*Major Mistakes Nigeria made, Common thread to these Mistakes and how to correct them ~ Atedo Peterside*
*Nine major mistakes Nigeria made:*
1. Failure of Politicians to curb the excesses of their supporters.
2. The mindset that solution to violence is a greater violence.
3. The fixation of Public Servants on the pursuit of spoils of the Office they occupy rather than serving
4. The decision of the elites to bring religion into Politics for whatever reason
5. As a Nation we have not embraced proper conflict resolution mechanism.
6. The destruction of standards in the Civil Service by the military from the mid-seventies thereby stripping Civil Servants of their sense of career and financial Security, making them transactional in their dealings with the populace
7. The words of the leader have become empty and deceptive: they can say one thing today and do the opposite tomorrow.
8. We enthroned injustice by making it impossible for people to access Justice thereby creating a vulnerable Society and resort to Self-help
9. We embraced moral hazards in the most terrible way by rewarding bad behaviours.
*The reason why we need to understand the mistakes is because it’s nearly impossible to solve any problem that has not been properly diagnosed, not because we want to get involved in blame games.*
*Two broad actions are needed:*
*1. Reformation of Structure (Constitution) and System*
*2. Reformation of the Processes of Leadership Selection to ensure that good Leaders emerge.*
*The Common thread:*
The Common thread or pattern to the fraud is that many actors – Political and business actors – are actually competing at a game called STATE CAPTURE (Making Nigeria to work for them and a handful of their friends instead of working for the whole Nigerians).
The danger with State Capture is that sometimes it is legal. The actors simply make laws to legalise the illegality.
Take Abia State, for instance, where the Governor revoked all past arrangements for paying Pensions to past Governors because effectively he believed it was a State Capture.
When one is in the Office and decides to Capture a huge slice of future revenue of the Government for ever(As was the Case in one State in Nigeria). They put in place an arrangement that says 10% of the revenue of a State must go to their Company – a legally protected but ethically flawed transaction.
State Capture has become the vogue with Politicians and Public Servants trying to outdo each other in using all manner of arrangements to capture the revenue that should accrue to the Government.
Creation of PPP Projects, disputes from it and arbitration to award a huge slice of the cake to oneself.
State capture is worse than Corruption because Corruption are not covered with legal instruments but State Capture can be legally covered.
*What to do to stop State Capture:*
1. Keep youths interested and engaged in the Political Process of Nigeria
2. Demand for electoral reform and the use of modern tools and techniques.
3. Hold every public Officer accountable. Let whistle blowing continue.
4. Work hard in improving the opposition. Give your opponent something to think about to curb his excesses
5. The enemies of Nigeria are those who engage in State Capture (buying Yacht and foreign SUVs with Nigerian scarce resources.
6. We must not give up. Make it a priority to fight for the rights of the 200 million Nigerians
7. Learn to trust and encourage the few leaders who still exhibit genuine love for the people.
*Conclusion:*
Our task is to seek and encourage the few leaders whose sense of Patriotism goes beyond seeking their share of the spoils. Indeed we must identify and celebrate the handful who continue to insist that their priority would remain seeking the greatest good for the greatest number of Nigerians because they are the rare breed. And finally we must learn to put our trust in persons who still exhibit a genuine belief in social Justice and encourage them to deploy modern and traditional tools to expand their network and spread across the Nation.
Reflections 