Farm House Dialogue - Africa Leadership Forum

The country should be restructured to give full effect to the principle of federalism asconstitutionally defined to assuage the fears of groups within the polity that arecomplaining of marginalization.Participants further agreed that oversight in the country’s legal framework, includingcontentious and obsolete legislation, can be corrected through comprehensiveconstitutional and legal reforms.The civil service is part of the problem, bogged down as it is by red-tapism andinefficiency. It should be reformed, retrained and re-oriented. In this direction, meritshould be the primary consideration in public appointments.To guarantee political stability, the armed forces should be re-organized, made moreprofessional, and its members should be re-oriented to better appreciate the constitutionalrole of the military and its relations with other institutions in civil society.National security in terms of the security of lives and property should be a principalconcern of government. The State Security Service as well as the Police should be betterequipped, constantly evaluated and in a state of preparedness, to enable them dischargetheir duties more efficiently.Civil society should be empowered through the deliberate promotion of collectiveparticipation and the expression of fundamental human rights by all stake-holders in theNigerian project.Improved participation and representation of women in decision making processes, andshould be ensured through such measures as proportional representation, the abrogation ofharmful traditional practices and legislation which interiorize women and the introductionof affirmative action for women as state policy.Other measures suggested by participants included a comprehensive poverty alleviationand ultimate eradication programme that involves the promotion of small and mediumscale entrepreneurship, integrated agricultural and rural development and extension,effective fiscal management, planning and data management.Participants reasoned further that existing structures for leadership recruitment process issomewhat skewed in the direction of cronyism, gerontocracy and nepotism and is thus atvariance with the need to develop qualitative leadership. What this implies is thatdesignated leadership training institutions such as the Nigerian Institute of Policy andStrategic Studies (NIPSS), Administrative and Staff College of Nigeria (ASCON) and theCentre for Management Development (CMD) would have to be better organized. Agreater national emphasis should also be placed on the identification and nurturing of a