The ways forward for Nigeria to make progress are to improve the leadership recruitment process, rebuild the Nigerian family and communist systems, and have a unified clarity about the kind of nation we seek to become.
The submissions came from panelists at the People’s Parliament, organised by the Initiative for Good and Informed Citizenship, better known as Rescue Nigeria movement, on the topic: “What Must Change for Nigeria to Move Forward”.
The panelists were Professor Boniface Oye-Adeniran, former President of the Nigerian Medical Association and a retired professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the College of Medicine, University of Lagos; Muhtar Bakare, an architect, finance expert and publisher; and Ikechukwu Amaechi, an award-winning journalist and newspaper publisher. It was moderated by Anike-ade Funke Treasure, a renowned broadcaster and journalist.
A press statement jointly signed by Biodun Durojaiye and Tunde Odediran of Rescue Nigeria movement reported Prof. Oye-Adeniran as identifying corruption as Nigeria’s number one problem, followed by insecurity, then inadequate power, poor healthcare delivery and a deteriorated education sector.
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Oye-Adeniran said to tackle corruption, the people must see results of the anti-corruption war, as he lambasted the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Abdulrasheed Bawa, for ‘chasing low-hanging fruits’ in the form of Internet fraudsters, with no record of arraigning or convicting even one high profile public servant since he assumed office.
“If we are not going to hold people at the top accountable, we cannot stop corruption,” he said, adding that “we must see the results of the anti-corruption war”.
In his contributions, Muhtar Bakare said Nigerians need to pursue reality and practicality instead of amplifying divine intervention for change, by not always assuming that ‘God will do it’ if ‘We will pray about it’ when we can do something about it. To him, except the people get their act together, nothing in history suggests that a nation that we would all be proud of is achievable, even in a thousand years.
Describing a nation-state as a ‘system’, Bakare said “there are elements of that system to be in place for it to work. If any of the elements is dysfunctional, the whole may not work the way it is supposed to,” adding that the ‘incentives element’ of our own system has been perverted, as the wrong values are being rewarded.
According to him, what a citizen should expect from the nation, and the obligations of the citizen to the nation must be clear, and people have to buy into it regardless of the part of the country they come from.
Muhtar Bakare further said: “The modern nation-state is built around the individual. The capacity of the individual to assert his right within the community while discharging his obligations to the community.
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Contributing further, Prof. Oye-Adeniran said: “Another problem in Nigeria is that everybody is afraid of the consequences of standing up for what they believe in. Nobody wants to have a visitor in the middle of the night and get eliminated. That is one of our greatest problems.
“I think Nigeria as a whole needs to be able to tell its citizenry that mere talking up or contributing to national debate will not bring about undesirable consequences. That is what is happening right now. People are being eliminated if they say what the leaders do not want.
In his submissions, Ikechukwu Amaechi argued that if we get the process of leadership recruitment right, we can begin to turn things around in the country for good.
The second part of the discussion is scheduled for May 29, 2022.