Performing GOVERNORS

In this comedy of errors called governance here, how can a performing public official not shine, and not be noticed? Yes, they do. One low-hanging-fruit area is in road infrastructure, followed by healthcare, then schools, and finally housing. Serious governors show their mark within 12 MONTHS!

So, let's think aloud. And we stay with first-term governors, ranging from 2-3 years in office. Unlike in the not-too-distant past, we are witnessing some real performers, with concrete projects. We are also seeing some real cost-cutters! These are governors who are doing "more with less". The president has publicly praised the 7-year governor of Gombe State, Danjuma Goje, for both the quantity, quality and cost of developmental projects, especially critical infrastructure. We can't say same of some of the other out-going governors across the nation.

With constant and - this time! - credible media coverage, governors are showing off their performance to the world. If your governor has not bought media space to do same, worry. If he does so with doctored footage, double worry. If he proceeds to bore us with more words (of cronies and hirelings) than actual projects, triple worry!

Real performers will show you clips of the past and video coverage of the present. They will bring you the voices of the real people who will vouch for the concrete change that has happened. Take two states the president has visited, for example - Rivers and Akwa Ibom. They stunned us all, didn't they? Take Anambra State, for instance, where the February Election gave us the chance to evaluate: Governor Peter Obi of APGA wowed us all, didn't he? And Anambrarians stayed solidly with him. We've also seen some heart-warming videos from Adamawa, Benue, Enugu, Jigawa, Plateau and Zamfara States recently - though their political opponents are disputing and casting doubts. Let evidence emerge, and EFCC assert!

Now, in two very clear cases, morning is showing the day. While some prominent politicians are scrambling for rehabilitation cum accommodation by defecting or redefecting to the PDP, local leaders and elected officials are trooping to the opposition parties (AC in Edo; Labour in Ondo), because of their visibly performing governors! Of course, the same feat is happening in Anambra. What does this portend for 2011? Simple: Power is with the PEOPLE! Perform, and you have them! The "Adams they can't damn" Oshiomhole, and Olusegun "the Iroko they can't fell" Mimiko, are performing wonders; and the PEOPLE love that!!

As for Lagos, please, wait. Just wait.

Constitution Review: Save AYE's, Re-present NAY's

The whole nation was involved but voted through their official reps. The returns are not necessarily what the people said or want. This was why many analysts had canvassed for a sovereign national conference, at best, or a referendum, at worst. It is for example not likely that Nigerians will approve immoral carpet-crossing or deny their state parliaments the autonomy that is inherent in a democracy. Nigerians want independent candidacy; where did those state assemblies which voted against it get their mandate from? So, dear compatriots, this be unfinished business.

As we see from other climes, the unpassed amendments are not necessarily dead. Since it is a state by state process, let's save all the AYEs and counting. We proceed to challenge or lobby the nay-sayers and win them over. This is what has been done in the EU's constitutional processes. In our case, we are on solid grounds: once a majority of 60% passes any amendment, it qualifies for the "bank", while we work hard to bring others on board. Any amendment earning below 60% dies. There is no time limit - only vote-accretion. However, after THREE attempts a nay-saying state stays NAY for that cycle.

Our grounds for this position are solid: All constitutional review reports have some common denominators. The standard-bearer is the Uwais Committee Report. If the legislators for selfish or partisan reasons vote down an amendment, they must not be allowed to get away with it. The voters must have the last say. We should get them to change their NAY or we recall them instantly or vote them out of office eventually. This is a task for pro-democracy groups and civil society leaders in all states of the federation.

Roads and Refunds

President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan has brought some sanity to the vexed issue of Roads & Refunds, whereby states may work on federal projects and be reimbursed according to agreed templates. Before now, even by the president's admission, the matter was politicized. Some states got refunds, some rebuffs.

Though we shall not be detained here by the unwholesome politics of our queer federalism, it is salutary to see a president come to its rescue in this regard. If the question of roads is a national malady, devolution to states and the private sector is the most promising interim remedy, while the final solution is the practice of TRUE federalism.

If Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola of Lagos State had left it up to the federal bureaucrats, would we have the 10-lane wonder of the Lagos-Badagry Multi-modal Expressway being built right now? In fact, the vote-worry PDP tried every trick in their bag to frustrate, if not terminate, the world class project! My family lived on that road when Mobolaji Johnson was building it in the early 1970's. Though it has since become a crucial part of the Trans-African Highway, it has suffered the most despicable neglect from the federals - in league with its ilk across the land: Lagos-Ibadan, Lagos-Benin, Onitsha Bridge
and Lokoja-Abuja, to name a few. But for Yar'Adua's personable presidential propriety, the storm troopers were threatening hellfire, invoking federal powers and flaunting central controls - a throwback to the same debilitating desperation which killed the futuristic "metro train" project of the Jakande Administration.

Looking back now, we must wonder how the dramatis personae in both sagas feel today. See the avoidable costs and chaos they caused Lagos and Nigeria! In the recent past, the cabal saw Lagos and Kano States as prized targets for PDP's political "conquest & capture" come 2011. They forgot history: Lagos, Kano and The Old Bendel (now Edo/Delta) live and prosper as progressives. So is most of the Northeast, and all of the Southwest. Clearly, to eye any state for fair electoral victory is a
legitimate political aspiration. But to sabotage Nigeria's main commercial and population centres thus undermining national security, is political hara-kiri. It was why Governors Tinubu and Shekarau made mincemeat of OBJ and PDP despite his imperial presidency!

But be not carried away. If you thought the roads & bridges matter is mainly an inter-party saga, you are dead wrong! Few examples will do: Abuja-Lokoja, Abuja-Kaduna, and Abuja-Keffi-Lafia-Makurdi to the East, Abuja-Jos, and all PDP-controlled! The rot is simply "inter-tier" of governance (federal vs states), period. We must rework our pathetic practice of federalism by reducing BOTH the load and resources at the centre. Let's evolve a credible scheme that breeds patriotism, nationalism, real accountability and unblemished integrity. The federal "centre" is overloaded, over-resourced and over-rated! Politically, it is too attractive for all the wrong reasons, and it is failing us all - expectedly.

Set up a powerful, efficient and effective "Roads & Bridges" Commission, just like NCC, NBC, NAFDAC, and let states, communities and the private sector build for their people and the nation. Do same with education, health, agriculture, water and housing. If we need a mega or special project as national intervention, it should be handled by the National Economic Council cum National Council of State cum National Assembly with the usual concurrence of State Assemblies, and funded
from the Federation Account.

FERMA, the present roads' maintenance agency, should be split and inaugurated into SIX Zonal Construction Companies. We should get them six world class technical partners from different countries with up to 30% equity. We should equip them and staff them with redeployments from the works and housing MDAs so they can compete for business in their zones (in the first 5 years), nationwide (5-10 years) and Africa-wide (after 10 years). They will be owned by a Zonal Trust as joint ventures
FG/States/Workers/Tech Partners, and will be full service construction firms. In the fullness of time, just like the NNPC and NRC, they will be privatized.

This architecture will enable us leave urban works to first-rate contractors while deploying/dedicating the various State Direct Labour Agencies (DLAs) to rural infrastructure/housing.

Thank goodness, President Jonathan has shown the way. Now, he must show the will: The next stage of the constitution amendment must redress this aberration. Who is afraid of true federalism?