Towards 2023: Nigeria need fiscal discipline and servant leadership -By Richard Odusanya

Discipline is the practice of making people obey rules or standards of behaviour, and punishing them when they do not. While Fiscal is used to describe something that relates to government money or public money, especially taxes. Fiscal discipline can also be influenced by the political orientation of the governing party, with the conventional wisdom suggesting left-oriented governments tend to generate greater deficits than right-wing ones. However, this conventional wisdom has been questioned theoretically and it is not backed by empirical evidence that supports the proposition. The choice of rules depends on the political environment as well as the dominant source of uncertainty in the process.

Fiscal discipline is essential to improve and sustain economic performance, maintain macroeconomic stability, and reduce vulnerabilities. Discipline is especially important if countries, industrial as well as developing, are to successfully meet the challenges, and reap the benefits, of economic and financial globalization. Lack of fiscal discipline generally stems from the injudicious use of policy discretion. The benefits of discretion are seen in terms of the ability of policymakers to respond to unexpected shocks and in allowing elected political representatives to fulfill their mandates. But discretion can be misused, resulting in persistent deficits and procyclical policies, rising debt levels, and, over time, a loss in policy credibility.

The lack of fiscal discipline is one of the most pressing issues in the framework of various economic systems today. The consequences of the global economic crisis have shown all the weaknesses of measures and mechanisms in terms of decision-making in fiscal policy. This problem can be seen now in almost every country, particularly in the third world countries like Nigeria. The problem of inadequate implementation of fiscal policy and the maintenance of fiscal discipline is reflected in the fact that their consequences are not visible right away, but tend to show their negative effects much later. Today, we have a situation where a certain current government suffers badly implemented prior fiscal discipline of a previous government. This article identified causes of fiscal indiscipline, which is most easily seen in the budget process.

Succinctly captured in a tweet “Day one of the new presidency in 2023:

President arrives federal secretariat via Innoson locally assembled sedan by 8am.

Let me see the civil servant that will add Prado or Lexus 4×4 in budget

These thing’s are not hard”.

On the other hand, servant Leadership is a non-traditional leadership philosophy, embedded in a set of behaviors and practices that place the primary emphasis on the well-being of those being served. While servant leadership is a timeless concept, the phrase “servant leadership” was coined by Robert K. Greenleaf in The Servant as Leader, an essay that he first published in 1970. In that essay, Greenleaf said:

“The servant-leader is servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. That person is sharply different from one who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions…The leader-first and the servant-first are two extreme types. Between them there are shadings and blends that are part of the infinite variety of human nature.” The concept of servant leadership was further taken to another level by President Umaru Yar’adua. He was overtly pious, humble and was rather beatific. He called himself a Servant Leader, a euphemism that forebode his short, but impressive high national service.

Former President Goodluck Jonathan very recently paid tributes to former President Umaru Yar ‘Adua , 12years after his transition to glory “President Yar’adua: 12 Years after”, described Yar’Adua as a soldier of truth and justice. He said Yar’Adua “was a servant leader and a good man; the type that is hard to find.” Similarly, former vice-president Namadi Sambo said that “it is a generally held belief that the late President Yar’Adua had wanted to genuinely and meritoriously serve the Nigerian people up till the end but his illness and eventual death cut short this avowed intention and service to the nation.” Sambo, said the country has lost an apostle of servant leadership as “the late President popularized the concept of servant leadership in Nigeria.”

Finally, permit me to conclude this article that focuses on SERVANT-LEADERSHIP, with the full confidence and hope that 2023 will usher in a new Leadership. Nothing like the resource curse, also known as the paradox of plenty or the poverty paradox, is the phenomenon of countries with an abundance of natural resources (such as fossil fuels and certain minerals) having less economic growth, less democracy, or worse development outcomes than countries with fewer natural resources. There are many theories and much academic debate about the reasons for, and exceptions to, these adverse outcomes. Most experts believe the resource curse is not universal or inevitable, but affects certain types of countries or regions under certain conditions: Particularly, the third world countries like Nigeria, somalia, Sudan, and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

ARISE ‘O COMPATRIOTS

Richard Odusanya is a Social Reform Crusader and the convener of AFRICA COVENANT RESCUE INITIATIVE ACRI.