Exactly two weeks before Nigeria turned 47, I was at a seminar on business integrity. And the speaker was a former ambassador to the United Kingdom , Dr. Christopher Kolade. In attendance was the Group Managing Director of Prima Garnet Ogilvy, a leading advertising agency in Lagos , with interests in public relations, and President of the Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria (AAAN), Mr. Lolu Akinwunmi. His comment left me with something to ponder.

According to Mr. Akinwunmi, his agency realised quite early that it was difficult to do business with governments and their agencies in Nigeria without compromising its integrity. So, they made a decision to stay away from that sector. The result is that in the 16 years of its existence, his agency had handled only two government jobs. He did not say, however, at what points they handled those jobs. It was enough that they did what they felt was the only way to keep themselves from being polluted by the prevailing circumstance.

In his response, Dr. Kolade emphasised that, although avoiding government jobs appears to be the only way to uphold your integrity as a business person in Nigeria, this has however left government jobs mainly in the hands of charlatans and people with dubious character. The right approach, he said, is for those with the necessary expertise and who mean well for our country to get involved, in spite of the frustrations, but continue to refuse to cut corners to secure or execute any job. With more of such people who insist on doing business with government without compromising, the powers that be in that sector will be forced to begin to straighten out their acts sooner or later.

One issue he did not quite address, though, is the danger in trying to secure the same contracts with people who are less than civilised in their approach to almost everything. And these often have their way because of the quality of people in government – people who are almost always interested in their share of whatever money is earmarked for any project, even at the expense of quality or performance.  

I could not but think about Mr. Fela Durotoye’s analysis of our peculiar situation during the Annual General Meeting of the Lagos State Chapter of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations about three months ago. According to him, our forefathers sold the best of their children into slavery because the white man had no need of the feeble; all they wanted were the hefty, intelligent and smart. And they sometimes got about three of them for a bottle of gin. That basically left our society with the lame, dumb and rejected. Some centuries down the line, he said, we are still faced with exactly the same problem. The only difference is that the best among us now pay their way into ‘slavery’. And those they ‘sell’ themselves to recognise and appreciate their exceptional skills and intelligence, so they make good use of them to develop their societies while, as usual, we are left with rejects – people with less than average intelligence – to rule or lord it over us.

Much as it is difficult to totally accept Mr. Durotoye’s analysis, one cannot but consider it as a possible reason why a lot of things which work effortlessly well in other societies never seem to work at all in ours. Who really are our leaders at local, state and federal levels? Can we honestly say that they are the best our country has to offer? And why should this country be destitute of quality leadership when we can boast of the best anywhere and everywhere in the world?

The truth is, any society that is serious about development would encourage its best brains, wherever they may be, to make an input in its efforts towards development. And one way of doing this is to provide a conducive environment where people can freely contribute their quota. But what do we have? Apart from those abroad, most of whom largely consider returning home a suicide attempt, our best brains continue to leave our shores because of our precarious situation that never seems to change. Most of them simply go to places where their ideas are appreciated. Yet, ideas, not oil or mineral resources, rule the world. Ask the developed countries of the world. What we do with the windfall from oil now will determine where we will be as a country in another 50 years. And we cannot do anything meaningful with our oil revenues until we give people with the right ideas their pride of place in our polity. This is not just in formulating policies, but also in implementing them.

The problem is, I have every reason to believe that those who have plundered this land over the years do not want any interference from those who know what it will take to move this country forward. That is why they continually employ crude methods to scare and sometimes frustrate those who return home or offer to lend a helping hand. As long as the confusion they instigate and consciously sustain persists, no right-thinking person will like to abandon the security over there for the insecurity and mediocrity that have become our hallmark.

And the sane people here who have something to offer? We have all decided to leave ‘them’ to do their ‘thing’ for fear of being targeted or roped in. I imagine what this country is losing in publicity and image management if a leading advertising agency like Prima Garnet and its likes are not interested or excited about doing business with government at any level. I know some very intelligent and successful people who have decided, for the sake of their peace, never to have anything to do with governments. That, precisely, is why mediocrity continues to thrive in those quarters. If our best brains at home and abroad are afraid to come out to help our governments do things right, then we are directly or indirectly scuttling our progress.

It is true that the government-introduced Due Process has opened up new vistas for people with integrity who are interested in doing business with government. But Due Process can be manipulated by its operators except they are the right people or the system is foolproof, at least, to a reasonable extent. That is why I feel we should not politicise the issue of the rule of law. It may not solve all our problems, but being honest in our efforts to establish the rule of law will encourage many more people to trust our systems and be more forthcoming in assisting our governments to do things right.

So, this is the best time for all well-meaning Nigerians to arise in unison and say no to shadow chasing and deceit. Everybody should be made to realise that there are consequences for mismanaging or embezzling public funds. And this ought not to be just said, it should be seen to be so in reality. Those who consider assassination as a veritable tool for settling imaginary scores should be made to know that fishing them out and making them face the music is not an impossible task. There should be a reasonable assurance that the same laws apply to everybody and in all situations. That way, those who have something to offer will have the confidence to lay down their lives, where necessary, knowing that even if they die in the process their death will not be in vain. For now, the fact that we cannot agree anymore on what is right or wrong suggests how long it will take to get there.    

Robot  Villager

# 1 Exactly two weeks before ...Read the full article. Posted by Robot| 22.10.2007 10:09