It remains quite baffling to me whenever I hear so many people, especially those I respect so much for their intellectual and analytical power, say that nothing can work in Nigeria except restructuring is done despite the obvious fact that Nigeria’s history is full of hundreds of experiences that demonstrate clearly that this cannot be.
Restructuring is a fact of life, it has been going on in Nigeria at various levels in different forms over the years, and will continue. But for so many people to so willingly allow their feet to be completely swept off the ground by sentiments, talking as though restructuring is the one magic button that solves all Nigerian’s problems is extremely worrisome. Or maybe it is just laziness in bracing up and restructuring our mindsets, our life styles, our sense of duty and patriotism that we choose the easier way: point our fingers to a different direction, after which we point to another direction, never pointing to ourselves, which we have always done for decades.
For some time now, the demand for restructuring of Nigeria has been quite loud, mostly in the South of the country. It appears to be dying down a little bit, but still very much there. Even if it finally dies down completely in the next few months, it will surely come up again perhaps under a new heading, as long as most Nigerians continue to feel pain, just as it did before, a number of times.
The frequency and timing of such demands or debates clearly suggest that the validity of the conclusion is highly suspect. Why does it always come soon after a change of guard at the national level? And often by the losers? It did come in some form in the early sixties. It came again immediately after the Jan 1966 coup d’état, again by those who felt they lost out. Another after the July 1966 counter coup d’état which eventually led to the civil war. Another one came after the 1983 coup d’etat, this time, the favourite term was ‘confederation’. The debate was so loud that the then Head of State, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari ordered a stop to it and the order was religiously obeyed. I remember soon after the order, watching an interview of the late Ikemba being asked of his opinion on “confederation” and he declined comments making reference to the order by the Head of State. Now it is on again soon after a change of guard especially with the high level of disappointment of Nigerians with the Buhari regime, but this time with the name “restructure”.
I therefore feel bold to say that the main driving force behind the demand for restructuring is a feeling of loss and frustration, triggering off sweeping sentiments across sections of the country. Of course bandwagon effect is always not left far behind in situations like this, with many of the agitators not knowing exactly what they are asking for. Memes-yes, those patterns of thought, habit and emotion woven into our minds by the people and events around us, which can replicate themselves like virus and spread from one brain to another. In fact, some studies are reported to have shown that memes diffuse through populations in a manner that is “mathematically similar to the epidemiology of plagues”
The Structure of a System is merely the organization of its elements. In this regard, the structure of Nigeria can be described as the organization of its elements: Political, educational, economic, etc. Restructuring of Nigeria therefore means the re-organization of these elements. These structural elements of Nigeria, in themselves have structural frameworks which can also be reorganized, rearranged as desired.
Nigeria has gone through numerous restructuring exercises, such as:
Political- Parliamentary to Presidential, regions to states, and the cry continued. The coup speech of Major Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu in January 1966 is significantly similar to that of Brig. Sani Abacha in December, 1983.
Educational- 6-5-4 system to 6-3-3-4 system, curricula in many cases have been overhauled (restructured). January-December academic calendar to October-June academic calendar. Our educational system problems have continued to grow.
Power supply- ECN to NEPA to PHCN and now GENCOs, TCN and DISCOs. Our power supply situation has continued to worsen.
Likewise, many ministries have changed name and structure many times, but performance continued to decline. It should be easy for us to see that the performance graph of an organization always flows much more in accordance with the trade mark of the man in charge rather than the structure of the organization. A very glaring example is NAFDAC. I am sure many Nigerians did not pay much attention to NAFDAC until Prof. Dora Akunyili took over. I don’t remember her complain of the structure of NAFDAC or the name NAFDAC on appointment.
She simply went to work (backed by former President Obasanjo) and before long the whole world knew that a new person had taken over. Reports had it that the percentage of counterfeit drugs in the Nigerian market dropped from 65% to 30% within 2-3years of her tenure and further down to 16.7% before she left the agency. She was also widely reported to have won more than 400 awards worldwide, some say hundreds more, all these wonderful achievements did not need restructuring of any type in NAFDAC. All it needed was the right mindset of only one individual placed in a position of power. Fortunately, the trend she set continued for some time, it is said to be 10 – 30% now.
I read the interview of an arrested fake wine producer where he said that Dora Akunyili chased him out of Onitsha and he settled in Lagos but the heat continued until she left office. Many of us heard of potassium bromate(a dangerous chemical used in making bread) for the first time during her tenure. Bread makers felt her heat too. Now I hardly hear about it anymore. Things have
gotten worse even with staple food items since I can no longer stop and enjoy oranges and bananas on the roadside (even in the so called big supermarkets) because they would normally be heavily dozed with calcium carbide or some other dangerous chemical. It may surprise some of us to learn that I once wrote officially to NAFDAC on the matter, received no response and the game has continued to grow. My report was met with cold shoulders in the very beginning.
Corruption! Therefore restructure! What sort of logic is this?
There are countries that operate worse structures than us, and yet make better progress than us. There are countries that operate far worse constitution than ours, they are more successful than us.
While I agree that, for instance, our justice delivery system needs to be drastically improved upon, it is not due to its structural defects that we are at the point of disintegrating. It is rather because the minds that operate the system have been de-structured. The reason corruption and other crimes persist is more because offenders are not held accountable not because the legal provisions are not sufficient but because the mindsets are wrong. Even if our legal system is significantly improved, say by 50%, the performance of the justice delivery system will not go anywhere near 50% improvement if the attitudes of Nigerians remain the same. In the same token, no matter the structure, the operators will ultimately determine the results we get.
Many years ago, I knew of a man who drove an old car with hardly any functioning brakes over a distance of more than a thousand kilometers without any incidents. This is not to say that breaks in a car are a mistake. It simply demonstrates how a skillful operator can steer a badly unbalanced system to success. On the contrary, a system, even when perfectly structured and balanced can never attain success as long as the operator continues to do the opposite of what he is supposed to be doing.
A few weeks ago, I watched on TV a certain Ladi Thompson deliver a beautifully constructed theory well soaked with historical information in an attempt to demonstrate that the foundation of Nigeria was wrong so the “building” must be broken down and a new foundation laid before things can go right. There can be nothing more nonsensical! What he appeared to be saying was:
- You cannot be good unless you go back to be born again because you were not born properly in the first place.
- If your parents did not raise you properly, you can never do well again unless you go back to be raised (foundation) again
- If you were born with disability(foundation), you can never make it in life unless you go back to be born again this time without disability(foundation)
- If you were born in poor circumstances (foundation), you must go back to be reborn before you can change your status.
A few days ago, I watched a young man born practically without hands and legs (only stumps in their place) delivering a masterful inspirational speech. Only a madman would not be dazed by his performance because he always looked very happy and contented, did a good number of things unaided including swimming. Why then would a man born with all parts of his body waste his precious time complaining about foundation instead of getting off his seat and making the best of what he has.
All my life I have always been taught by many scholars that no time is too late to start and that my only block is me. Do some thinking, they would say, try out something, switch gears, persist, remain focused, work hard, that success is surely mine.
Mr. Thompson claims that the colonial masters programmed us to destroy our country. Suppose that is true, why must we continue to waste time on that instead of reprogramming ourselves for progress? Remember, Psychologists tell us that children are born with a natural sense of justice. Which man up to 30 years of age would tell me he has come this far with only the programming done by his parents? Many a time young and old people alike visit their friends’ families and immediately notice practices in those homes that are superior to the ones they are used to at home and begin to borrow those practices to better their lot. I must state clearly here that using ‘building’ to illustrate the Nigerian situation is grossly inappropriate. Those who hold this view of wrong foundation should better rechannel their energies towards making the best of what we have right now rather than continue to waste time and poison the minds of listeners on an erroneous concept.
It is only reasonable for a young lady seeking changes to her makeup to visit a dental surgeon for restructuring of her teeth first, go home and recover fully before visiting another surgeon to restructure her nose. Likewise, she would need to go home and recover from nose restructure before visiting another specialist to do the rest of the face, and then the breasts, and then the buttocks, etc. To insist that the teeth, nose, eye lids, jaw, breasts, buttocks, etc are restructured all at once otherwise nothing works is very unreasonable and may even lead to self-destruction.
Some say we should go back to Regional System. Their reason is often that the Regions made better success, and without oil at that. The fact is that the Regions made good success not because the structure was regional but because the operators did more of what they were supposed to do. The current system is failing not because the structure is state, but because the operators are not doing what they are supposed to do.
Some say Nigeria is not one nation but many nations. I wonder what this is supposed to mean! That we should steal government money when it is many nations and not at all when it is one nation? That we should keep quiet when we see a government official stealing or flaunting wealth better than an oil magnate when it is many nations and not at all when it is one nation? That we should bribe a judge to unduly influence a judgement in our favor when it is many nations? That we should grease the palms of a school teacher in order to get our child promoted to the next class when it is many nations? For God’s sake we should stop the nonsense and begin to do the right things right where we are.
No magic button can suddenly set things right. Everyone simply has to reflect deeply and make a decision to begin to do the right things and persist, no matter what, certain that he is making some impact notwithstanding the initial apparent ineffectiveness. If everyone does this in no time the whole country will change substantially for the better and people will stop talking about restructuring. Only a component of corruption is traceable to tribalism. It is rather inept leadership that gives way to tribalism. Evolution of the mind of a true leader must have ascended beyond the level of tribalism.
Some say, dust up the 2014 confab report and implement. I have already heard some people, mostly from a certain section of the country saying no, it cannot be because it was not done fairly. This is not going to be easy to resolve thereby ushering in another period of wastage in addition to the one wasted drafting it.
I do not believe we have operated the worst systems(structures) in Nigeria to warrant the sorry state of affairs. Each system(structure) we have operated surely has been (or is being) operated by some other country somewhere and it has worked (is working) well. Why do we continue to believe that our operational structure is the main problem? No matter the structure we adopt, the main performance needs will remain. A well-made car will do well but will never replace the need for a good and responsible driver, even if remotely as modern IT trends seem to suggest. A well-made road free from pot holes, sharp bends, etc. will help in keeping it accident free. No matter how good the road is, an irresponsible or bad driver will certainly create accidents. No matter how good surgical instruments are, a bad or reckless surgeon will still make a mess of his job.
While the structure of a system may enhance performance, it cannot and will never be the main thing as most structures in question are not horrible, are capable of yielding commendable success, the only thing is they are not perfect yet, they are not the best achievable at that particular time in the scheme of things.
Most Nigerians are not satisfied with the performance of the National Assembly in terms of productivity, amount of money allocated to them, the way their members wield their powers viz-a-viz the level of responsible behavior associated with them. Again, it is our fault. We voted them in, not once, not twice but each time and we have not successfully recalled any. Unfortunately, majority of the restructuring activities clamoured for cannot be done without the National Assembly. The question arises: Is it what we want that they want? I doubt. I see a situation similar to excessively arming your security man who happens not to be interested in securing your life. You have a serious problem in your hands. Our corrupt minds are the first to blame before the structure.
On anti-corruption war, the president alone cannot win the war. Even if the president does all that he needs to do flawlessly, and the security agents do all they are supposed to do flawlessly, there will still be a huge gap in the fight against corruption. A substantial part of the gap will have to be filled by us. Rather than fill this gap, we choose to point accusing fingers at the structure.
No one can perpetrate financial fraud or any fraud for that matter on a massive scale without involving a good number of people. Worse still, that small group of people cannot successfully perpetrate the massive fraud without a good number of people outside the group knowing about it. This goes to show that for every single case of massive fraud of any type in this country there are people in possession of sufficient facts to make credible reports to the security agents. Now I ask: for how many of such fraud cases have we had whistle blowers coming forward? If you ask me, I would say less than 1%. The fact that the whistle blower policy had to be evolved by government underlines clearly the failure on the part of the citizens to do what should feel natural to all of us. Rather than admit our failure in this regard, we point accusing fingers at the structure of Nigeria. This is similar to watching an arsonist set your family house ablaze, doing nothing to stop him and when the house is collapsing, you turn around to blame the structure of the house.
In the character of Ex- governor Peter Obi in his speech recently, where he queried the rationale behind building (restructuring) new airports when existing ones were nonfunctional. “Get the existing ones especially the most viable (Ikeja) functional first”, he said. Why build a super highway when expressways, rural roads were non-functional? Get the existing roads functional first before thinking of upgrading. By so doing, you would have reaped fully the dividends of the investment already made.
In like manner, I would say, get the existing system functioning properly first. To simply embark on massive restructuring amidst questionable integrity/ commitment of the operators will create more needless problems. It will take us back unnecessarily before we succeed if ever.
Already precious time is being wasted in discussing it. People don’t even realize that the mere achievement of a consensus on the mode, area and extent of restructuring over what period of time will prove to be a daunting task that may even plunge the nation into some crises after wasting a lot more time and other resources in the process.
Getting the existing system functioning properly is not going to be easy, and will involve many parts. The government should commence in such a manner that leaves no one in doubt that this time it means business. On the other hand, all Nigerians must do their own part, sustain vigilance on government moves and speak out loud insisting on the right things.
The South West alone made Nigeria difficult to govern for Gen. Sani Abacha not by taking up arms, not by restructuring but by utilizing what was already legally in existence: The Press. This eventually, after Abacha’s death, led to the emergence of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo as President. This is how talking can change things.
On either side, one thing stands out: people must be held accountable for their actions.
