10 March 2010
editorial
Acting President Goodluck Jonathan has inaugurated a Presidential Advisory Council, the creation and membership of which he announced a week ago. It is chaired by a former Minister of Defence, General Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma (rtd); it has twenty-five other members most of whom are veteran bureaucrats or technocrats whose inputs are expected to add value to governance. Government expects the council to provide alternative inputs into policy formulation, help promote good governance especially in the economy, power, security, electoral process, security infrastructure sectors, and encourage the fight against corruption.
Opinions are mixed as to what value such a committee appointed by a government of a transitory nature with barely 12 months to the next elections can add, especially given the fact that there are other decision-making organs like cabinet of ministers, a parliament and a retinue of aides and advisers, in place. Others have kicked at the council for its gender imbalance; and to some, it is the blatant fact that similar councils in the past have recommended roadmaps that were hardly followed. Still, some have argued that taxpayer funds should not be expended on an amorphous quasi-legal body whose advice would have no force of law and whose recommendations may be discarded by its appointing authority in the first instance.
Those familiar with the story of Nigeria would say that each sceptic has his reason. In 50 years of its existence as a nation, Nigeria has never lacked people with ideas; what it has seemed to lack is the perennial tendency to capitulate rather than push through policies and programmes that can transform the socio-political and economic fortunes of the country. But Nigeria should not remain static for the mere fact that past attempts at nation building have led to public disillusionment. The acting President alluded to this problem when he noted that "the best advertisement of good governance is its positive expression of happiness in the lives of the governed." Dr Jonathan hit the right chord when he assured that "the inputs of the panel would not be treated with levity" and that "the federal government will pay attention to contributions within the terms of reference of the council."
We are not unmindful of the circumstances that brought Goodluck Jonathan into office, unique as they were. These will no doubt put him in the dock of present and future generations, whose judgments are not likely to be based on the propriety or rhetorical political correctness as much as his actions. Indeed the council chairman reminded Jonathan that the times were extraordinary and required urgent and extraordinary steps. He was spot-on when he urged the acting president to act quickly and aggressively now "when society can be trusted to be ... generous as to credit you with your successes and to excuse your errors."
Nigerians indeed can be excused if they snigger at these efforts at making impact. They have been taken for a ride far too often and for too long, without realising stated objectives. If current attempts mean more of the same, it would be a great opportunity lost, not only to him, but to the nation in general. We therefore urge the committee to get to work with the urgency, zeal and the determination that their task requires; submit a practicable document with a measurable time-frame, and for government to hit the ground running on that agenda with the doggedness that Nigerians begin to see hope in democracy and good governance. This is the only way to patch and re-inflate the balloon of hope already flattened by years of ineptitude and, recently, of uncertainty.
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