The annual ritual of wishing people a happy new year then proceeding to watch their lives get worse is expected to continue in 2024! To paraphrase Dr Sunny Maduka’s writing in the Independent; “The problem with present Nigerian leaders is not only their insatiable greed, brazen wickedness and reprobate criminality, but that they behave like vampires whose main sinister motives are to suck blood…”
In 2023, while Nigerians cried over poverty and hunger, political office holders crudely celebrated their capture of democracy. Their behaviour confirmed that Nigeria is now a nation in which honesty and good governance are no longer considered important. In 2023, it became evident that Nigeria is under siege by those who simply don’t care about humanity, and has become a lawless society gradually sliding into anarchy.
The rate at which innocent law-abiding Nigerians are murdered on a daily basis is inexcusable. In 2023, political leaders were far too busy taking holidays, rewarding themselves with luxury lifestyles or celebrating birthdays, weddings, and other social events to worry about government’s critical role in the protection of lives and property. They had no time to personally visit the scenes of atrocities to console the affected, and made it clear that they simply don’t care!
Instead of creating avenues and adopting policies that would generate employment for the nation’s youths, in 2023 Nigerian political leaders overlooked, legalised, promoted, and publicly celebrated all sorts of misconduct and transgressions.
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It makes no sense in 2024 to continue celebrating wrongdoing and yet expect good things to happen. Those entrusted with political office have shamelessly and without remorse continued to fail in governance to the extent that faith in government has been irretrievably damaged. There are many ways to improve governance some of which are complex while others are extremely easy. The golden rule and true foundation for building a relationship of trust in governance, which Nigerian political leaders ignore is to treat others as you would want to be treated.
Although there is no internationally agreed definition of good governance it involves respect for human rights, the rule of law, effective participation, political pluralism, transparent and accountable processes and institutions, an efficient public sector, legitimacy, political empowerment of the people, and values which foster responsibility, solidarity and tolerance, all of which are absent in Nigeria.
From a human rights perspective it refers primarily to the process whereby public institutions conduct public affairs, manage public resources and guarantee human rights. In summary good governance relates to the political and institutional processes and outcomes that are necessary to achieve the goals of development.
As 2024 commences, the New Year is the perfect time to turn a new page. It’s a great opportunity to change bad habits, make a fresh start, and establish new routines that promote psychological, emotional, social, and intellectual development. Making New Year resolutions is a tradition in which people resolve to commence good practices, change undesired traits or behaviour, accomplish personal goals or otherwise improve their behaviour at the beginning of a calendar year. Although the majority of individuals never keep all their New Year resolutions, people who set resolutions are far more likely to actually change their behaviour than those who don’t resolve to change anything.
No matter what they resolve Nigerian political office holders cannot be expected to improve their performance overnight because establishing new behavioural patterns takes time and sustained effort. However, if they focus on one goal improvement becomes much more achievable. It is trite that if people have already tried and failed, then they should not make the exact same resolutions or promises year after year but seriously examine what prevented them from succeeding in the first place.
In 2024 the powers that be must resolve to make things better. They must change their simple mouthed resolutions to govern better into goals which are to provide a clear direction to follow and are stronger and more achievable. Unlike resolutions, goals involve planning and are statements of what is to be achieve, the steps needed to achieve it and them time frame in which they are to be achieved.
Simple as that sounds government routinely fails to achieve goals set out in the budget and things only get worse. It’s a well-known in economic circles that based upon constant dollars the budget for 2024 represents a 23 per cent decline from 2023 and is to all intents and purposes impracticable.
Lamentably even as cash scarcity messed up the Christmas holidays as predicted, Nigerians are being told that rather than expecting respite in 2024 they should brace up for more suffering and the toughest year in the nation’s history! The predictions are that citizens will face scarcity, failure, and an increasing credibility gap in governance. There are also predictions of chaos occasioned by scarcity of jobs, foreign exchange, affordable drugs, doctors, nurses and affordable housing.
In 2024 government must resolve to be more transparent, responsible, accountable and responsive to the needs of the people. Without good governance only those holding political office, their supporters and family members will be safeguarded from rapid social and economic decline. Nigerians who wish each other a happy new year tend to do so in hope rather than expectation. Except there is change in the routine acceptance of unconstitutionality, and total disregard for human rights there is little hope that the majority of Nigerians will experience a happy 2024!
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