Towards Building a New Nigeria: National Re-Orientation or Transformation?
By Professor Julius O. Ihonvbere  Newsdiaryonline Sat July 9,2011

I thank the organizers of this timely Workshop for inviting me to lead a discussion on this critical issue of national re-orientation.  Every nation should be concerned about the issue of orientation.  This, in reality, is a contemporary way of talking about a national ideology or national philosophy.  There must be a set of values that are collectively endorsed to guide, direct, condition and shape the processes and patterns of production, exchange and accumulation as well as socio-political and economic engagements in a direction that improves on the living conditions of the majority, promotes sustainable development and ensures national stability and security.  At the heart of such an agenda is philosophy and process that goes beyond just compelling people to sing the national anthem, recite a national pledge and talk endlessly about patriotism or unity.  These things have only ephemeral value if they are not grounded in common beliefs, commitments, and institutions that people collectively accept and agree to defend and promote.

Nigerian leaders, since political independence in 1960, have come up with one sort of puerile or half-baked programme or policy or the other about mobilization and orientation.  They cannot be regarded as philosophies or ideologies because they were never anchored on any deep social or ethnic groundings accepted by the majority and propelled by the people to achieve set objectives and applicable to all without fear or favour.  Even a simple program like the onetime even and odd car numbers in Lagos exempted many powerful persons and interests as to make the program fail at the beginning.  Same with the so-called law on tinted car windows that applied only to a few, and was operated for a few weeks in Abuja and that was it.  The War Against Indiscipline (WAI), Operation Boycott the Boycottables, MAMSER, Operation Feed the Nation (OFN), Ethnical Revolution and so on, meant very little to the majority of Nigerians.  They were ephemeral, superficial, uncoordinated, ad-hoc or post-hoc and lacked any philosophical content and leadership.  While WAI relied in force and bred opposition and resentment alongside its implementation others like Rebranding Nigeria was nothing but a huge waste of money and time.  Nations that rebrand do not go about shouting that they are good people!  Rather, through careful, systematic and planned programs and policies of transformation, reformation, refocusing, regeneration, redirection, reconstruction, and positive leadership, they show to the world that they are indeed rebranding and thus attract tourists, investors, investments, foreign aid and respect.  India, South Africa, Vietnam and Brazil are nations that have used this effectively to address serious dents in their respective national image.

The so-called rebranding project was one of the most misguided programs ever used to waste public funds in Nigeria.  The originator never told us the philosophy behind it, how it related to national development and values, how it related to the overall world-view of Nigerians, and the structures, institutions and discourses that where to guide, monitor, review and direct the rebranding.  We were never really told what we were rebranding and why it or they needed to be rebranded and the guarantee that after rebranding they would be sustainable.  We did not know the real actors, their intentions, credibility, and relationship with the people, their communities and constituencies.  We were just informed that we were a “great nation and good people” as if we did not know that already!  The program missed the entire strategy and philosophy of rebranding and pursued the super-structural rather than the sub-structural: And that is where the problem really is.

We also have a National Orientation Agency (NOA) based in Abuja and the various state capitals.  Just yesterday, July 6, 2011 I asked one of the ex-directors of NOA about the Agency’s website because I could not find it online.  He laughed and said, “Prof how could you be so optimistic? They have no website!”  I was shocked.  During the rebranding abracadabra, NOA was relegated to the background and even with the best of intentions; it remains incapable of affecting or influencing the psyche of Nigerians to convince them about its mandate.  As recently as July 2010, the Lagos State Director of NOA Mr. Nasir Kaka was still asking donors to assist the Agency with logistics while eulogizing the support of the UNICEF (Nigerian News July 17, 2010).  The issue here is that this is supposed to be a national agency designed to shape the focus, mindset, loyalty and patriotism of Nigerians; yet, it is relying on donor support because it lacks the essential facilities.  NOA is not often sure of its mandate: election monitoring? Public enlightenment? Training for politicians?  Youth empowerment?  Public education? Environmental sanitation?   In June 2003, the FCT NOA Director Mr. Richard Torhen announced to the world that NOA was going to “embark on campaigns to rid FCT of filth” especially because the 8^th All Africa Games was approaching and “Abuja had become a City of Filth” (Daily Trust 6, June 2003).  Well, if the games had not come NOA would not have cleaned up Abuja!  However, the filth is still there: so much for NOA’s effort.  In sum, NOA has tried its best but it has failed woefully because its mandate was not anchored on any agreed national philosophy, it was not empowered to deliver on its goals, and it lacked the spiritual energy to change the focus and attitudes of Nigerians to believe in a set of values, institutions, leadership models, and socio-economic models.  Unfortunately, NOA is totally incapable of motivating Nigerians towards the achievement of any set goals of development.

National Orientation and its Negation in Nigeria

National Orientation is best when it addresses the pains, dreams, hopes and realities of the people.  They buy into it naturally and support its guidelines and processes.  They self-correct errors and strive to meet agreed set goals in the collective interest.  It is not all about money or some big men coming to mislead them with old useless stories about their achievements.  It is not about contracts to supply items for populist campaigns that lack roots in the consciousness of the people.  It is more the ability to generate a movement and consciousness; to motivate, mobilize, educate and influence attitudes, perspectives and collective struggle for a common destiny.

What kind of orientation can Nigeria undertake when we have no national framework for mobilizing our people for growth and development? Not up to 5% of Nigerians know much about the budget or its contents much less how it is implemented once it is passed.  Much less than 10% of the elite have copies of the Constitution or the national development plans.  How much of orientation can we give with Boko Haram bombing the police headquarters and other locations daily in Borno and Bauchi states? Have we considered the implication of our bad roads, lack of basic human needs especially lack of food, housing, health services and potable water for over 90% of Nigerians? Do all Nigerians not see the unbelievable level of corruption and how the rich flaunt their ill-gotten wealth and get away with it?  Do they not see the inefficiency and incompetence in the public services and mindboggling corruption in the private sector?  Don’t they feel the impact of epileptic or no power supply, unreliability of police protection, and the inflation in the market?  Nigerians see the waste, abandoned properties, neglect of the rural areas, millions of children hawking or roaming the streets when they ought to be in school, and the high rate of infant and maternal mortality in our dear country.  Ethnic, religious, gender, and other primordial contradictions and conflicts continue to deepen even as the federalism we practice goes against all regular or standards forms of federal arrangements.  The unemployment figure is at its highest as graduates roam the streets, prostitute, and engage in all sorts of atavistic behaviours including robberies, kidnappings and assassinations.  Political parties have gatekeepers that prevent the deepening, strengthening, and widening of democratic values, structures and processes.   Finally, our people are witnesses to bad, corrupt, criminal, insensitive and largely visionless leadership, bad belle politics, insensitive policies, and misplaced priorities.  True, there are Islands of integrity and performance here and there, but they are often contaminated, corrupted and domesticated by the numerous points of corruption, exploitation, domination, marginalization, and oppression.  This sort of environment negates options and opportunities for orientation.

The point I am making is that it is the popular content and context of any orientation project that defines and determines the extent to which the people key into it and remain prepared to defend it and if necessary, die for it.  The quality of leadership is equally critical here in terms of the level of integrity, dignity, capability, education, exposure, focus, compassion, engagement with the people, ability to vision, and strength of character in pushing and sustaining pro-people policies and programs.  Without such leadership, no orientation program can be effective.   Leaders that do not rely on bribery, nepotism, ethnic considerations and other underhand tactics in making political decisions. Leaders that are not known to be pathological liars, evil gatekeepers and opportunists in their relationship with other citizens even within their own parties.  The truth is that only leaders that create opening for new voices, new ideas, new consciousness and new technology and methods of politicking can give meaning and drive to orientation or similar programs.

There is one more point; it is about the constitution.  We are agreed that the current constitution is defective in many respects including the near impossible process for its amendment. Yet, the review process would be easier when there is a consensus on a set of values and relationship patterns anchored on a philosophy of state that guides actions, alignments and realignments of socio-political forces.  However, only a process that is truly consultative, transparent, inclusive, process-driven and people-led can ensure the emergence of a constitution that would embody the larger immediate, medium and longer-term dreams of the people of Nigeria.

In sum therefore, reorientation may be an opportunity to appear to be doing something worthwhile today but until certain fundamental requirements are met, the process would achieve nothing.  There is no need in deceiving ourselves just to please our already bruised egos.  No one takes the national project very seriously when the national question remains unresolved, contradictions are deepening and conflicts are spreading from sector to sector, community to community and constituency to constituency.

President Jonathan and National Transformation or Orientation?

President Goodluck Jonathan has already declared a transformational agenda even if many of us that are in that same ship hardly know the meaning and requirements for transformation as a political process.  With the plethora and depth of challenges facing the President and his team, an orientation agenda will truly be meaningless.  It is therefore apt that he has committed to stopping this cosmetic and whitewashing waste of time called rebranding or orientation.  Rather, he has opted for transformation.

Transformation means to reform, refocus, redesign, regenerate, reorganize and reposition institutions, attitudes, structures, processes, policies and programs in the larger and longer-term interest of the majority in society.  Transformation requires courage, strength, focus and commitment.  While not ignoring national sensitivities, transformation requires using the best hands, ideas, and perspectives that would shape the process of lasting change.  In sum, transformation is not a half-stop or ad hoc process, but a truly holistic one that involves all in society with the ultimate goal of building a truly inclusive, participatory, democratic society where social justice, transparency and accountability inform the acquisition and deployment of power.

If President Jonathan would leave lasting legacies and write his name in the sands of time, then he must take his transformation agenda very seriously, depoliticise it in terms of using the best hands available, and monitor its implementation very rigorously.

Steps to Transformation in the New Nigeria

This is only a brief and on the-sport write-up and would require serious brainstorming by stakeholders in the Nigeria Project. However, certain things need to be done to show commitment and seriousness on this issue:

1. Convening of a Transformation Stakeholders Committee to define, design and document our understanding of, and approach to transformation in Nigeria;
2. Convening of a Transformation Summit of stakeholders to discuss the document produced by the Committee in order to ensure buy-in to assure implementation;
3. Encouragement of a national discourse on transformation in order to involve all Nigerians irrespective of class, gender, literacy level and language or religion; and put the outcomes of the Committee and Summit before the Nigerian people;
4. Re-organisation and transformation of the National Orientation Agency to a National Transformation Agency to reflect the new commitment of Government.  An agency dedicated to orientation cannot transform anything or execute sustainable transformation;
5. Identify benchmarks for organizing and executing the transformation agenda, which should be incorporated in both the public and private sectors, the security forces, all schools from kindergarten to the university, parks, etc;
6. Ensure that all office holders incorporate the transformation agenda into their statements, reports and speeches and contracts indicate the transformative value of projects being funded by the public;
7. Enroll NGOs and the media as well as youth organizations in the promotion of the transformation Agenda so that it is well incorporated;
8. Let the National Transformation Agency define and design several pro-people programs to enable it reach all classes of Nigerians irrespective of where they are located;
9. State Governments and LGAs as well as communities should establish their own agencies to promote, propagate and monitor the rate of transformation of institutions, laws, politics and politicking, and the development process.

As I indicated, this is just a sketch but I am sure that it demonstrates what I have in mind.  We focus on transforming attitudes, values and perspectives alongside deep and sustainable socio-economic and political transformation to move Nigeria forward.  Both processes must go together.

Conclusion

A transformation agenda that would be sustainable and taken seriously as against all previous efforts must be anchored on an agenda that shows understanding of the plight of Nigerians and sensitivity to their dreams and hopes.  When they see this happening and perceive that even public programs and public officers organize their work around a truly transformative agenda, they will provide full endorsement.  The effects would grow, influence loyalty and patriotism, drive production, and shape socio-political engagements.  This will be visible to the world and attract support, resources, investors, investments, friends and endorsements for our collective national project.  This, in my view, is how a true and serious transformation agenda should go.  We do not have a lot of time.  The time to start is yesterday.

Being the Text of a lecture  delivered  by Professor Julius O. Ihonvbere, OON at the Workshop on “Towards Building A New Nigeria” organized by the SSPA, Best Western Homeville Hotel, Benin City, 8-9 July, 2011

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