04042019 - Nigeria 7 other nstions home to world's hungriest - UN

EMINENT statesmen from
the North and South of
Nigeria publicly endorsed the
candidature of Alhaji Atiku
Abubakar in this year’s
presidential election. Leaders
of the Pan-Niger Delta Forum,
the Northern Elders Forum, the
Middle Belt Forum, Afenifere
and Ohanaeze Ndigbo came
together under the umbrella of
the Leaders and Elders Forum
of Nigeria and gave their
collective backing to the
presidential candidate of the
Peoples Democratic Party. They
said Atiku “demonstrated the
deep understanding of the
critical needs of the country at
this time and possesses the
capacity to proffer clear
solutions in that respect.” The
former vice president, the
elders concluded, was the only
candidate who could "retool
Nigeria on the path of
development as a true federal
entity”.
They were right. I too warmed
to Atiku’s candidacy. Over
many years of contributing to
public discourse on Nigeria, I
have advocated three main
ideas - political restructuring,
free market economy and wider
institutional reforms - as the way
forward. So for me, only the
candidate with credible
intellectual and policy
commitments to root-andbranch
economic, political and
institutional reforms could lead
Nigeria. Well, Atiku ticked the
boxes. His manifesto document,
entitled “My plan to get
Nigeria working again,” was a
masterpiece in policy reform
ideas. In a country where policy
Atiku’s 2019 bid: Between the
messenger and the message
analysis is shallow, Atiku put
intellectual rigour into
analysing and proffering
solutions to what he rightly
described as Nigeria’s
“economic and political
structural fault lines.” His
economic vision was radical, as
was his agenda for political and
wider institutional
transformation.
Without a doubt, I preferred
Atiku to President Muhammadu
Buhari, whose socialist
economic policies and stubborn
resistance to political
restructuring hindered Nigeria
economically, politically and
socially in his first term, and
whose re-election “Next Level”
manifesto was a road to more of
the same. Unsurprisingly, Atiku
was also the choice of
international investors, who
preferred his bold market-based
economic reform agenda to
Buhari’s dirigiste and antibusiness
policies and actions.
The Buhari government is
arguably more hostile to
businesses than any previous
government in Nigeria - think
of the arbitrary,
disproportionate and punitive
actions taken against foreign
investors, such as MTN! At
every international business
event that I attended in Europe,
the vibes and mood music were
certainly in favour of Atiku,
whose commitment to economic
liberalisation, including
privatisation, was
Nigeria cannot be
united and stable
unless it's politically
restructured; it cannot
prosper unless it
becomes a private
sector-driven, open and
competitive economy
overwhelmingly preferred to
Buhari’s statist and often
ruthless interventionism.
But I wasn’t starry-eyed about
Atiku. I shared widespread
concerns about his personal
reputation. However, the bigger
picture mattered more. For me,
if Atiku could implement his
wide-ranging and far-reaching
economic, political and
institutional reform plans and
set Nigeria on the path of true
Vanguard, THURSDAY, APRIL 4, 2019—31
market economy and
federalism, that would offset his
alleged past misdeeds, which I
hoped he wouldn’t repeat in
office. Surely, Atiku was not a
saint, but, compared with
Buhari, he was, as I wrote in
this column, “the lesser of two
evils”!
Well, the election has come
and gone. Of course, the
outcome remains controversial.
The contest was widely
predicted to be close. Few
thought Buhari could wallop
Atiku in the North or beat him
by over four million votes across
the country. To be sure, the poll
was marred by serious
irregularities, including the
abuse of incumbency, and some
have argued that Buhari’s
massive votes in the North were
inflated. But, as I once wrote,
while there were significant
irregularities in the presidential
election, they did not materially
alter the outcome, although
there might have been some
vote inflation. That said, the
matter is now in court and we
must await the verdict of the
judges, who, in the interests of
Nigeria’s democratic and
political development, must do
the right thing!
Yet, here’s the point. Even if
Atiku finally lost in court, he
should be proud that he
represented a real choice, a real
alternative, in this year’s
presidential election. He set an
agenda for retooling and
transforming Nigeria that
cannot be ignored. Truth is,
Nigeria cannot be united and
stable unless it's politically
restructured; it cannot prosper
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unless it becomes a private
sector-driven, open and
competitive economy; and it
cannot be an effective state, and
make real progress, unless it
transforms its bureaucratic
institutions and tackle
corruption through robust
institutional means rather than
a personalised rule. These were
the reform programmes that
Atiku set out in granular detail
in his election manifesto.
A long-standing advocate of
political restructuring, Atiku
argued, rightly, that “the
Nigerian states have been
reduced to parastatals of the
Federal Government” and
promised to devolve powers,
responsibilities and resources to
the country’s sub-units. On
market reform, he promised “to
pursue with vigour the
deregulation and liberalisation
of the economy”, including the
privatisation of state-owned
enterprises, notably NNPC. He
set out an elaborate agenda for
public-sector reform, and a
robust institutionally-driven
anti-graft strategy, including a
set of “first 100 days in office”
immediate actions.
Let’s face it, Atiku lost the
election largely because of
negative perceptions about his
integrity. But Nigeria must not
throw away the baby with the
bath water; it must separate the
message from the messenger.
For this country needs Atiku’s
economic, political and
institutional reform ideas to
prosper. What’s more, the ideas,
particularly political
restructuring, simply won’t go
away!
Importance of citizen participation in fixing Nigeria
By Ndidi Uwechue
In the face of all that is ailing Nigeria,
It is so much easier to just sit and watch, and
do nothing.
It is so much easier to just sit and complain,
and do nothing.
It is so much easier to just sit and dream, and
do nothing.
It is so much easier to just sit, kneel or prostrate
in prayer, and do nothing.
HOWEVER it is citizen participation (or
lack of), that shapes the current state
and the future of any nation, including Nigeria.
Clearly Nigeria has reached crisis point. What
we, the people do now, or do not do now, will
determine the kind of future we will have, and
that our children and grandchildren will have.
Even though we are from different
backgrounds, have different educational
standards, have different economic statuses,
one major thing connects us all, and that is
that we are Nigerians and, therefore, the state
of the nation will affect us all one way or
another.
Citizen participation means that every one
of us, even our children, can get involved in
doing something that will make the living
conditions better for all of us. In a democracy
the power to change things is actually more
with the people, and less with the politicians.
However, most Nigerians do not know this!
We think the power is with politicians because
we have not been taking citizen participation
seriously. But we can change that.
Citizen participation gives every individual
an opportunity to influence and change
political, social, economic and public decisions
and allows us to be an important part of the
democratic decision-making in Nigeria. By
citizen participation the people become part
of the governance structure and can through
the strength of people power actually direct
governance!
Nigeria’s democracy is still relatively young
and still developing. We now need to add
citizen participation into our lives, and this
will make us use our power and our
responsibility as citizens.
There are many ways to effect citizen
participation and it involves using some of
your time in a cause that will benefit you, your
family, your community and your country.
Everything needs to be improved so we have a
lot of citizen participation to do so that our
children and their children can inherit a better
country, and have a better quality of life.
Our citizen participation does not end at
voting for public officers but is an ongoing
activity. After elections we then help in the
governance of our country by things such as
pushing for new laws that will improve our
lives and our society, by forming pressure
groups, by recalling lawmakers who are inept,
by campaigning for policies and services that
will make our future better, safer and more
secure.
We can look around us at our environment
and public services to apply our citizen
participation for the improvement of our
country. We can use social media,
communication media eg. WhatsApp, our
phone videos and camera, newspapers,
magazines, newsletters, the internet, town hall
meetings, mass gatherings, etc to assist us in
our citizen participation activities.
In Nigeria our young democracy was
hijacked early on by people who were
unpatriotic, who had no concern for the people,
but whose aim was to steal public money and
spend it on themselves, their families and their
friends. Although Nigeria has now become
severely disabled by these corrupt leaders
(politicians and civil servants) we still have the
means to reverse the damage that was done to
our people and our nation. However it will
take our collective and determined effort
through citizen participation.
“...Ensuring that government actually works
for the public good requires informed,
organized, active and peaceful citizen
participation. Citizens must, therefore,
understand ideas about citizenship, politics
and government. They need knowledge to
Citizen participation is a
pillar of democracy and is
necessary for a
sustainable democracy
make decisions about policy choices and the
proper use of authority, along with the skills to
voice their concerns, act collectively and hold
public officials (i.e., elected representatives,
civil servants, and appointed leaders)
accountable. ..” (National Democratic
Institute, Washington DC)
It has become the norm in Nigeria to talk
about the three arms of government. These
are the Executive (the Cabinet), the Legislative
(the National Assembly), and the Judiciary (the
Courts).
However, in a properly functioning
democracy there should be a fourth arm, and
that is the people power through citizen
participation activities. In order to fix Nigeria,
this fourth arm of governance needs to bring
itself out and become properly effective.
Elections come around every four years and
if the leader is bad too much damage will be
done in that time, so voting power is just not
powerful enough.
This is why citizen participation which is an
ongoing people power is essential for creating
a pleasant country. Thus, every Nigerian
(starting from secondary school age) should
regularly contemplate these questions:
•What is purpose of the government?
•How important are my and others’ human
rights?
•How satisfied am I with the way the
government is working?
Every Nigerian (starting from secondary
school age) should know at least in principle
Clause 14 of the Constitution which states:
(1) The Federal Republic of Nigeria shall be
a State based on the principles of democracy
and social justice.
(2) It is hereby, accordingly, declared that:
(a) Sovereignty belongs to the people of
Nigeria from whom government through this
Constitution derives all its powers and
authority;
(b) The security and welfare of the people
shall be the primary purpose of government;
and
(c) The participation by the people in their
government shall be ensured in accordance
with the provisions of this Constitution.
Citizen participation is a pillar of democracy
and is necessary for a sustainable democracy.
It means citizens performing their social
responsibility of participation in governance
as part of their civic duties.
Citizen participation is both a duty and an
honour. Nigeria is at crisis point, and our
people are now ready for action through citizen
participation.
•Uwechue, a retired London Police Officer
and a pro-social advocate, wrote from Ogwashi-
Uku, Delta State