A Review by Isaac N. Obasi

Analyzing Nigeria’s federal system from a rich comparative experience and perspective, Prof. Adamolekun has had the advantage of using sharp and clear lens to mirror its governance and development trajectory and problems. He is one scholar whose prophetic academic voice should no longer be ignored especially in his recent book titled: Reflections on Governance and Development in Nigeria (which for economy of space will be referred to as RGDN). The book is an embodiment of ideas conceived under a carefully crafted title that underscores the positive impact of good governance on development performance.

Essentially, RGDN is a book of two major parts. Part A discusses issues such as (i) political fundamentals of development; (ii) a framework for understanding governance reforms and development performance; (iii) a transformation agenda for accelerating national development; (iv) civil service and good development performance; (v) legislators and good governance: two challenges – accountability and corruption; (vi) the challenge of achieving good governance: some lessons from Awo; and lastly (vii) Nigeria’s overcentralized federal system and poor development performance. RGDN defines good development performance as ‘a country’s progress in growing its economy, reducing poverty, and moving towards prosperity for all its citizens’). Since Nigeria is far from achieving this given its human and natural endowments, a reflection on these thematic issues in Part A, is very germane to moving Nigeria towards a trajectory of good development performance.

Part B focuses on other important issues such as: (i) the Courts and politics, which is described as a poisonous relationship; (ii) what home grown democracy for Nigeria? – a question which is seen as nonsensical; (iii) governance and development – an overview; (iv) Nigeria’s future: Devolve or Die; (v) governance performance score of civil rule; and lastly (vi) path to achieving improved governance and development performance. It is worthy to note that Devolve or Die has long been a credo for Prof. Adamolekun, and this needs rehearsing from time to time. An overview of recurring specific themes addressed by RGDN are electoral legitimacy, rule of law, civil liberties (including human rights), accountability and transparency (including anti-corruption), administrative competence, development-oriented leadership, and a devolved federation. The RGDN called five of these themes (excluding the last two) the political fundamentals of development. No one familiar with Nigeria’s governance problem since the inception of civilian rule in 1999, will disagree with the author for giving electoral legitimacy a primacy of place in RGDN. As the author persuasively argues, a polity that seeks judicial answers to political questions runs the risk of undermining its judiciary while simultaneously perpetuating the underdevelopment of its political process. In other words, the weaknesses related to electoral legitimacy and the rule of law are intertwined.

Nigeria is in serious need of governance reforms, the purpose of which is to assure progress towards a well-performing state that is capable of achieving good development performance. Fortunately, RGDN provides a framework for understanding and carrying out governance reforms. There are four elements in its recommended framework. The first is state legitimacy which encompasses constitutional order, law-based state, rule of law, electoral legitimacy, political stability, and multi-layered governance (centralization/decentralization). Many of these are still in short supply in Nigeria. The second is vision and strategic directions which refer to vision statement and strategy or plan to achieve the vision. This element can be achieved if there is citizens’ buy-in, consistency in the implementation of development plan, and enhanced citizen participation.

The third is implementation capacity which depends on public sector management and institutions. This element contains a full bag of imperatives such as merit recruitment and promotion, professionalism in human resources management and development, and quality of service delivery. Others are the World Bank’s Country Policy and Institutional Assessment criteria which include rule-based governance, quality of budgetary and financial management, efficiency of revenue mobilization, efficiency of public expenditures, and transparency, accountability and low level of corruption. The fourth element is development outcomes whose proxies include human development index (HDI) in the area of improved education, health (life expectancy) and decent living standard. The metrics of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are also proxies. We can equally include MDGs successor programme – Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Applying some of these four elements to compare Nigeria with other nations, RGDN found out that Nigeria’s level of development performance is disappointing. For example, using two country illustrations namely Botswana and Nigeria, it found out that for Botswana: (a) state legitimacy is strong, (b) planning culture has been maintained in its vision and strategic directions, (c) implementation capacity is above average, and (d) its development performance is good, as Botswana recorded one of the highest growth rates in the 1990s, and with per capita income probably one of the highest in sub-Saharan Africa. For Nigeria however: (a) state legitimacy is weak, (b) there is lack of consistency with the visions and strategic directions (development plans) that have been adopted, (c) implementation capacity is weak, and (d) overall development performance ranged from poor to average. This verdict demonstrates that satisfactory rating of political fundamentals enhances development performance and that the obverse is equally the case. And it follows therefore that since the rating of Nigeria’s political fundamentals of development is poor, ipso facto, its development performance is also poor. The evidence is not far-fetched. For example, according to RGDN ‘in the ranking of thirty-five selected sub-Saharan African countries in respect of political fundamentals and development performance, Nigeria is only a fair performer, behind the very good and good performers…just higher than the poor performers…notably Eritrea and Somalia.’ This is too bad to say the least.

In concluding this review, one may ask: what next going forward? The answer to this question is clearly deductible from what has been said so far. First, if there is a clear linkage between poor political fundamentals and development performance, and also a linkage between overcentralized federation and poor development performance, then there is a dire need for governance reforms. Where do these governance reforms start in terms of sequencing? RGDN has a captivating suggestion. According to it: to turn around the prevailing combination of poor governance performance and poor development performance in Nigeria, governance reform should begin with the adoption and implementation of a devolved federation. For emphasis, only a devolved Nigerian federation can become a well-performing state that is capable of achieving good development performance. Consequently, RGDN draws serious attention to the role of development-oriented leadership in creating and nurturing public institutions for promoting development.

Isaac N. Obasi is a professor of public administration at the University of Abuja, and currently on Sabbatical at the Aig-Imoukhuede Foundation (Lagos and Abuja) as a public sector reform Research Consultant. Email: [email protected]