Thank You very much Asiwaju for this thought-provoking piece.
You will pardon my little understanding.
I got two points from the piece, that :
1 The President, and all of us, should work hard in the central kitchen so that we can produce more than enough for everybody.
2. The President is engaging competent ‘cooks’ in the kitchen, that, these cooks are to serve, or are serving, ‘with hard labour’ and, therefore, they should be pitied, and not envied as is presently the case
If ours were a sane environment, I will agree hundred percent with these, but not in Nigeria.
It is a long story, but briefly, let us start with the second point. That those being presently engaged in the kitchen should be pitied , not envied, as they are coming there to serve ‘with hard labour’
Interestingly, even according to Asiwaju’s piece, the impression in Nigeria is that those in the kitchen would first of all eat before others, and be ‘belleful’ before bringing little outside.
And, unfortunately, our leadership have never given the impression of people in the kitchen working, much less, work hard
Besides, the reality of our situation is that we are ethnically chauvinistic.
Get me, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is eminently qualified to be President of Nigeria. But a major thrust of his street campaign was ‘awa lo kan’. The tuning of or, if you like, the Nigerian mentality behind, ‘awa lo kan’, is not ‘awa lo kan’ to serve with hard labour, but ———.
This is why it may be difficult for people to pity those presently being invited to serve in the kitchen.
Actually, I am more interested in the first part than in the second. The first is building, and working hard in, a central kitchen that can produce more than enough for all. This is the main issue. The second, i e, staffing the kitchen stems from the first, the second is a corollary of the first
I have no doubts in the ability and capacity of the President to achieve economic turn-around for the country. But, I dare say, this can only be for a short while, perhaps for the next few years. Any turn-around will only be temporary, as we have had before in the past, as during the times, of Gowon, Obasanjo, etc. The reason is not far-fetched. By the principle of ‘awa lo kan’, we can never guarantee that the management and staffing of the kitchen will always be in as competent hands as we may presently have. Thus, at best, any gains can only be considered temporary.
The present scenario is like this. There are 36 States and 774 Local Governments. Only few States have kitchens, I do not know of any LG with kitchen. But they are all set at the dining rooms, waiting every month for Abuja to distribute what is produced at the central kitchen.
The States and LGs keep complaining of not having enough. However, the President, is working very hard to rebuild the kitchen and engage more competent hands to produce more.
My view is that this approach of having a big kitchen that can produce more than enough for all, though good, is inherently deficient, for many reasons, prime of which is that, at its best, it can only provide spasmodic reliefs.
I will prefer that the President, and all of us, work harder on creating the political base that will enable the 36 States and 774 LGs have their kitchens, and staff their kitchens, so they can produce basic needs for their citizens. The central kitchen will be left to provide only spcial needs to support and complement the efforts of the States and LGs
Put in nation-building language, the President is concentrating and working hard on economic reforms. This is desirable. But I will advise, and strongly too, that he puts in no less efforts, on political reforms.
Indeed, I believe, what this country needs more urgently now is political reform.
I have said this somewhere else, we are not operating a federal arrangement. We need to go back to what is near Federalism. Federal arrangements collapsed in Nigeria January 15th 1966, went into coma with the second coup of July 29th 1966, and finally died May 27th 1967, with Gowon’s declaration of emergency and creation of twelve States.
Ever since, the central government has been angradizing and accumulating more political and economic powers to the detriment of the component units.
Without any doubt, the President’s economic reforms will bring more resources to the central government. This looks good, but it will, ironically, silently bring along with it, the (dis)advantage of making the central government more prefectorial than it is presently
Yet, what we need more than anything else at this time, is to unbundle the central government.
The citadel of indiscipline and corruption in Nigeria is the central kitchen, sorry, the central government. Indescipline and corruption are the twin factors, that continue to hold us down.
Our country Nigeria is blessed with human and natural material resources. These blessings continue to increase by the day. Paradoxically, our economic placement continue to be at inverse proportion to our blessings.
Economic reform is desirable. But, political reform, yes, you make call it Restructuring, is what our country needs urgently now, and more than anything else.
The reason is simple : failure to restructure our political arrangements, and in time, could lead to the scattering and destruction of whatever gains, any economic reforms might bring.
We Ijesas say : ‘ki Ori Inu ko ma ba t’ode je’. In the context of our country Nigeria, I see/take restructuring, political reform, as ‘Ori inu’, and economic reforms as ‘Ori ode’.
I will want the President to place political reforms at the front burner.
This is important, so that the chain of supplies from the big kitchen being put in place, i e the gains of the present economic efforts will not be scattered nor destroyed by future chaos that may arise from the long neglect of political reforms
As our country Nigeria is presently constituted, and putting all considerations together, political reform, is the ‘condition precedent’, for the survival, maintenance and sustenance of any gains that may result from economic reforms.
Putting the President’s term of four years on a scale of one day, the time, as at today, is 01:56 am. Thankfully, people are still sleeping. Thus, the time is there for the President to re-strategise, re-focus, re-plan and re-allocate energies and efforts.
May God guide the President to help Nigeria.
It is well.
Obi Daramola
Ilesa
September 22, 2023
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