Showing posts with label Dividends of Democracy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Dividends of Democracy. Show all posts

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Your Cabinet Will Make or Mar You, Oh Leader!

Never mind what percentage of the votes we gave you, if you take things for granted and load your cabinet and corridors with political jobbers and IOU-robed appointees, there'll  be enough robbers and jesters to last your unraveled tenure. No-one old enough to seek and win election in this land is ignorant of this scourge!

Show me your ministers and commissioners and top technocrats and lead bureaucrats and I will craft you your inevitable tapestry - for good or for ill.

Why, you must be grateful to all who helped. But your best and most gratitude is in stellar performance. Only the fit and tight can help you deliver that. May God guide you aright.

Now the key appeal: Dear Nigerians, please leave our elected leaders and their appointees alone. Let them serve you their relation or friend or associate equally as they serve us all, the nation. Ruin not your own.

Saturday, November 27, 2010

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.