As a constant in social relations, diversity serves both as a driver of innovation and creativity, on the one hand, and, on the other, a direct or opportunistic trigger of tension and conflict. Nowhere are the positive and the negative features of diversity more striking than in public agencies. A typical agency is ordinarily established with well-defined objectives. Yet, no matter how precise the objectives are, diversity of interpretations and of perspectives most frequently take each agency … [Read more...]

Were Nigeria to be a business enterprise, most of the people will scarcely accept that they have a stake in its survival and growth. The majority will instead view the “enterprise” as a cow that a tiny minority holds down and milks in private kraals to the exclusion and annoyance of other putative shareholders. A system that goes out of its way to block change is in self-denial. In that state, it sees no evil, hears no evil, and thinks of nothing that needs changing.... It piles up and … [Read more...]

Measured against four indices of governmental effectiveness (outputs produced, inputs allocated plus debt incurred, time taken to render services and fulfil obligations, and citizen trust in the integrity of public officials), succeeding administrations have performed poorly. "Corruption in any form poses a clear and present danger to the survival of Nigeria and to its medium- to long-term development. Already, a combination of institution desecration and decay has left Nigeria at the mercy … [Read more...]

"You cannot enslave a mind that knows itself, that values itself, that understands itself."-- Wangari Maathai "Your creation as well as your resurrection is but as an individual soul" -Holy Qur'an, Surah 31/Luqman, Ayah 28. "He who conquers himself is the mightiest warrior" - Confucius The moles and the "sleepers" embedded in law enforcement agencies have, in all probability, been sponsored or planted by powerful individuals that have little or no regard for national security. These other … [Read more...]

                       “The only beneficiaries of the periodic change of guard in Nigeria are career civil servants,                        traditional rulers, ethnic and corporate lobby groups, media practitioners, and politicians                        skilled in the art of self-preservation and self-reinvention”. “Nigeria’s recurrent governance crisis…is best understood neither as an intractable one, nor as the dynastic succession “conspiracy” of here-today, gone-tomorrow, rulers. The … [Read more...]

"Already, rapid population growth has turned land into a contentious issue and created flashpoints across the country, especially, in Plateau, Kaduna, Zamfara.... Dispossessed and impoverished herders have been known to, in desperation, turn to banditry and kidnapping." "The demographic time-bomb would have been defused if the rate of economic growth had outstripped, or at least, matched, the rate of social mobilization. This is clearly not the case. The tension sparked by population growth and … [Read more...]

A system that goes out of its way to block change is in a state of self-contentment. In that state, it sees no evil, hears no evil, and thinks of nothing that needs changing.... It piles up and implements new programs, but leaves the underlying values, structures, rules, and processes untouched. It remains in this basically motionless state until changes begin to emerge from unanticipated directions. A revolution or radical transformation thus becomes inevitable when practices have remained … [Read more...]

It gives me great pleasure to be at this little-publicized, but otherwise, momentous, event. I say “little publicized” because the Young African Leaders Initiative is a program that the press ought to have devoted a fair proportion of its reporting space to covering, but which has so far, and for reasons yet to be established, been given scant attention. The wider public ought to have been regularly updated on discussions taking place at different sessions. Alas, I, as a member of the wider … [Read more...]

Long Title: A Bill for AN ACT TO AFFIRM THE RIGHTS OF THE CITIZENS OF NIGERIA TO FULL AND FAIR CONSIDERATION FOR PUBLIC APPOINTMENT PREAMBLE Whereas: (a) The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, guarantees to every Nigerian basic citizenship rights, among which are the right to life, dignity of the human person, and most especially, freedom from discrimination; (b) Failure to give bona fide Nigerian citizens full and fair consideration for vacancies in public offices … [Read more...]

Introduction Nigerians rarely comment on the state of the nation without alluding to the political parties’ failure to nurture internal and representative democracy. The commentators lament the helplessness of the average voter in the face of the overwhelming influence of godfathers, gangsters, and money on the political and the electoral process. The critics insist that despite the hype on free and fair elections, party members rarely participate in key decisions, including decisions as to the … [Read more...]