By Donu Kogbara
I AM in the fortunate position of being able to explore the world at intervals, either at my own expense or courtesy of various media organisations and government bodies. And I’m in Singapore at the moment with a Greater Port Harcourt City Development Authority, GPHCDA, delegation.

GPHCDA is headed by Dame Aleruchi Cookey-Gam and was set up by my Governor, Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi, with a view to establishing a new city in Rivers State. And my fellow travellers and I were sent to this small South-East Asian country to attend a conference about urban development issues.

This trip has been fascinating and refreshing. It has provided me with interesting educational experiences and a pleasant break from my normal humdrum daily routine. But it has also been pretty depressing overall.

Why?  Because while Singapore, a collection of islands at the tip of the Malay Peninsula, is very similar to my home state on certain fundamental levels – it has a coastline and a population of roughly five million – the two locations are so dissimilar, ultimately, that they might as well be on different planets.

While Singapore is thriving economically and socially despite having no natural resources, Rivers State is dirt poor in real terms despite being a major oil/gas producer. And while Singapore is a sparkling, clean, modern oasis of civilization and innovation, Rivers State is a dingy, unsophisticated backwater that desperately needs to be hauled into the 21st century.

There are no slums AT ALL in Singapore – which is full of beautifully designed and lovingly maintained buildings. And the Singapore skyline is absolutely awesome and the roads are pure perfection and most Singaporeans are so proud of their impressive native turf. And I wish that I and other Rivers indigenes could have even one-tenth of the perks that these lucky Singaporeans have. But we’re stuck, for now at least, with potholes and ugliness and filth and primitivity.

Amaechi is trying to tackle this deep-seated decay that makes discerning folks with high standards regard Rivers State as a grim destination. But longstanding problems that predated Amaechi’s administration cannot be eliminated overnight. So I guess I need to patiently wait for his efforts to take root. However, my laments are not just about Rivers State. I am also worried about Nigeria as a whole.

I think that most Nigerian leaders deserve to be banished to the hottest part of hell…and that even those who are sincerely committed to progress are not making progress quickly enough…and should push themselves much harder and take a leaf out of Lee Kwan Yew’s book. Lee Kwan Yew, a visionary statesman and governance genius, ran Singapore for over 30 years and transformed it, within one generation, from a mediocre little former British colonial outpost to an enviable force to be reckoned with.

When a man has been so staggeringly good at his job that he becomes widely recognized as a miracle worker and icon, his methods, mindset and lifestyle should be studied and emulated by those who seek to be equally effective. Lee Kwan Yew did not tolerate corruption or operate in an indisciplined or self-centred manner. When he was selecting teams to help him formulate and implement policies, he ensured that square pegs were slotted into round holes.

Because he valued excellence and productivity above all else, he made personnel choices that were based on merit and the common good rather than on crude cronyism and morally questionable political calculations. And he wasn’t a chronic philanderer who only promoted women who slept with him. And he didn’t have complex. He was not afraid of being outshone by brilliant subordinates. He did not resent folks whose backgrounds were more privileged than his own.

Lee Kwan Yew was a highly rational and highly focused altruist who had his peoples’ best interests at heart; and when he asked them to make sacrifices, he gave them no reason to accuse him of hypocrisy. OK, so Lee Kwan Yew is of Chinese extraction and our leaders are Africans. And there are massive cultural differences.

But isn’t it time for Africans to stop making feeble excuses that are based on the ridiculous assumption that it’s fine for black folks to either conduct themselves chaotically and fail woefully or only lazily achieve a fraction of what they could have achieved?!