MOST Nigerians will agree that the invitation extended to Nigeria by Canada to attend the G20 World Economic Summit coming up in that country later this month is good news. In April 2009 when the event took place in London and the country was not on the list of invitees, late President Umaru Musa Yar’ Adua openly lamented over it.

There was a special symbolism involved. Going by Yar’ Adua’s aspirations, Nigeria had announced to the world that it was hoping to belong to the twenty most economically powerful nations of the world by the year 2020, in line with Goldman Sachs and other international rating agencies’ prognostication of Nigeria’s potentials. Being kept away from this meeting was like being told we should not even bother to aspire, or that the group we were aspiring to belong did not think much of our efforts.

Barely a year later an invitation letter has been sent to Nigeria to attend. The question that would arise in the mind of any discerning observer is: what has changed? And the answer is simple. It has nothing to do with the organisers not liking the face of our late president.

It is just that perceptions over the ways our government is going about its business are gradually changing for the better. And it has to be borne in mind that by this invitation, Nigeria is not yet a member of the G20. Rather, just like South Africa was invited in 2009 even though she was not a member, Nigeria will be going to Ottawa to participate in sideline events usually packaged to encourage promising economies with perceived positive tendencies towards democracy and good governance to keep it up.

The Yar’ Adua regime shot itself in the foot when it engaged in excessive reversal of policies put in place by the Olusegun Obasanjo administration. Even though its record in obedience of court verdicts had substantially improved on the sour legacies left behind by Obasanjo, it seemed roguishly overbold in its moves to tear down the anti-corruption structures which were built up under Malam Nuhu Ribadu, the former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). Nigeria’s deterioration in the corruption perception index of Transparency International in 2009 followed immediately.

Nigeria was also seen not to be keen in its promise to clean up its electoral processes in spite of the late president’s admission that the election that brought him to office was seriously flawed. With the death of President Yar’ Adua and the assumption of power by the Dr Goodluck Jonathan, clear-cut pronouncements and moves have been made to change the picture of things on these two fronts.

Jonathan has made a singsong out of promising to give Nigeria a free and fair election in 2010, and as a step in that direction the controversial Chairman of the National Electoral Commission (INEC) Professor Maurice Iwu, was sent packing with one month to the end of his tenure. Malam Ribadu has been pardoned and rehabilitated, while many cases of graft which were put away in the deep freezer by the Yar’Adua administration have been dusted up.

The first sign that the new Jonathan regime had found favour in Western circles was the invitation of the new president to Washington on Thursday April 15th 2010 by President Barack Obama, during which, among other things, the two countries signed their bi-national pact.

The Jonathan government should see these new opportunities being opened as signs of encouragement for him to proceed without hesitation to do what is right, especially in the war on corruption and the move to reform the electoral process. Already, there are signs that things are being allowed to drag unnecessarily on the issue of electoral reform.

The Chairman of INEC, Adeniji Shoyebi, recently appeared before a Senate Committee on the Review of the1999 Constitution, lamenting that we have left many things yet to be done with the elections of next year breathing down our necks.

The Save Nigeria Group (SNG) had also held a public procession criticising the slow pace of work in this venture. There are also snarls in the passage of the 2010 budget, more than five months into the financial year.

The Jonathan administration has to move fast while the honeymoon lasts to get things on the move.