Building Nigeria On Weak Societal Institutions -By Tonnie Iredia

So much is happening in Nigeria today. One does not need to be an admirer of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to recognize the apparent departure from the past where the nation was virtually moving one step forward and two backwards. It is easy to perceive the take-off of several development projects.

As the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development is beginning the construction of at least 2400 housing units, beneficiary institutionsof the Tertiary Education TrustFundTETFUND are positioned to benefit from N683 billion allocated to the sector in the 2024 budget. Already, the Fund’s Executive Secretary, Sonny Echono has announced the commitment of his agency to provide hostels for students in 36 tertiary institutions across the country this year. Thus, amidst the pains imposed on the country by an exceedingly poor economy, many are praying for anticipated projects to materialize.

Some people are however still bothered about the numerous challenges which have always hindered the excellent performance of the nation’s public institutions. One obvious challenge is the visible lack of capacity of our societal institutions which in the last 2 decades or so has been exacerbated by excessive distractions which policy actors are subjected to. President Tinubu last week identified at least two of such major distractions which he attempted to summarily redress. The first has to do with self-induced distractions by actors who are fascinated by foreign trips. Concerning this, the President immediately placed a 3-month ban on activities of his officials outside the country. A government statement explained that the ban will take effect from April 1st 2024 while all officials who have genuine business transactions abroad must first seek and obtain presidential approval.  

The second distraction is attributed to the summoning of public officials by the National Assembly. Recognizing the ego connected to this, Tinubu employed an appropriate political language and a conducive opportunity to address the challenge.  The President, says he would appreciate a reduction in the excessive summoning of heads of agencies by the National Assembly so as to allow them ample room to plan for and execute projects. Tinubu spoke in Abuja last Wednesday while breaking the Ramadan fast with the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, and the leadership of the House. Now that the observation has been made by their political leader, it is hoped that the nation’s legislators would appreciate the concerns of analysts who had earlier made the same call but perhaps through a critical diction.

As the president conceded, everyone is aware that the legislature is empowered to summon relevant actors to explain certain actions and decisions concerning any public policy. But such powers should not be used to distract the same policy actors who are agents of development. Unfortunately, the distraction has become the norm in our clime. The legislators spend too much time sitting like a court to receive evidence and more often than not threaten invitees with warrants of arrest.

Yet, the well-planned out schedule of those summoned is never put into consideration while fixing the time of the summons. Of course by drawing such immutable timelines for policy actors without their own inputs, the legislators virtually turn such actors into robots especially as they are not allowed to be represented at any such sitting that is guarded by warrants of arrests. This has over the years subordinated service delivery to the task of appearing at the sitting of any of the two chambers of the National Assembly.

Quite often, the actors are required to present reports that are still at the preparatory stages where the management groups working-out the best modalities for effective implementation are yet to conclude. The immediate implication of the distraction is that the relevant agency becomes incoherent while presenting an inchoate submission. Let’s recall January 2021 when the late General Ibrahim Attahiru who was yet to fully take-over as the new Army Chief of Staff was summoned by the legislature. He eventually appeared with a distracted body language which the legislators saw as Attahiru’s refusal to subordinate the military to civil authority. With due respect that was not the case, rather it was a clear case of frustration caused by an over-active busy body who was playing to the gallery on the delicate subject of insecurity.

Whereas the objective of President Tinubu in discouraging agencies from being distracted makes ample sense, there is the bigger issue of ensuring that government agencies are strong and viable ab initio. The prevalent weakness of societal institutions in Nigeria is an old testimony where recruitments and postings to public agencies in the last 2 decades have been abysmal. Many heads and top officials are posted to agencies in breach of the enabling laws of such agencies.

It is practically impossible for example to attain a credible and impartial electoral body if it is run by partisan officials. When this government came on board, many appointees were replaced even where their tenures were subsisting. The wrong signal portrayed by this was for every Nigerian to prioritize politics rather than project execution as it was partisan officials that were retained or reappointed, just as well-meaning actors were prematurely eased out irrespective of their memorable contributions to the survival of their organizations.  

In many agencies, it has become the practice for ministers to usurp the powers of chief executive officers of agencies that they were to supervise. Yet the law places the day to day running of the agencies in the hands of their heads. Under the circumstance in which the supervisor takes over the implementation of the activities of agencies, supervision is technically scrapped at the risk of quality control. No one is bothered thereafter about hard work, dedication, commitment or diligence.

Instead, the key terms change to such prescriptive criteria as partisanship, ethnicity, religion and connection which countries desiring growth and development do not subscribe to. At other times, mundane directives are issued to agencies as if those manning such agencies have no initiative and or discretion. How for instance, can a body like the National Emergency Management Agency NEMA be directed to send relief materials to an attacked community, when that is the main purpose for establishing the agency? 

The luck of the moment is that many boards of agencies are yet to be constituted. When that is done, the predominant activity would become a search for funds and fake contracts for board members who make it clear that they have no other business in the organizations. This leaves our agencies in unstable hands making it easy to understand why our weak agencies are always unable to efficiently serve society. It also explains why our legislators are always able to induce heads of our agencies to compromise the execution of constituency projects.

Therefore, if President Tinubu really wants to put an end to the daily distractions to service delivery arising from incessant summoning of agency heads, he needs to start from the starting point. There is a place for different categories of actors in a public agency. We need to return to the old order where politicians were usually restricted to part time members of boards. In addition, posting a well-connected but unqualified person to head an agency or a technical directorate immediately introduces crass indiscipline to the entity.  

For a country to evenly develop, everyone must be allowed to exercise his expertise. This will assist each institution to become strong enough to hold the nation together. A responsible political class that leads the nation aright is good; so is a strong team of technocrats and professional experts that can build solid structures. We can be strong like the Unites States of America because we have the human and material endowments to achieve that. 

The 2020 American presidential election took out Donald Trump from office because American institutions were strong enough to stand their grounds and reject the plan of the incumbent to operate against the run of play. It would have been a different story if the location was Nigeria or some other countries with feeble societal institutions. This is why President Tinubu must help to solidify Nigeria’s polity so that our nation would not just be viable but be strong enough to stand the test of time. This cannot be achieved if our country continues to water-down the professional strength of its public institutions.