Former President, Olusegun Obasanjo has the Nigerian brand of democracy that does not deliver dividends to the people.

Obasanjo made this known during a colloquium I’m commemoration of the 60th year of Aare Afe Babalola at the bar, held at ABUAD campus in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State.

According to him, democracy, and good governance must lead to the welfare and well-being of the people, particularly the common people.

In his words, “In the American constitution, every person is born equal not every citizen, and they enjoy the constitutional right. But with us, the constitution is breached.

“We have no democracy that delivers the dividends of democracy. And if your democracy does not deliver, anything goes.

“Most of the people who are supposed to manage the constitution are the ones who undermine the constitution. Your democracy must deliver the dividends of democracy.

“I believe that constitutionalism and democracy must be for the welfare and wellbeing of the people. Leadership at all levels requires certain things character, understanding knowledge, and sacrifice and if these are not there, we are deceiving ourselves.

“All these must lead to the welfare, prosperity, security of the people and if we cannot manage it doesn’t matter what we talk about the constitution, democracy.”

[Vanguard]

Last week, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) issued an alert warning of the high probability of 14 states experiencing heavy rainfall that might lead to flooding. This is not the first time NEMA and Nigerian Hydrological Services Agency (NHSA), through its Annual Flood Outlook (AFO), will issue such alerts but we keep losing lives and properties to flooding despite early warnings. Our approach and response to such signals have remained reactive.

The same last week, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) announced an outbreak of diphtheria in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). NCDC further informed us that there had been multiple disease outbreaks, including diphtheria, since December 2022, with 33 LGAs in eight states affected. Meanwhile, diphtheria is a vaccine-preventable disease but our leaders and institutions would prefer to be reactive.

The problem is not peculiar to NEMA, NHSA, NCDC, the affected states or the likely victims. There is a systemic challenge of our institutions and leaders preferring reactive instead of proactive responses to socio-economic challenges. This is from the highest level of government to the least of our public institutions. We are permanently reactive in our approach to governance, suffering devastating consequences before belatedly putting on our thinking caps.

Reactive governance refers to a mode of governance that primarily responds to immediate and pressing issues that arise without sufficient long-term planning or proactive measures. This anomaly is the predominant habit of governance in our country. We tend to sit and wait for foreseeable disasters to consume us before responding. Most of what we treat as emergencies do not qualify. They are avoidable incidents that should not catch any responsible government by surprise.

The source of our reactive approach is a tradition of governance. We emphasise ‘acting’ over and above ‘thinking’ through problems on a long-term basis. Issues like flood disaster prediction, epidemic prevention, speculative vaccine production, and power outage prevention are all ways of avoiding disasters that are sure to occur.

This reactive approach to socio-economic challenges falls within the “reactive state” concept. Two essential characteristics of the reactive state are: first, institutions fail to undertake initiatives to prevent the occurrence of an undesirable event though it has the power and incentive to do so; second, such institutions respond to pressure for change in an erratic and unsystematic manner.

In Nigeria, this reactive state approach naturally flows because it benefits operatives of the system, and our urgency index is high. Manifestations of this reactive state can be seen in our policy approaches to Boko Haram, banditry, kidnapping, oil theft in the Niger Delta and other security incidents.

Further instances demonstrate these cultural-cum-historical reactive approaches to national problems than a proactive and systematic long-term approach seen in the most developed worlds. Nigeria has faced various security challenges, including terrorism, insurgency, and communal clashes. In some instances, the government’s response has been primarily reactive, with the deployment of security forces after attacks have occurred rather than proactively addressing the root causes of these issues through intelligence gathering, preventive measures, and community engagement.

Nigeria’s infrastructure, including roads, power supply, and public transportation, has been a subject of concern for many years. Often, the government has taken a reactive approach to address these deficiencies by initiating projects and repairs in response to public outcry or when critical failures occur rather than proactively investing in infrastructure development and maintenance.

Nigeria’s economy has traditionally been heavily reliant on oil exports, making it susceptible to fluctuations in global oil prices. Reactive governance is evident in the government’s response to oil price shocks, which often involves scrambling to adjust the budget, implement austerity measures, or seek external loans to address revenue shortfalls instead of proactively diversifying the economy and reducing dependence on oil.

Besides, Nigeria faces challenges in its education sector, including inadequate infrastructure, outdated curricula, and low educational outcomes. The government’s approach has often been reactive, responding to issues as they arise rather than proactively investing in education reforms, teacher training, curriculum development, and infrastructure improvements to ensure quality education for all.

Corruption has been a persistent issue in Nigeria, affecting various sectors and hindering development. Reactive governance is evident in the government’s response to corruption scandals, which often involves investigations, prosecutions, and public outcry after the fact, rather than implementing proactive measures to prevent corruption, strengthen anti-corruption institutions, and promote transparency and accountability.

In the developed world, there is a great emphasis on thought in governance. This is why Washington is full of think tanks whose only business is to think through and develop long-term solutions to possible national problems. Government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) sometimes collaborate actively with universities and research institutes to work out long-term solutions in anticipation. In most of Europe and Asia, government departments have research departments staffed by some of the best brains trained to conduct anticipatory research and study different problems in relevant areas.

The best approach has proven to be leaders and institutions that adopt proactive decision-making. It is cheaper to be proactive than to be reactive. Being proactive saves lives. By its futuristic estimation, China knows that Africa is the future market; hence, it invests heavily in teaching Africans the Chinese language.

Being reactive often comes with disastrous consequences. One significant adverse result of reactive governance is the populace’s permanent uncertainty. People are unsure that what may come next will not consume them. A sense of collective vulnerability weakens people’s trust in government. People are left with a sense of self-help, of everyone to themselves. In cases of natural disaster, recourse to superstition becomes the only and last resort. People must choose between trust in government and belief in divine salvation. Prophesies of doom acquire legitimacy and find a ready market. When governance is not informed by rational and scientific projection, the future becomes a dark zone of uncertainty and the abode of the unknown. Fear and cynicism take hold of the hearts of citizens.

A major reason why we are so reactive is that we need to respect science and data. Data-driven policies enable policymakers to identify trends, anticipate problems, and develop targeted interventions before they escalate into crises. Nigeria must prioritise sustainable development practices that balance economic growth with environmental and social considerations. This includes promoting renewable energy, implementing sound environmental policies, and adopting responsible resource management practices. A proactive approach to sustainability can help mitigate environmental degradation, address climate change challenges, and promote social equity.

To move beyond reactive governance in Nigeria, adopting a proactive approach that focuses on long-term planning, anticipates challenges, and promotes sustainable development is essential. Some key areas that could contribute to this shift are detailed below.

The Nigerian government should emphasise the formulation and implementation of long-term strategic plans. This involves setting clear goals, identifying potential risks and opportunities, and developing strategies to address them. Strategic planning enables proactive decision-making and reduces the need for reactive measures.

It is crucial to strengthen the institutions responsible for governance in Nigeria, including the judiciary, legislature, and civil service. This involves enhancing their human and institutional capacity, improving transparency and accountability, and reducing political interference. Strong institutions are better equipped to anticipate and address issues before crises occur.

In addition, active citizen participation is vital for effective governance. Governments should promote transparency, engage citizens in decision-making processes, and establish mechanisms for feedback and accountability. This helps identify problems early on, encourages citizen ownership, and fosters a sense of responsibility among the populace.

Furthermore, proactive governance relies on accurate and timely information. Governments should invest in data collection, analysis, and utilisation to inform decision-making processes. Departments of research and planning cannot be a dumping ground or a place of punishment for public servants that have fallen out of favour. It should rather be the hub of policymaking and designing solutions to challenges. Let the best brains man this critical department. We should collaborate with our research institutions where there are obvious capacity gaps.

Our leaders and managers of institutions always want to profit from disasters. Even at the policy level, the equation often favours a reactive than a proactive approach. With newly elected officials at all levels, we need to switch from reactive to proactive ways of dealing with issues of national and global importance.

It is important to note that while these examples used above highlight instances of reactive governance, they do not encompass the entirety of governance in Nigeria. Nigeria has also witnessed proactive initiatives and policies in various areas. Still, there is room for further improvement in adopting a proactive approach to governance to address long-term challenges effectively.

Moving beyond reactive governance in Nigeria requires a shift in mindset, focusing on critical thinking over “doing”, long-term planning, and strengthening institutions and citizen engagement. By adopting a proactive approach, Nigeria can better anticipate and address challenges, promote sustainable development, and improve the well-being of its citizens.

This new administration is poised to do great things, and its starting point should be to prioritise the shift from the dominant leadership mentality of reactive governance to a proactive one. The administration must be intentional and proactive in solving Nigeria’s myriads of problems and rely on evidence and scientific approaches than the traditional path dependency that has characterised our governance in the past.

The lack of ability to solve major issues in Nigeria is not often because of a lack of resources but because of a lack of proactively planning and adopting creative and innovative solutions. Our leaders must adopt new approaches to doing things if they must succeed. Remember that you cannot do the same thing and expect a different result. Input determines output – garbage in, garbage out is the computer language. That is true about input and output in problem-solving.

The immediate past governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, has stated that Nigeria’s leadership should be based on merit and not on entitlement.

El-Rufai said this at the launch of the autobiography and retirement programme of Professor Ishaq Akintola of Lagos State University (LASU) on Sunday.

Akintola, who is also the founder of Muslim Rights Concerns (MURIC), retired from LASU having attained the statutory retirement age of 70, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.

El-Rufai, who was the keynote speaker and awardee at the ceremony, noted that the sound footing with which the administration of President Tinubu started has deflated the ranks of those against the same faith ticket.

He said: “The way with which the present administration at the centre is changing things for the common good of the Nigerian people within a short period shows that leadership should be hinged on merit and not entitlement basis.

“We must de-emphasise religion and ethnic colouration for us to build a society free of ethnic nationality, religion, or political-leaning discrimination.

“As members of the two major religious groups in the country, if we find ourselves in public positions, we should ensure we practice the basic principles of leadership as encapsulated in both religions.”

[DailyPost]

A Federal High Court, Abuja, on Monday, stopped the Independent National Electoral Commission from prosecuting the suspended Adamawa Resident Electoral Commissioner, Hudu Yunusa-Ari, over his declaration of Aisha Dahiru, the All Progressives Congress candidate, as governor in the March 18 poll.

Justice Donatus Okorowo made the order after Mr. Michael Aondoaka, SAN, counsel to Dahiru, moved the ex-parte motion to the effect.

In the ex-parte motion marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/935/2023, the APC candidate in the poll, sued INEC, the Attorney-General of the Federation, and another as respondents.

Aondoaka while moving the motion on Monday, argued that until the election petition tribunal decides the fate of his client in accordance with Section 149 of the Electoral Act, 2022, the prosecution of Yunusa-Ari cannot be said to be valid.

He said the decision of INEC to file an action against any person involved in Dahiru’s April 15 declaration as winner of the supplementary poll in the state when the tribunal was yet to determine the petition of his client, would deprive her of Section 285(6) of the law which gives 180 days within which the petition filed on May 6 should be dispensed with.

The senior lawyer, who informed the court that though a similar suit was earlier filed before Justice Inyang Ekwo where a judicial review of INEC’s action was sought, he said the sister court ordered Binani to approach a tribunal with her suit, having been an election-related matter.

He said an undertaking had been signed to prove to the court that the present suit was not frivolous.

He said in the undertaking, they were ready to face any cost should the court find the case to be frivolous.

After listening to Andoaka, Justice Okorowo ordered the parties to maintain the status quo ante bellum pending the hearing and determination of the matter.

The judge, who adjourned the matter until July 18 for a hearing, ordered the respondents to show cause while the reliefs sought by Dahiru, popularly called “Binani”, should not be granted,

NAN

The Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, Dr. Matthew Kukah, delivering a keynote speech at the 60th anniversary of Aare Afe Babalola on his call to bar in Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State, on Monday, decried that Nigeria is sharing its sovereignty which is guaranteed in the constitution with bandits and other terrorists. The Bishop berated failed leadership of the country for the insecurity crisis.
According to the Catholic Bishop, “nobody is excited now about being a Nigerian even if they are President or Senators, as the country is literally being held hostage by people who threaten the very existence of our democracy and country”.

Aare Afe Babalola SAN

Bishop Kukah stated that many Nigerians have lost faith in the judiciary, noting that, though, he considers the judiciary a victim the same way every other institutions in Nigeria are encountering crisis of autonomy.

Kukah cautioned: “Nigeria should not yet assume that it is a democracy but instead assume that it is matching towards democracy, which means rebuilding Nigeria “after the kind of mess the last administration has left the country.”

He advocated that it is time to rebuild the country, no matter what happens at the Supreme Court concerning the election. He expressed optimism that that Nigerians have put the “ugly past” behind them.

Kukah berated former President Muhammadu Buhari, saying that corruption was worse in the Buhari administration.

Bishop Kukah had declared: “We have seen the worst phase of corruption in Nigeria, Femi Falana, my friend here will speak about that because he has published a series of articles talking about what happened under the Buhari administration.

“They were not the ones who caused corruption but I think in the last administration, we saw the ugliest phase of corruption whether in moral terms, financial terms and other terms.”

Nine months after the multi-million Naira airfield lighting systems at the domestic runway 18 Runway/36Left of the Murtala Muhamed Airport were reinstalled, information reaching the Nigerian Tribune has indicated that the entire lighting system on the runway has been mysteriously carted away.

The criminals were said to have taken advantage of the closure of the runway for over three months to carry out the dangerous criminality at the number one gateway airport.

According to a source, the airfield lighting components were carted away by some workers at the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) in connivance with some outsiders who have access to the runway site.

“The criminal took advantage of the closure to commit the crime. I can not give the actual worth of the theft, but almost all the lighting was removed. The Permanent secretary came around to see for himself the huge damage done. A lot of FAAN officials have been suspended”, the source confirmed.

Following the scandal, some heads of relevant departments at the organisation have been suspended on the directives of the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Aviation, Dr Emmanuel Meribole, after inspecting the damaged site. At the same time, investigations have since commenced to unravel those responsible for stealing the safety equipment.

The theft of the components, which has elicited anger amongst key players both in FAAN and the sector in general, has once again been blamed on the porosity of the airport environment, where many undesirable elements can easily access the restricted areas of the airport.

The ability of the thieves to comfortably remove the huge components away from the restricted airside undetected has been attributed to sabotage by some workers in the Authority and aided by the thick forest surrounding the airport, which makes it easier for such undesirable elements to hide behind cover till convenient opportunity comes for them to achieve their aims.

According to the information gathered, the latest theft of safety equipment at the Lagos airport was not the first incident, as the airport has recorded similar security breaches.

Not long ago, a similar incident occurred when some workers from a sister agency of FAAN who were involved in the theft of some navigational equipment at the airside were caught and suspended.

According to a source who confirmed the latest incident to the Nigerian Tribune, the regular incursion and theft of safety components at the airports are being carried out by a syndicate consisting of some workers of the agencies who have access to the restricted areas and accomplices from outside.

Despite the regular patrol of security vehicles around the airside, the undesirable elements have formed the habit of hiding behind the thick forests once they sight an oncoming security vans.

For 15 years the Lagos airport domestic runway 18Left was shut down to  night operations due to the absence of airfield lightings which put the domestic airlines through financial stress as they were forced to make use of the runway 19 at the international airport which consumes more aviation fuel because of the longer distance.

The multi million airfield was finally reinstalling in November 2022.

[Tribune]

The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission has said it will delist any loan application harassing customers and ask Google to permanently delete such apps from its app store.

This was in response to the continued harassment and defamation being meted on Nigerians by these digital lenders. It was also the newest measure implemented by the Federal Government to protect Nigerians from the activities of these digital lenders.

Earlier in the year, the FCCPC mandated loan apps to register with it. So far, 180 apps had got full or conditional approval from the commission to operate in the country. Google also recently announced that loan apps would not be allowed on its app store without regulatory approval.

In April, Google announced that loan apps on Play Store would lose their ability to access users’ contacts or photos from May 31, 2023.

Despite this, loan apps had continued to harass customers.

The Chief Executive Officer of the FCCPC, Babatunde Irukera, said the commission was ready to permanently shut down the activities of these apps.

He told The PUNCH, “We have read the stories. But we have to investigate to make sure that the evidence truly exists.

“The consequence of this, they know it, is that if any of these defamatory messages or harassments goes out again, they will be delisted, and we will ask Google to take them down permanently. But we can’t take that kind of step without knowing for sure because what we’ve found is that the loan apps that are still doing those things are not on Google.”

He explained that many apps harassing customers had names like registered ones. He noted, “Most of the complaints we’ve received about these things show that the companies are not on our list/ Google. They are the ones who are using WhatsApp, APK, and other softer, below-the-radar channels to engage consumers.”

Irukera advised consumers to only take loans from approved loan apps since they were easier to find and sanction.

The All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate in the Adamawa governorship election, Aisha Dahiru, popularly called “Binani,” has, again, sued the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) over the nullification of her declaration as governor of Adamawa in the March 18 governorship election.

Binani, through her counsel, Michael Aondoaka, SAN, filed the fresh suit before Justice Donatus Okorowo of a Federal High Court, Abuja.

In the ex-parte motion marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/935/2023, the APC candidate in the poll, sued INEC, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, Gov. Ahmadu Fintiri as 1st, 2nd and 3rd respondents, respectively.

Binani, again, sought a judicial review of the decision by INEC to reverse her earlier announcement as winner of the poll by the state’s Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Hudu Yunusa-Ari.

Aondoaka while moving the motion on Monday, argued that it was the election petition tribunal that was vested with the power to decide the fate of his client in accordance with Section 149 of the Electoral Act, 2022.

He said the decision of INEC would deprive Binani of Section 285(6) which gives 180 days within which her petition filed before the tribunal on May 6 could be dispensed with.

The senior lawyer, who informed the court that though a similar suit was earlier filed before Justice Inyang Ekwo, said the sister-court ordered Binani to approach a tribunal her suit, having being an election-related matter.

He, therefore, sought a review of the INEC’s action.
He said an undertaking had been signed to prove to the court that the present suit was not frivolous.

He said in the undertaking, they were ready to face any cost should the court found the case to be frivolous.

After listening to Andoaka, Justice Okorowo stood down the matter for ruling.

Recall that Binani had, on April 26, withdrew the suit before Justice Ekwo, following the declaration of Fintiri as the winner of the governorship poll.

Binani’s counsel, Mohammed Sheriff, upon resumed hearing in the matter, had told Justice Ekwo that a notice of discontinuance had been filed to that effect and urged the court to strike out the case.

Justice Ekwo reminded Mr Sheriff that an order was given on the last adjourned date directing him to address the court on whether the court had the jurisdiction to entertain the case or not.

The lawyer, who informed the court that a lot of issues had come up between the last date of adjournment and today, begged for an order striking out the suit.

The judge, however, held that since Mr Sheriff had failed to go by the order of the court, the appropriate thing to do was to dismiss the matter.

The judge, consequently, dismissed the suit.