The three tiers of government in Nigeria, i.e. the Federal and State and Local Government Areas have not fared well as structures for developing Nigerians.
This is against the background that only these three tiers of government have been receiving statutory allocations of funds in Nigeria from the 1970s to date.
That Nigerians still live and behave like people in the Stone Age, in spite of the obscene resources utilized by the three tier of government over the years is enough indictment.
To Alfred Salia Fawundu (former UNDP Country Representative to Nigeria) development has to do with the socio-economic and intellectual well-being of people.
It is about the need to put human beings at the forefront of the efforts to improve their well-being.
To correct the ills of the society is also part of development, but it is more about understanding that human beings are at the heart of development issues.
In Nigeria, the reverse is the case as the structures of government which were established as tools for delivering development have taken on lives of their own.
They have also become adept at birthing other structures of their own, such as agencies, parastatals, committees, corporations, taskforces, commissions etc.
This explains why 60%-75% of annual budgets at all levels are used to sustain the very structures that are meant to serve as tools for developing Nigerians.
For the few Nigerians and their supporters who have been able to embed themselves in these structures, the returns have been rewarding.
If all tiers of government have failed abysmally in developing Nigerians, why scrap the LGAs and transfer their resources to state governments?
At the core of our problem is the disdain and lack of value attached to the Nigerian bottom-line, that the Nigerian is not at the heart of development issues in Nigeria.
No where is this more noticeable than in the Niger Delta, a region rich in natural resources and structures of government, but whose people still live in the Stone Age.
Go across Nigeria and look at its peoples and environment, and then compare that to the structures that sustain governments and its occupiers at all levels. What do you see?
Can you compare any of the hamlets, villages, towns and communities of the Niger Delta, the seat of Nigeria’s oil and gas, to Abuja, the seat of the Federal government?
We need to understand that Nigerians are the major resources for national reformation and national development; not the government, or natural resources or economy.
At a seminar in Liberia on Nations Development, Dr. Noel Woodroffe, President of Congress WBN made the following submissions:
“A people that believe in themselves and their moral rectitude, sacrifice and love for their nation are the most important resource that a nation has.
That is why the true starting point of development is the internal architecture of the people, i.e. their understandings, perceptions, beliefs, reasoning’s, mentalities etc
We must be able to produce people, education systems, and communities filled with people who can compete in areas of excellence, wisdom, competence etc
It is now a war of knowledge not of material weapons or resources that determines the development of nations.
Creativity, skills and much more have become the major issues that determine positioning of nations.
Development towards the future demands that these issues be deliberately and consciously taken into account and utilized.
We are to embark on visionary thinking and developmental planning if we are to make appreciable impact
Radical new possibilities for change and development must be created by our own efforts at local economic stimulation, social change and developments, local political initiatives
We must understand that nations are run by Nation producing systems i.e. education. Transforming the education system is not building more schools.
At present our people – producing processes (E.g. –the education systems) are producing people that are not relevant to what is needed for dynamic and accurate development in the future.
Our universities were designed to have bookish education – but not those who will be functional for development in the future.
Leadership is to first have a vision and describe what type of people we want to have 30-40 years time.
Then design what is the curriculum; what type of teachers, etc. Anything embedded in human systems can be changed.
Leadership have to sit down, plan based on vision and implement. Imperatives of tradition can be changed. Strategic leadership is important to get this done.
We have to opt for corporate functional leader against charismatic leadership in our quest to evolve a new nation.
The dynamics for future development and the defining vision that would drive that dynamics will not come – and should not come – from outside our borders.
National transformation – this is the challenge. We are the designers of our own destiny”
I could not agree more.
