BUILDING THE FUTURE: BEYOND NUMBERS

Data nuanced with care are often more meaningful, reckons Joshua J. Omojuwa

A journalist asked a Nigerian governor what informed the choice of his first road construction project. The governor went on to recount his experience during the campaign. It was a rainy day as his convoy navigated the towns and villages of the state in question, rallying support for his mandate. Whilst everyone was distracted by the crowd and everything else, this candidate noticed the schoolgirl that was struggling in the rain as it poured. The girl raised her school uniform, almost as far as her underpants. For a man who was looking to make change happen, he immediately noted the challenge. He also made a commitment to himself, that if he got elected, he’d fix that road.

I retell this story because it is not a usual story you hear when it comes to governance in Nigeria. It is also not the sort you could say was guided by conventional data. This was limited data — a child on a bad road — albeit an emotional one, influencing a major decision. A lot has been said about Nigeria’s challenge with data. Muhammad Sani Dattijo’s book, Disruption, more recently helped to bring the matter home, especially with respect to his experience as a cabinet member in Kaduna State. You cannot create development without data and as shown above, you also cannot build without empathy.

The beauty of data is that it tells you the story, whilst accounting for nuances that just knowing about the problem may not show. For instance, it is not enough to know about infant mortality, it helps even more when you are able to geolocate the data, to know when the numbers appear to be higher over the course of the year, the cultural beliefs of the sort of women affected and other such data points. The more you know, the easier it is to design the solutions. In the absence of data or the right one, you could end up focusing your expenses on the effects whilst staying blinded to the causes.

Without data, you may be working hard, but on the wrong things.

As essential as data is though, it could result in scale insensitivity. I was reading a report where they said a former official had stolen $34b or so. Now, as someone who has an appreciation for numbers, I knew no Nigerian could steal such an amount in the same way you can’t steal what is not there. On account of that misplaced number, I discounted the report. That did not stop a lot of people on twitter discussing the number like it was N34b being referenced. These aren’t illiterates, the issue is that over time, people become insensitive to the scale of numbers. Some people appear to have an irrational relationship with numbers, that is different from scale insensitivity.

Mid-week, the EFCC was looking to arrest a former governor it had sued to court for N84b. That is the latest of the many numbers that have been quoted in the papers with respect to either corruption or a development cost. The human brain can only handle so much, so we cannot really quantify the scale of these numbers, whether to do with a development issue or say a corruption matter.

However, we are not insensitive to stories. Had the governor reeled out the number of roads he built and their length in kilometres, I probably would have appreciated it then. However, it would have sounded like just another story of that nature. Every governor, even the most mediocre of the lot, can talk about building roads. The ones that can tell you about the stories behind such roads will get your attention.

It reflects one of the most fundamental points of leadership, to care. If you want to know how much a leader cares, do not go in search of what they do, find out why they do it. On the matter of what, they all have records of one thing or the other, some are only better at those than others. On the matter of why, that is the sort of governance that combines data with care for the people.

When we look at our development numbers, be it out-of-school children, data on access to water, child and maternal mortality and other such data, finding the connection between that knowledge and doing something will always be inspired by knowing that there are millions of people and stories behind these numbers.

A friend told me about a Nigerian who established a school for children from indigent backgrounds, primarily receiving the children upon release from correctional and remand homes. I decided to meet with the founder of this school, LISA School. Damilola Feyide shared her story and her inspiration for getting the school started. I was moved to commit myself to the project whilst also promising to get my friends and allies on board. However, even though I thought I was sold to the dream after this meeting, it was not until I visited the school, met the 150 students that the work she was doing made more meaning to me.

We cannot build for people we don’t know. If you support a cause regularly, chances are that you’d likely do more when you see your support in action.

One day, Maryam defied the elements and set out for school. She was used to defying the distance to school. It just happened that, on this hopeful day, there was an Abubakar Bagudu who was campaigning to be governor of Kebbi State, challenging the incumbent party at the time. Bagudu set out to convince people to vote him as governor and amidst that, he was taking in faces and stories. One of those, Maryam’s — who could not even vote — ended up shaping his decision. She helped Bagudu build his first road as governor of Kebbi State in 2015 without needing to lift a shovel.

There is data, and it works, then there is the naked eye. If you choose to be blind, even data can’t help.

Omojuwa is chief strategist, Alpha Reach/ author, Digital Wealth Book