My thoughts in this article have drawn significantly from two of my previously published articles, Beyond Remembering the Legacies of Late Sir Ahmadu Bello, Sardaunan Sokoto and Premier of Defunct Northern Nigeria; and Time, Change, and Transformation in Nigeria. In the first article, I drew the attention of readers to the need to immortalise the legacies of the Late Premier, which should influence the performances of public officers in the country, especially in the North. In some parts of the second article, I listed the factors that, to my mind, provoked the change that has visited Nigeria, and then contributed inputs into an agenda our great ruling party, the All Progressive Congress (APC), drew up for the actualisation, entrenchment, and sustenance of change in our beloved country. I am convinced that some of the ideas in the first article can provide the enduring framework for the attainment of the main goal of the second article. This conviction dictated the titling of this article as Sardauna’s Legacies As Blueprint For Change in the Nigerian Polity.
LEGACIES OF LATE SIR AHMADU BELLO
The legacies of the late Sir Ahmadu Bello have been summarised into five actions in my article, Beyond Remembering the Legacies of Late Sir Ahmadu Bello, Sardaunan Sokoto and Premier of Defunct Northern Nigeria. They are further summarised as:
• Adoption and display of upright and exemplary character which made him to be deeply religious, God-fearing, loving, generous, sympathetic, selfless, disciplined, transparent, accountable, resolute, focused, and achievement-oriented.
• Modernisation of the North, which led to the formulation of policies whose implementation brought about the modernisation of the public service at the regional, provincial, and native authority levels; improvement of the lifestyles of the people in the region; and change in the political, economic, and social landscape of the region.
• Establishment of needed academic, industrial, commercial, and social institutions in the region which drove the modernisation process and led to built capacities, provision of employment and earning opportunities, alleviation of poverty, and enhancement of the economic, social, and political status of people in the region.
• Northernisation, which consolidated the building of the capacities of the people of the region and facilitated their entrance into the public service at the regional, provincial, and native authority levels; increased the visibility of Northerners in Federal establishments: public service and military and paramilitary; and private industrial and commercial outfits, and international organisations.
• Unification of the North, in spite of its plural nature of the region in terms of ethnicity and religion, which ensured that all segments of the region were represented in regional institutions and activities.
The legacies of the late Sardaunan Sokoto can be adopted as the blueprint for change by taking two very important steps. These are appreciating the legacies, and applying them. I will expatiate on what each step involves, in the course of which I will dwell more on the application of the legacies.
First, is having a moral rebirth the late Sardauna was a deeply religious person who allowed the tenets of Islam to mould him into the exemplary person and effective leader he was. Today, Nigerian leaders and followers need moral rebirths that will make them to be practical appliers of the tenets of their religions which Nigerians, including their leaders, are globally reputed to be followers of. This is a challenge that should be picked, considering the fact that even at the highest level of leadership of this country, we have celebrated religious leaders, with the Vice President, His Excellency Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, being a Senior Pastor of his Church, the Redeemed Christian Church of God(RCCG).
Second is modernization which, as a mark of emulating the late Sir Ahmadu Bello, and using his legacy of modernisation to change Nigeria. Beginning with transportation, it is no exaggeration to state that the road, air, rail and water transport require a complete modernisation. Deliberate actions have to be taken to modernise the 197,000km road networks of Nigeria. Each of the three tiers of government has shares of actions to take. For the Federal Government, it needs to deliberately modernise the 9% of the network, which translates to 17,739km of trunk A roads that belong to it. Available statistics show that only 27% of this network is in good condition; 30% in fair condition; with 40% in very bad conditions. In concert with the State Governments, the Federal Government should modernise the 30,000km of the total road network in the country that are urban roads by having them well paved and potholes-free, in order to allow the free flow of traffic. In addition, the problems associated with urban transport, namely, bad roads, inadequate buses and trucks, increasing traffic congestion, absence of parks and walkways, and the deterioration of the aesthetics of the urban environment should be adequately addressed. This is because it has been established that 90% of urban trips in Nigeria are by road.
There is also the need to improve the organisation of traffic in the urban centres, particularly in the mega cities, of the country. This is to accommodate high quality road transportation, improved modes of road transport in the forms of buses and taxis, organised ticketing system, and inter-modal transfer of tickets; and integration with the railway system. This will encourage and facilitate changes in between the modes of transport by users: between buses, between buses and taxis, and between buses, taxis, and trains. These acts will, certainly, showcase the modernisation efforts of the country and further enhance the comparability of Nigerian cities and cities in peer countries, and those in developed countries.
The Federal Government should make the air transport system more modern by ensuring that it is smooth, safe, regular, and reliable. This can be achieved by providing high quality air transport related infrastructure like good run ways, functional navigational and communication aids, ambient terminal facilities, and good road networks at airports. In addition, the system should have appropriate contemporaneous technical and security regulations and gadgets, technically skilled staff, and good and well maintained aircraft owned by operators that will guarantee smooth, regular, reliable, and accident-free air transport system.
The modernisation of rail transport in Nigeria should result in the possession and use of functional coaches and wagons, improved communication system, rebuilt network of tracks, and well organised and integrated urban rail system, that will enhance the transportation of passengers and cargo across the country, and within and between urban centres, by which means, the haulage of heavy duty cargo on the highways will be reduced, and the longevity of the roads will be increased, thereby easing their maintenance. This will increase the contribution of the rail transport system to the economic development of the country.
It is time to make the about 3,800km of major water ways in the country more effective by dredging the water ways, improving existing inland ports, through the provision of adequate infrastructure in the forms of functional modern navigational and communication aids, port facilities and good landside connections. This will enhance the transportation of cargo and passengers on the water ways, reduce the pressure on the roads, and elongate the lives of the asphalts on the paved roads.
Modernising electricity should involve deliberate actions by the Federal Government to make households, citizens, and businesses to have increased access to electricity to reach 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year. This should also stop the self generation of power by households and businesses, which today are estimated to produce and use between 4,000 and 8,000 Mega Watts (MW) of electricity that is not fed into the national grid. This feat can be achieved by enhancing the generation, transmission, and distribution capacities of the power sector in the country. In this regard, it will require increasing the generating capacity beyond the current about 4,500MW to the 2010 installed capacity of 6,978 MW; the enhancement of the transmission capacity to full capacity from the current 96%; and the reduction of the current transmission technical loss of 8.5% to the barest minimum. This will require updating, or replacing the aging facilities and equipments, some of which are between 30 to 40 years old; and effective integration of marginal renewable energy generated by upcoming power generating firms, into the national energy mix through improved policy potency, enhanced simplified investment and financing arrangements, and the provision of adequate technically skilled personnel for the sector.
Furthermore modernising water supply and sanitation infrastructure should aim at enhancing access to the country’s total available renewable water resources of 51 billion cubic metres, which translates to 1,893million cubic metres per capita, as by the end of 2008, from the present pitiable 4% access to pipe borne water with 74% in urban centres and 43% in rural areas, to more acceptable percentages. This should result in removing the ugly spectacle of hawking water in trucks, water tankers, and cans in cities, increasing the unacceptable 31% of the national population accessing improved sanitation, and reducing and even exterminating the practice of open defecation by 12% of the country’s urban population and 31% of the rural population. Consequently, it should reduce the prevailing high morbidity and mortality rates which are made up of 5% to 20% water-related diseases induced deaths. Achieving this will be a visible act of modernisation.
To modernise the Healthcare Delivery Services, there is need to make the health sector in Nigeria to be effective and efficient to the extent of preventing it from being “…’blind’ , lacking the vision of its goals and strategies; ‘ailing and deaf’, to respond to the cries of the sick and dying; ‘impotent’, seemingly incapable of doing things its neighbouring states have mastered”, as depicted by Dr. Kelly Bryan Ovie Ejumudo, at the primary, secondary, and tertiary levels. This is required in order to make the sector to be an acceptable performer in the delivery of preventive, curative, and care services. This can be achieved through increased institutional and human capacity building and enhanced funding.
At the same time, provision of educational services require more attention than imagined as available statistics show that by the end of 2008, there were over 56,812 educational institutions in Nigeria. The number must have increased by now. But it is regrettable to note that the educational system has a very weak basic and secondary foundation, and unreliable tertiary framework characterised with no Nigerian university being among the top 1,700 universities of the world and the top 10 in Africa. To modernise this sector requires addressing the major malady plaguing it, that is manifested in some of the problems including decaying physical facilities like crowded and inadequate classrooms and hostels, non-availability of current textbooks, science and research equipment, and poor funding. Modernising the sector can be achieved with the provision of increased funding and a strong resolve and drive to modernise.
Third is building of institutions and reforming the public service which adopting the late Sardauna’s legacy of building institutions by the Federal and State Governments will involve the deliberate strengthening of existing institutions and the building of non-existent critical ones. These institutions can be grouped into two broad classes of service and production institutions.Senator Kurfi represents Katsina Central Senatorial District in the National Assembly,Abuja
