ADAMOLEKUN’S PRESCRIPTION
FOR A NEW NIGERIA
As Nigerians clamour for solutions to numerous challenges, Ladipo Adamolekun argues that we must first get our politics right, writes Fidelis David
To celebrate his 80th birthday, Ladipo Adamolekun, a respected Professor of Public Administration recently hosted friends and well-wishers in Akure, Ondo State capital. Presenting his latest monograph titled ‘Nigeria and I: Getting Politics Right to Make Nigeria Work’ as part of the occasion, Adamolekun noted that the country has made only limited progress towards achieving national goals. To change the narrative, according to Adamolekun, critical stakeholders must work to get the politics right.
A respected international scholar who has also had stints at both the World Bank and the United Nations, Adamolekun holds a bachelor’s degree in French, (First Class Honours) from the University of Ibadan, a Master’s in Public Administration from the then University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) and PhD in Politics from Oxford University in 1972. In a brilliant career spanning several decades, Adamolekun has also authored or co-authored 36 books and monographs and contributed to dozens of journal articles on politics and public administration in Africa.
From January 1987 to July 2004, Adamolekun worked at the World Bank in Washington, D.C. United States. Prior to that, he taught at Ife for about 20 years, the last 10 as a Professor of Public Administration. His other work experience includes a one-year stint as a Public Administration Officer at the United Nations, New York between 1975 and 1976. Adamolekun, recipient of several honours and distinctions both at home and abroad, was in December 2005 conferred with the Nigerian National Order of Merit (NNOM)—the highest national prize for academic and intellectual attainment in the country.
At his recent session in Akure, Adamolekun listed three critical ingredients for Nigeria to get its politics right: A devolved federation, good democratic practice and administrative competence. “First, a major reason why Nigeria is not working is because we have maintained a unitary federalism oxymoron inherited from the military at the inception of civilian rule in 1999. To enhance our chances of keeping Nigeria one, consolidating democracy, tackling insecurity effectively, and achieving accelerated socioeconomic progress, Nigeria needs to urgently adopt and function as a devolved federal system,” he stated.
Such a proposed political system, Adamolekun argued, “will have the following defining characteristics: six federating units, assignment of functions between the central government and the federating units based on the principle of subsidiarity similar to the assignment of functions in the country’s 1963 Constitution; and allocation of resources that is consistent with both the imperative of fiscal federalism and the proposed increased functions for subnational governments.”
While canvassing that Nigeria’s current poor scores with respect to key measures of good democratic practice need to be reversed, Adamolekun said a “combination of governments that are accountable to citizens and citizens that demand accountability is an important factor for enhancing national development” yet for Nigerians to benefit from accountable governance, the improvements needed for strengthening electoral legitimacy must be introduced and implemented, he contended. “Adopting and faithfully implementing a devolved federation is critical to keeping Nigeria one; it is a fundamental condition for making our multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-lingual country work. In particular, a devolved federal system is very likely to enhance the ability of central and subnational governments to more effectively deliver goods and services to citizens. In my considered opinion, the reality that the pace of socio-economic development would vary among the federating units is a better outcome than the poor development performance recorded nationwide under the prevailing over centralization and uniformity.”
Specifically, according to Adamolekun, “improvements are required concerning electoral legitimacy (ensuring free, fair and transparent elections), functioning of the party system, scope of political participation, respect for the rule of law, protection of human rights, and freedom of speech and association. The goal should be to ensure the legitimacy of governments and a functioning law-based state that would help promote accountable governance.”
Nigeria, Adamolekun believes, needs a development-oriented political leader, one under whose watch the country can begin to record steady progress in growing the economy, reducing poverty, assuring security, and moving towards prosperity for all the citizens. “This would be a leader who, at the end of his/her tenure, would be competitive for the Mo Ibrahim Africa Leadership Prize that was established in 2007. The Prize recognises and celebrates African leaders who have developed their countries, lifted people out of poverty and paved the way for sustainable and equitable prosperity. To the imperative of development-orientation, I would add four essential leadership attributes to the characteristics of the political leaders that would make Nigeria work: integrity, intelligence, competence, and vision.”
No doubt, to make Nigeria work requires that both the people in power and the citizenry value education again as in those earlier decades, Adamolekun argued so that “the primacy of the merit principle can be restored and applied in the same contexts as during those decades while priority is given to the rebuilding and strengthening of both the educational and governance institutions.”
Meanwhile, to felicitate with Adamolekun in Akure were senior political editors and public intellectuals like Mobolaji Aluko, a Professor of Chemical Engineering and pioneer Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University, Otuoke as well as Prof Adele Jinadu, Prof Tunde Adeniran and Dr Joe Abbah, Prof Kemi Rotimi; Prof Niyi Akinaso, Prof Isaac Obasi, Prof Bayo Aborisade; Mr Gbenga Adefaye, the General Manager/Editor-in-chief, Vanguard Newspapers, among others.
At the end, the main take-away from the session was the conclusion drawn by Adamolekun was that tackling the multifarious challenges facing Nigeria requires the return to a well-functioning federal system that would aid our development and foster national unity.
David writes from Akure
