Nigeria ‘at 55

THE expediency of building strong institutions through values and culture and the imperative of destroying the spectre of mediocrity on the Nigerian body politic took centre-stage yesterday at a colloquium on Nigeria at 55.

The Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, Most Rev. Matthew Kukah, former Director, Centre for Applied Economics at the Lagos Business School, Prof. Pat Utomi, former Special Adviser to President Umar Yar’ Adua on Media and Publicity Mr. Segun Adeniyi and Prof. Pius Adesanmi, at the forum, charged Nigerians to develop human capacities and build viable institutions for the nation to make meaningful progress.

Speaking during a programme: The Platform- Nigeria, Our Journey So Far, What Next?- organised by Covenant Christian Centre to mark the 55th anniversary of Nigeria’s Independence in Lagos yesterday, the speakers expressed hope that despite the complex situation, there is hope Nigeria will overcome her woes.

Kukah, who expressed concern over the future of the country in a topic, ‘Nigeria: Euphoria, Hysteria and Dementia-Still a Long Walk to Freedom’- said Nigerians’ lack of mental preparedness is one of the major factors preventing the country from fighting corruption.

He said the real danger is that people are not ready to learn.
The cleric wondered that if Nigerians agree that corruption is evil, how come then the menace has become so attractive even as he wondered what the anti-corruption agencies were doing.

He also expressed concern that the country has not been able to win any of its self-declared wars in the last 30 years.
“We have been talking about War Against Indiscipline, War Against Corruption, War Against Hunger and others. How long are we going to fight these wars?” he asked.

Going down memory lane, Kukah recalled how Nigerian military leaders, in their maiden broadcasts, always mentioned corruption and inability to pay workers’ salaries or other shortcomings of their predecessors as major reasons for seizing power.
“But in the end they too would leave the country worse off and mired deeper in corruption and non-payment of workers’ salaries than they met it. Up till now Nigeria is yet to overcome corruption and non-payment of worker salaries.”

He said though President Muhammadu Buhari has been applauded to be a good man, he, however, noted that the country needs more than a good man to fix the present challenges.
“We need to build capacity. Nigeria needs facilitators. The business of government is to create enabling environment for everybody to compete.”

The cleric averred that if any, among the past leaders of Nigeria, were to be asked to govern the United States of America, “he would not mismanage that country because of the viable system in place. But bring any American president to rule Nigeria, the story will be different. We have a severely weak system of governance, which is not about good people.”

He further noted that Nigeria has not ever enjoyed the kind of international attention it has now, but however, wondered if would be squandered .
Utomi in a topic: ‘Institutions, Culture, and Inclusive Private Sector Rapid Growth’ said contrary to what many people believe, it is culture and not politics that is responsible for a nation’s growth.

He said without the right values, which could only be achieved through culture and not politics “a nation cannot make progress.”
According to him “it looks funny to me when we applaud a governor who constructed road. What makes for progress is not road construction but cultural value. Our leaders build roads but fail to change values. Although roads may be built but if the culture of maintenance is lacking, or such road is not maintained through the right values, it amounts to mere waste. It is not an achievement for any governor to build roads or infrastructure alone but the one that shapes culture creates values.’’