By Kassim Afegbua
I had a rare opportunity to interview the highly celebrated political scientist and author, the Chicago-born Professor Francis Fukuyama on Tuesday, September 27, 2011 during his visit to Nigeria as a guest lecturer at a conference organized by Muregi Associates.

It was an encounter that gave me the opportunity to ask a few thought-provoking questions about present realities in the Arab world and his perspectives on world political economy especially as they affect Africa and developing nations. Francis Fukuyama raised my adrenalin with such precipitate verdict that the world should expect another round of global recession and economic downturn in a matter of time judging from the global realities across Europe, Asia, America and of course, China.

Asked what would be the place of Africa in the fullness of such a global meltdown, Fukuyama’s response further compounded my worry when he declared that “another global recession would be more damaging to African countries than what was previously experienced partly because the institutions are not working”.

According to him, development is a complex activity that requires detailed and concerted effort to carry through institutional reforms to drive any economy. Good governance, coalition building and mobilizing great political forces, he posits, are some of the essential ingredients to make development happen.

What he finds rather interesting in Nigeria which offers some thoughts for food, is the capacity for self-criticism, saying most nations develop when they exploit the option for self-appraisal and criticism.

A day after Fukuyama delivered his pungent thoughts about Nigeria, President Goodluck Jonathan also rehashsed what has already become a national anthem by reportedly declaring that our system has collapsed due to so many factors that we all are familiar with. Stating that he would not change his style, President Jonathan went further to declare that he would not break people’s heads because of corruption, but that he would strengthen the institutions to make them more functional.

Public service

Aware that late coming is a virus amongst senior staff in the public service, he asked rhetorically; “how many Directors come to work by 8am? I am not sure 10% of Directors come to work by 8, not exactly. I am not going to chase them by carrying a big stick into the ministries and breaking the heads of people”.

At an earlier event on Sunday, September 25, the President had said; “some Nigerians still want the President of this country to be a Lion or Tiger, somebody that has that kind of strength and force and agility to make things happen the way they think. Some others will want the President to operate like an Army General, like my Chief of Army Staff commanding his troops.

“Incidentally, I am not a Lion; I am not also a General”. Somebody will want the President to operate like the kings of Syria, Babylon, Egypt, the Pharaoh, all powerful people that you read about in the Bible. I am not one of those… .” What he did not state, however, is the fact that the Biblical history of Jonathan is not entirely a pleasant one.

To me, President Jonathan’s

declaration as partly reflected above seems more of a long essay abstract that is written by a struggling student who wants to please his Lecturer by simply stating the obvious. He has not added any meaning to the forlorn discourse neither has he offered new perspectives that would make his hypothesis researchable.

New paradigms in developmental studies would rather combine the attributes of a lion, tiger and a General in the Army to make things happen. If the object of his transformational leadership is that of strengthening institutions and provoking new ways of doing things, then he must get his compass right with the agility of a lion, in the attitude he brings into this discourse.

President Jonathan has to be a Lion, a Tiger and a General to deliver on his promises. The Lion is noted for strength, strategy and agility; the Tiger is noted for tact, speed and diplomacy in the animal kingdom in the way it preys on other animals, while a General in the Army is noted for discipline and conquest, aside other attractive attributes. He needs to break new grounds to contend with the daunting challenges facing us just like a General would do under a critical situation. He must be up and doing with enormous and unquantifiable strength like a Lion in the forest, with resounding strategy. He must dominate his environment with ideas, suggestions and practical approaches that would yield new routes as he tries to navigate himself out of the shameless security situation we find ourselves.

He must not allow Boko Haram to dominate us. He should deploy tigerish energy, speed and strength to contain all the flashpoints that are replete in the system. Is he aware of the Asia’s Tiger economy?

They remain the fastest growing economy in the world. Who says Nigerians would not be happy if he behaves like a lion or tiger and fix our roads, our healthcare, education and power?

Now, talking about building institutions, President Jonathan boastfully told his audience that it was because he strengthened INEC that was why the electoral body was able to deliver credible elections to Nigeria. How did he strengthen INEC? How many years did it take him to do so?

What manner of strengthening are we talking about here? A president that cannot possibly “break the heads” of perpetual late-comers in government Ministries and agencies cannot be talking about building institutions. Late coming to work and absenteeism are viruses that have brought crass indiscipline into the mainstream of public service in Nigeria.

If the thematic focus of his transformative agenda, such mish-mash coinage; is predicated on condoning crass indiscipline, absenteeism, don’t-break-the-egg mentality, then we have actually not started. Are we going to continue to tolerate those who shy away from work, those who circumvent the system, or we are going to throw up new dynamics that would fit into the new thinking of government? Are we going to sustain directors that are known to be habitual late-comers as gatekeepers of our transformative highways? The new thinking should rather be; how do we generate new ideas, to reform the system that we know to be castrated? How do we begin the process of capacity building and special skills acquisition needed to run the institutions that we so proudly talk about? What manner of reforms are we talking about here; procedural, organizational or structural? Who is going to reform the private sector that is known to be the biggest beneficiary of government patronage system? What are the yardsticks to measure the equitability of these thought-processes? Who gets what and where?

What is government’s position on the issue of true fiscal federalism in the spirit of transformational leadership orientation? Are we going to continue with this skewed federalist status with all the manifest incongruities and inconsistencies coupled with gloopy contradictions and say we truly are a federation? One of the strong attributes of a working system in the American narrative is the absence of a centralized power in terms of political power administration and developments.

Decentralized government

From decentralized political parties to decentralized government and political power, the American narrative is one that has sustained a functional system that is predicated on discipline, trust, public spiritedness, respect for rules, respect for time, patriotism, strength of character of the leaders, love for country and several other attributes that combine to make the American history a successful one.

Back home and in President Jonathan’s transformative agenda, there must be compelling need for people to change from their old ways, which is why government must carry out a lot of mass mobilization campaigns to get the public sensitized in this new direction. Transformation may be an idea that was conscripted for President Jonathan, but he alone cannot make it happen.

Nigerians must buy into it but not in the manner of the President’s uninspiring, gazundering comments and sleepy presentations.

Without being innocuous, by now, we ought to have been feeling the air of freshness that the President promised Nigerians.

What we hear and get as new paradigms and sound bites of this engagement are ASUU strike, minimum wage strike, oil subsidy strike, protests, and other forms of agitations that remind us of our old ways. In the event that the world drives itself into another cesspool of economic downturn as predicted by Professor Fukuyama, say in the next two years, what will happen to Nigeria economy?

Have we imbibed the right attitude to work, the patriotic fervour to contend with emergency situation, the right character to absorb all the manifest parallels, and the appropriate mentality to invent new escape routes in response to such occurrence? Let’s wait and see.