Now we are about to have heads of ministries, what next? Business as usual?
It is often said that a competent professional is not one who possesses complex capabilities, but one who can simplify and carry out complex tasks. In essence, competence has more to do with efficiency or getting the job done. The new team assembled by President Jonathan’s administration has been closely watched by Nigerians, foreign investors and interest groups alike.
Now we are about to have heads of ministries, what next? Business as usual?
It is often said that a competent professional is not one who possesses complex capabilities, but one who can simplify and carry out complex tasks. In essence, competence has more to do with efficiency or getting the job done. The new team assembled by President Jonathan’s administration has been closely watched by Nigerians, foreign investors and interest groups alike.
Will they live up to the expectation of stakeholders, or would it be business as usual? For reference purposes, these ministers are purely administrators and that’s what they are meant to be.
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('content1'); });
For the economic team assembled by President Jonathan to perform measurably, the administration itself must have a vision, and then a plan (Short and long term). To carry out this plan, there must be a feasible structure which is confined within the limits of available resources. This is where the administrators (ministers) come in. The job of these administrators should be limited to formulating administrative policies, not the overall vision for the ministry. To ensure cohesion within the government, it should be the duty of an economic team set up by the government to formulate the overall policies of the administration. Without this cohesion, there would be a lot distortion in government’s policies. For instance, we are about to leapfrog into a cashless society without the necessary ICT and network infrastructure in place. One segment of the government is moving at a fast pace and the other is stagnant, unable to realize its role, similar to the case of a well cooked meal served for the guest on a poorly prepared table which may kill appetite just like a badly cooked meal.
The administration of Mr. President should not be one in which each minister decides the way and the pace it goes, rather, they should be overseen by an economic team from the presidency which formulates the plans for the government, so that there could be continuity, room for expansion, and measurability of performance in governance. Not when a new minister is appointed, he decides that the projects started by his predecessor were merely for cheap political gains and discards them to start his, rather, even if the minister goes, the roadmap continues and only requires another administrator to oversee it. To buttress my point, take a look at the computer you are working with. It is built with specifications. There is also room for expansion without discarding the whole system. This means that you can upgrade the memory of the system without discarding the whole system. You can also similarly change the hard disk or DVD drive etc. A new manufacturer does not just walk into his factory and decide how his USB drive will look like, it has to be built to be able to plug into a standard USB port else it’s as good as trash till an adaptor is built or a computer that will accept it is manufactured. If you are also knowledgeable in programming and web development, you’d understand why open source applications and content management systems rule the web in recent times.
I would therefore suggest to Mr. President to set up an economic team whose duty should be the formulation of the overall government vision and a feasible working structure based on the resources at the disposal of the nation. This team would also be responsible for monitoring the performance of the ministers and the ministries they administer in order to determine if their administrative policies align with the overall vision of government. THE MEMBERS OF THIS ECONOMIC POLICY TEAM SHOULD NOT BE PARTY MEMBERS, but professionals and technocrats in different fields of expertise including policy formulation, audit and evaluation. Personally, if not for the ongoing reforms in the banking sector which need consistency, I would nominate the current CBN Governor, Sanusi Lamido, to head this team because he has demonstrated courage, discipline and passion. But I bet that we qualified and credible professionals who can get the job done.
We all know the various challenges facing this country; in fact, analyzing it here would be another waste of space that would simply bore my readers. I try to focus on feasible solutions for the short and long term. Talking about unemployment for instance, it wasn’t really encouraging news recently that some political leaders sat on a round table to pronounce that most of Nigeria’s unemployed youths are unemployable and are congesting the job market, and therefore needed to be retrained to acceptable international standards, and case was dismissed. Question is, did this constitute an immediate feasible solution to reducing unemployment? Even with specialized training, will it make the jobs available? While making plans for the long term to resolve many of the problems which have befallen our nation due to poor leadership, corruption, negligence and sabotage, Nigeria needs to focus on short term solutions which will ease the pressure on the polity resulting from the high level of insecurity and crime currently witnessed in the nation. It’s akin to a parent who believes that education is the key to having a better future for his kids; while working hard to achieve the education for the kids which is futuristic, is he going to neglect the needs of the moment which include providing food for the family?
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('content2'); });
Just some inkling for Mr. President, an inward look and subsequent review of current policies in place could help create more jobs and increase the necessity for skill acquisition by Nigerians. This will help to shift the attention of government to providing security and building infrastructure to attract more foreign and local investments that will help boost the industry and service sectors of the economy. For the sake of arguments, let me state clearly here that my suggestion is based on a simple and feasible policy implementation model which is achievable in the short term within the limits of budget and resources available to the nation at this time, as well as become useful in the long term when the right infrastructure and economic activity are in place.
Concerning unemployment, for instance, though we have long term plans to resolve this issue, we must not neglect short term solutions which could avert some crisis in the job market. Implementing shift work into the system by policy formulation, for instance, may not be a bad idea for a small but populous nation like Nigeria, to help create more jobs while making effective use of our active youth population and maintaining efficiency in the system. It does not make sense that many are unemployed and willing to work with few jobs being created, while many are being overworked in some sectors with no choice to split job schedules, and others are being overpaid in other sectors. In the same vein, many who are due for retirement are still in active service, not paving way for the younger ones to enter. These issues do not need billions of naira to resolve, but mainly policy reforms.
Online network marketing and advertising also proves to be a substantial income generation means for the more internet savvy. But unfortunately, the rest of the world alienates Nigeria from this business. PayPal, Clickbank etc are no friends of Nigeria. It’s worth mentioning here that fraud is not peculiar to Nigeria alone, but due to the inability or unwillingness of our security systems to proactively prevent or prosecute it, the world shuts us out and many legitimate people who would ordinarily be making money and not looking for jobs are severely affected. It only requires the right investments and policy implementations through the relevant agencies and ministries, to put structures in place and plug Nigeria back into the e-business world. This may sound complex and overwhelming to many, but like I stated earlier, a good administrator arguably is one who can simplify and successfully carry out complex tasks. This does not need billions of naira also to resolve, but mainly policy reforms.
If we rather consider agriculture as the only alternative to creating more jobs as suggested by Mr. President during his speech at the 2011 presidential election debate, we are looking at a long term project and let’s be honest, our budget and available resources cannot immediately accommodate the huge investments required by the sector, let’s not forget we also have security and electricity issues to deal with at the moment while more graduates are being injected into the system, unemployed. As these issues are being talked about and deliberated with more diplomatic language assigned to them and less work done to implement them, the effects are already taking a toll on the nation in form of crime and fraudulent inclination, and they will eventually manifest like a monster in the near future.
I would want to end it here without taking another shot because the whole text could fit into a book, but truth be told, this seems to be our last chance to get it right or we risk losing our once dear nation. As a businessman and consultant, I have carefully examined the system and determined the feasibility and massive potentials of exploring these systems, and if the President needs help, I am available. Thank you for your time.
Ozioma Unegbu
Writer, Researcher, IT Consultant.
[email protected]
http://www.nigerianpro.com
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('comments'); });