national state fails to fulfil its obligations or becomes the grand instrument of repeated and repeating failure, other levels of government, the regional and later the local state, can be the hub of development, demonstrating to the world our capacity to run modern, efficient and effective governments. This is an important point to make especially when it is realized that the smallest of the local States in the Old Western Region-Ekiti State-is larger in population size than16 Independent African States with its small population of 2.7million people.

While the federal state was fumbling and failing, Awolowo led a regional state that became the beacon of hope for millions and was an example of the manifold possibilities in this continent where there is good leadership and good governance. In the Second Republic, the five state governments under by his Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), again in the context of a fumbling and failing federal state, renewed the possibilities of good governance in the areas of education, social welfare, social amenities, health and infrastructural development. It is therefore not a surprise that the parties organized around Awolowo's political ideology, even if imperfect in many ways, continue to represent the best possibilities for good governance in Nigeria, even in the Fourth Republic.

Let me end by reemphasising the point that I am making here. Despite the imperfections and the challenges of our age, the focus on the federal state, important as it is, must not prevent us from acknowledging good leadership and good governance at the local state level. We are leaving in an age in which we face challenges different in some regards from those faced in the era of Awo. Even though our challenges are no more grave or even urgent than in the Awo era, those of us who are his political heirs have picked up the gauntlet after the era of the most destructive form of military rule which directly attacked and attempted to violate every standing rule and structure upon which any form of good governance could be erected.

One of the most evident challenges of this era is the difficulty of building and sustaining ideologically-unadulterated, effective, efficient and integrated political parties, particularly of the progressive form. In an environment suffering from acute political "withdrawal syndrome" induced by many years of devastating military rule and one in which a disarticulated national economy has imposed a beggarly mentality with a vast collection of economic orphans who dominate the political class, we cannot but recognise that the tradition of progressive politics with commitment to good governance has been unavoidably and also tragically handed with a "begin again" pasteboard. In the areas of national and human security, rule of law, political participation, economic opportunities, gender equity, youth employment and human development, we are confronting formidable challenges.

However, those of us who claim to be heirs of the late sage continue to find innovative ways to respond to these challenges. While the task ahead remains daunting, it is important that we acknowledge that there is a difference between the heritage of progressive leadership in this country and the other forms of leadership responsible for Nigeria's tragic history. And when you examine what has been happening since 1999, you cannot but agree that Nigeria's salvation is impossible without true democratic federalism. At the level of the local state, we have demonstrated this.

We have sought to push further the tradition of public good as the condition for private welfare. From Chief Bisi Akande's monumental achievements in Osun State despite meager resources, including the building of a new state secretariat and a ring road, and his enviable record of fiscal prudence and transparency in the management of public funds – acknowledged even by the European Union – to Governor Bola Tinubu's opening up of Lagos in an unprecedented way with the road projects in the Lagos Island that not only solved the traffic gridlock of old in the major roads on Victoria Island, and the drive for Internally-Generated Revenue that has changed the capacity of the state government forever in delivering public good; from the universally-acknowledged and continuing transformation of Lagos State and its efficient beatification under Governor Babatunde Fashola, to the construction and expansion of road networks in Ekiti State, its educational interventions including its laptop per student in secondary schools, the transformation of tourist attractions and the novel ideas of social security for the eldery, freedom of information, empowerment of women and human development projects which we have put in place since we came into office; from the expansion and dualisation of major roads and beautification projects in Oyo State, particularly in the state capital, with clean, well-lit roads which have transformed Ibadan into a proper metropolis in our own time which attracts new businesses, to the aggressive projects of modernization under Governor Rauf Aregbesola in Osun state, signaled by the innovative Opon Imo (tablet of knowledge), reconstruction of schools and the youth employment projects and the unprecedented IGR drive under Governor Ibikunle Amosun which has turned Ogun state into a rich state with a matching capacity to deliver public goods, I am happy to state that good governance has returned and we are witnessing a Rennaisance in Western Nigeria.

This is not a forum to make an advertisement for my party, but it is evident that our current struggle at the federal level seeks basically to generalize the project of modernity, egalitarianism, good governance and leadership started by Chief Obafemi Awolowo across the country. It is not proper to have a student in Osun state enjoy the tablet of knowledge while her counterpart in Zamfara will be stuck to chalk and slate in the 21st century. It is not desirable that an old woman in Ado Ekiti should have access to social security while the life of her contemporary in Borno State continues to be subjected to the precarity and danger imposed by fundamentalist religiosity. One of the central purposes of federal governance is to allow the component parts to choose their paths while enabling those who wish to make the best of the opportunities available in all parts of the country to do so through federal assistance.

We have had and continue to have great opportunities for good leadership at the level of the local state in Nigeria. Our challenge therefore is to create and expand such opportunities at the federal level, so that, in the end, we all will be able to say like Awo, in the famous UPN anthem: "Up, up, Nigeria, take thy rightful place, 'tis thy birthright and thy destiny, Africa's leading light to be"

 

Thank you for your attention.

Via: Ekiti State Government - Official Press Release