On the Eve of Jubilee

My Nigeria is a Nigeria where we place priority on adherence to the rule of law and a culture of proactive service delivery. A Nigeria where we discharge participatory governance; a Nigeria where we practice transparency; and a Nigeria where we ensconce accountability.

My Nigeria is a Nigeria exemplified by physical, artistic and cultural attractions with international appeal; a clean environment of aesthetic beauty and serenity; and affordable, accessible and quality goods and services. A Nigeria where there is security of life and of property. A Nigeria where I can go to sleep at night without the racket of my and my neighbour’s power generator bawling in the background.

Where is this Nigeria? It is a Nigeria in the mind of my future.

It is a Nigeria where our children and our grandchildren will be able to say of us: “the elders did well.”

Our Traditional Societies
In traditional societies, the elders are those to whom everyone drew to in search of wisdom, knowledge and guidance. My Nigeria is not devoid of such elders. My Nigeria merely needs the right form of governance and public administration, in character and content, willing to wage a true and fitting warfare against the ills of poverty, underdevelopment of mind and infrastructure; and social and economic demise.

The Future of Government?
What is the Future of Government globally and, as we bring it home, the Future of Government in sub-Saharan Africa? The Future of Government in Nigeria?

What can we do to redress our regress? What should we do to redress our regress? What will we choose to do to redress our regress?

It was only a few months ago that Barack Obama stood on the podium in Capitol Hill and gave his inaugural speech. The Future of Government to his mind involves a nation and government of risk takers – the doers and the makers of things:

“We remain a young nation, but in the words of scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness. In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of short-cuts or settling for less…. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things.

For everywhere we look, there is work to be done. The state of the economy calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act - not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth. We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together. We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology's wonders to raise health care's quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. All this we will do”

All this we will do. That’s affirmation for you.

New Public Management
Perhaps what we should actually be asking is this: what can be the future of Government in Nigeria? Without doubt the future of Government in Nigeria must include the core values embraced in the ethos of new public management.

Recent developments in public sector management and reform from around the world shout out to us that contemporary governments will only attain credibility, development and expansion results if they readily embrace and demonstrate the following key features:

(i) Public Engagement;
(ii) Customer-focussed public service delivery;
(iii) A serious and compelling movement and drive from policy formulation to policy delivery;
(iv) Management for service effectiveness and results; and
(v) Joined up government

If that is what contemporary governments are currently doing, then the future of our government and public administration must be in substantively embracing and demonstrating all five of these features. It remains the burden and responsibility of our times. That burden and responsibility of the work that must be done demands that the government of the future must:

(i) Ensure that public services are fit for purpose;
(ii) Deliver services, quality services, that stakeholders actually want;
(iii) Meet the basic needs of society consistently and sensitively (here we have the notion of inclusive governance, the rights based approach to governance);
(iv) Transform the experience and contact of stakeholders with the public sector; and
(v) Ensure stakeholder satisfaction

Bringing It Home - My Nigeria
My Nigeria stands tall as a country filled to the brim with bright, intelligent and hopeful people. As a nation we are very proud and as a nation we are so very confident. Our resilience and ‘can do’ attitude is quite simply as astounding and it is even unbelievable. It is no wonder that the first black African Forbes billionaire is a Nigerian.

But our overall metrics on government and public administration have been the antithesis of this our enviable national character, and fraught with immense challenges.

It remains the responsibility of each and everyone of us, corporations, electorates, civil society, NGOs, the young and the old alike, to ensure that The Future of Government demonstrates and exhibits the positive externalities of this our national character - in our macro-economy, our public and civil service, and in our parastatal institutions of social development. Yes, we can.

Lessons from the World Economic Forum
Six metrics have recently been put forward by one of the councils of the World Economic Forum as the key determinants and propositions for the transformation of democracy and the transformation of government for the future:

(i) A digital Marshall Plan to take broadband to every corner of the world
(ii) The establishment of ‘digital brainstorms’ (I like that phrase) whereby knowledge partnerships between public/private/civil society are established and entrenched as deliberate, established mechanisms to ensure and secure citizenship and citizen engagement (a celebration of that most famous phrase: E pluribus, Unum – out of many, one)
(iii) A new accountability paradigm for business
(iv) Reinventing public service to achieve a networked government
(v) Rethinking and re-architecture of human capital of the public service
(vi) Creating the infrastructure for accountable government

If we accept these metrics, what they reveal and challenge us to do is to make the business of government relevant and valuable to the citizenry and each and every stakeholder; for indeed government is funded by the citizenry, mandated by the citizenry and instituted to realise dividends for the citizenry in terms of social and economic development; safety and security; and the freedom to enjoy life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It is the basic idea of government being a service to the people and for the people. It is no coincidence that government and public sector workers are known as civil and public servants.

Our failure to respond to this cry proffers grave danger that our governments and public sectors will be left even further behind as futuristic and responsive governments emerge and address each of these challenges highlighted here. The end result is a possible deep democratic, economic and social demise.

Nairobi, Kenya. December 2007
Far fetched? I certainly hope so, but I was in Nairobi, Kenya in December 2007. I marvelled at the apparent ease of democracy in this city one week before the Presidential and parliamentary elections. I was resident in Ghana at that time and had travelled to Kenya on business. I and my travelling companion hoped that Ghana would make Africa proud in exactly a year’s time when her people would go to the polls to give voice to their political opinion and preferences. Indeed, one year on, Ghanaians have proven that the Voice of The Citizen and democratic integrity lies at the heart of her public administration. But that is Ghana – my week long stay in Nairobi in December 2007 was the week that preceded the massacre of neighbour by neighbour.

Back home some weeks later, unbelievably I watched the ensuing events in Kenya from my TV screen. The message was loud and clear: there comes a time when, if the dividends of good governance and democracy are not evident in our societies, some will take to the streets. Rev Martin Luther King Jnr did so. Emily Pankhurst and the Suffragettes somewhat did so. And Zackie Ahmat of the TAC in South Africa is doing so. Our hope is that many other will join in their methods and advocate for democratic and inclusive politics, and responsive government via peaceful means.

THE Leadership Challenge - The Voice of the Citizen
But this leadership is our collective responsibility. No one person is born a leader. Leaders are created out of the choices they make and the challenges they chose to confront. Our government (and corporate and social leaders alike) will rise and emerge from the responses and reactions we the people persistently challenge and present them with in question and query.

The Voice of the Citizen and the stakeholder must be loud and clear in the Future of Government – indeed the Voice of the Citizen should shape the future of government. Accountability and responsiveness in the development of public policy; inclusiveness and integrity in the implementation of public policy; accountability and transparency in the evaluation of public sector programmes and projects.

These are the rules of engagement; and this is our hope. These are the notions alluded to in Rousseau’s Social Contract – and these are the notions which caution us against inviting the absolute authority of a sovereign as chronicled in Hobbes’s The Leviathan.

And it is here that there is room for all of us.
A consulting firm can demonstrate leadership in the articulation of a blueprint for the future of a government in terms of the transformation of the systems, process and people; inputs and outputs of MDAs; and similarly a law firm can demonstrate leadership in the articulation and collaboration with Government on those business laws that must be reviewed, amended and enacted to ensure that the legal environment drives the future that our economy and citizens need and want.

Likewise a civil society organisation can demonstrate leadership through the gathering of citizens and stakeholders alike for us all to discuss and debate where we are, where we want to be as a nation and chart the path of how to get there for and with our political leaders.

That is democracy.
That is citizenship, and
That is development.

There is room for all of us.

On the fringes of the anniversary of our nation’s fiftieth year after our independence from colonial rule, the optimism which drove a euphoric vision of an economically prosperous and politically stable future for our nation is now somewhat precarious. Our trajectory to date has been devoid of many of the core elements of economic prosperity and political stability. Today we are at the crossroads.

And yes, there is room for all of us. That we might truly have a reason to celebrate our Golden Jubilee in 2010

The Art of Dancing to the Rhythm of Life

And so it would appear that there is an art of living. An art to dancing to the rhythm of life.

For Michael Franks there’s meaning in the Art of Tea.
And some I know profess to the Art of Coffeeing
Others yet to the Art of Love

But today I want to rant about the Art of War…! Macciavelli? Sun Tzu.? Well, I never felt the urge nor the need to invest in either The Prince or The Art of War. These most celebrated books of strategy...

Alas, “dit moi,” I thought, “is there really need to study the details of making your enemy’s enemy your best friend?” Better not to have enemies at all, I thought. Better still to subscribe to the notion of Christ Jesus to love your enemies. So if you love your enemy, you also love your enemy’s enemy. So we are equals. And isn’t that what Macciavelli and Sun Tzu are saying? Confused? Well, it makes two of us.

Aha, but the same Christ Jesus preaches on the necessity of loving oneself first and foremost – love your neighbor as yourself – and that in of itself being the enabler to allow you to respond to others in understanding. And it was this notion – loving and knowing thyself first, studying people, studying life - that led me to purchase The Art of War for Executives.

The day I realized that I needed to invest in that book was the day that I matured…

Appreciating the politics at play in your sphere of influence @work and @ play
For the art of loving oneself requires a level of understanding and an appreciation of the world around you. Yes, with all the gamesmanship, one-upmanship and all.

One of my mentors reminds me day in day out of the need to seek to understand the politics in the world around me even if I don’t want to play it – for therein I gain insight to the motives which give rise to the utterances and actions which come forth day in and day out.

For we war at play even as we war at work. We war in the boardroom and we war in the bedroom. Indeed there are ecclesiastical battles and wars in the heavenly realms. Hmmm. I am grateful for the promise we have in Him, Christ Jesus, that we have the victory over those battles.

But Sun Tzu’s lesson to me is this: In any situation, seek to respond and not react. Same difference? Never!

Respond to and act on the motive which led to the action. And that might mean a positive or a negative response, but usually it is a positive response. Why so? Because in responding one has paused to be aware of and identify with the motive behind the negative or positive action. It’s the art of calculating victory. Hmm, oh yes - the art of calculating victory.

Never react to the action or utterance – respond to it. And that takes work. Rise to the challenge!

Take this from Chapter 3:

So it is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you can win a thousand battles without a single loss.
If you only know yourself, but not your opponent, you may win or may lose.
If you know neither yourself nor your enemy, you will always endanger yourself

Whetted your appetite? Go get the books.

And we went to a book reading...

The first book reading I went to was such a heart-warming experience that I glowed. I grinned ear to ear and was incredibly proud. Nothing could contain my elation.

That was the book reading of Kemi’s Journal by Miss Abidemi Sanusi – one of my many, many sisters. But Bidemi is also one of my favorite sisters because she is just so cheeky! Nobody in the world dares to persistently tease and cajole me as she does – and with such zeal.

That was in Accra some three-odd years ago and so wonderful was the experience that I have since attended a number of book readings. The most recent was that of Sefi Atta at the British Council here in Lagos, where she read from Swallow, her latest book.

Book reading a la Lagos
So I am in Abuja some weeks back and a dear, dear friend calls from Lagos to say that they are organizing a book reading for one of our most celebrated contemporary writers at the weekend. ‘Wonderful’ was my response. Absolutely perfect, in fact. I was planning to be in Lagos that weekend anyway, so why not?

Twenty four hours to the event I inquire where the event is holding - British Council? Terra Kulture? And what time. The event was to hold in a private residence, and would be in the evening. Hmm, very unusual, I thought. But I kind of liked the idea of a private, more intimate book reading in someone’s garden. This is Nigeria, what am I saying, this is Lagos, after all.

So we arrive. 8pm. Valet parking service, hor d’oeuvres, champagne and we hear the book reading. No juice, no water, no wine, just champagne. Quintessentially Lagos.

I marveled. But I understood. And I smiled. A knowing smile.

In a city where day in, day out you give a lot. In a city where day in, day out you are at your wits end. In a city where day in, day out your patience is tried and tested. In a city where day in, day out your average daily spend is your average weekly spend in any European city. In a city where …..

So I understood the need to spruce up the daily grind. To indulge a little, and to live a little. To forget that you had to leave the premises before a certain hour of the night less armed robbers are at your trail. To forget that the daily bumpy and traffic ridden ride on our roads makes your bone creak and your neck stiff. To forget…

A few days later a couple of us teased our host over lunch and hailed the light indulgence, the departure from the norm of the café style format of books readings ‘It’s good to unwind every so often’ was the quite, deliberate response.

And, yes, I said, ‘it is good’

The Return

Okay, Okay, Okaaaay!

I know it’s been like forever since I last blogged. So many people have BB’ed, sent sms and called to chastise. Well, you know, every once in a while one needs to take time out, right? Well, this has been my time-out. Forgive.

OK. Sorry. Abeg, as we would say in Nigeria. It’s been an eventful couple of months. If for nothing else a reminder that life is a marathon and not a 100 meters sprint. After the zeal of starting new projects and initiatives early on in the year, some time or the other one needs to take stock and slooooow down – if only for a short while.

So I am back on line!

My nephew brought me this book from the UK – The Personal Shopper. I thought nothing of it when he gave it to me – said it came with the shoes I had asked him to purchase. OK. Then I read the back of the book to get a gist of what it was all about. It reads like this:

Meet Annie Valentine: stylish, savvy, multi-tasker extraordinaire. As a personal shopper in a swanky London fashion emporium, Annie can re-style and re-invent her clients from head to toe. In fact, this super-skilled dresser can be relied on to solve everyone's problems...except her own. Although she's busy being a single mum to stroppy teen Lana and painfully shy Owen, there's a gap in Annie's wardrobe, sorry, life, for a new man. But finding the perfect partner is turning out to be so much trickier than finding the perfect pair of shoes. Can she source a genuine classic? A life long investment? Will she end up with someone from the sale rail, who'll have to be returned? Or maybe, just maybe, there'll be someone new in this season who could be the one...

Cheeky so and so.

Never read a book so quickly before. It really made me laugh. But there is this notion in the book, and at large really, that people who are well-off have miserable lives/are boring people, and those who do not have so much money are a lot happier. The ‘money doesn’t make you happy’ notion.

Well you know, I want to refute that. I am sure we all know a bus load of people who have bus loads of money and live lives just as fulfilling or unfulfilling as those that don’t. I rather go for the notion that it’s your relationship with money that might determine your level of fulfillment.

I don’t know if Jesus had cash-in-hand when He was on planet Earth but He sure had access to wealth and He was definitely happy and fulfilled. I guess because His wealth was not His focus but His faith and hope in God was. I think what I am saying is that the pursuit of happiness through the primary and relentless pursuit of money may lead us to a Judas experience. The end result being the loss of being.

Anyway, enough deep thought for today.

Ciao everyone!