onWHY NIGERIA SHOULD OUTSOURCE THE MANAGEMENT OF ITS INSTITUTIONS FROM NIGERIANS

__ A Case on Inter-Generational Poverty Precognitive Disorder.

The first thought that would cross one’s mind after spotting a title like this is a mix of defensiveness and offensiveness.

Because its autosuggestion is one that ridicules the Nigerian human and undermines his capacity to bring about his own development.

As a thinker and Human Capital Development expert who has a background in Philosophy and Public affairs, this kind of uncomfortable truth is what I mostly encounter each time I think about the Nigerian society and how exactly such a socio-economic giant manages to be this poor that in 2019 when Nations across the world are improving their wealth quotient and Per Capita prowess, Nigeria only has the honor to be named the world headquarters of poverty.

It takes living in Nigeria to be able to really access this paradox and understand the extent of this anomaly. It’s like a kind of glitch. A dream of doom that one gets trapped into during a drunk sleep. It’s never makes sense in reality.

For a state that is concentrated with one of the most Educated Human Resource base in the world to be in a condition such as this is miraculous. Incredible and very terrific.

This is not even about Nigeria having the largest number of poor people globally. It is about the corrupt nature of this Nation.

A friend and I once joked that If Nigeria was an apple, the historic and infamous conflict that happened between the Hebrew God and two naked couple and a talking snake would not have happened. Because nobody would have eaten it. Not even a hungry beast would eat it. Not because it is over-ripen, but because it is evenly infested and corrupted.

The paradox of the Nigerian case is also much more represented in what looks to me like a graph chart.

The richest man in Africa is a Nigerian, likewise the richest woman in Africa is a Nigerian. (We all know the richest people though. Political Scavengers and thieves who can’t declare their wealth’s net because there’s clearly no way they could have humanly garnered such colossal heap of wealth.)

Also, the amount of money Nigerians spend on alcohol and other luxury beverages is unmatched in Africa.

Recently, a reality TV show grossed over 7 billion naira income from Nigerian youths within 100 days and Nigerian youths can’t wait for the next edition.

If one would estimate how much Nigerians spend on luxury annually, you would be shocked at the amount of wealth concentrated within Nigeria which according to global stats (Whether doctored or Nursed) is the world headquarters of poor people.

So, clearly, poverty in Nigeria is an anomaly. A kind of Glitch!

This suspicious situation and mathematical blunder is what got me thinking about the Nigerian situation.

Clearly, there have been many of us who have thought about this.

How is it that Nigeria is where it is today.

THE COLONIAL TRINITY CALLED NIGERIA:

Some have suggested that each of the Nations that formed the Nigerian Republic should go separate ways since it’s historically true that Nigeria is nothing but an unfinished project or let’s say interrupted project of colonial Britain. Or at least a restructuring should be done and what the West calls True Federalism should be introduced into the Nigerian system of governance.

In spite of the persistent frequency of this proposition, no concrete action has been taken towards this because some local beneficiaries of this British business centre has labelled it a crooked agenda flagged by those who want to disunite Nigeria.

Nonetheless, The question has always been, “was there ever a time when Nigeria was United?”

Well, as usual, we will all lie to ourselves and talk about how we have inter-married and etcetera etcetera. Whatever we can come up with.

The purpose of this article is not to discuss the british contraption and how Nigeria is better separated than trinitized.

I would focus on the purpose of this article which is to simply discuss how we can get along with the British colonial Trinity called Nigeria. Since we are not ready to separate.

My proposition is clearly stated in the title and the following paragraphs would only be my explanations on what I have in mind and what was going through my head when I coined the title.

THE FAULT IN OUR STARS:

Frankly speaking, Nigeria has some of the most prudent policies for development that I’ve read. Quite flawed but still not so bad.

On paper, Nigeria is a very flourishing Nation.

We have all the policies necessary to develop (these policies are opened for reviews and there’s an entire tire of government responsible for this.). Even the constitution which has been popular in recent times to be a fraudulent document has an entire institution responsible for its amendment but nothing has been done to amend it.

We have very intelligent minds and very advantageous geographical positioning suitable enough to make us an Agricultural world power.

Even so, we have all the Basic Institutions necessary to develop Nigeria.

This brings me to the centre of my thoughts.

We have all these in place. We have a whole Nation in place. Yet, we cannot make progress or improve our livelihood.

We can not ascertain our Self-Sufficiency and live up to the ideals of the independence we claimed we got in 1960 and the upgrade into a republic which followed in 1963.

BLAME GAMING AND OUR VIRTUAL REALITY:

What is the problem?

It makes sense to blame the colonial lords for all our problems but these blame game would make a lot of sense if we are still a colony.

We have gotten independence, 59 years and counting.

Imperialism is a very sensible argument too until one thinks about the fact that we have all it takes to self-determination. We have the complete sovereign right to self-regulate our affairs.

We have all it takes to disintegrate the colonial framework and set up something that works for us.

If Imperialism is used as a remote tool to exploit us, in what ways have we made ourselves less exploitable?

How much of independence have we actually deliberately gotten since our ceremonial independence in 1960?

After 59 years, the colonial blame gaming and imperialism chit chat don’t make sense anymore! It’s a total irresponsibility that we keep passing across to our children and they would pass the same to their children.

If we know colonialism is the problem and imperialism is what sustains the problem, what measures have we taken to break all the colonial and imperial structures surrounding us?

I do not mean this at the governmental level now, I mean it at the Family level!

In your family, how much of the colonial ideals do you perpetuate?

We have the option to write a new social contract either by restructuring or by going separate ways, we didn’t do any of those.

We have almost no plans on raising our own money for the funding of our own projects, we rather count on foreign aids. And yet we blame colonialism?

NIGERIA’S INSTITUTIONS; A ‘WHEELESS’ VEHICLE:

Now, let’s talk about Nigeria’s institutions.

It is no longer news that Institutions make societies.

Because the real purpose of government is to assemble people, regulate them, manage their commonwealth and distribute these resources accordingly.

To fulfill this holistic mandate towards social order, we have institutions set up to take responsibilities for each compartment of human development.

On this premise, one can say that the Nation which is run by these institutions will be stable and healthy in the proportion that the institutions work effectively.

Now, Institutions don’t run themselves. They are run by Nigerians. The people itself.

This means that, whatever happens to the Nations can be traced to the institutions and whatever happens to the institutions can be traced to the people.

And since we have independence, then we have the choice to put Nigerians in these institutions and since we have the option to put Nigerians in these institutions, these Nigerians have the option of building the institutions in ways that would be suitable for Nigeria and ensures its development.

For this, there should be no excuse for some imperial influence on our institutions. Even though this is another excuse people throw around. That the colonial principalities still have their surrogates among us.

Still a nonsensical claim.

INTER-GENERATIONAL POVERTY PRECOGNITIVE DISORDER:

If you have studied the Nigerian institutions closely, you would see clearly that Nigerians are the problem of Nigeria.

This is 100 % glaring.

You would see that it’s not even the government but the same Nigerian.

Both those who work in the private sector and those in public service.

This includes the gate-men at individual houses, the food vendors at restaurants, the uncles in the village, the traditional leaders in communities, the religious leaders in mosques and churches, the parents to public servants and the children of public servants.

You see a bug of poverty streaming through everyone’s mind.

Everybody is sick of a poverty mentality and everyone wants to steal.

People always mistake poverty for a physical condition that manifests as hunger, starvation, homelessness and all. No, poverty is an immaterial thing. It’s a cognitive situation. It’s a state of mind. So, those who ride fancy cars, live in glorious houses and live luxury lifestyle are not exempted from poverty. They are all mostly poor people.

You can see it in the way we approach life, business and public service.

A politician or public servant who steals billions of dollars is not stealing because he needs money. He steals because he is in abject poverty mentally. It’s hereditary and genetic. It’s neurological! No matter how much he has, he still believes he is a poor man.

How else do you explain a woman who was supposed to manage the country’s resource and ends up stealing billions of naira.

Her recovered jewelries alone amounts to be worth about 11 billion naira looted funds!

That’s the extent of how much infested everyone is with poverty.

She went to school! She’s educated!

One of the largest presidential perpetrator of looting in Nigeria’s history has a PhD!

He’s learned! (Well, you would understand when you realize the course of study he bagged his PhD in. That course has a lot to do with Brutes.)

In Nigeria, both the rich and the poor are driven by the same values that is rooted in poverty.

A people that attach value to nothing but materiality will never be free from poverty. And this, sadly is the situation of Nigeria.

In 99% of the Nigerian Populace is a state of mind called poverty.

And even if you are one of the 1% who are not infested by this state of mind, if you were to work in any of Nigeria’s institutions, you would have to deal with 99 people who are drowned in poverty mentality. Don’t be distracted by the kind of expensive cars they drive. They are dead poor! And every bit of your effort to do your job in that institution would be jeopardized.

It’s a 1:99 ratio mix.

The funny thing about this is, it’s psychological and so, people don’t know that they are being driven by poverty. And if you tell them, they would disagree.

In fact, there’s so much likelihood that you are among the 99% who are infested by this Inter-generational poverty precognitive disorder.

THE ROBINHOOD SYNDROME:

Now, there’s no doubt that we have few intelligent minds in Nigeria who have real values to contribute towards the development of Nigeria.

You probably are one of these few.

But here’s a truth, the way our society works, you have a whole society of greedy thieves who believe that you should live your lives for them. (Now that you are in Government, “Help us Steal from the oppressive Government!”)

And it’s as serious as this. There’s no way you can carry out your mandate alone. You need people to work with.

There are uncles, friends, family members, neighbors, mentors, mentees, spouses, in-laws, school mates, religious leaders, church members, mosque members, traditional leaders, road side beggars and many more who are waiting with their mouth opened for you to fill up since they believe you are now working in a Government Institution.

If you avoid most of these people, there are some of them that by emotional blackmail and other very complicated reasons, you have to bend principles for. People like, Imams, parents, siblings, Pastors, in-laws and very close friends.

These very set of people are the most corrupt set of people in Nigeria.

They use their emotional positions to bend the will of institutions workers in Nigeria across all boards. And when you think the ripple effect, you have a very corrupt and inefficient institution running our society.

An average agency or institution leader has 100s of thieves surrounding him in form of political god parents, biological parents, mentors, siblings, religious leaders and so on.

And the way our society’s cultural framework works, there are some people you have to compromise your integrity for.

You can’t be honest with them. They will emotionally blackmail you at a level you can’t deal with.

You can’t be principled and very straight forward, your fellow workers would label you a tyrant.

If you go into institutions in Nigeria and you observe it closely, you would see that Government is not the problem. Nigerians themselves are the major perpetuators of corruption. You see how corrupt Nigerians are and how they will never make the institutions work.

This Inter-Generational Poverty Precognitive Disorder is exactly why since over 59 years of self-determination, we have not been able to solve our problems.

And all we’ve been doing is blame Europe and the Government.

The same thieves at family level make it to positions of power and still continues with their theft. Now on a grand scale.

Religious leaders also put people up in the public just to make themselves more powerful and to enhance their manipulation prowess.

It’s a very terrific situation.

MY UNCOMFORTABLE PROPOSITIONS:

To solve this problem.

I have thought about two theoretical solutions and my favorite is what I have enshrined in the title. The first is really a bad option and I do not really believe it would work.

The first is that , we need more than democracy to solve the problem of institutionalized corruption.

We would need a dictatorial blend.

The Nigerian Humans are very lose people.

If we want our institutions to work, we must organize a highly controlled state.

We must protect our institutions from people who like to wake up any morning and do what they like.

That’s the only way we can protect our institutions from scavengers.

Now, the problem with this proposition is, it will still have to be run by a Nigerian. A the Dictator will also be vulnerable to Nigerians and the whole thing would become a mess. (Like the kind of democratic dictator we have now.)

This was the Military Coup’s perpetrators’ excuse at that time.

They saw civilians had turn into thieves and rogue since the colonial lords left and so they stepped in with the bid to solve corruption problem and they end up being corrupt themselves.

So, this is not even an option. Except if done on a very rare case.

Rwanda today is rising towards development because they’ve got a fairly good Military folk. He’s set up a sublime dictatorial annex under his democracy and he has been able to run a highly controlled state.

Obasanjo tried to pull the same stunt when he tried to test Nigerians with a 3rd Term bingo!

So, this is not the best of my option. It’s not even possible with the curent Nigerian folks. They would turn Nigeria into a bigger Hell.

OUTSOURCE FROM NIGERIANS!!!

So, I would just propose my title.

We need to Outsource the Management of Nigeria’s Institutions to Private Management Companies.

Sounds crazy! But it’s a fast lane to get our Nation off the ground!

At this critical times, we need to urgently think about what would be best for us rather than trying to force a development model on ourselves.

For example, the Education sector should be outsourced to a Globe-class Private Education Outfit to run it. The same should go for other sectors and institutions.

Nigerians would work in these institutions. But they will inevitably take directive from the Private Management Companies.

We have done this before so, it’s not some new thing.

Lagos state had outsourced many of its development sectors to private institution.

Like it’s Taxing Project and Sanitation Project.

At the National Level, we have done different Privatization. Most prominent being the Power Sector.

What I am proposing is something much more in-depth. It should be done at Institutional scale.

HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?

Well, I don’t have perfect answers, but here’s what I believe we can do.

This Private Management companies would be companies who have reputation and credibility.

They would apply and submit their manifesto and action plans for a 5-years period.

The best would be employed and handed the Job.

They would work independently. Independent Bodies Like the United Nations would be the accountability partner.

After 5 years of operation, we review or renew.

The institution workers would be Nigerians but not led by Nigerians. The leadership of the institutions would be 100% Non-Nigerians.

They have the right to run the institution privately but still is the Nigeria’s government’s property.

They would need to submit how they would monitor activities and incorporating technology in the monitoring process such that there would be no easy way to bend institutional procedures.

Those who don’t follow the guidelines would be fired and replaced immediately.

The government will still be there.

Legislature, Judiciary and Executive still functional. But only for supervision and progress review.

This would go on until we can effectively run our institutions on our own.

FACING THE TRUTH:

Truth is, development is not rocket science. It’s not as difficult as the Nigerian thieves had made it to look like.

It’s much more simpler than that.

This proposition is rather strange and very very disturbing. But even more disturbing is the realization of the calibre of people who run our institutions. You would be shocked if you know those who run our social institutions.

I myself find this proposition very disturbing. But it might be a good way to get ourselves off the ground.

We have stolen enough from ourselves.

We have expressed enough greed!

It’s time we give up this anomaly we call lifestyle and do what’s needful so we can secure a future for ourselves.

This sounds like a second colonialism.

But it’s nothing like it.

Unless we do this. We will have to wait for decades till our people develop enough maturity and freedom from Poverty mentality to be able to handle running an institution properly.

Now!

I know the thieves in us would not let us even consider a proposition as this.

This will threaten all the greed in us and we would hide under “Protecting our Sovereignty” crap to boycott this. Or we would scream that this would cause many to lose their jobs.

Well, which job? This is a topic for another article.

Most likely, this is what we would do.

We would come up with several reasons why we can’t do this.

Sure!

LOCAL AND INTERNATIONAL THEIF THEIF!!!

Olè ni Ẹ́vérýbọdỳ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here is it.

We will remain underdeveloped for so long unless we reform our institutions.

If you are not ready to let your institutions be outsourced, here’s an alternative;

Citizens must demand for complete constitutional reform. An entire overhaul of how institutions work and we must incorporate technology in monitoring our institutions.

We must stop being thieves!!!!!!!

We must stop putting pressure on our family members or church members, or mosque members or school mates or spouses, or in-laws who are in public service.

We must be orderly! We must be patient with due process!

We must be accountable to our nation and get rid of poverty mentality!

We must stop being thieves!!!!! We must develop healthy values!!!!

We must elect good leaders and not corrupt people.

We must stop being so foolish. We must stop stealing!!!!!

If we can’t do all these. (I know we can’t! We are simply not ready for such virtuous lives!)

If we can’t do all these, then we must outsource or break

Olè ni Ẹ́vérýbọdỳ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Olè ni Ẹ́vérýbọdỳ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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