My orientation about our government began to change in 2009. Before this
time, I had always felt – sadly without any historical or evidentiary
perspective – that Nigerians can transform Nigeria, in spite of our government.
It was easy for me to believe this. I came into awareness of my country’s
place in the world in an atmosphere of hope in the late 1990s and at the turn
of the millennium as we embraced democracy and the opening of many social
spaces. There were very many examples to point out.
Some are now cliché, like Nollywood, an industry that has been hailed for
rising up like a rose amongst thorns, and had become Nigeria’s biggest cultural
export to the world; or our music industry – also thriving simply by grit and
talent; or its youth who from art to advocacy, technology to the media, had
charted courses that didn’t depend on government patronage or ‘support’.
Surely if Nigerians could do these, in spite of Nigeria, then surely we
could end up regenerating Nigeria – through a network of us empowered
economically and by knowledge working to rebuild our country, step by step.
That’s what I thought.
That’s what drove our passion and our work with The Future Awards, and its
evolution into The Future Project – and our focus on identifying the most inspiring
of our generation as strong, positive role models to motivate others to
transcend Nigeria’s difficult environment and do great things.
The idea was – and it is still the fulcrum of our work – that this network
of inspired, effective new leaders would create a flywheel effect that will
change Nigeria.
A chance comment from a friend got me thinking beyond the box, however. He
asked: how far will we actually be able to go in transforming our society
before we have to connect those efforts with what government is doing or what
it needs to do? How much could we achieve if the government fundamentally
remained the same?
The more I thought of it. The more I realised – not far.
My experience over the past few years have made apparent to me what has been
apparent to the world’s real change-makers in modern societies over the past
few years. It’s the same reality that confronts you when you read books like
Lee Kuan Yu’s
From Third World to First World,
Start-Up Nation: The
Story of Israel’s Economic Miracles – we can only go so far in changing our
world without connecting with or transforming government.
Focusing on inspiring a network of progress outside of government wasn’t a
wrong message however; it just wasn’t the complete message. Just like many of
us, I was falling into a well-worn trap of the single solution, of the single
story.
Of course, when you face a system like Nigeria’s, where successive
governments appear to govern by default; where it appears there are no values
or visions from on top and all the other clichés about our leadership that you
and I are now familiar with it is easy to give in to the temptation to want to
desperately ignore that government, to belittle it, to make it seem
inconsequential.
With the acute awareness that it is a huge, thankless task to change a
government like ours, and the abiding fear of the daunting path ahead
transforming the way government thinks and functions, it is very easy to hope
that we can change our country without it.
Unfortunately, that ostrich needs to bring its head out of the sand. Nigeria
is not going to be changed by non-governmental organisations digging boreholes;
it will not be changed by advocates pushing for probity in government. No
matter how earnest and well-organised they are; their efforts will be thwarted
because they are not in charge of hiring competent officials and firing corrupt
aides, the maintenance of an independent judiciary through responsible
appointments or the judicious allocation of public funds.
In the same way Nigeria won’t be changed by the USAID or any other
international do-gooders because that is not what they are structured to do,
just as a war will not be stopped by the Red Cross or Amnesty International,
but by the governments and their enemies which started the war.
This is the reason, in fact, that many donors and international
organisations from the British Council to the DFID, the U.S. Government to the
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation prefer to support organisations that
interface with government, or they just partner with the governments
themselves.
Where they are not doing that, they are working with organisations that are
in opposition to government, or that snipe at the heels of government. Either
ways, there is an implicit global understanding, honed by years of ineffectual
interventions and a vicious cycle of good intentions with little result that it
all comes back government.
The reason is simple: none of them have the budget, the resources, the
reach, the weight, the capacity to affect all levers and layers of society.
Even when they do – which is almost impossible except when one country violates
another’s sovereignty – none of them can muster enough required to effect the
kind of change that can be facilitated by the full power of the state.
Perhaps we can find Egypt a perfect example. While its exemplary people have
turned protest into an art form, arm-twisting their leaders into taking
responsible decisions and sustaining the tempo of change leading from the Arab
Spring, a people-driven revolution has still come back to the character and
nature of the new government that they have – and what Mohammed Morsi decides
to do (and not to do) in his relations with the judiciary, the military, and
civil society will turn out being more important than the revolution that
brought the Islamic Brotherhood into power.
Like Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein, who is King of Jordan, told participants at
the World Economic Forum in January, the revolutions were the easiest part of
the work that they have – building a political culture, driven by their elected
leaders in government is the major task that lies ahead.
The message is simple: no matter how dirty and slimy we find our government
(and maybe we are justified, and maybe we are exaggerating), we are making a
terrible mistake to think that we can transform our country without it.
Government is the singular most important force for change in any society –
print that and paste it on your day if you really want to do something to
change your country.
It doesn’t matter if, with government officials behaving like asses and the
deplorable behavior that passes for administration, government has become a
dirty word; the dirtiness should not obscure that simple reality.
We need a government that works – one way or the other. We cannot,
cannot
change Nigeria without its government.
The tragedy, of course, is that the clamour for working with government or
joining government is usually championed by people whose motives are largely
questionable.
So it is important to note that joining government blindly, especially the
legislature and executive, is not going to solve our problems even if it is
important. And, of course, if precedent gives us any pointers, blind ambition
causes more harm than good.
Fortunately for us, there is not just one way to make our government better.
What we need to do, like I have mentioned in an earlier piece, is to find our
positions in relation to this organ.
We need enough competent and vision-driven people who are transforming the
government by working with it and helping it; or we have others working from
outside: activists, freedom fighters, opposition politicians, radical lawyers,
dogged journalists, progressive clergymen.
But whatever we do, we need the government in our sights. Whatever we do,
where we want it to have a lasting impact on the way our society is structured
and governed, we have to find the nexus where these efforts connect to
government – and modifies its behavior. Either that or we push it aside, and
work to get a government that will act right.
In my next piece, I will be sharing the example of two impressive people who
provide a signpost for how one can step into those troubled waters and bring
calm to the storm. I will also share examples of two people working outside of
government who have found effective ways of putting it on its toes.
We will need more people like them, who are self-aware enough to make a step
that is selfless and purposive. That job isn’t for each and every one of us –
but there are always men and women made for a time like this. And
e fit be
you o.
Chude Jideonwo
I read that article, and like the Author, I now realize that although
extra-Governmental activities will help, the real change, the paradigm shift we
want in our Country;Nigeria,will only come
to be if we succeed in “connecting with or transforming” our Government.
But to go a ways further, I have come to the conclusion that this Government is
beyond “connecting” with, after all, a connection would work both ways and this
Government has shown no sign of being willing to “connect” in any way with the
pulse of the masses… Therefore, the only way left is to “Transform” the
Government, how then do we do that?
“We need enough competent and vision-driven people who are transforming the
government by working with it and helping it; or we have others working from
outside: activists, freedom fighters, opposition politicians, radical lawyers,
dogged journalists, progressive clergymen.
But whatever we do, we need the government in our sights. Whatever we do,
where we want it to have a lasting impact on the way our society is structured
and governed, we have to find the nexus where these efforts connect to
government – and modifies its behavior. Either that or we push it aside, and
work to get a government that will act right.”
And
e fit be you o.
Article above culled from the Premium Times Website
By Chude JIdeonwo
