Our original sins

Every Nigerian hails from a community. A community could be a town or a village. It could be a clan or it could be that neighbourhood where we grew up in a city. Since we all belong to, or identify with one or more communities, we should be able to quickly respond to this question: […]

Every Nigerian hails from a community. A community could be a town or a village. It could be a clan or it could be that neighbourhood where we grew up in a city.

Since we all belong to, or identify with one or more communities, we should be able to quickly respond to this question: “Is there a community in Nigeria in which its members or their leading lights have come together to articulate and implement a vision for the overall  improvement of the said community or specific aspects thereof?”

Your answer is right. There is virtually none! The fact is that we do not have the habit of working to improve our communities.

It is not our basic culture. So, invariably, our communities exhibit signs of neglect, despondence and betrayal by their elites.

Whenever we return to our communities, we do not do so with any intentions of giving back or bringing about improvements.

What we tend to do in one form or the other is demonstrate that we have made it and become superior to those we left behind in those communities.

In many of our communities, one is likely to find the odd mansion or two belonging usually to sons or sometimes daughters who have relocated and made good elsewhere, sometimes in business but very often in government.

The mansions stick out in stark contrast to the pervasive poverty and misery of the community.

There are no roads, no public water supply, health services or any form of physical planning whatsoever.

But the “country homes” are there to attest that some sons of the community have made it and are now superior to those who stayed behind.

The basic notion of governance is absent in all our communities from Auchi to Azare; from Ihiala to Ipetumodu and from Isale Eko to Ikom. This is clear to see from the chaos, dilapidated infrastructure and total absence of any form of local administration or initiative.

A community may sometimes come together to fight the neighbouring community but it is rare for a community to come together for the purpose of working strategically to improve its fortunes or the daily lives of its people.

Whenever we are treated to rural scenery elsewhere, in Europe for example, we are impressed by the serenity, cleanliness and torderly beauty of these places. Can we say the same for our villages and rural communities?

So, it is our primary communities that throw up people that go on to occupy positions in larger political units; the Local Government Councils, the State Governments and the Federal Government.

Now, here is a question that every Nigerian should be asking: “Is it realistic to expect that an individual who emerges from this background would proceed to the larger national stage and be driven by a basic objective of improving the society?”

The answer, as you rightly guessed is NO. Nigeria has and has had presidents, ministers, governors, commissioners, local government councillors and Chief Executive Officers who are not motivated by a philosophy of improving or developing the community because this philosophy is absent everywhere at the primary level; the community level. As we like to say, “You can’t give what you don’t have”.

Now, let us see how this translates into reality. For almost 50 years, we have had a National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) system, which devotes every Thursday to Community Development.

However, we cannot find in any community in Nigeria with a landmark initiative, program or project that is an offshoot of the NYSC Community Development component.

For the millions who have passed through the NYSC program, community development is a slogan but not an ideal or objective.

Community development or societal improvement is not part of our national ethos or subconscious and this is already manifesting as millions of our young men and women graduate from tertiary institutions and begin their life journey as “leaders of tomorrow”.

The determination to improve our society and develop our nation should ordinarily begin at the presidency but a closer look quickly reveals that this objective is neither a priority nor even a factor at all.

The president’s appointment of his principal agents should be driven principally by a desire to see every position assigned to an individual most likely to improve and transform for the better that particular sector or subsector of our national life.

Generally, however, we do not see that ideal come into play.

Persons are appointed to positions because they are pushed by one or other centre of influence-some traditional rulers or some political bigwigs, ally or interest group but never because they have been adjudged the most competent or most likely to create value for our society.

Appointments are mostly an extension of a continuous political power play.

This fact becomes even more glaring as we go down the national political ladder.

State governors can sit smugly and comfortably as long as they remain in the good books of the big guns in Abuja, notwithstanding how poorly they are performing in their states.

They are extensions of the political power in Abuja and not agents of development in their domain.

In many states, the only signs of “development” are the few tarred roads and street lights in the GRA of the state capital.

Look elsewhere for signs of development and improvement and you are likely to find none.

Remember that the only signs of development in our villages are the glittering country homes?

They often belong to the lords of the state capital’s GRA and the highbrow areas of Abuja. So, your cycle is complete.

As a nation, we have long abandoned any pretence that local government councils are meant to bring development closer to the people.

Virtually everywhere, local government councils and their officials are a mere extension of the governors’ political power structure.

They do not perform administrative or technical functions.

In my home state of Edo, taking Uhunmwode Local Government Area for example, I cannot find an official whose job description includes providing proper healthcare facilities, ensuring public water supply or undertaking physical planning for the village of Ugha.

As you go around Nigeria, you are likely to find that the narrative is the same in Saminaka, Igbokoda, Udi, Ikot Epene and everywhere else.

What would Nigeria be like if our communities and neighbourhoods understood that they could indeed be better places and everyone was expected to participate in the process of making that happen?

What if local government councils in Taraba State for example decided to teach some of their people how to make cheese and thereby create new economic opportunities?

The list of possibilities is simply endless but we overlook the transformational power of initiatives at the local and communal level.

We have ended up in a place where the notion of communal good simply no longer exists.

We have all become individuals in constant search for instant self-gratification and personal aggrandizement.

The outcome is all too glaring and we can no longer deny that this country is crying out for a change of direction without which it will continue to flirt with disaster.

It is always too easy to blame politicians and those in power for the rot but the root causes lie in our communities and our basic orientation.

We are all products of this orientation and are, therefore complicit in the woes that have befallen Nigeria. We must ALL be born again, so to speak, if Nigeria is to move forward.

Ambassador Kayode Garrick is President, Policy and Governance Forum, Abuja.