Speeches

Essential Ingredients Of Good Governance: Lessons From Nigerian Best Practices

May 20, 2009 - Although I believe that a period of barely 24 months as Governor is insufficient experience to qualify me to stand before this exalted audience to lead discussions on the subject of the day, I must express profound appreciation for the opportunity and to the authorities for considering me worthy of this high honour.

Because this institution represents the production house for Nigeria's top policy initiators in the public sector, the importance of my contributions is not lost on me, and while I will apply my best endeavours to do justice to the subject at hand and take some responsibility for my shortcomings, I will caution that the authorities must be wiling to share the responsibility for the shortcomings of picking a beginner.

The subject for discussion has been titled "Essential Ingredients of Good Governance: Lessons from Nigerian Best Practices".

For me, the subject is a contemporary as it is inspirational. It is contemporary because at no time in the history of this country has there been such high expectation and demand for good governance in Nigeria than today.

The expectation is so tick you can almost cut it with a knife.

The subject is inspirational because it suggests or asks whether there have been any previous examples or lessons of good governance in Nigeria to which I answer in the affirmative, because from those lessons should come the experience that it has been done here before and we do not need to re¬invent the wheel to do it again.

As I observed, there are such positive lessons and they are to be found in the period of Nigeria's greatest'> prosperity, the period when we had true federalism, the period when we had the best democratic practice, the period sadly that seems a very distant past, the period when the names of Sir Ahmadu Bello, Dr. Nnamdi Azikwe and Obafemi Awolowo dominated the Nigerian political landscape.

It is from this period that i choose to extract the lessons of good governance to represent best practices for us now, as useful hindsight to provide foresight for the future by looking at what I think were the main success drivers of that period.

Democracy

One feature of that period was that there was a democratic government in place. By democratic government, I mean only what I believe that democracy means - a process where the majority of the people participate in choosing their leaders.

Although democracy is important, it does not on its own guarantee that there will be good governance. Democracy cannot guarantee that the elected leader will have passion for his job, or that he will have compassion for his people.

Democracy cannot guarantee that the leader will be intelligent to have very full knowledge of the problems he is expected to solve or that he will be honest as distinct from being dishonest.

However, democracy guarantees a few things where it exists. The first is that it ensures that the leader emerges in an atmosphere of peace so that the post election period is peaceful and provides a platform for governance to begin.

Secondly, where true democracy exists, it confers the critical element of legitimacy on the leader.

Legitimacy is most critical because it is the backbone or the basis of authority of a government.

It enables the Government invite civic engagement and participation of the electorate who feel a sense of ownership of having been involved in the election of the leader and the making of the Government.

If we realize that the traditional and time honoured source of Government funds and public expenditure is taxation, the role of legitimacy will become clearer.

Legitimacy is the moral platform and authority of a Government to levy and impose tqxes.

It is from this imposition of taxes that the time honoured principle of taxation and representation comes into operations.

This is the vehicle by which successful governments get their people mobilized for change, prepare them for sacrifice for hard decisions that may have to be made so that the greatest benefit can be delivered to the greatest number of people.

A government that lacks legitimacy from the people for whom if exists will not get the followership It requires to operate.

The first lesson from the past therefore is that Government must evolve from the people, the tax payers' vote must count.

Our recent social and economic challenges have not been unconnected with the lack of legitimacy of Governments, whether the military, viet armis or the civilian, through questionable elections.

In both instances, the lack of legitimacy has deprived Governments of the moral authority to enforce collection of taxes, when they have been levied, it has deprived them of the authority to enforce laws that have been made, as they seek to be popular they have been unwilling and sometimes unable to enforce laws, lest they be seen to be "high handed", or lacking in "human face".

What has followed has been the gradual but progressive erosion of the operation of the rule of law, and the abdication of law and order.

There will be good governance, when law and order exists. This was not compromised in the period of our great prosperity. People obeyed laws or faced sanctions.

Judicial. inquiries in the 1960s were a sign that something serious was wrong and the reports were usually implemented instead of suddenly disappearing as we have seen in recent past.

People did not violate building plans. Sanitation laws were enforced. Corrupt practices and fraud were sanctioned and a culture of shame pervaded the air, where offenders were subject to communal ostracism.

That is what has departed from us. That is what we must get back .

Free and fair elections, instituted not by law reform alone, but by the enforcement of the existing laws and the application of sanctions, because there has been a violatfon.

Federalism

Another lesson from our period of great prosperity is the practice of true federalism.

Recently, while I was in England, an English member of parliament was quoted as suggesting that maybe it was time for the English people to reconsider and possibly adopt the presidential system of Government.

I found it ironic because it meant that the problem was not unique to us. Some of our people have urged that we return to the parliamentary system.

I must say that historically, political and culturally, no form of Government can better suit us than a federal system.

This is because Nigeria is not homogenous in many forms. Unlike in England where they speak one language, largely practice the same religion, we have many nations and mini nations in the structure of Nigeria, whose languages are as diverse as their religious beliefs, ethnicity, diet and customs.

The common factor, if any, in the Nigerian federation is the diversity, and in my humble view, only that Federal arrangement is the best suited vehicle to allow as much strength as is possible to be harnessed from our diversity.

A true federal arrangement as we had with the regions, recognises that the region (states) or federating units are equal, and that by their distinct national, ethnic and cultural differences, they have their own powers and are not subservient to any other Government, not even the Federal Government.

A true Federal Government recognizes that it is the States that give birth to the Federal Government which exists for their benefits and not vice versa.

Such a federation recognises that the Federal Government has powers which the States agree to cede to her for common convenience.

These powers are in areas of common conveniences like defense, so a joint army, currency, so a common currency and central bank; nationality, so the question of nationality and citizenship.

Education, healthcare and some specialized areas like aviation are ceded for common policy formulation, but certainly not for the purpose of running or operating health centres in Local Governments or building and collecting taxes at airports and sea ports as we have done within our federation.

Any power not expressly ceded by the States belongs to the States and is always within their residual right to use as they deem fit.

In that period of great prosperity, this was what happened. The resources of the regions were generated and kept by them, with token contribution made to the centre, to fund the responsibilities ceded to her by the States.

The Federal Government of that time did not licence or operate hotels under the guise of developing tourism; it did not issue lottery or casino license or issue National Drivers' Licence or take 52% of the national revenues for herself.

These practices are anachronistic in a federation. They undermine the federation because they limit the benefit of diversity and competition that it breeds. They overlook the fact that competition is the driver for production, as distinct from dependence.

They encroach the revenues of the States or federating units and make them dependent on a mono revenue source that imperils the capacity of the States to deliver the services they owe their people in the wide area of responsibilities that they have.

These responsibilities include the maintenance of law and order, provision of potable water, healthcare, education, protection of the environment and creation of wealth; which have been the minimum development goals and objectives of states from time immemorial, but which have now become for us millennium development goals that are seemingly going out of our reach.

A true federation must recognise that the federating units, the States, are the ordinary Government of the People. They are the first contact of Government these people have.

They must always keep revenues and be empowered to generate more at their own pace and on their relative strengths to address the daily problems rather than depending on gratuitous release of excess crude funds or ecological funds from a Government that is too far from the people as a matter of reality of its nature and not by its desire to be far from them.

That is why the States have indigenes and the Federal Government does not have. What we have by identity is a national identity by way of our citizenship of a Federal Republic by the merger of the various indigenes of the 36 (thirty-six) States and the Federal Capital Territory.

Indeed, the trusteeship nature of the Federal Government explains why ministers are picked from almost all, if not all federating components to demonstrate that it holds the powers it exercises at the pleasure of and for the benefit of the federating units.

Therefore, in my view, a critical lesson from Nigeria's best practices of the past is the enthronement of true federalism that enables the States to compete and drive the national economy.

If the truth must be told there are current examples of what the States can do if we look at what is happening in Nigeria today.

While it is not debatable that Nigerians still expect more from the Federal Government, the activities of my colleagues in the various States from Akwa Ibom, to Niger, Kana, Imo, Anambra, Enugu, Zamfara and if I may say Lagos, have helped to keep hope alive and the national economy going.

Leadership

Leadership of a visionary nature, characterized by courage, high intellect, a willingness to dare and to compete were hallmarks of that period of prosperity.

At a time when most of Europe had no television service, the Western Region had developed her own, set up a University, built the tallest building in West Africa and this spurred the other regions to compete and thus herald the births of Ahmadu Bello University, University of Nigeria, Nssuka and so many other developments in a period of healthy rivalry and rare display of intellect to challenge European economic policies and ideas, and develop home grown solutions.

This was around the time that a man who was not a known scientist, John F. Kennedy, as President of the United States, promised his country that he would land a man on the moon and achieved it by sheer force of vision and commitment.

To those who think this is not important, I say that yes, Awolowo built Cocoa House, the tallest building and WNTV /WNDS with the help of Europeans about 50 years ago.

The question is how many television stations have we since set up or how many high rise buildings have we built without European or foreign input since then.

The clearest television signals today in Nigeria are those on satellite run by a South African concern.

We have not been able to extract our own oil and have been content to act as middle men, collecting levies for oil blocks and' selling them or entering into Joint Ventures with people like us, who have blood also flowing through their veins, who studied the same mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology and science that we learnt.

What makes them better than us? Absolutely nothing.

We have simply been easily content. We have not been motivated to dare. We have been satisfied to manage.

We have run the same education curriculum for over 50 (fifty) years and our universities continue to produce graduates in areas of discipline that our economy does not demand for and we complain about growing unemployment, without changing our university curriculum to train people to respond to oL1T' areas of need like power generation, oil exploration, renewable energy sources and so much more.

While other economies are looking for alternatives to hydro carbon fuel with the ultimate goal of reducing their demand for oil, we are lamenting the falling prices of a commodity that is faced by a greater risk of not being in any useful demand in the next decade or shortly thereafter.

With several thousands of our people daily afflicted with malaria, we have saddled ourselves with how to get donations of malaria treated nets that are manufactured from external economies and keep their people in employment in those factories instead of looking at how malaria was eradicated in those economies and in places like Panama Canal with a view to implementing similar policies at home.

Instead of harnessing the wealth of human and mineral deposits that abound here, we have waited for donor agencies to give us grants to build bore holes or install hand-held pumps to supply something as basic as potable water to our people.

The truth is that most of the Western, Eastern and Northern regions of Nigeria had potable water in that period of great prosperity, in many of the towns and cities that we today struggle to supply water to.

How did they do it? I think we must remind ourselves that the very best of this country were brought to the public service at that time. The greatest resources of the country, human and material, were entrusted to the first eleven. Sadly today, it is second or probably third eleven that ends up in the public sector, while the first eleven are content to treat public service like a plague to be avoided and settle for the banks and oil companies who are the giants of the private sector.

The lesson of the past that we must get back is that our very best must lead us, by serving in the public sector.

I think what we need is appropriately summed up by Joshua Cooper Ramo, in his book "The Age of the Unthinkable" from pages 251-252 where he said:-

"Our age demands different things from the men and women who are called to high office - and not least is different context in which they can work, experiment, and take risks. Cavalier risk taking would be a disaster in government, just as it usually is in real life. But smart risk¬-takers, operating in systems that permit and support risk, are among the most potent forces in the world.

I don't propose here an instant, knee-jerk, or massive overhaul of our government bureaucracy. Such an approach would create more problems than solutions. But steady, intense, relentless innovation is essential; newness of ideas and institutions should be a measure we use to see how successful we have been …"

Before I leave the question of leadership, I wish to take this opportunity to stress the fact that there must be a better understanding of the relationship between the private and public sector.

The public sector, that sector that comprises all the institutions and apparatus of State authority must recognize that it owes its existence to the private sector, which comprises corporations and individuals, rich and poor alike, and that it exists only to solve their problems.

This fact must never be lost sight of, if the public sector must realise the underlying purpose for its existence.

I therefore urge that if it is not already being done, an institution such as this must develop opportunities and programmes that allow policy formulators and decision makers in the private sector to receive the same training in this institution so that they can speak the same language.

This is because, whereas, the private sector is the engine of growth, policies and programmes of the public sector are the fuel that drives those engines.

That is why in Lagos we have formed a useful partnership with the private sector in almost all spheres of our responsibility from transportation to security, healthcare delivery, education, environment, agriculture, housing, tax collection, waste management and more.

If you see any success in Lagos, these partnerships, civic engagement, the legitimacy of the Government that enables us to tax people and respond to their quest for representation have been the building blocks of that success.

Simply put, we have gone back to the basics, using the best practice of the limited federal arrangement that we have, while agitating for more federalism fiscally and politically and using the instrumentality of law and order as the surest safeguards for protecting our democracy.

By way of summary therefore, the useful lessons from Nigeria's best practices as essential ingredients of good governance require that we have a credible political process especially with conduct of elections in which the votes of the people count as a basis for empowering government with the critical tool of legitimacy that it requires to discharge its responsibilities.

It requires that the diversity of this nation be harnessed under a truly fiscal and political federal arrangement that encourages competition to promote productivity and growth.

It requires that the ideas of rotation and those practices which limit the emergence of our best human assets must be dispensed with; in order for visionary, compassionate and courageous leaders to emerge.

It requires an optimal utilization of the combined resources of the public and private sector for efficient service delivery by evolving and promoting a mutually beneficial partnership.

I will conclude by offering my apologies to those who may feel disappointed that I have not said anything new here today. The truth is that there is nothing new to say. Governance is not rocket science.

Good governance has existed here before and it can be re-enacted in greater measure if we go back to the basics.

Thank you for listening.

Babatunde Rajl Fashola, SAN
Governor of Lagos State