Data and statistics are indispensable tools for effective and good governance. They enable us to assess performance, measure progress, identify challenges, and learn from the experiences of others. Although the next World Statistics Day will be celebrated on 20 October 2030, I have chosen to commemorate it today because it is usually celebrated on 20 October, and to encourage our people to appreciate the importance of statistics in national development.
It is globally known that nations grow and develop by learning
from others. In Nigeria, we learnt or adopted almost everything about our
governance from other nations. While we got our presidential system from the
US, other aspects of our socio-economic and governance systems were adopted
from the United Kingdom, flowing from our colonial heritage. These include our
legal, educational, banking, health, communication and agricultural systems,
etc.
As individuals, we also recognise that life is a process of
learning to improve, develop and grow. That is the natural process through
which we all became medical doctors, economists, engineers, bankers, lawyers,
mechanics, painters and professionals in other disciplines. Moreover, we always
want to learn from comparable experiences and similar people. This is how we interrogate
nations with visible progress and achievements that are verifiable through data
and statistics, generally referred to as evidence.
Good governance principles are anchored on global best
practices, which entail acknowledging, borrowing and adopting what works best
in other climes. Global best practices are also parameters and benchmarks for
comparative politics and performance.
The problem with our incompetent and corrupt APC-led government
is the confusion of hubris with leadership. This stems from a lack of
patriotism and a total absence of commitment to a better Nigeria. This is why
the government lacks the required humility, patriotism and disposition to
learning and is fixated on governing our richly endowed nation with corrupt,
ineffective and reactive policies, which inevitably produce poor and
retrogressive outcomes.
Verifiable data and facts confirm that Bangladesh is a
developing country with a population of about 178 million people. Undisputed
and verifiable statistics affirm that Bangladesh achieved significant poverty
reduction between 2010 and 2022. This lifted about 34 million people out of
poverty and reduced extreme poverty rates from 12.2% to 5.6%.
It is not by accident that indexes such as the Human Development
Index (HDI) and Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index are
sources of evidence on human progress. It is also widely known and confirmed
that the significant poverty reduction was achieved through five key pillars:
agricultural growth, export-oriented manufacturing, microfinance and NGOs,
social safety nets, and human capital and infrastructure.
As the above pillars through which Bangladesh significantly
reduced poverty are not too difficult to understand, the appropriate thing a
patriotic and effective government would have done is to learn humbly and
diligently how Nigeria can also significantly reduce its embarrassing and
shameful poverty level. Moreover, just as it is in Bangladesh, so it is with
the remarkable leadership in Vietnam, Rwanda, Morocco, India and many other
developing nations.
Unfortunately, the disingenuous, incompetent and corrupt APC
government cannot give what it does not have. It is limited in its global
worldview, unwilling to learn and deeply consumed by its inclination towards
state capture through the corrupt control of our national resources and bad
governance. That is why Nigeria, a richly endowed and blessed country, is now
classified as the poverty capital of the world, with a poverty rate of about
63% and over 140 million Nigerians living in multidimensional poverty.
It is also why the recent UNDP report disturbingly noted that
all the previous poverty reduction achievements in Nigeria seem to have been
reversed. How can our most endowed nation be the country with the highest increase
in the number of people falling into poverty?
In a more organised society, the recent reports from many
international and local organisations on the different dimensions of hardship
faced by Nigerians, including poverty, insecurity, inequality, unemployment and
corruption, should have compelled the incompetent, corrupt and unpatriotic APC
government to resign.
We must learn to learn from others so that we can fuel our
leapfrog with what others have done. As an axiom in organisational learning
states, unless the rate of learning is greater than or equal to the pace of
change, an organisation is becoming a dinosaur.
A New and Productive Nigeria is POssible, and Nigeria will be
OK.
*Peter Obi is the presidential candidate of
National Democratic Congress (NDC)
No comments:
Post a Comment