Managing Nigeria Intelligently (MNI)

This honour badge of initials, they say, identifies them as a special corps of Nigerians who were recruited from all spheres of human endeavour across Nigeria and specially trained and equipped in the Institute with certain skills and competencies in policy research and strategic studies. Each year, a set of these ‘eagles’ is released to […]

This honour badge of initials, they say, identifies them as a special corps of Nigerians who were recruited from all spheres of human endeavour across Nigeria and specially trained and equipped in the Institute with certain skills and competencies in policy research and strategic studies. Each year, a set of these ‘eagles’ is released to fly  out and soar high and make a significant difference in Nigeria’s drive for growth and development. In other words, and to speak Biblically, they are supposed to come out and be the salt of the Nigerian earth and a lamp unto the feet of other co-travellers in the pursuit of the Nigerian Project.
I had not been privileged to observe at close quarters any NIPPS graduate in order to verify the authenticity of their claim that they are specially imbued with patriotic zeal to think strategically for Nigeria and the knowledge to do research and come out with policies and plans that are aimed at addressing the developmental challenges that assail Nigeria. An opportunity to come close and see for myself what stuff holders of the MNI title are really made of, came unexpectedly some three weeks ago. I was invited to be an engaged observer of the 35th Annual General Meeting of the Alumni Association of NIPSS (AANI) which took place on Saturday, March 7, 2015 at the main auditorium of the Institute in Kuru, Jos.  
The AGM of any organisation, be it a business establishment or the old boys association of an institute, is, surely, a good enough opportunity to get to know about the corporate entity and the sum of its parts for such a gathering opens not a small window to any interested non-shareholder or stakeholder to assess how well or not the organisation is run. It is at such an event that shareholders gather to be rendered an account by the management on how well or not their company has performed in the past one year and what agenda it has set for its growth in the next coming years. For members of AANI, its 35th AGM was especially significant: an election of new executive officers was also on the card. We all know that in Nigeria, an election, any election, is important.
Whenever I am called upon to assess a body corporate, I always choose to do so by weighing it against a set of the eight main ingredients of good governance namely: how transparent are members of the organisation in their conduct; how accountable; how open; how responsive; how equitable and inclusive; how effective and efficient; how ready to follow laid down rules; how participatory are its members in decision making and implementation and the level of their commitment to the success of the group in the attainment of its goals and how consensus oriented are its rank and file.
Armed with these assessment criteria, I repaired to Kuru to put claimants to the MNI tag on a scale to see if those ingredients of good governance will be in much evidence in the conduct of their association’s business or whether there would be a lack of it.
Nigerians are notorious for not keeping to time for most of their events even the ones that high officials of state would be in attendance, a habit that is partly responsible for our underdevelopment. I was therefore anxious to see if AANI members were trained to be any different. Apparently, they weren’t. The opening ceremony billed for 10 am did not start at the advertised time. It did nearly one and a half hours later! I gave them a full knock on that score. That is, certainly, no way of managing Nigeria more intelligently.
Usually, not many Nigerians take very active interest in the affairs of their own organisation which impacts them directly. I was therefore going to also weigh them on the scale of attendance of their AGM. They won on this score. The turn- out was quite impressive indicating that members take their group very seriously. More than 150 members made up of serving and past top level executives from the banking and financial sector, the presidency, states and local governments, civil service, the armed forces, the academia, labour and paramilitary institutions among others, attended the AGM.
How about their election which was one of the key events of the gathering? They won handsomely on this score too.  The election which was very keenly contested, returned the president of the association, Maj. General (Rtd) Lawrence A. Onoja and many other key members for a second term in office. The others include: Dr Garba Usman Tetengi, Vice President; Comrade Issa Aremu, Secretary General; Nghargru Maryam Patricia, Assistant Secretary General; Mrs. Comfort Olu Eyitayo, Treasurer; Hon. Sola Ephraim-Oluwanuga, Legal Adviser; Dr. Pat Emembolu Eze,, Welfare/Social Secretary; Alhaji Abbas Bello, Financial Secretary; Juliana Mafuril, Publicity Secretary and Air Cdr Clement Ogbeche, Internal Auditor.
The conduct of the election met the criteria of transparency, openness, consensus building, efforts at equity and inclusiveness and participatory nature of members. No wonder, it was generally accepted. One wishes that the national election coming up barely three days from today shall pick a cue from AANI. AANI showed that it practices promoting the culture of internal democracy and advancing the country’s democratic process.
AANI also deserves some plaudit for the launching of its well -produced 2015 calendar as well as its maiden AANI news- letter, some of the achievements of the re-elected exco.  Space would not allow me reproduce the beautiful AANI anthem composed by Ugochukwu Okoroafor which was ratified at the meeting.
One key idea which came up at the meeting was the suggestion that the AANI should seek to have a liaison office in the As Presidential Villa so that the many useful researches done at huge costs by members of the MNI will not be lying fallow in many libraries while foreigners are sometimes hired to carry out some consultancy jobs at very huge costs to the Nigerian government. This suggestion should be vigorously pushed through. There is no point sending Nigerians to the Institute to be trained at huge cost to the tax payers if their research outcomes will not, at the end of the day, be useful in policy plans and implementation. That would not be managing Nigerians intelligently.