Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
Of
Development
Edited by
Olusegun Obasanjo
and
Akin Mabogunje
Table of Contents
Page
The Principles and Guidelines of the Farm House Dialogues
Preface
Chapter
1. Leadership for Development
2. Population and Development
3. Youth and Development
4. Women in Development
5. Labour and Development
6. Management and Development
7. Technology and Development
8. Communication and Development
9. Rural Development
10. Education and Development
11. Health for Development
12. Food and Development
13. Culture and Development
18
9 20
2139
40- 54
55- 74
75- 94
95- 117
118 138
139 154
155 166
167- 187
188- 196
197 212
213 229
230 231
Preface
This book is a collection of reports of thirteen editions of the Farm House
Dialogue, an ad hoc assembly of knowledgeable people who gather
informally, and in a relaxing atmosphere of the rural setting, to discuss
specific subjects and issues. A report of the weekend-long discussions is
usually produced to throw more light on the subject and the issues raised for
participants and non-participants alike. The reports in their conclusions are
rather recommendatory as there is always a right admixture of analysis and
prescription.
The Farm House Dialogue is essentially a national programme of the Africa
Leadership Forum. The main aims of Africa Leadership Forum itself is:
a. To encourage the diagnosis, understanding, and informed search for
solutions to local, regional, and global problems, taking full account
of their interrelationships and mutual consequences;
b. To develop, organize and support programmes for the training of able
and promising Africans with leadership potentials so as to expose
them to the demands, duties and obligations of leadership positions
and to meet the challenges of an interdependent world;
c. To generate greater understanding and to enhance the knowledge and
awareness of development and social problems within a global
context among young, potential leaders from all sectors of society,
cutting across national, regional, continental, professional and
institutional borders and with a view to fostering close and enduring
relationships and promoting life-long association and co-operation
among such potential leaders;
d. To support and encourage the diagnosis and informed search for
appropriate and effective solutions to local and regional African
problems from an African perspective within the framework of
global interdependence including consideration of phased action
programmes that can be initiated by various countries, sub-regions
and institutions.
The Farm House Dialogue is one means of pursuing the aims and objectives
of the Forum. The dialogues contained in this book cover essential elements
of development. The elements are by no means exhaustive. Although the
issues are Nigeria centered, they are equally relevant to situations in other
African countries or other developing countries outside Africa.
The invitation for each Dialogue was dispersed across territories, gender,
age and professions as well as specializations. It included policy-makers as
well as policy-takers. Responses, in all cases, have been very encouraging.
And I take this opportunity once again to thank the people who have
participated in all the dialogues. They have made the efforts by all of us at
the Africa Leadership Forum most rewarding, exciting and instructive.
Through our heavy and long mailing list and distribution network of the
reports, we have received comments and remarks that we have incorporated
in this final book. We are indebted to those who did not only receive the
reports and read them but also take the trouble to forward comments, which
we appreciate.
The quality of our discussions at each Dialogue and the subsequent reports
are the products of quality and enthusiasm of the participants as well the
indispensable guidance and direction of the Chairmen of each Dialogue. We
are heavily indebted to all of them starting from Chief S. O. Adebo, who
launched the series with Leadership for Development, Professor Akin
Mabogunje who chaired the next on Education for Development, Chief
Osita Okeke on Youth and Development, Alhaji Ahmed Joda on
Communication for Development, Major General Henry Adefope on
Labour and Development, Professor C. Nwokolo on Health and
Development, Chief (Mrs) Tejumade Alakija on Women in Development,
Mr. Wilberforce Juta on Rural Development, Chief Micheal Omolayole on
Management and Development and Professor Chimere Ikoku whose
chairmanship of the one on Technology and Development still evokes
pleasant memories. The report on Population and Food were synthesized
from the discussions of a larger international conference organized by the
Africa Leadership Forum in Ota, on Population, Environment and Climatic
Changes in Africa and on Agricultural Production and Food Security in
Africa. The presentations on Population published in this book were
discussed at the Farm House Dialogue on Technology while the points
contained in the report on Food and Development were discussed at the
Dialogue on Management and Development. The reports, as presented in
this book, do not follow the sequence in which the Farm House Dialogues
took place on each subject, as the need was to re-arrange the reports in three
main blocks. That re-arrangement enhances the subject matter. In addition,
as each chapter is a separate brainstorming exercise by itself, there is of
necessity a certain amount of repetition or overlapping, especially in the
definition or elaboration of the term development, so as to put each
Dialogue on the same wave length.
In all cases, the rapporteurs did a marvelous job. However, the quantity,
consistency and standard of the report has been maintained by the general
editor, Professor Akin Mabogunje, who always insisted on having Ayo
Aderinwales note along with the report of the rapporteurs. We are grateful
to both of them. This book will enable participants and non-participants
alike to have, in one volume, the complete Dialogue on development. It will
also allow the reader to capture and savour the spirit and the fellowship of
each dialogue.
While we are not presumptuous or nave to expect all our recommendations
to move to the realm of policy immediately, we believe that the track record
of the Farm House Dialogue is so far commendable. The disbandment of
Ministries of Local Government followed closely on the basis of our first
report on Leadership for Development and the recommendation for such
disbandment.
The policy of nine years of compulsory education might not be unconnected
with our Dialogue and Report on Education for Leadership. While
congratulating the Dialogue, we also congratulate the authorities for being
aware and being responsive to all the advice of the programme.
We, at the Africa Leadership Forum remain unrelenting in the task of
diagnosing, through discussions, issues of national, regional and global
concern and making recommendations thereon to ensure a wholesome
society and a better world through improved performance. The next series of
our weekend discussions will be on the general subject of Democracy and
Governance, which will be the second in our Farm House Dialogue Book
Series.
Olusegun Obasanjo
Ota, January 1991
1
Leadership For Development
A starting point for examining the issue of leadership in development is to
determine what constitutes the essence of leadership. In this regard, a
number of other pertinent questions can be raised. These include for
example questions such as; who are leaders? How is leadership defined?
What are the roles of leaders? How is leadership acquired? Are leaders born
or made? How is leadership exercised?
It was observed that these questions were important because the tendency in
the Nigerian society was to talk about leaders or leadership only in terms of
the few individuals who occupied the apex of government and the private
sector. Thus, leaders are conceived as only those persons holding highly
visible positions in government and industries. The media has helped to
encourage this view of who the leaders are by focusing incessantly on this
group. Part of the reason for this over-emphasis is no doubt the fact that, in
an underdeveloped country, government activities are so dominant that those
who carry them out at the top level appear to be the only leaders in the
system.
Nonetheless, it was agreed that for leadership in whatever field, certain
qualities, apart from deliberate preparation, were critical for success. These
include, among others, humility, honesty, commitment to hard work, ability
to conceive programmes of permanent value, firmness, fairness, vision,
patriotism and integrity. The task of preparing individuals to assume
leadership roles in any field must consequently entail devising ways and
means of imprinting on potential leaders these qualities of leadership, apart
from establishing the criteria for identifying such individuals. This was
certainly one of the basic objectives that informed the establishment of the
National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies at Kuru. The Africa
Leadership Forum must thus be seen as a complementary private counterpart
of the National Institute, albeit with a wider continental mandate. However,
if these two centers and others that may be established in future were to
serve their purpose well, great care must be taken in selecting the individuals
who are invited or sent to them.
Within the context of the experiences represented at this first Dialogue, the
following views on current societal leadership were noted:
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
v.
vi.
vii.
develop themselves, the more they would become instruments for further
change. Increases in the GDP could then be seen as intermediate in the
process; that is, as the product of the change process and the input for further
change. Education was identified as the key to peoples ability to manage
and induce change. It develops the ability to make intelligent choices while
also increasing the choices available.
Given this definition of development, the question was asked as to how to
manage or induce change in a large population such as we have in Nigeria.
Is this where the issue of leadership becomes crucial? Does development, for
instance, involve the ability of a nation to conduct free and fair elections,
and thereby ensure smooth political transition? Or, is the concept of
development one that can be grasped first at a limited level before it can be
extended to society as a whole? How are leaders meant to grapple with such
a concept?
The challenge of providing a simple answer to these various questions was
illustrated by one participant in the following vivid and rather imaginative
way. According to him as he drove to work every day, he noticed a
signboard on the way with the inscription: Christ is the answer, leaving
him to wonder as to what the question was! In a similar way, according to
him, it has often been stated rather loosely that leadership in Nigeria was a
problem, without proper attention being paid to the question: problem of
what? As such, leadership was frequently treated as an independent variable
without being linked specifically to the Nigerian society. The question could
thus be asked as to whether or not it was possible to have a good leadership
emerging in the Nigerian situation. Even if the search was extended beyond
political leadership, the question also remains as to the type of leadership
that had emerged in other areas of the society.
At the level of local government, for example, is it possible to have a leader
who is not from the major ethnic community in the area? Is it possible to
have a leader who is not a contract giver and patronage dasher? Since ,at
least for now, the answer to these questions must in most cases be in the
negative, it must be admitted that leadership cannot be considered in
isolation of, but in relation to, the societys structural characteristics. It was
concluded that leadership in Nigeria remained problematic because it was
not an independent variable but a mixture of other variables. For a change or
development to take place in the country, therefore, there is need to engage
in raising the people or the society as a whole above the various structural
constraints, and creating appropriate machinery for bringing this about.
It may, of course, be asked that, if development is about people, how do
people relate to the necessary and appropriate machinery for breaking down
the structural constraints impeding change? The answer, it was agreed, is
that people must be seen as both the agent and the object of change. As
agents of change, people need to be disciplined if they are really desirous of
getting out of the morass of underdevelopment. The first challenge of
leadership in regard to the concept of development is how to create or
achieve a disciplined society. A disciplined society must not be assumed to
be a repressed society, but that which gives ample opportunity for the
flowering of independent radical thoughts.
Not unexpectedly, there were reservations that, given the pervasive
corruption and the present political set-up in the country, it might be an
empty hope to expect the emergence of a disciplined and upright political
leadership. In cautioning against such pessimism, it was observed that,
despite its many failings, the Shagari regime of 1979 to 1983 could, for
example, be viewed as representing a definite quantum of progress in the
political development of the nation because it provided an opportunity for
civilians to mess around. Its value must be seen in terms of the concrete
example it provided on how national disasters could occur, and on the
opportunity it provided for improving the countrys leadership quality.
Clearly, what Nigeria has been going through in the last three decades must
be seen as the inevitable pains and pangs associated with the evolution of a
strong and united nation.
If development is about people, then the people constitute a repository of
energy for development and it is the careful release of this energy that
constitutes development. The major factor in development is the mental
factor. The elite in the country needs to clear their mind about this to prevent
the nation from moving fast in the wrong direction. It is recognized that the
nations economy is based largely on foreign capital. Should this continue?
How does this relate to the concept of development as that of people
developing themselves? Or, to the establishment of democratic institutions at
the grassroots level.
It is the combination of these four factors that ensures the capacity of people
to achieve sustainable growth. It is not just rushing ahead to spend windfall
gains from a non-renewable resource like petroleum; the type of action that
has been the bane of the country. Such an action also meant living on a
surplus accruing from outside our own productive capabilities and under the
control of the government. It leads, in consequence, to a failure to properly
address the issue of national development.
Against this background, what is the role and significance of development
plans? Conventionally, these are documents prepared by a small group of
experts, mainly economists, who are also, to a large extent, responsible for
their execution and monitoring. When, at the end of the day, such a plan fails
to achieve many of its objectives, this same group sometimes turns around to
blame the political leadership. The reality, of course, is that the nation has
been made to try to plan from top to bottom, the top being represented by the
experts and the bottom, by the masses. The reverse should be the case. For,
in the final analysis, economic planning and development must be seen as
the concern of all and not of economists alone.
However, it was stressed that the existence of a good plan is not enough as
the basis for achieving development. There must be, in addition, a political
leadership that has the vision, the education, the will, the credibility and the
capacity to manage the process of change, and a fellowship that is ready to
change its attitude, its ways and its taste. This is vital if the people must be
taken into confidence. The role of the leaders is to fix priorities and guide
the society into appreciating the imperatives of these. The effectiveness of
leaders in achieving these objectives would, of course, depend on their own
qualities and on the arrangements for their succession. Those who aspire to
lead must have an irreducible minimum and reasonable level of education,
exposure and moral strength.
What institutions exist or can be devised to assist in moulding and bringing
up this kind of leadership? The Africa Leadership Forum is certainly one
such institution but it cannot be the only one. There exist tremendous
opportunities for many other initiatives in this matter. This is particularly so
as it must be admitted that many of the leaders that the country has had so
far have shown very little patriotic interest in their mission. This is true of
both the leadership at the Federal and at State levels of government. It is,
however less true of leadership at the community level. As such, it was
suggested that in the present circumstances of Nigeria, minimum
ii.
iii.
iv.
v.
vi.
2
Population and Development
The rate of growth of the Nigerian population since the middle of the
century, compared to that of the rest of sub-Saharan Africa, is both alarming
and distressing, especially when taken in the context of the deteriorating
quality of life of ordinary people. It was observed, for instance, that, in 1953,
Nigerias population was 31 million. Ten years later, the officially accepted
population figure was 56 million. In 1985, the estimated figure was 98
million. In the opinion of the participants, if these figures were accepted as
fair estimates, it would mean that, within 21 years, Nigerias population
would have increased by 42.3 million or 76%. Although several factors have
been identified as the propelling variables, the Dialogue took the view that
the needed conditions for such excessive population growth must be looked
for in our traditional norms and behaviour patterns.
In traditional Nigerian society, the wealth of an individual was assessed by
the sheer size of his household. The household included several wives,
numerous children, many relatives as well as a significant number of
indentured labourers. However, this household together constituted his pool
of labour for farming and other productive purposes. Another index of a
mans wealth and status was the size of his herds of cattle, sheep and goats.
Essentially then, the household was, in the past, the pivotal basis for
assessing a mans social relevance and importance. The Dialogue noted that
the simplicity of this setting was further accentuated because the traditional
Nigerian society bore little or no financial costs of the now basic concerns of
social existence such as education, housing, food, transport, health and
similar necessities that form the nexus of modern developmental activities.
However, the population density was low, the lifestyle of the people was
simple and the individual and the society were at equilibrium with each
other. Over time and especially with colonialism, this situation changed and
Nigeria entered a new period where the emphasis of social existence became
anchored on the modernization process and on modern science. These led to
a sharp reduction in infant mortality rate, and a significant rise in life,
expectancy.
Given the insanitary conditions of our urban centers, the Dialogue took
cognizance of the high rate of waste generation and consequent
environmental pollution and degradation and called for the re-introduction of
sanitary inspectors. It noted that the provision of adequate environmental
sanitation, social preventive health care, and good nutrition must be a better
strategy for greatly improving the health status of the vast majority of
citizens, bearing in mind that the funds required to achieve this are much
lower than would otherwise be require for curative remedies in cases of
epidemics. For, although the cost of financing curative health care is both
public and private, and is available in both public and private health
institutions, the cost of obtaining health care services could be prohibitive
particularly to the low-income earners who constitute the majority of the
populace. Consequently, this category of Nigerians can hardly afford to
patronize the public health institutions not to talk of the more expensive
private ones. Besides the cost factor, the present capacity of these
institutions is too small for the very large number of patients. In other words,
demand for curative health services is already in excess of its supply. With
the rapid rate of population growth, the situation would naturally arise in
which the price of health services would become so high that only the rich,
who could pay, would get medical attention. Were such a situation be
allowed to arise, it would be a very sad commentary on our development
process.
Conceivably, a nation that cannot provide adequate and nutritious food for
its citizens cannot be said to have a national food security system. Symptoms
of food insecurity are already manifesting in the nutritional stress, which is
currently increasing the rate of infant and general mortality. Food in Nigeria
is becoming unaffordable and unavailable in sufficient quantity and quality
especially for the urban poor. The implication of this for our health services,
it was argued, lies in the extra burden that would be placed on the curative
health care delivery system, which then has to treat the symptoms of
malnutrition with expensive medication. Such a situation would simply
make a mockery of our campaign of Health for all by the Year 200.
Conclusions
The Dialogue noted that one remarkable change about the population debate
in Nigeria is that it can now be conducted calmly and objectively in a
context that is certain to generate more light than heat. In effect, population
debates can now be conducted more openly, and rational suggestions and
measures canvassed for stemming the tide of unwholesome population
growth.
It thus devolves on the individual, the community and the opinion leaders to
embrace the idea of fertility regulation, and collectively take measures that
would assure the nation of a move towards population stabilization.
Controlling Nigerias population was a much a challenge of leadership as it
is a matter of enlightened self-interest for every citizen.
The Nigerian media have the major responsibility to sensitize the nation to
the urgent need to restrain the rate of population growth. The Dialogue noted
and commended the current level of awareness creation that is being
generated by the activities of the media. It, however, urged against
complacency. Much still needs to be done to promote a culture of family
planning to obtain a small family, which a couple can effectively provide
for. Opinion moulders such as teachers, priests, imams, traditional rulers,
union leaders and people holding offices that place them in a position to
influence the thoughts of others, were also enjoined to participate in the
struggle for population control. The imminent population explosion in
Nigeria is like a time bomb. Unless and until all Nigerians took it upon
themselves to get involved in the population stabilization campaign, the
consequences of such an explosion could be worse than the nightmare
scenario.
3
Youth and Development
The Dialogue resolved to regard as youths all those who fall between the
ages 18 and 40 years. It recognized, however, that this is for convenience
since it does not really typify a particular group. It is possible for some 15
year olds to qualify as youths whilst it is not unusual to find a 45 year old
person with the spirit and attitude of a youth. This broad spectrum, it was
observed, can be further divided into two categories: those within the age
bracket of 18 and 30 years and those between 30 and 40 years, who should
be seen as mature youths.
Having resolved the question of age, youths were characterized as people
likely to show the following traits: a strong desire to move up the social
ladder; a tendency to be idealistic as a result of the values passed unto them
at earlier ages by role models in society; an eagerness to live up to these
models; frequent frustrations and anxieties as this idealism confronts the
cold realism of daily existence. Youths are thus people who are still
worrying about what they would be in life and not those wanting to keep
what they have. They are concerned not only about mundane things, but also
about how to change society as a whole, a trait that in some youths attains
revolutionary proportions. Youths, especially when they are not in the
mature category, are also people who are materially dependent and to some
extent need adult supervision. They are exuberant and dynamic. They want
quick results and desire that everything be accomplished in a day or as soon
as they desire it. They are risk-takers because of their limited level of
responsibilities. They also tend to be relatively alienated from the status-quo.
They are mobile in thought and have a transitory worldview.
and opportunity that this programme has created has meant that enough
resources are not available to commit to youth development.
The Dialogue observed that the gross inadequacy of resources has seriously
impaired and incapacitated the ability of youths to realize their full
potentialities. The gross inadequacy is manifest in a variety of ways
including the marginalization of educational institutions at all levels, the
contraction of employment opportunities, and the poor standards of
recreational facilities.
The effect of this inadequacy would not have been so telling but for the
absence of a formal youth development policy on the part of the
government. Noting that the youth, as defined earlier on, constitute a
significant proportion of the nations population, the major percentage of the
population, the Dialogue then called for an articulate and imaginative youth
policy for development.
recommended that the positive aspects of the extended family system should
be sustained, especially those aspects that help to restrain divorce among
married couples and thus reduce instability in family life.
Outside the family, concern was expressed for the need to work towards the
establishment of a national socialization process. This entails that
government must provide ample funds for creating institutions,
organizations and activity programmes outside of the formal school system.
All of these must be directed at achieving intensified and more structured
inter-personal interactions among all categories of Nigerian youths with a
view to enhancing national integration and fostering the evolution of a
national culture. One way this can be done is through the organization of
youth hostels and holiday camps throughout the country. This would also
involve the improvement of the mass transit system and perhaps subsidizing
fares, as was the case with the railways in the pre-independence period.
Youth hostels and holiday camps can serve the vital role of inculcating in
our youths some basic and desirable national ethos such as hard work, a
sense of public service, respect for elders and for ones peers, moral
integrity, and pride in our culture and value system. Until such youth hostels
and holidays are available, it was suggested that universities could be
encouraged to use their facilities for such a purpose during holidays. To
provide universities with the necessary incentives to do this, the federal and
state ministries of youth should provide funds for this purpose and actively
participate in ensuring that youths get to see other parts of the country and
meet their peers. Recreational facilities should also be provided locally to
help in mental and physical relaxation and enhance the creativity of the
youths.
In the same vein, the Dialogue also recommended the establishment of
national and less elitist equivalents of such youth clubs as the Jaycees,
Rotaracts and the Leos with basically Nigerian orientation and ethos. It was
suggested that such clubs should not entirely be sponsored by the
government but would need some subvention and official recognition from
the government.
The Dialogue also observed that the Nigerian media pays insufficient
attention to youth affairs. On national and state television, for instance,
besides the few childrens programmes and musicals such as Soul Train and
Quiz programmes, there is nothing concrete for the youth to relate to. It was
recommended that the media need to consciously develop programmes that
can aid youth development, and pay less attention to the foreign disco and
canned serialized American films.
To bridge the communication gap between the elders and the youths, it was
suggested that Nigerian elders should be more tolerant of the youths. Most
Nigerian cultures, in fact, do recognize the rights of youths to be heard and
to actively contribute to discussions on vital societal issues. Pains should be
taken, on a personal level, to explain the basis of these decisions to the
youth. At the same time, youths should be advised to be less impatient and
be more willing to learn from the wisdom of their elders.
The issue of women education was also considered. The consensus was that,
if the preferential treatment of quota system being advocated in some
quarters, especially for women, were de-emphasized, womens natural
brilliance and academic competence would emerge more clearly. It was
generally agreed that women are not academically inferior to their male
counterparts.
The centralization of the admission process also came in for criticism. In the
opinion of participants, admission into the university should be decentralized
to allow for relatively easier access to the Universities by those who are
academically competent and eligible.
The plight of lecturers within the University system was also examined. The
consensus of opinion was that the lot of University teachers is a poor one
compared to what obtained in the past. Their low productivity today as well
as the moral laxity within the community might well be the outcome of such
a demoralizing situation. However, it was pointed out that, if the plight of
University teachers is poor, that of teachers at lower levels of the educational
ladder is very poor indeed. If Nigeria must improve on its formal socializing
process for the youths, the present trend will need to be drastically reversed.
Of equal importance is the need, at the primary and secondary school levels,
to provide the youths with proper guidance and counseling service to help
them realize that admission to tertiary institutions or the securing of
certificates is not the most important thing in life. Parents must also be
advised to put less pressure on their children by stopping the practice of
forcing them into professions that they as parents see as the only marks of
success.
Education needs to be made more socially relevant by emphasizing the
productive aspect of knowledge. Participants were of the opinion that
education should be an instrument for preparing youths to face the realities
of existence. In effect, everyone should be made to realize that he is a
potential employer of his or other peoples labour. One of the goals of
education should therefore be the stimulation of the students imagination,
initiative and creativity as this is the only way that youths can be prepared
for national development.
With regard to the problems of students, it was noted that these have
changed considerably from what they used to be in the past. The Dialogue
categorized them into four:
i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
Academic
Welfare
Social
General
when they could be identified as youths. There is thus a strong need for
youths to move away from complaining and talking about the decadence and
paralysis of the system to adopting the stance of practical doers who want to
effect a change of orientation and attitude towards and within the political
process.
authority from the ruler to the governed. Participants agreed that every
society gets the sort of leadership it deserves. Since the youths are products
of a society that is largely corrupt they are bound to be influenced by the
corrupt practices of their elders. Corrupt practices have therefore permeated
the leadership of most youth organizations particularly the students union of
tertiary institutions.
To have a moral standpoint in their presentation of alternative forms of
leadership, youths must, therefore, resolve to rise above the prevailing
corrupt practices and, where they offer themselves for leadership positions,
they must be prepared to lead an exemplary life even though the negative
circumstances around them may be overwhelming. Only in this way can
youths begin the task of reform to give Nigeria true leadership in the future.
The courage to stand up for justice, honesty and truth is a critical trait for a
leader. More than this, youths cannot afford to defer everything to the
appointed leadership. Astute and vigilant followers are needed to ensure that
the ideals of leadership are not inverted and that the goals that both the
leadership and the followers are pursuing are kept constant on the horizon.
Youths and their various organizations must therefore be ready at all times
to bring to book corrupt leaders within their ranks and be vigilant in defence
of moral integrity.
On the question of how well do the youths assess the eligibility of
individuals who put themselves forward as their leaders, it was recognized
that, whilst still students, most youths are impressionable and cannot easily
decipher the real motives of many of their colleagues seeking power.
However, participants noted that most leadership aspirants could be
categorized into two groups: individualists and collectivists.
Individualist aspirants are those who, more often than not, seek power for
selfish ends and are easily prone to corruption. Such aspirants tend to be
most vocal in chastising and accusing incumbent leadership and authority of
various misdeeds, often peddling misinformation to incite their followers.
Upon assumption of office, such a leader quickly isolates himself from his
constituency and shrouds his actions from the knowledge of the electors.
The collectivist aspirant, on the other hand, tends to move more within his
constituency. Rather than alienating and isolating himself from his
constituency, he establishes a close rapport with them through constant
Conclusion
In conclusion, the Dialogue noted that what the present generation wants is
not substantially different from the desires and yearning of the older
generation. The only difference is the changed circumstances in which these
desires and aspirations are set. For example, the older generation was
brought up in a family situation of scarcity occasioned by the presence of
many children clamouring for limited resources. Although one child might
not have enough, the generality of the situation makes all the children
usually satisfied. For the present generation within the affluent families, the
child is more often than not loaded with more than he requires. As a result,
he never really learns the proper management of the resources and so tends
to fritter them away. This, it was noted, does not encourage resourcefulness
on the part of such modern child. Where scarcity exists, the pull and milieu
of the society had changed.
At any rate, what the present situation in the country calls for is a greater
understanding of the fact that each generation has its own role to play in the
development of the society. Youths with ideas have the duty of seeking out
their uncles, fathers or relations who are either politicians, bureaucrats,
military men or policy makers and engaging them in dialogues to impress on
them their own points of view. This need not involve recriminations and
accusations but should be a conscientious attempt at mutual understanding.
The process might be long and tedious, the result might be painfully slow,
but the tenacity of purpose with which individual youths pursue these
objectives will eventually determine how useful it proves. It is only those
who endure to the last that will gain the understanding and wisdom that are
the prerequisites for successful leadership of their generation and the
necessary development of the country.
Opening Remarks
by
Opening Address
by
General our Own Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, the Owelle of Onitsha. The
Defence Pact was abrogated!
This victory left many law enforcement agents thoroughly peeved. In
particular, one expatriate Chief Superintendent of Police, South African
born Mr. J. D. Wilson, who led the riot control forces on duty that day, could
not be consoled. He marked us, the leaders of the demonstration, very well!
So that when, in the early months of 1961, I again invited the same coalition
of youths to protest the dastardly assassination of Patrice Lumumba, the
promising but very much limited leader of Congolese (Zairean) Nationalists
in power in the newly independent Congo (Leopoldville) i.e. Zaire, Mr. J. D.
Smith (sic!) was waiting for us! After a very solemn and impressive
ceremony at the Iga Idunganran Square, we marched in a lawful procession,
authorized by the Police, and sought to deposit Lumumbas mock coffin at
the American Embassy in downtown Lagos. J. D. Smith, leading a force of
anti-riot police, would have none of that! Permit or no permit, he was
determined to give us hell. He spotted me and clobbered me in the face
several times over. I only managed to get a few slaps, with my bare hand,
across to him in return. As a result of this clobbering, I was hospitalized at
the Creek Hospital, Lagos, which is now used exclusively by the military.
This is where the unsuspected occurred.
A Minister of State in the Government of the day was a patient at the same
hospital. At night, like Nicodemus, he came over surreptitiously to my bunk,
ostensibly to console me, but really his mission was to wean me away from
my allegedly radical and extremist postures. After a mellifluous lecture
on leadership and service to country, he advised me that it is better to live
for your country than to die for it. That was the bombshell! All my life, up
till then, the only definition of patriotism I knew was the preparedness to do
anything, including the heroic act of the supreme sacrifice death for the
good, further development and progress of your country. But here was a
Minister of State to my untutored mind and unopened eyes- the epitome of
patriotism telling me to do all I could to stay alive for my country! I was
twenty-four (24) years old then. I certainly felt deflated, disappointed and
was left wondering how it was that all the works of historical, military and
romanticist literature I had read up till then had striven to let shine the virtue
of being prepared to die, if need be, for ones country and for firmly held
beliefs. I pondered how foolish all my friends at secondary school
Government College Ughelli whom we had applauded and commended
only a couple of years back for joining the military with a view to defending
their country in any moment of trial, would be if indeed what Mr. Minister
told me was gospel truth.
Gentlemen, the plight of our Youth today is similar to my experience. The
generation preceding them, whom they look up to and would like to take as
role models for emulations, fails them. In the event, they are dragged down
from the lofty and healthy heights of idealism, and are mired in the filth and
stench of realism. We fail our youths with our practice and utterances.
Corruption, pursuit of filthy lucre in preference to uplifting past times have
becomes the tenets holding sway now. Ethnicity, of the negative type,
nepotism, discrimination and, what a popular comedian in Anambra State,
Inno Dixon Aniebue calls I.M.M. Ima madu (man know man) constitute
the catechism we have bequeathed to our youths. How sickening!
Envy, greed, gross material acquisition and intellectual arrogance, vanity,
conceit, abject lack of humility, dishonesty, twisted integrity all these and
more, day in day out, we proclaim to the Youths of the world as the high
point of success. We must pause and ponder, before the darkness falls. We
bear out everything W.B. Yeats said and I quote: circling and circling the
widening gyre, the falconer cannot find the falcon, things fall apart, the
center cannot hold, mere anarchy is let loose upon the world.
To curb this anarchy requires a programme of action. In line with the worn
out clich, we might say, a national Policy on Youth is indicated. Along
what lines? Let me cursorily list a few points, as it is my trust and belief that
in the course of this Dialogue, a well-articulated package would result.
First of all, we must seek to perceive the problems of Youths in this country
in the context of a world wide Youth Crisis.
We must realize that, in the developed countries, the population of Youths
citizens in the 18 40 year bracket is comparatively low, about 20% of the
total population, as against the 40% or so recorded here. In Japan for
instance, over 25% of the population will be senior citizens 65 years of age
and above by the year 1995. The current situation is 22%; whereas, in
most developing countries, senior citizens hardly account for 5% of the
population. What is responsible for this dichotomy? We may cite the
benefits of advanced social services. Youths in developed countries can
afford to and do pursue idealism, whereas idealism hardly permeates the life
style of youths in developing countries. The latter are much more concerned
with the essentially mundane pursuits of fending for extended families by
was noted that the problem of striving for excellence transcended the
scope of educational concern to embrace the system of rewards and
sanctions to poor performance offered by the society at large. In this
connection, it was observed that the tradition of pleading, whereby
important personalities interfere in the process of sanctions and seek
mitigation to excuse failure, should be actively discouraged. The
educational process should try to emphasize the debilitating effect of
this tradition for any attempt to inculcate the values that make for
excellence. It should further inculcate in our youth the confidence that
success depends on excellence of effort rather than on long legs or
on the important personalities that an individual knows or on the
circumstances of a persons birth. This would not only obviate the
temptation to surrender to failure, but it would also emphasize the
ethics of hard work, fairplay and justice. Uniform standards must be
extolled.
The work going on here is tremendous. Therefore tributes are due, First and
foremost, to General Olusegun Obasanjo, GCFR, Hon LLD; psc; reds,
former Head of State, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Federal
Republic of Nigeria, International Statesman; world leader of great repute
and integrity, co-Chairman Eminent Persons Group (EPG), Activist and
Motivator wherever he offers an intervention, successful soldier (lacking
only the Field Mashalls baton), farmer, research scholar of significant
production, controversial author etc. This larger than life man of great
humility, conviviality, humour, hard work, honour, integrity and patriotism
has made great waves, far surpassing his considerable size, within these
shores and beyond. We thank him for this initiative, which has enabled us to
congregate for this important dialogue. We also thank his collaborators, first
in the Africa Leadership Foundation and then in the Farm House Dialogue.
One cannot fail to mention among the many, Prof. Akin Mabogunje NNMA
and the man now changing the face of the rural communities. He aptly said
that Nigerias problem lies in our doing LAST THINGS FIRST, or the
other way round. Now he has the opportunity in DFFRI to practicalise his
theses and precepts, and he is leaving a visible mark. To all others involved
in whatever way, please accept our immense thanks and congratulations.
General Obasanjo was the Principal Founding Father (at a rather tender age
then) of the NIPSS, Kuru. May his effort in this new challenge yield a
worthy harvest.
I wish you all successful deliberations.
4
Women in Development
Women make up more than 50% of the Nigerian population. By virtue of
their physiology, women are the givers and nurturers of life. The social
responsibilities that come with this biological function make women a
peculiar force in the overall national growth and development. Hence, their
condition in the society would definitely affect the overall development of
the country. It is unrealistic for any country to marginalize such a large and
important segment of its society and yet hope to make significant strides in
development. Although discussions on national development should
normally be on a non-biological basis, the uneven social development of the
sexes in Nigeria necessitates special efforts aimed at dramatically
transforming the prevailing status of women. This can only be achieved if
the necessary steps are taken to redress the imbalance. The glaring absence
of women in national decision-making positions in Nigeria and their
continued subjugation are, to a large extent, due to their relative
inaccessibility to political and economic power. Although an appropriate
definition of woman attracted wide and diverse views, participants agreed
that it was more useful to define the woman in the context of her role in
development, bearing in mind her special biological function. Hence,
woman was defined as the feminine component of the human species
who, apart from serving as a vehicle for nurturing human life, is also a
produce, a consumer and an equally endowed agent for fostering a
wholesome political, social and economic development in society. The
Dialogue noted that the woman, being the nurturer of life is, by her nature,
the very beginning of the development process. This fact makes it
mandatory for her to be recognized in this allembracing role and to be
appreciated for her ultimate and unique contribution to societal
development.
their low cost and proximity. Equally important is the need for parents and
guardians to take a more rational and liberal view of sex education. Young
girls should be made aware of the implications of developing intimate
relationships with the opposite sex outside wedlock. School curricula, it was
suggested, should be expanded to include sex education taken alongside and
patterned after the teaching of hygiene. In addition, more young girls should
be encouraged at the University level to study medicine and paediatrics,
which would make for a wider range of consultant choices especially for
those women who shy away from male medical doctors.
The Dialogue took the position that family support and the sharing of
domestic chores would help reduce the high incidence of mental and nervous
breakdown among women. The traditional African method of taking care of
the aged within the family setting was considered healthy and should be
encouraged. Of far greater importance was the effective participation of
women in the formulation and implementation of health-care policies that
affect women. School curricula must be reviewed and structured at the
various educational levels with a view to enhancing the quality of life and
the status of women in the society. The inclusion of programmes such as
women studies and civics in the curriculum of secondary schools should be
explored.
If women, in performing their natural role as the bearers and nurturers of life
are considered crucial to development, they should be properly equipped to
facilitate the performance of this natural responsibility. Therefore, in
addition to fundamental and basic education, women should educate
themselves on serious issues like politics, culture, government, and the
economy. They must not be left as illiterate or when literate, as individuals
who are indifferent to the running and functioning of their society.
Participants frowned at the way women are portrayed in the media and in
advertisements mainly as objects of sensual pleasure. While enjoining
women to be more careful and to participate only in programmes and
advertisements that uphold their dignity, participants averred that the focus
of most women columns in the print media, and women programmes in the
electronic media, was too much on what can be described as feminine
fancies. In the opinion of participants, this is not edifying, and neither are
the programmes calculated to raise womens perception of their self-worth
or of their unique contribution to societal development. It was suggested that
more attention be focused in the media on concrete issues capable of
mobilizing and energizing women to realizing the best that is in them. Such
columns and programmes can be better utilized when devoted to
enlightenment campaigns on and about the need to discourage, and if
possible abolish, antiquated practices such as female circumcision, male
child preference, widowhood rites, negative attitude to barrenness, the Osu
Caste system in Igboland, and child marriages.
The media should champion the campaign to abolish all sexually
discriminatory laws in our statute books. They should equally promote and
sustain those values that enhance a high respect for human dignity
irrespective of sex, respect for elders, family cohesion and solidarity, high
personal discipline and strict observance of a moral code.
The Dialogue discussed at length the possibility of establishing an agency to
be known as Ministry of Women Development, which should be charged
with the review of various laws and cultural practices in the society that are
inimical to women development. The institution should also plan and
monitor programmes that would eradicate antiquated values and advance
progressive ones. In addition, it should work hard at, and propose
enforceable legislation to curb, undesirable and discriminatory practices
against women.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the Dialogue noted that the war against discrimination against
women in all spheres of Nigerian life must be fought not only by women
themselves but also by those men who believe in justice and even
development. Women who want to be at the vanguard of this struggle for
change must practicalise what they preach and radicalize the conscience of
women for structural transformation of society and societal values.
Women must help their sister folk to aspire to greater heights and to support
and vote for those among them who can make a success of a political career.
For, it is only from a position of political strength that women can see to the
formulation and implementation of policies that would enhance their own
development. The Dialogue reiterated that a nation that genuinely desires
development must not keep half of its population marginalized. There fore, it
called on the Nigerian government to help harness all the resources at its
disposal, including especially the crucial contributions of women to the goal
of achieving an enduring development of the nation.
Above all, participants at the Dialogue observed and took cognizance of the
fact that, in realizing the goal of elevating women and increasing their
contribution to the development process, the cooperative and collaborative
support and assistance of both the women and men folk is required.
The Dialogue noted with satisfaction that, in the distant and the immediate
past as well as in recent times, there have been women whose roles and
performance in all walks of life have not only been commendable but also
worthy of emulation. Such women and their works must be placed in bold
relief in the teaching of history in our schools for other women to emulate.
They must be brought into national focus and the fact that they are found in
all parts of the country emphasized. Participants further recommended that
legends that have evolved around some of these women should not be
ignored but should form the material for childrens books and popular
folklores. They play a vital role in stimulating and conditioning the
performance, contribution and disposition of the younger generations to
matters connected with the development and greatness of the nation.
Opening Remarks
by
Opening Address
by
5
Labour and Development
In the development context, it is not labour per se that is important but the
productivity of labour. It is the increased productivity of labour that serves
as a catalyst in the process of development. For this to happen, labour must
become more efficient and effective through its acquisition of more and
more skill.
Furthermore, the rigid distinction between workers and the management
must be blurred if labour is to contribute its optimum to development. One
has to look at social stratification as a reality of life and recognize that wage
earners cannot be helped by pulling down the wage owner. Industrial
conflicts need to be minimized by the routinization of good labour relations
and the identification and greater use of those factors in our culture that
make for better productivity of labour.
There is the need to define clearly what is meant by labour. In the past, there
has been a tendency to put an erroneous and rigid line of division between
labour and management. For this reason, it is useful to adopt the definition
preferred by the Ministry of Labour, Trade and Productivity that labour is
bodily and mental work engaged in by human beings. Nigeria cannot afford
to accept solely the definition of labour as proferred by socialist or capitalist
countries. Although one cannot lose sight of the historical evolution of the
opposition between labour and capital, the Dialogue noted that there had
been a movement towards greater democratization of both.
Given the development orientation of this Dialogue, participants agreed to a
definition of labour as any human effort that improves, creates or adds
value to other factors. In other words, labour consists of everyone who does
bodily and mental work. In the development context, the word can be used
interchangeably with human resources. While the social distinction between
employer/entrepreneur and employee, or between management and worker
cannot be overlooked, the main issue is that people are contributing towards
production and therefore adding value to certain things and thereby
ultimately aiding development.
at such labour if it was to last and it was important that it lasted for a long
time. In this way, indolence gradually became a part of the culture of
labour in colonial times. This mentality extended from government work
to even private-sector employment. It was further compounded by a
weakened attitude of honesty, which was expressed in the surprising belief
that the good fortune of any individual can only come through extractions
from some other individuals wealth. Hence, there arose a practice where
workers pilfered things from their places of work without compunction
because they felt that the employers (the colonialists) were uninvited
exploiters who carried away overseas, the gains from the fruits of their
labour.
By independence, labour had become a part of the politically conscious
groups in the country. But rather than see the new government as its own
government, it saw it as if it were still the distant colonial government that
must be spiritedly confronted in the struggle for own welfare and
improvement. Today, a major problem of the Nigerian society is how to
change this negative attitude of labour to government and to raise the low
productivity that it engenders. In this regard, a participant pointed out that:
productivity is (largely) an attitude of the mind. It is a mentality of progress
of the constant improvement of that which exists. It is the certainty of being
able to do better today than yesterday and to continue with this in the days
ahead. It is the continuous effort (by human beings managers and workers)
to apply new techniques and new methods, it is the faith of human
progress
When put this way, it is possible to appreciate the enormity of the factors
militating against the achievement of the highest level of productivity of the
Nigerian labour. What is involved, in brief, is how to restore to the Nigerian
labour the self-esteem that was eroded during the colonial era.
The Dialogue consequently tried to explore the psychological and
philosophical dimensions of the problem to see how the present situation
could be changed. Noting that, in spite of modernization, the Japanese
society has managed to preserve its ingrained cultural practice of respect for
elders, it regretted that Western education has diminished such traits in the
Nigerian. The acquisition of literacy skills during the colonial period
precipitated an inversion of values, such that literate youths felt superior to
the older and more illiterate persons much in the same way that the colonial
officials felt superior to the indigenes. There is, therefore, the need to re-
The Dialogue noted that one of the most important factors militating against
the development of this nation is the lack of effective leadership at all levels,
even among organized labour. This lack of effective leadership to mobilize
the norms and values positive to societal growth and development
constitutes a major failing in our national life. It is further aggravated by the
frequent changes of government and the practice of each new one to try to
change our constitution, even when it is clear that such a change would not
address seriously the fundamental problem of our underdevelopment.
Worse still, the style of life of each generation of leadership, whether
military or civilian, ends up alienating the workers and discouraging
diligence and trustworthiness. The wrong people are often placed in
important positions and no sanctions are exacted for their failures or
malfeasance.
The Dialogue noted, with concern, the repeated failures of such government
parastatals as Nigeria Airways, the Nigerian Railway Corporation, NITEL
and NEPA, when private sector-organisations, both national and
multinational, are performing well. Why do public sector agencies fail while
the private sector concerns manage to keep afloat? The infrastructures for
Nigerias progress are certainly already in place, but, somehow, the country
has been unable to make these work effectively. It must be admitted that
leadership in the country has failed if, twenty-nine years after independence,
the nation cannot alter or change or amend any wrongs that were wrecked on
its cultures by their exposure to colonial influence.
The Dialogue also noted that, apart from occasionally clamouring for
improvement in workers pay and conditions of service, the Nigerian Labour
Congress (NLC) has been unable to take overt actions to discipline its
members who run down the establishments in which they work. It was
observed that the NLC hardly openly condemns sabotage by its members,
such as occurred with the damage of NEPA cables and machinery during the
general strike of 1988. Most Nigerian cultures set a premium on hearing
both sides in a dispute and resolving conflicts through dialogue. Hence,
there is the need to strengthen, in Nigeria, an industrial labour relation
culture that sets great store on a free flow of communication between
management and workers to enhance the productivity of enterprises and the
development of the country. It is essential that union leaders ensure that their
members come to appreciate better the mechanism of dialogue and
Remuneration of Labour
The remuneration of labour, of course, includes, apart from the wage, fringe
benefits and allowances such as those for transportation, housing and health
care. At the plant level, some packaged incentives are also used as a part of
productivity schemes.
On wages, the Dialogue took the view that basic wages should be
negotiated, and should be flexible enough to lend itself to easy adjustment in
response to any rise in the cost of living. It was felt that government should
desist from sporadically reviewing wages without adequate consultation
with the private sector. For even where such consultations took place in the
past, the problem of implementation was always overwhelming, as was
evident during the Udoji award, when inflation galloped leading to the
worsening of the situation.
The Dialogue observed that, with the current high cost of living, it is a
mystery that workers earning less than six hundred Naira are able to survive
at all. At present, the lowest paid worker earns N150 per month; so that the
majority of workers do not earn enough to keep pace with inflation rate and
increasing cost of living.
It was felt that social security legislations and schemes to minimize workers
expenditure on such items as healthcare and retrenchment could take some
heat off the wage issue. This means that the State should live up to its
responsibility both as an employer and as guardian of national interest. Such
bodies as the Price Productivity and Incomes Board (PPIB) have been
largely ineffective. It was recommended that this agency be made to
determine what can be defined in the Nigerian context as a living wage, that
is, a remuneration that would put the worker above the poverty line.
Moreover, in order to relieve women workers, the provision of day-care
centres or child-minding arrangements should be encouraged in the bigger
industrial establishments. The practice of stopping workers pay for no
justifiable reason should be condemned as socially unjust and contrary to
principle of guaranteeing the basic rights of workers. A worker should be
able to depend on the principle of an honest days pay for an honest days
job. Government should consider more imaginative policies for reversing
the brain drain of highly educated and skilled people from the country to
other countries especially Europe, North America and Saudi Arabia in
search of more lucrative jobs. Although these workers see themselves as
citizens of the world, these could include more deliberate discussions with
the countries involved to take such migrations that are of a determinate and
nationally regulated duration. In the final analysis, however, political
stability and security, and employment opportunities are the greatest antidote
against brain drain.
employer of labour, does not use these organizations fully to enhance good
industrial relations. In most cases, these bodies are hardly consulted by the
government when taking decisions on critical issues that affect the economy
and require real commitment to increased productivity on the part of
management and labour.
With regard to individual trade unions, the Dialogue noted the importance of
strengthening the culture of making the terms of agreement of any
negotiation, once accepted by both parties, to be mutually binding. Equally
important is the need for the State, as an employer of labour itself, to resist
the temptation of proscribing the consultative status of their central
organization, the NLC. To this end, the Dialogue suggested that industrial
establishments should be allowed by the unions to deduct contributions from
source and forward it directly to the NLC.
What is Labour?
Although an attempt was made at the beginning of the Dialogue to define
labour as any human effort that improves, creates or adds value to other
factors, it was observed that the supply of labour is usually determined by
the population of the country, particularly the population of those within the
age group of 15 to 64 years. These are the economically active people
whether or not they are actually working. The 64-year limit is of special
examples being the labour expended by volunteer workers and others like
them. Although such labour needs not be transformed into paid labour, the
society should encourage more and more of such useful but not wageoriented labour in order to enhance the quality of life of its members.
Non-organized labour refers to the category of labour that consists of people
who are mostly uneducated, unskilled or who have no information about
other people doing similar jobs, or how they can come together as an
organized body to further their interests. An example of such unorganized
labour is the group of illegal immigrants, popularly referred to as illegal
aliens, who cannot get into trade unions. In some cases, these aliens are paid
less than the going rate for their respective jobs. There are also cases where a
trade union organization is denied by law to certain groups of workers. A
notable example is the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). In
general, unionization is recognized as a means of minimizing the wanton
exploitation of labour in the process of development. For this reason,
government should as much as possible, encourage all categories of labour
to organize themselves to protect and further their interests as a group.
The employment of youths whose ages are below the legal age (15 years) of
labour is regarded as child labour. Traditionally, children have always
helped their parents at work both in the home and on the farm. In modern
times, however, schooling has reduced the size of such child labour in many
parts of the country. However, the reality of the present economic woes and
the mass unemployment in the country have made it necessary for many
more parents to fall back on the service of their children to make ends meet
and ensure survival. In many cases, mothers put wares on the childrens
heads to sell after school hours. There are even cases of those who have to
withdraw their children from school and send them out to lend a helping
hand at home or on the farm while their mates are in school. The harmful
effect of this practice, especially on the development and future career of
these children, cannot be over-stated.
The Dialogue agreed that there is a need to awaken the government to its
commitment to the peoples welfare. There is need to enforce existing
legislations against child labour and street trading by children but this can be
successful only if abject poverty is reduced in the society.
With respect to women, the Dialogue noted that the usual practice now is to
encourage working women, especially those in the formal sector, to
participate actively in trade unions. The United Nations has given advice on
the involvement of women in trade unions. For the past 30 years, women
have been very active in Nigerian trade unions and there is no longer any
need for special pleadings on their behalf on this point. However, it was
observed that, in many enterprises, women are still subjected to one form of
discrimination or the other. In the present situation of mass unemployment,
employers prefer to employ men rather than women on the excuse that men
are the bread-winners whereas the number of households headed by women
have been increasing in the society in recent times. Even when employed, a
woman has to work twice as hard as her male counterpart before she gets
promoted. In some cases, women face health hazards at work, e.g. Varicose
veins among nurses and teachers who have to stand for long at work,
inhalation of chemicals that could cause miscarriages, irregular menstrual
cycle among airhostesses, and other discomforts. In addition, the Nigerian
tax laws impose a heavier burden on women than on male workers, because
child relief is usually not given to the women. For the self-employed,
women have problems in getting access to capital and credits.
If development in Nigeria must be further enhanced, it is essential that any
traditional or cultural practice that inhibits the full participation of women in
the labour force must be checked. Examples of such practices include the
early age of marriage of between 9 and 15 years for girls in some parts of the
country. Up to the mid-1960s, this practice was common in Igboland. It is
still the case in the northern parts of this country. The health hazards of such
early marriages are many, and it is important for government to embark on a
more vigorous programme of training and education of such teenagers while
also enacting legislations to make it a crime for parents to withdraw their
children from schools for the purpose of giving them out in marriage.
The Dialogue further noted that many more Nigerians, both males and
females, are employed in what is now popularly referred to as the informal
sector. The International Labour Organization (ILO) stipulates that any
enterprise that employs less than ten people belongs to this sector. Those
enterprises also tend to have a low level of capital investment and are
usually not registered as businesses. They are engaged in such activities as
cottage industrial production, mechanical repairs, food processing and so on.
Some of these enterprises have been most ingenious in their production.
There are, for example, the well- known implements fabricators in Aba and
Conclusion
Before concluding the Dialogue, there was a general agreement on the
primacy of culture in determining how people behave and react to work.
Therefore, the Dialogue reiterated the importance of the Nigerian nationals
paying close attention to the socialization process whereby children are
taught the norms and values of the society and made to imbibe the work
ethics as well as the educational system that equips them with the skills and
competence to work more productively. Furthermore, the Dialogue stresses
that, in order to increase the productivity of labour, the actual living
conditions of the worker encompassing his housing, his surroundings as well
as his social environment must be made conducive to good health and
satisfying existence. In line with this, the Dialogue believed that it is
imperative that the most unskilled worker must be able to earn a living
wage. That is, a wage that is enough to meet the expenses required for the
barest existence. In the society at large, the Dialogue recognized that social
problems, political instability and constant state intervention in the industrial
relation process militate against the efficiency of labour. It therefore
recommended that there should be policies on population, employment,
housing, and social justice so as to ensure the safety of life and reassure the
people that their efforts at development will be appropriately recognized and
rewarded.
Opening Remarks
by
positive and constructive action that motivates, builds and achieves. Labour
constructs.
Over the years, it has often been erroneously conceived that labour is
synonymous with manual labourers and lower levels of workers in a
country. However, this is not so because the entrepreneur, the management
cadre and the working population form the totality of a countrys labour
force. Of course, they operate at different levels of labour force. Labour,
taken in its total circumspection, includes management and the entrepreneur
and such a total package in the operational definition of labour enables one
to take a broader conception of the role of labour in any country. It is on this
basis that the rigidity with which the line of demarcation between labour and
management is drawn must be re-examined if we are to explore the common
grounds and the various points for the pursuance of the goal of development.
The rigidity is informed by the master-servant relationship of the period of
slave trade and slavery. We must move away from that archaic concept.
Entrepreneurs, management and labour are on the same side of the coin.
Entrepreneurship, as an essential component of labour, must be established,
encouraged and sustained through aspiration and inspiration from within the
totality of the labour force. Entrepreneurs must not act or be seen as obscene
consumers of what is perceived as the products of the work of the toilers.
They are motivators, mobilizers and risk takers in the development process
but only as part of the labour team from which they must not isolate or
detach themselves.
If development is all about releasing the creative energies of the people, then
releasing the total energy within the country will involve releasing the
energy politically, socially and economically. The sharp edges of the
stratification drawn between labour and management must be blurred.
Management has become professional. It must be perceived and treated
accordingly. Thrusting people in top management positions for whatever
reason without adequate preparation, experience and exposure may spell
disaster to the organization to the detriment of all concerned entrepreneur,
management and staff. My conviction is that to have management ranging
on one side and labour on the other side downplays the necessary harmony
and common interest, which should be fostered, while aggravating the
differences. It robs corporate bodies of a concerted and collective movement
at crucial moment, and enthrones suspicions and mutual distrust while also
diverting attention away from more serious issues in the achievement of
corporate goals. Social stratification is unfortunately an inescapable reality
6
Management and Development
It has been suggested that a lack of commitment to highlevel performance
is the strongest shortcoming of the Nigerian manager. Outside of known
cultural barriers, it is necessary to envisage a modality that is practicable,
acceptable and agreeable, and one that would engender more commitment in
the Nigerian manager. Part of this modality must include an inexpensive
method of ensuring that Nigerian managers have access to requisite data and
information.
Defining Management and Development
The Dialogue commenced by attempting to grapple with the two key
concepts of management and development. The essence of this concern
derives from the need to come up with such functional definitions that
clearly capture, among other things, the nature of the linkage between the
two concepts.
Ordinarily, a definition of the concept of development should not be difficult
to come up with since previous themes of the Farm House Dialogues have
been based on the issue of development as it relates to some other national
concerns such as leadership, culture, women, health, communication,
education and so on. It was observed that, on each occasion, the definition of
development as stated in the report of the Farm House Dialogue on
Leadership and Development was taken as sufficient and adequate for the
purposes of the various discussions. In looking at the definition of
development contained in the report of the Farm House Dialogue on
Leadership and Development, subsequent dialogues still felt the need to
elaborate further on the concept of development. A more elaborate definition
was provided at the Dialogue on Labour and Development, where
development was defined as a process concerned with peoples capacity in
a defined area, over a defined period, to manage and induce change. There
is no doubt that this definition is not only adequate but that it also captures
the essence of the concept as it relates to management. However, in order to
effectively establish the linkage between the two terms, an additional
inculcate in the manager the need to make physical and health exercises an
integral part of his schedule regardless of the pulls and demands of his job.
The Dialogue therefore recommended that managers should be encouraged
to engage in physical exercises regularly. In addition, management
development programmes should be made to include physical and health
exercise as an integral part of their training programme.
The Dialogue noted and commended the efforts of some sections of the
media, both electronic and print, at popularizing physical and health
exercise. However, participants at the Dialogue observed that improper
packaging and presentation of programmes and write-ups on physical and
health exercises has resulted in a situation where it is usually wrongly
perceived either as a feminine fancy or as another Eurocentric fad. In
addition, participants also noted that the spread in the media was not enough
to make the desired impact on the readers. On this basis, the Dialogue
recommended that our media should take a more active involvement in
assisting to spread the usefulness of physical and health exercises to the
individual manager.
Environment, Society and Management
In Nigeria, we have not been doing as well as we should in the area of
management development. When one examines the fact that Nigeria has
abundant human and material resources and numerous educational and
training institutions, and when one recalls that many Nigerians have
distinguished themselves in various fields of human endeavours including
the management of large and complex multinational corporations, one
wonders why we have not applied these resources towards establishing a
more efficient management of our national economy.
It is the view of the Dialogue that part of this problem can be attributed to
the nature of the Nigerian social, political and economic environment.
Politically, many decisions have been taken on the development
programmes of the country that have not been based on the objective of
seeking the greatest good for the greatest number but rather on the
influence of vested interests of one set of minority or the other. Projects that
were initiated in the context of such considerations, notably the Iron and
Steel Complex, the Liquefied Natural Gas project and the Petrol-Chemical
industry have left Nigeria in a serious dilemma today.
discipline. The main issue, however, is the extent to which the culture of
excellence can come to be reflected in the attitude of managers in all of these
areas. In other words, to what extent do Nigerian managers regard
themselves as factors of change that must promote and sustain
entrepreneurial development in all sectors of national life?
To be able to adequately respond to these concerns, the Dialogue believes
that the nation, particularly the leadership, must confront squarely the issue
of how it selects, trains and utilizes managers. In other words, we need to
address the issue of management development and succession in Nigeria.
In an earlier section of this report, the problems of policy instability and
programme discontinuity were highlighted. At this juncture, the issue is the
need to treat the related problem of management succession.
The Dialogue observed that it is the common practice in Nigeria for a
manager who may have been in office for upwards of ten years to find
himself being superceded by someone with a far fewer number of years of
experience. In other instances, top management has often been changed
rather too unceremoniously by government fiat, as was noted in an earlier
Dialogue on Labour and Development. In yet some other cases, decrees and
byelaws have been used to destabilize managers. Participants at the Dialogue
observed that this situation is more prevalent in the public sector than in the
private sector where the fear of litigation minimizes its frequent occurrence.
Generally, the net effect of this situation is that there is a sense of insecurity
among managers, resulting in a lack of motivation and a cynical attitude to
the obligations and responsibility of the position. For many managers, this
cynicism has invariably been expressed through a preference for
appointments and job offers outside the country, resulting in the present high
level of brain drain.
One other common problem in the state of the art of management in Nigeria
is the attempt to manage without adequate information and database. It is
common in Nigeria to find organizations operating without any data or with
data that are clearly out of date, disjointed or too scanty for any useful
purpose. If planning is a sine qua non for effective management, it must be
evident that adequate data and information as well as an effective
communication network are prime necessities. In the public sector, the
method of data collection and storage is very archaic and inefficient. While
there may have been a recognition of the indispensability of computers,
credibility gaps between them and their subordinates. Apart from anything
else, this should engender a good industrial relationship between labour and
management and also stimulate the attainment of increased productivity.
Seventh, on the role of the Military in government, the Dialogue noted that
there is no greater stability for any nation other than the commitment to
democracy and orderly electoral succession. It is this that ensures the
satisfaction and uplift of the quality of life of the people and which is really
a great security. Military intervention must therefore be seen as a thing of
the past and must be strenuously discouraged for the future. In this
connection, the Dialogue strongly recommended that ways must be found to
greatly reduce the resources that are presently expended on the military
without compromising their capacity to safeguard the nations security.
Conclusion
The Dialogue recognizes that to foster a high degree of commitment among
managers there is the need to provide them with adequate and up-to-date
tools and equipment. Equally important is a sound information and database
for all purposes of planning both at the enterprise level and at the national
level. Such information must not be treated as secret, but should be turned
out for purposes of research and planning. There is also the need for
effective education and training of management personnel. This should
always be on a continuous basis in order to constantly up-date the skills of
managers and make them responsive to the changing management
environment in the country.
More than anything else, however, good and efficient management will be
promoted in Nigeria as the leadership succeeds in fostering a strong sense of
nationalism and patriotism at all levels and in all forms of national
endeavours. Commendable achievements should be rewarded. Such rewards
need not be monetary or material but should rather be elevating and morale
boosting actions. It could, for instance, entail no more than letters of
commendations or the award of national honours. Similarly, full sanctions
should always be exacted on misdemeanour, and various acts of abuse or
misuse of office as well as on poor performance. Above all, leaders must
strive to live by example. Unless they are visibly seen to be committed and
dedicated to the cause of the nations progress and development, much
cannot be expected from their followers.
Opening Remarks
by
while being a good communicator and good leader. He must be honest with
those he heads as any mistrust or distrust brought about by accident or
design creates a credibility gap that may be difficult to bridge.
Over the years, it has been observed that one of the major attenuating factors
in the development process in the whole of sub-Saharan African is the
absence of an adequate pool of relevantly trained individuals to manage
public and private sector institutions. Is this really a problem in Nigeria? Do
we actually, honestly and truly lack adequately and appropriately trained
individuals?
On the contrary, I am of the view that the strongest shortcoming of the
Nigerian manager is the lack of commitment. I am referring to that zeal to go
the extra mile and extra time beyond the call of duty but without the
indelicacy of ulterior motive or jealousy. A unique commitment to corporate
and overall goal is to my mind the difference between an outstanding
manager and an average manager. No matter how versed a manager is in the
principles of management, no matter how adept and ingenious he might be at
utilizing available resources to achieve set goals, without commitment, all
his adroitness and resourcefulness might very well come to nought.
There must be commitment to excellence and the will to see things through
to its conclusion and the concern to get it going. As we trade views this
weekend, I challenge you to think beyond and outside of the known barriers
and envisage a practicable, acceptable and agreeable modality that could
ingrain commitment in the Nigerian manager both consciously and subconsciously and which will radiate to all workers under him. We have a
saying in the army that there are no bad soldiers but bad officers. It simply
means that the manager matters. I dare say that the commitment challenge is
a great challenge, for it goes beyond merely exhorting our managers to adopt
a change and improve our work ethics and work attitude. Until we are able
to do this, our long and arduous journey to modern management and
development would always be marked by a constant return to the drawing
board.
In addition, I challenge you all to fathom an inexpensive way of giving our
managers access to vital data and information. These are indispensable tools
of management and materials for enhancing management performance. A
manager without adequate data and information is like a boxer throwing
punches blind-folded. Whatever we do, say or prescribe for our managers
must be laced with, and take root from, cognizance of our peculiar
characteristics as Nigerians. To do otherwise would be to invite the
antinomies of structural organization and administrative complexity or what
Frederick Riggs refers to as the salad administrative model in a prismatic
society.
I shall conclude my remark by reminding all of you of the free, frank and
non-attributory stance of our discussions at the Farm House Dialogue and
the recommendatory nature of the report emanating from each dialogue and I
hope you will bear this in mind in your discussions.
Thank you.
Opening Address
by
What are the needs of the Nigerian people that can be regarded as
indices of true development?
What resources have we got in Nigeria that could be utilized to
meet those developmental objectives?
What abilities, capacities and capabilities exist in the environment?
What use or lack of use have we made in the past of these abilities?
What is the state of the art with regard to management in Nigeria?
What improvement if any is needed? What are the deficiencies,
knowledge or practice or attitudes?
7.
8.
9.
7
Technology and Development
Science and technology have had relatively little effect on the lives of
citizens in Nigeria. Nonetheless, if development must be seen as humancentred, then the technology that will help people to advance and improve
their quality of life must be the concern of everybody. In order to induce
rapid technological advances within the context of the overall economic
development and socio-cultural milieu of a country, it is important for a
nation to create the necessary enabling environment for this. In this
connection, an important role devolves on the political leadership for the
development of an appropriate human resource base, and the
communication, among the various agents, of technological changes in the
pursuit of economic development. Additionally, technological advancement
should, as much as possible, be inward-looking, by relying on available
resources in the local environment and within a particular society.
Defining Development and Technology
In defining Development, the Dialogue noted the distinction that had been
made between growth and development in previous Dialogues. It was agreed
that, while the Nigerian economy has grown appreciably in the past two
decades, this growth has not transformed into development. This observation
indicates that there is a deficiency in defining development in terms of such
conventional criteria as changes in Gross Domestic Product and some other
conventional macro-economic indices.
The Dialogue agreed that a more meaningful approach would be to define
development by using social indicators. As earlier Dialogues have
convincingly shown, a more meaningful approach is to see development as
people inspired, human-centred and citizen-anchored. The Dialogue
adopted the definition given in the report of the Farm House Dialogue on
Leadership for Development. In that report, development was defined as a
process concerned with peoples capacity in a defined area, and over a
defined period, to manage and induce change; that is to predict, plan,
understand and monitor change and reduce or eliminate unwanted or
unwarranted change. Thus the more people develop themselves, the more
they would become instruments for further change The adoption of this
definition therefore stresses the practical aspects of development policies
and their relevance to the social welfare of the people. In other words, the
emphasis of development should be on its effect on the quality of life and
well-being of humankind.
With regard to technology, the Dialogue examined the relationship between
science and technology on the one hand and between technology and
development on the other. It was noted that technology developed before
science, although scientific principles instruct and are manifest in every
technology. Indeed, advancement in science has significantly helped to
improve the evolution of technology. Consequently, the knowledge acquired
from science and technology is directed at solving human problems.
Therefore, in defining technology, due recognition must be given to the goal
of technological advancement, which is to improve the well being of
humankind. Wittgensteins saying that the meaning is in the use
emphasizes the purpose which technology serves in the development
process. In view of the foregoing, the Dialogue defined technology as the art
or know-how that leads to the rational utilization of matter and energy in any
process designed to satisfy a need. Because of the relevance of science to
technology, know-how is invariably backed by some scientific principles.
In examining the link between development and technology, the Dialogue
took the view that the strategic imperative is to anchor both concepts on
what is endogenous to a people. In essence, participants believe that, as a
propelling force, technology must be internally induced if the goal of
improving the quality of life of the people is to be realized and sustained in
the long run.
In addition, the Dialogue concluded that the quality of life, though a distinct
concept from the standard of living, has considerable influence on the latter.
While the concept of standard of living is dynamic and differs from one
people to another, the quality of life of a people, as measured by their basic
needs, is specific. The relevant indices include food and nutrition, the
availability of potable water, shelter, health care, availability and
affordability of energy, education, communication and transportation,
wholesome environment, security, and human dignity.
2.
3.
The Dialogue commended the current bias for science and technology in the
admission policy of our tertiary institutions, notably in the colleges of
education, the polytechnics and the universities. This policy was, however,
considered insufficient for the redress of the situation. Added incentives
ought to be provided for students who opt for courses in science and
technology. Participants recommended that a form of scholarship be
instituted to entice more brilliant scholars into these fields. In addition, those
who have studied science subjects should be given special encouragement to
undertake programmes that entail the continuous dissemination of scientific
knowledge and ideas. Special salary scales and further opportunities for
professional pursuits should be devised to engender a greater sense of
fulfillment and commitment among Nigerian scientists.
Participants decried the prevailing trend whereby graduates of technical
schools drift into the universities and polytechnics. This tendency to aspire
for university education is not only financially wasteful, it equally
undermines the effective utilization of critical, middle-level technical
manpower. The Dialogue therefore recommended that those who have
received post-secondary technical education should be discouraged from
applying for admission to universities. In doing this, however, their system
of remuneration and career prospects should be made good enough to
encourage them to remain as technicians. The Dialogue observed that the
limited resources available to government seemed to have been spread very
thinly by the creation of several universities and the courses they offer. The
negative reactions of the university community to the initial attempt at
rationalization were noted. Participants believed that the government could
do much to make the university system not merely a functional one but,
more importantly, one that is highly responsive and relevant to Nigerias
developmental aspirations. The common good must not be sacrificed to
assuage and satisfy narrow group interests. Any policy of government is
bound to produce both beneficial and non-beneficial effects. The important
thing is to ensure that every policy takes care of the good of the majority. In
examining the issue of rationalization further, the Dialogue took the view
that the objective of any rationalization exercise must be, among other
things, to promote and popularize science and technological education and
that rationalization should not lead to a decline in the number of students
admitted. Rather, it should create room for the rapid expansion of student intake into the universities. The Dialogue emphasized the need to mobilize all
aspects of the educational system towards the improvement of science and
technological education. Science education at the primary and secondary
those who might otherwise not wish to venture into the field for reasons of
high cost of executing projects, bureaucratic bottlenecks and other
hindrances.
Technology and Environment
The environment within which technology is developed and nurtured is
affected by three broad factors. The first is the set of policies and incentives
promoted by the government. It is this that determines the extent to which
the environment is enabling in terms of its capability to motivate the
development of the human and material resources of the country through
technological advancement.
Second is the degree of care and interest applied in restraining the pollution
and degradation of the environment. Third is the extent to which the country
is exposed to external influences, which, in turn, is determined, to a large
degree, by how dependent the country is on others for its technology, raw
materials and consumer goods.
Naturally, the growth of industries and development in any country will
bring with it environmental problems, such as pollution, health hazards and
environmental degradation. As a country advances in its industrialization
efforts, it will increasingly face problems of urban decay, industrial pollution
and so on. To lessen the damage to the quality of life of citizens arising from
this development, efforts must be made, from the very beginning, to monitor
the effects of industrialization on the environment. In this regard, the
Dialogue commended the establishment of the Federal Environmental
Protection Agency (FEPA), whose broad mandate is to protect the Nigerian
environment from pollution and degradation.
However, available information on the performance of the agency to date
has not been quite reassuring. The Dialogue were of the view that there is
need to re-examine the structure and modus operandi of the agency so as to
make it more effective in its task of improving and safeguarding the
Nigerian environment. The present centralized location of the agency neither
makes for effective monitoring nor does it make for operational efficiency.
Moreover, the Dialogue believes that FEPA may need to engage in its own
locally derivate definition of what constitutes environmental pollution and
degradation. It may be unwarranted to assume that standard definitions, as
Opening Remarks
by
have to re-invent the wheel. There are thousands, if not millions of expired
patents and licenses that our scientists, innovators, fabricators and designers
could pick for adoption and adaptation for which little or nothing will be
paid and which will still be very much relevant to our situation and
condition. There are even obsolescent items and equipment that are still very
relevant to our situation. For instance, manual typewriters, which are
essentially out of fashion in Europe and North America, could be picked up
for peanuts and adorn our secondary schools and local government offices
for acquisition of skill and facilitation of work in those offices. Repairs and
maintenance will be within village level skill and the costs of spare parts
will no longer be prohibitive. The same can be said for the dialing type of
telephone receivers.
If we agree that development must be people inspired, human-centred and
people-anchored, then the technology that would assist us in realizing our
goals must of necessity be informed by the same principles. This of course
defines part of our task this weekend. We must focus on the identification of
the parameters of an enabling environment that will make for rapid growth
and the popularization of technology. These parameters of the environment
must be sensitized to the sensibilities of our audience at all levels and be
made to straddle the spectrum of business, society, the academia and policy
making. I believe that the main question that should concern us must be
whether we are to allow such aspects of our culture to subsist or may be they
need be jettisoned in favour of technology. In this regard, I exhort you to pay
more than a fleeting attention to Max Placknack, who wrote in The
Scientific Biography that:
a new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its
opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its
opponents eventually die and a new generation grows up familiar with
it..
For me, our culture must serve as the instructing context and moderating
influence of our quest for the mastery of technology. In Nigeria, we need a
new path of development and a new orientation with a new attitude. Our
development must be science-driven and technology-led while our economy
must be production-led. In the last decade of the twentieth century, it is now
widely acknowledge that literacy is not enough for development, numeracy
and science literacy must go hand in hand with ordinary literacy and
acquisition of skills. The Twentyfirst century will be, at least initially, the
series. On each occasion, our discussions have always been free, frank in
content, and, in the reports that emanated, non-attributory.
Our task this weekend is no less important; rather, I believe its importance is
self-evident. Once again, I welcome you all to this Farm House Dialogue
and I wish you a happy deliberation.
Opening Address
by
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.
h.
RxExI
L = ----------------------P
Where L represents the standard of living of a society (measured in
consumption of goods and services) and hence depicts level of development;
R is the consumption of raw materials;
E is the consumption of ingenuity (embracing technological, political,
socio-economic and managerial components); and
P is the population of the society.
In our setting, and with our large population, development and the higher
standard of living accruing therefrom, will demand conscious, and indeed
planned efforts at maximizing the parameters R, E and I, each of which
depends critically on technology. Clearly, therefore, our national
development will depend most crucially on the development of our
technology.
My researched view is that successful development of technology
presupposes the following:i.
ii
iii.
iv.
v.
vi.
8
Communication and Development
In any society, the successful conduct of public affairs depends on the ability
of the government and the governed to understand each other and to
determine together the goals of the society. Although a vast array of fast,
modern and sophisticated means of communication is now available,
established channels that served the same ends very well in the past still
existed in the greater parts of the country. If these could be integrated with
modern instruments of information dissemination, the results could be most
efficient in getting the governments message effectively to the people. For
example, during the 1963 population census, vital information was
disseminated effectively throughout the Adamawa province of the old
Northern Region, a province measuring 550 miles from north to south.
Within hours of the message being received from Kaduna and without the
aid of telephones, telegraphy, radio or television, and with hardly any
motorable roads and certainly without the use of helicopters, it was
disseminated through the length and breadth of the province. The well-tried
traditional methods of communication remain in use today and should be
preserved.
Defining Communication and Development
Communication is defined as an interactive process involving the imparting
of ideas, information, values, knowledge, feelings and so on within the
society. It is not a one-way affair from a source to a receiver but it entails a
critical feedback component without which its effectiveness is incomplete.
Communication can thus be seen as a fundamental social process covering
vast areas of human interaction. For the purpose of the Dialogue, it was
decided to limit the field of concern by concentrating mainly on the media of
mass communication, without forgetting the continued importance of the
traditional media of communication.
With regard to development, participants recalled that the Farm House
Dialogue on Leadership and Development had defined development as a
process concerned with peoples capacity in a defined area, over a defined
period to manage and induce change; that is to predict, plan, understand and
monitor change. The more people develop, the more they become
instruments for further change.
The report of that particular Dialogue observed further that increases in the
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) represent nothing more than an
intermediate, material level in such a development process. Such increases
are the products of the change process and the input for further change. The
report further identified education as the critical factor in a peoples ability
to induce and manage change. Education develops the ability to face the
challenges of making choices in a changing situation while also increasing
the choices available. The above definition of development was therefore
considered adequate for the purpose of the Dialogue especially as it
encompasses the various dimensions of development economic, social,
political and psychological, all of which needs to be kept in view when
examining the crucial role of communication in the process of a nations
development.
Actors in the Communication Process
The Dialogue recognized three main actors in the communication process,
viz:
1. Government;
2. The Public; and
3. Media Professionals.
Government, it was noted, is a dominant actor in the mass communication
process in Nigeria. Participants argued as to why this was so and whether
this was healthy for the development process. It was recognized that
governments dominant role in the communication process in Nigeria flowed
from three main factors.
1. Governments exclusive ownership and control of the electronic
media and its ownership and control of a large section of the print
media.
2. Governments dominance in domestic policy-making and in
international relations where it is, in fact, the sole actor.
audiences understanding and reaction to the major events taking place in the
country, especially the current economic crisis.
The Dialogue expressed concern that the quality of moral leadership
exhibited by some media practitioners in many instances leaves much to be
desired. It was observed that media practitioners often flagrantly indulge in
unethical practices and seriously compromise their integrity and hence, the
integrity of the news media as an institution. The Dialogue particularly
singled out the practice of demanding and accepting of gratification in cash
or in kind, in order to publish or to kill stories, or to promote the givers
influence. It believed that such practices exist at every level of the
profession.
The calibre of professional leadership, especially in government-owned
media, was also adjudged to be, in some instances, unsatisfactory. The best
people are often by-passed in preference for less competent people. This
often leads to a loss of morale among the staff. Ideally, a leaders authority
should match his ability and professional competence if he is to be credible
and respected.
The Dialogue called on professional associations to monitor the activities of
their members and ensure that they upheld the highest ethical standards, if
they are to effectively perform their duties as societys watchdogs and the
nations conscience.
Communication Infrastructure and Training
The Dialogue examined the various modes and processes of communication
and distinguished between the traditional and the modern. It observed that,
in a country such as Nigeria, both modes still had a place and must
complement each other. It was acknowledged, for instance, that rural
dwellers related more meaningfully to and with the traditional modes of
communication involving town criers and the village square meetings.
Moreover, it was noted that villagers have tended to give greater credence to
information emanating from traditional rulers.
The Dialogue also commended the use, by the present administration, of
what has now become known as the Peoples Parley or the Village
Forum whereby the highest government functionary in a state notably the
Governor physically meet to discuss with people in the rural areas. The
In view of the increasingly high cost, for the ordinary Nigerian today, of
procuring radio and TV sets and buying accessories like batteries on a
recurrent basis, the Dialogue considered the expediency of re-introducing
rediffusion sets to enhance communication effectiveness at the grassroots. It
was suggested that, far from being a retrograde step, this could be in line
with the recent development of cable television and radio for specialized
programmes in developed countries.
The Dialogue also considered the training of media practitioners
particularly those who operate in indigenous Nigerian languages. It was
agreed that these people should be trained to a level comparable to that of
those who worked in the English language media.
Training is also required for all categories of media workers. Such training
should pay due regard to issues of culture and language. It should also
emphasize subjects specialization and greater use of libraries. The Dialogue
also called for the decentralization of the media. This would entail the
establishment of community radio stations in various local government
areas. Such stations could make use of community based individuals to serve
as stringers and correspondents.
Factors Militating Against Effective Communication
The Dialogue identified three major factors as capable of militating against
effective communication. These include:
1. The Credibility of the source or the medium;
2. The Content or message being communicated;
3. Noise along the channel of communication.
The Credibility of the Source or the Medium
This factor was held to be of overarching importance in communication. If a
source was perceived as unreliable or untrustworthy by the audience, its
message would most likely be disbelieved. And if the medium was also seen
in the same light, the message would suffer the same fate. The example was
cited of how the Federal government-owned Morning Post and Sunday Post
died from a lack of patronage. The public stopped buying the papers because
of the papers loss of credibility. Instead, it often violently attacked their
publishing offices and distribution vans. Another example was from the
former Western Nigeria where many people returned their rediffusion boxes
because the medium was used to broadcast false election results.
The Dialogue noted that information sources or media outlets that had been
employed in the past to mislead or even deceive the public could not
usefully be employed to mobilize those same people for development.
Communication media could serve the interest of their owners better if they
maintained a credible image at all times rather than indulge in unrealistic
and harmful manipulation of information.
The Content or Message Being Communicated
The message being communicated could itself militate against effective
communication. If in its dissemination, language or cultural symbols that the
audience cannot decode are employed, or if there is no common frame of
reference between the sender and the receiver, a message could fail in its
effectiveness. If the message runs counter to strongly-held beliefs or wellentrenched traditions, or if it is not considered relevant to audience needs, it
could also militate against effective communication.
The Dialogue also took the position that if the communication media were to
serve as effective agents and catalysts of development, they must be
perceived to be credible at all times and must use credible sources as senders
of messages. It stressed again the need for communicators to understand the
audience as well as the culture so as to be able to employ the most effective
codes in relating to them.
Channel Noise
Channel noise was identified as another factor militating against effective
communication. This could take the form of poor signals, fuzzy pictures or
smudged print. Poor postal and telecommunication facilities as well as
government regulations, and self and official censorship, could also be
categorized as channel noise.
Communication and Leadership
The Dialogue identified as vital a strong relationship between effective
communication and leadership, whether in government, in business and
industry, in the professions or at the community level. A leader must be a
ways of getting around such resistances and obstacles. For example, a proper
observance of protocol could win the confidence of respondents and make
them willing to talk freely. Similarly, sheer diligence and the creative use of
an indirect rather than a frontal approach could be productive of valuable
results. An understanding of the culture, the Dialogue re-affirmed, could
often help minimize the difficulties surrounding the communication process
in a country such as Nigeria.
The Dialogue also identified language as a central factor in examining the
cultural context of communication. It observed that, in a multi-lingual
society such as we have in Nigeria, the question of a national language or
lingua franca was more of a political than a cultural issue. The adoption of
any existing language as a lingua franca, it was stressed, could only
exacerbate the tensions that currently gripped our society. But this was not to
rule out the possibility that a national language could evolve in future. For
the moment, it was generally agreed that the country had no option but to
continue to use English as its official language and as the language of
science, commerce and diplomacy.
Notwithstanding this state of affairs, the Dialogue observed that one of the
major weaknesses of our development effort to date had been the failure to
make its objectives, goals and content easily known and understandable to
the generality of the populace. For the future, the Dialogue emphasized that
development plans and programmes should be supported by well thought out
communication components. It was not enough merely to put out a plan or
programme. The role of communication in ensuring popular acceptance of
its goals and its implementation strategies should be spelt out and specific
communication tasks mapped out for every stage.
These tasks should include creating awareness of our interest in the various
programmes and projects, stimulating desire to participate in the execution
of plans as well as imparting knowledge and ideas on what were being
contemplated in the different sectors. These could be health, family
planning, nutrition, agricultural extension, non-formal education, commodity
storage and preservation, marketing, political participation, civic education
indeed any sector or programme designed to give the populace greater
control over their environment.
The communication media should, in fact, set the agenda for positive and
enduring change by focusing public attention on the need for such changes
and for better and more productive ways of doing things. The news media, it
was agreed, might not be very successful in telling people what to think, but
they could be stunningly successful in telling people what to think about. By
focusing public attention on change, which is what development is often
about, they can better prepare the people for making the necessary
transforming effort.
This kind of communication, the Dialogue held, is the product of planning,
not of chance. Specific audience has to be targeted; their access to
communication has to be assured; their needs has to be ascertained, and their
involvement in project planning, implementation and evaluation has to be
guaranteed. Access must not be equated with exposure. The possession of a
radio set is no guarantee that the set is being used (it might have broken
down) or that it was used for programmes designed for specific development
goals (it might be used for disco music). The communication industry, by
making its product interesting, relevant and enlightening, is the greatest
insurance for national development to involve the total population of
Nigeria.
Conclusion
While reviewing the broad conclusions at the end of the formal
deliberations, the Dialogue returned again to the matter of ownership and
control of the news media. Democratization of access was reaffirmed as the
better alternative to government or private ownership and control of the
news media.
The Dialogue noted that, while democratization had proven most beneficent
in countries where there was a consensus as to societal values and goals, it
could also work in a country such as ours, which was still groping towards
such a consensus. Democratization, it was held, could help build a strong
foundation for such a consensus in place of the pseudoconsensus being
forced down from above through the State monopoly of the instruments of
mass communication.
Whatever the case, carefully worked-out guidelines should be provided to
ensure that democratization constrained the manipulation of information or
the potential for doing so through the mass media. To ensure such an
outcome, the Dialogue recommended that all public media be placed under a
Trust, which would guarantee that they were not controlled by any group or
interest.
While recognizing that the poor and the disadvantaged might not be able to
profit from democratized access, the Dialogue also recommended that they
should be assisted to exercise their right of access since the media was a
marketplace of ideas in which the values and views of all significant groups
in society should find accommodation.
The Dialogue again dwelt on the question of leadership in the news media.
Because of the centrality of the news media in the social process, leadership
in the media should be entrusted to enlightened people who have clear
vision; people who would not easily be seduced or corrupted by the many
guises and disguises that power and patronage assume.
Corruption at the highest levels of media work was held to be far more
damaging than the brown envelope syndrome, which is known to afflict
junior media workers. While one may not be able to rule out, completely,
patronage in appointment to the top echelons of the media, merit and
integrity should never be totally discounted in such appointments.
The Dialogue expressed concern about what often befell daring and
outspoken people in society and in the professions, especially people who
took a principled stand on public or non-public issues and defended them
tenaciously even if that stand was unpopular. Such people deserved not only
encouragement but also protection, because the society needs them in order
to progress. The question, however, was how to institutionalize such
protection, mindful of course not to create the feeling that any manner of
opposition, to the government or any institution is being encouraged,
regardless of the import of such oppositions.
Opening Remarks
by
The second thing for the information industry to note is that media men and
communicators must help in the determination and definition of what
development is all about, even as they work tenaciously and assiduously for
sustained development and growth.
In this information age of ours, it is imperative that the information industry,
which affects us in our homes, on the roads, on our farms, at our places of
work has become too important and too serious an affair to be left solely in
the hands of media practitioners and communicators. We all have to be
involved because our life, our interests, our present and our future are
shaped significantly by the information industry.
Let me quote from the acceptance speech of Alhaji Junaidu, the Waziri of
Sokoto when he was conferred with an honorary degree by Ahmadu Bello
University, Zaria.
All communities have an inner life, a spiritual dimension which
makes them what they are, gives them autonomy and helps them to
rise beyond their present state to greater achievement. I am speaking
here of the values that they have about correct relationship between
men, about the proper way to behave in conducting the affairs of men
and their own views of what constitutes their identity.
The media is one of the guardians of the morals of the society and one of the
extollers of its hopes and aspirations. Men and women of the information
and communication industry are partners and co-workers with others in the
task of nation-building and development. These men and women have an
advantage but with that advantage also goes responsibility.
Opening Address
by
At any time in the history of any people, a viable ingredient for a successful
conduct of affairs of society depends, to a large extent, on the ability of the
government and the governed to understand one another and determine in
cooperation with one another the aims, objectives, and goals of the society.
In any society, there are strong and well established channels of
communication between the constituted authority and the generality of the
people who constitutes the various nationalities. In this country, these
traditional methods exist and have been used in both out distant past and in
the present. I dare say that we will need to continue to modernize and use
these methods for as long a time as is necessary to communicate with our
people in spite of the fact that there exist fast, more effective and much more
dramatic modern means of getting across to the generality of our people. I
think we must try to use both the modern and traditional means.
Let me explain what I mean briefly. In our towns and villages, we still have
fairly efficient and well-known methods through the village heads, the
village priests, the Imams or through the town criers, through cultural dances
and traditional music and through institutions that have existed since times
gone by. I have seen before, and since independence, how these traditional
institutions have been effectively used to mobilize the vast population in this
country almost instantly. One example I am fond of relating was an occasion
in 1962 when the 1963 census was being organized. I was working in
Kaduna for the Northern Nigeria Ministry of Information and was on a tour
of Adamawa Province. I visited the office of a Councilor in the then Native
Authority. While I was in that office, a circular from the Chief Census
Officer in Lagos routed through Kaduna arrived at the desk of the
Councillor. The circular was read aloud and within a space of a few minutes,
a meeting was organized, and the contents of the letter fully explained.
Without delay, clear and precise instructions were worked out and
emissaries dispatched with instructions to have the contents of this circular
translated, fully interpreted and delivered to all. Adamawa Province from
Yola stretches about 200 miles to the North and another 350 miles to the
South. There were hardly any motorable roads! There were no telephones or
telegraph facilities to use, no airstrips or helicopters to distribute these mails
and nor did we have any radio or television station to broadcast to the
people! The method used then can still be used today to good advantage. All
the artistes were employed to good effect and messages were fully
understood and communication was prompt and effective. Of course, it is a
fact that everybody knew then that there was going to be a census. The
important thing is that the import of the census, its organization and so on
I think that a group like ours is well placed to discuss this subject and to
propose new directions for effective communication at all levels between all
of us, between us and those who have the responsibility to govern and to
lead us in these trying times. I think in their own way, the people have
indicated that they want a virile, strong and dynamic Nigeria. It is the duty
of some of us to work out the modality for achieving these developmental
goals and ease the burden on our people.
9
Rural Development
The poor quality of life in our rural areas can be attributed partly to the
differential distribution of amenities as between urban and rural areas. In
order to bring about real development in the rural areas, there must exist
active collaboration between government, non-government agencies, the
private sector, communities and the rural communities themselves. Only
such a collective attempt can improve the quality of life of these
communities and significantly reduce the rate of rural-urban migration.
Definition of Rural Areas
Rural areas are characterized by their depleted work-force, their rudimentary
and inefficient mode of production, their general lack of basic infrastructure
and social amenities such as safe potable water, all season access roads,
telecommunication, electricity, schools, medical facilities, good houses and
recreational facilities, the paucity of processing factories, markets, banks,
storage depot and machine repair shops and their low levels of health care
delivery, nutrition, hygiene, education and social awareness. For these
reasons, rural areas are normally unable to fully harness their abundant
natural resources.
On the other hand, rural areas have managed to preserve their age old
traditional and cultural linkages and heritage, and thereby are more socially
stable and more amenable to mobilization through respected leadership and
acceptable organization.
In the report of the first Farm House Dialogue, development had been
defined as a process concerned with peoples capacity in a defined area
over a defined period to manage and induce change; that is, to predict, plan,
understand and monitor change and reduce or eliminate unwarranted change.
Thus, the more people develop themselves, the more they would become
instruments for further change.
In reviewing the current state of affairs in Nigerias rural areas from the
above perspectives, the Dialogue concluded that, for an effective and
thorough-going transformation, rural development must be participative,
people-centered, and skill developing while depending largely on local
resources. In the opinion of participants, it is very crucial that, with
minimum assistance, rural communities must be empowered to deal
positively and decisively with the environmental problems confronting them,
pursue a wider range of activities to increase their productivity and be more
seriously enlightened to promote greater attitudinal change and skill
acquisition amongst their members.
Participants took the view that three main principles are germane to and
must instruct, inform and guide policies aimed at meaningful rural
development. These are:
a. The recognition that sovereignty resides with the people, and, for rural
development, with the rural people and that local government, as the
third tier of government, must be a real and meaningful actor in the
development arena at the rural level.
b. The appreciation that for the rural populace to be able to exercise their
sovereignty and assume their responsibility for development, they
must have the necessary resources (adequate revenue allocation from
federal and state sources and internal capacity to generate their own
revenue locally) as well as access to relevant and desirable
information for development. They must also be encouraged to
develop the capacity to be able to hold the government and its
functionaries accountable for any acts of commission or omission on
the latters part.
c.
The acceptance by all those who, by their office, are responsible for
helping rural people with their development, that they are outsiders
and their role is more than to support the communities in their quest to
achieve self reliant development.
Once these three principles are recognized and accepted, the methodology or
promoting rural development can be spelt our as entailing the following:
regime, can be expected to crave to take over most of its functions especially
after 1992. Participants recommended that greater attention be paid by
government to reducing the wastes occasioned by duplications and
overlapping of activities of various agencies.
The Dialogue emphasized the need to strengthen the capacity of local
government to seriously promote rural development by giving them the
wherewithal to perform their function efficiently and effectively as the basic
instrument and agent of development at the rural level, working hand-inhand with the rural communities.
After a careful consideration of the present state of affairs and certain
aspects of the political and administrative history of this country, the
Dialogue made the following recommendations:
1. That clearly articulated policies on rural development be jointly
defined by the Federal, State, and Local Governments in which goals
are fully spelt out, and measurable criteria and targets put in place;
2. That the implementation of such policies be overseen by a powerful
committee (headed by the Chief of General Staff or Vice-President at
the Federal level and Deputy Governor at the state level);
3. that each of the three tiers of government federal, state, and local
should have its own delineated responsibilities and financial and other
resources contribution in the development of the rural areas. It is the
view of the Dialogue that both the federal and the state governments
should refrain from shifting their responsibilities to the local
government, especially when corresponding financial allocations are
not made to this end;
4. that local governments, as the third-tier of government, should be the
main instrument and agent of rural development because they are
closer to the people;
5. that the rural communities, as beneficiaries of the programmes of the
various governments, should be involved in the conceptualization of
these programmes. When such programmes have firm roots in the real
needs of the communities, it will be more difficult for a new
administration to discard them;
It was the consensus of the Dialogue that public enlightenment of the rural
dwellers is crucial. Rural dwellers should know what their rights and
responsibilities are and how they could improve the quality of their
existence. They should be taught simple modern skills that are necessary for
their survival and the improvement of their environment. Village elders,
religious leaders and teachers in the community schools could be profitably
used in this regard.
Housing and Town Planning in Rural Areas
The Dialogue reviewed the current status of housing in the rural areas of
Nigeria. It was of the opinion that the traditional patterns of building and
housing have stood the test of time and are generally good. However, the
situation is not satisfactory, especially in relation to some of the materials
used in building, such as thatched roofing, which is usually not durable.
There are abundant local materials for the building of houses. All that is
needed is the better utilization of these materials in various ways and
patterns, and their improvement to ensure their durability.
That is why the Dialogue believes that research into the local building
materials and modes of traditional architecture is a sine qua non for the
improvement of the quality of housing in the rural areas. The provision of
information and methods of using the traditional materials for cheaper and
more durable buildings should be encouraged. The Nigerian Building and
Research Institute, (NBRRI) the Nigerian Institute of Architects as well as
the Federal Ministry of Housing should intensify research efforts to enhance
the performance of their responsibilities in this regard. Efforts at the
production of durable mud bricks, roofing and flooring materials are
currently in progress and must be encouraged. Research into and
development of solar energy for use in both rural housing and rural
household is particularly advocated.
Local governments should set up effective housing units charged with
providing information and assistance on the selection of housing types and
materials that would create the desired effect and methods of building more
cheaply. This unit should also be charged with the task of erecting prototype
buildings, which should be strategically located within the rural areas for
prospective house owners to examine and copy. The provision of soft loans
should of necessity be part of this effort although this needs not be the
responsibility of this housing unit.
The current planning of the physical environments does not seem to extend
to the rural areas. It is considered that more modern concepts of townplanning be applied to the rural areas early enough to stave off the
development of sprawls that would, in future, be re-planned only with
extreme difficulty and at great expense in a renewal bid. The Dialogue
emphasized that any physical planning must, however, take into
consideration and have respect for the cultural, social and religious
circumstances of the people.
The provision of all weather roads and other avenues for accessibility must
be considered earnestly because of their effects on the economic well-being
of the people as well as their self-esteem. These roads will also allow for
proper planning and distribution of amenities, such as electricity and pipeborne water to the housing units which, undoubtedly, are rapidly increasing
in number due to population pressures.
It was again recommended that the local government be allowed to perform
this role satisfactorily with the provision of financial support from both the
State and Federal Governments, as well as from private organizations,
Banks, International Agencies, Trusts and Foundations.
Agriculture and other Economic Activities in the Rural Areas
The most important single occupation, and indeed, the mainstay of the
economy of the rural areas is farming. This is characterized by small
holdings, bush fallowing, and the use of poor genetic strains of plant crops,
poultry and livestock. Indeed, rural agriculture is predominantly subsistence
agriculture, in which only surpluses are sold for income to meet current
obligations.
Various aspects of rural agriculture were examined. The Dialogue made a
number of observations, one of which is that there has been inadequate
government support for land-clearing, which often entails a great deal of
drudgery for the peasant farmers. Inputs such as farming implements,
fertilizers, herbicides, improved seeds, transportation and storage facilities
are expensive and rural farmers are not always assisted to secure them.
and the quality of their life can all be greatly enhanced. Conscious and
deliberate efforts must therefore be made, through education and general
enlightenment, to reduce or eliminate totally unwarranted waste and protect
the rural population from destabilizing change.
Local governments, it was re-emphasized, must be seen and treated as the
wheel and hub of progressive change and development in the rural areas.
The Federal and State Governments must focus upon them as the major
agents of development in the rural areas. An important aspect of such
recognition is also the need to organize the rural populace so that it can serve
effectively as a monitoring factor to enhance accountability and increase
checks and balances in the process of development and of ensuring optimal
utilization of allocated resources. Rural development must be understood
and practised as self-development by the rural communities. Outsiders can
only lend a helping hand or act as catalysts. Urban development at the
expense of the rural sector may be socially and politically destabilizing in
future.
Opening Remarks
by
Again, there is the important issue of what our mode of reference for a rural
area is. What are the denominators of a rural area? Is it enough to accept that
any community with a population of less than 20,000 inhabitants is a rural
community, without taking into cognizance the stage of physical planning in
each community, availability of basic infrastructures, presence of
industrial/commercial enterprise, standards of habitat, and the socioeconomic and cultural standards of the community?
Of equal significance and salience to our discussion this weekend is the
issue of how to enhance the income earning capability, capacity and
potentials of the rural dwellers. We must not and cannot run away from the
fact unless and until we develop, enhance and augment the income-earning
capabilities and capacities of the rural dwellers. Whatever we do to physical
development of the area would, in the large part, remain essentially a social
waste. Of what use will be 1000 lines of telephone in a rural area when the
absorptive capacity for production cannot utilize more than ten lines? Our
main task this weekend has to involve deliberation and suggestion coming
up with how to boost productivity in our rural areas in addition, if you like,
to making of arts and crafts.
Much as I agree with the exhortation of President Julius Nyerere, the former
President of Tanzania to his people in 1967 at The Arusha Declaration that
while other people might aim at reaching the moon, while in the future we
might aim at reaching the moon; present efforts must be directed at reaching
the villages. I cannot but add that, in reaching the villages, we must not
abandon thoughts on the problems of urban stagnation and decay.
Whatever our recommendations and proposals may be, we must keep in
view the fact that rural development must not lead to urban neglect,
disintegration and decay. My conviction is that the flip side of our coin of
rural development must be urban improvement and transformation. Both the
urban and rural areas must engage our attention if we are to avoid a situation
whereby we hold one area down while the other tries to grow.
Our efforts at rural development must be made to include a responsibility for
the environment. This must be made total, systematic, progressive and
irreversible. By this, I mean that our care for and protection of the
environment must be made to go beyond sanitation exercises once a month.
It must involve a conscious, deliberate and continuous effort aimed at
preventing the depletion of our forests and wooded areas. Chopping down
trees for firewood might, for now, appear as a logical and practical
alternative to the unavailability of other sources of energy. Yet, we should
consider the costs in terms of reducing our survival ability in the absence of
adequate plant life and the destruction of the biosphere.
I believe it is incumbent upon us to stem the tide by democratizing access to
other sources of energy. This challenge must not be seen as a challenge for
government alone. We must seek and devise a means through which nongovernmental agencies can be made to contribute to effective rural
development and environmental protection.
The transformation of the rural areas must be made the joint responsibility of
both government and non-government agencies and institutions and the rural
communities.
I shall end these opening remarks of mine by reminding all of us of the free,
frank and non-attributable nature of our dialogue and the recommendatory
nature of our reports. I believe we can all look forward to an interesting and
instructive weekend. Once again, I welcome you all to the farm and
particularly former Governor B. W. Juta who is acting as Chairman this
evening.
10
Education for Development
There can be little doubt that education is the key to the development of a
peoples ability to manage and induce change whilst also facing the
challenges of making choices and of increasing the range of choices. If
development entails a free release of the energy of a people, education,
particularly the right kind of education and in its widest sense, is the only
means of bring about such a release and at the same time facilitating the
emergence of a political structure that will throw up the right kind of leaders.
Consequently, education for development (and particularly for local
development) must be recognized as a veritable agency in the arduous task
of democratic learning and adaptation.
But what is meant by education? Education must be understood as
entailing a life-long formal and informal process of equipping an individual
to be fully aware of his environment and to exploit, manage and dominate
same for the benefit of himself and the society at large. Education should not
be construed as merely the acquisition of literacy or other skills or the
preparation of individuals for the employment market. It must be seen as a
process in which an individual is engaged virtually from the cradle to the
grave.
The Relevance of Education Curricula
The Dialogue observed that education must not be regarded as consisting of
a distinct set of activities operating within a community but as a continuous
process of improving the quality of life of the people. To this extent, the
content and curricula of both formal and informal education have to be
evaluated to determine their relevance or otherwise to the culture and
environment of the people. It was agreed that no education could be
considered relevant to the development of a people unless it is firmly rooted
in their cultural milieu.
make for excellence. It should further inculcate in our youth the confidence
that success depends on excellence rather than on long legs, on the
important personalities that an individual knows or on the circumstances of a
persons birth. This would not only obviate the temptation to surrender to
failure but it would also emphasize the ethics of industry, fair play and
justice. In addition, uniform standards must be established and applied to
similar situations to ensure equity and justice:
Participants agreed that language is the projector and transmitter of culture
and that nowhere is this better illustrated than in our folklore, proverbs and
literature. Our educational system must therefore encourage the use of our
mother tongues in the home as well as in the early school years, as a medium
of speech and instruction. Furthermore, greater and deliberate efforts must
now be directed at publishing in book form or in any other permanent
medium such vehicles of our culture as folklore, mythologies, songs,
parables, proverbs and plays so that such might become common-place
resources in our educational system. Our Ministries of Education should
monitor and pay particular attention to deficiencies in the implementation of
the new national education policy.
The quality of Education
The Dialogue began by asking the question: in what sense can the quality of
education in Nigeria be said to be declining? A simple and direct answer to
this question, it was agreed, would lead to a gross over-simplification of an
otherwise complex issue.
It was noted, for instance, that the best product of todays educational
system is far better trained and informed than the best product of earlier
generations, while the worst product of today is better than those of yesteryear. It was admitted that this was no doubt related to the fact that the range
of tools being used in the educational process today is wider and more
sophisticated than was available in years past. For the children of the elite in
some urban communities, such tools include books on various disciplines,
information processing equipment such as audio-visual instruments like
television and radio, as well as calculators and computers. It is, therefore,
not surprising that the best student of today has a wider perspective of his
subject-matter and a deeper awareness of the world around him than his
counterpart of yester-year.
However, when we assess the generality of the students at all the levels of
the educational system, we would agree that there has been a general decline
in the following areas:
a. Literacy and numerical skills;
b. Language skills; and
c. Logical reasoning
This trend was attributed to the following circumstances:
a.
b.
c.
d.
as falling into two categories, namely, that broadly between the northern and
southern states, and that between the urban and rural area. It was noted that
the issue of the regional disparity in the proportion of children of schoolgoing age who are in school has had a long history in the country. Although
one usually speaks of North and South, it must be noted that there are
exceptions within each region. In the South for example, Rivers, Cross River
and Lagos States show evidence of being disadvantaged whilst, in the North,
Kwara, Plateau and Benue states do not appear disadvantaged. At any rate,
the persistence of this regional dichotomy in educational attainment twentyeight years after the nations political independence must be seen as
reflecting either a certain lack of political will to bridge the gap, or as a
deliberate manipulation of the gap for purposes not in accord with the longterm interest of the country. Either way, it was the view of the participants
that it is now imperative for the government to put a time frame for the
removal of this dichotomy. It was noted that, if the present National Policy
on Education was faithfully pursued in all the States, the phenomenon of
educationally disadvantaged states should, by 1995, be a thing of the past.
Another aspect of the problem of educationally disadvantaged states also
highlighted is the issue of the transition rate from primary to secondary
schools. It was noted that although there is no nationally accepted transition
rate, a situation whereby this rate varied from 13 to 35 per cent in the
northern states as against 65 to 95 per cent in the southern states can hardly
be regarded as healthy.
Bendel State, for instance, has the highest transition rate of 95 per cent
compared with 13 per cent for Kano State. One significant paradox of the
situation is that, in spite of its low level of educational accomplishment,
commercial activities in Kano State are most buoyant. The Dialogue
examined the nature of the trade-off between formal education and early
participation in commercial life, noting the interesting experience in some
other parts of the country where individuals who had no education or had
dropped out of school were returning to school to complete their formal
education after making some money from their early adventure into trading.
To deal more decisively with the problem of disadvantaged states, the
Dialogue believed that there is the need for a more effective monitoring of
the impact of the massive injections of funds into building schools and
implementing other government polices aimed at correcting the imbalance in
education. It was also felt that positive measures should be undertaken in the
these institutions should be more circumspect about the situation, and should
raise an alarm, to the appropriate authorities, if the level of request is
approaching the crisis limit. It was also suggested that the current brain drain
of professionals and academics from the country on account of the present
economic situation should be redressed. At the same time, it was noted that,
within universities themselves, an inordinate amount of precious academic
time is spent on attending committee meetings. It was strongly
recommended that university councils and senates should begin examining
the management structure of their institutions with a view to devising a more
effective decision-making arrangement that is less costly in terms of manhours.
11
Health for Development
Health, it must be understood, transcends the mere absence of disease and
infirmities in an individual. It includes adequate psychological and psychic
balance, a decent housing and unbridled access to a daily intake of nutritive
and balanced diet. Consequently, the perception, promotion, protection and
delivery of health care services must be de-mystified and diversified and
made all-embracing if the total spectrum of human well-being is to be
captured. In consequence, it is necessary to examine some fundamental
societal problems that currently inhibit progress in all sectors of the society
including health. These problems, which include indiscipline, corruption,
excessive materialism and a rapid decline in the pursuit of excellence, are
like a sore thumb that requires drastic surgical attention.
Nigeria has taken great strides forward in tackling problems of basic
manpower training in the health sector and it continues to deploy
considerable human and material resources even to the area of primary
health care, which incorporates both preventive and curative medicine down
to the village level. Notwithstanding this, it was recognized that there are
still a number of unresolved issues and major constraints in the way of
achieving health for development.
through the family cell to the larger community. The problem of poor
dissemination and appreciation of what the policy entails for each of these
levels of society was seen as a major impediment to its satisfactory
execution. In order to mobilize all citizens to a full appreciation of their
responsibility to their own health and that of the community at large, there
was the need to adequately inform them on this through the translation of the
National Health Policy document to all the major Nigerian languages and
through the effective dissemination of these using the media and other
traditional means of information dissemination.
Another question that was raised with respect to implementation was the
apparent relegation to the background of tertiary health care in the present
scheme of things. The Dialogue noted that, although it was necessary to give
due emphasis to primary and secondary health care services, the overall
effectiveness of the health sector depends on keeping an holistic view of
things and ensuring that each level of service is accorded its own pride of
place.
Specifically, with respect to the formulation of a national health strategy, the
federal government must realize the importance of inter-sectoral coordination since the health of the Nigerian populace is determined by the
activities of other ministries besides the Ministry of Health. The work of
such ministries as those of agriculture, education, works and housing do
clearly have a telling effect on the health of citizens and need to be
deliberately taken into account through inter-ministerial efforts. Within the
health sector itself, attention must be paid to training the diversity of
manpower required to reflect the wide ramification of health care covering
such desperate areas as research and health technology. All of this training
effort must be cost-effective, and appropriate to the needs of the populace.
With respect to the problem of financing our national health care, it was felt
that the government should re-examine its sectoral allocations and funding
sources with a view to increasing the share of the health sector.
Participants also commented on the need for continuity in the
implementation of health policies in the country. It was felt that the practice
whereby policies change with every change of ministers was not in the best
interest of the health of the citizens of the country. The example was cited of
Britain, where there has been a consistent Basic National Policy for the last
forty years in spite of the frequent change in government personnel.
Most importantly, it was felt that the success of any health policy depended
on the level of discipline and commitment among all members of the health
team. The government needs to pay attention to the need to engender these
attributes in all concerned whether in the public or the private sector.
Indicators of Inadequate Health and Unresolved Problems
of Health Care
The WHO policy on health worldwide provided the basis for discussion on
these issues. It was agreed that this policy should be taken along side the
National Health Policy. As a result, the following major indicators of
inadequate health care service were identified:
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.
h.
other, with some states suffering from a lack of adequate manpower. Such
states, which do not have a sizable stock of well- trained personnel, should
do everything possible to encourage many of their young school leavers to
undergo medical training whilst devising various schemes in the short-term
to attract trained medical personnel from other parts of the country.
The Dialogue viewed with considerable alarm the present situation whereby
the country is losing an increasingly large number of its senior medical
personnel to more remunerative employments in other countries. The
Dialogue believes that, with some imaginative schemes of compensation, it
should be possible to attract back many of these individuals in spite of the
present strained economic circumstance of the country.
Strategies for Effective Health Care Delivery
Strategies for an effective health care delivery system in the country, it was
agreed, entail the development of an inter-connected, inter-related concentric
approach that emphasizes inter-ministerial relations. Consequently, many
policies and issues have to be considered. Given the limitation of time
during this session of the Dialogue, it was agreed that deliberation should be
limited to only four of these, namely, drug provision, health insurance, rapid
population growth and the issue of equity and social justice.
Drug Provision
No effective health care delivery system, it was reiterated, can be developed
on the basis of imported drugs. The Dialogue, therefore, re-emphasized that
foreign loans for drugs should be such as would enhance our capacity to
manufacture the essential drugs needed by the country. The experience of
Cuba, which devised a well-articulated and carefully executed policy of drug
manufacturing was cited and recommended for emulation. Nigeria has to
rationalize its list of essential drugs such that industries can be set up locally
in line with such a list. Local production must be stimulated and legislation
enforced to forestall adulteration. A rationalized system of drug distribution
comprising zonal stores and deports must also be put in place. Since
transportation usually adds to overheads and pushed up the cost of drugs, it
was agreed that, henceforth, state and federal government agencies ordering
drugs must make suppliers deliver to designated agencies and stores.
Thereafter, the agencies concerned should be responsible for delivery of
vital drugs down the consumption line. It was also agreed that the health of
animals and plants on which human beings depend so much for survival
needs to be improved in order to enhance the quality of our own health.
In the meantime, the Dialogue emphasized the need for the nation to
encourage our universities and Research Institutes to begin to put together
our inherited pharmacopoeia of healing herbs and plants and to engage in
serious research to test their healing effectiveness. As a starting point, it may
be necessary to set up a parastatal to convert these into drugs and
medicaments. But the ultimate goal must be to stimulate the emergence of a
vigorous pharmaceutical industry producing drugs and other medical
accessories not only for internal consumption but also for export to all parts
of the world.
The Dialogue was briefed on the federal governments Health Insurance
Policy, which has undergone various changes in the planning process and is
billed to take off in 1992. Although, at the initial stage, the policy is
expected to involve six million people, the dialogue was of the opinion that
this would exclude a large number of highly deserving individuals if due
care was not taken. There was considerable skepticism about the
implementation of the scheme and participants felt that there were still many
unresolved issues in the policy to which serious attention needs to be given
especially those that could end up deepening social cleavages in the nation.
In contrast to the main thrust of the Health Insurance Policy, the Dialogue
recommended that the existing teaching hospitals especially those in Ibadan,
Zaria, Nsukka and Maiduguri should be adequately equipped and manned to
make them true centres of excellence. They should have some of the recently
developed and sophisticated medical equipment in the world so that they can
provide all and sundry with the very specialized medical services the
absence of which has led many relatively rich Nigerians to continue to travel
out of the country for medical attention, at great costs to our foreign
exchange reserve. It was suggested that if, for any reason, this was not
possible, the country could at least develop one centre that can provide
advanced medical services and give health ministrations of the type, quality
and standard that Nigerian dignitaries and top government officials obtain
abroad.
Population
The Dialogue identified population and population growth as important
factors in all health planning strategies. The Nigerian population, it was
observed, is growing much too fast. The World Bank has projected that the
population of the country will be over 500 million by the year 2035, which is
less than fifty years away. Participants were unanimous in their call for a
constructive and all embracing strategy for controlling the rate of growth of
the Nigerian population. Certain factors such as early marriages were
identified as major contributory causes to such a high rate. Perhaps, the
worst offender is child marriage. This practice was condemned in its totality
and it was reasoned that, apart from its impact on rapid population growth, it
had added health implications such as the rampant cases of Vesico Vagina
Fistula (VVF) and Recto Vagina Fistula (RVF).
The consensus of opinion was that the nation should strenuously combat the
trend through a frontal attack, which would involve extensive and intensive
public education on the advantages of family planning as a means of
sensitizing the generality of Nigerians to the dangers and implications of
possible population explosion in the country. Such broad-based educational
strategy should be the responsibility and concern of all those who are aware
of the imminent dangers of uninhibited population growth to the nations
well-being. It should involve not only the mass media but also all voluntary
organizations, and of our schools, colleges and universities. Dis-incentives
such as severe and enforceable penalties were suggested to be enacted
against those involved in child marriages.
It was felt that the time was ripe for government to make a determined effort
at registering all births and deaths in all communities in Nigeria. Henceforth,
every community should be compelled to register all births and all deaths as
stipulated by legislation. No payment for these services should be taken by
any government or private agency. The shinning example of Katsina State,
which was adjudged the best in Nigeria, in the registration of births and
deaths was cited as an indication of what can be done once the will was
there.
Opening Remarks
by
of the dilemma and the circular nature of the link between health and
development.
A sector by sector analysis of the Nigerian social reality confirmed that the
health sector is in a particularly severe crisis. There is no gainsaying the fact
that adequate health care for the Nigerian citizenry is, for now, a mirage.
Where did we go wrong and how far wrong have we gone? Can we retrace
our steps and move with a concerted effort in the right direction?
These of course are loaded questions. Proffering answers to them, I believe,
would constitute the melting point and the bottom line of our national health
problems and of course our dialogue this weekend.
Our national health problems have been compounded by the availability of
locally accessible and inexpensive remedies and techniques that we have
continuously ignored. That, to my mind, was the first step we took wrongly.
At another level, I believe the curative potency of our traditional herbs has
not really been optimized. What we need do is discern the correct dosage of
each herb that needs to be administered for its potency to emerge.
Developing this would be a two-pronged attack; not only would the drugs be
easily available and affordable, it would also reduce the current trend of
over-dependence on western drugs. Such dependence carries with it
implications that are far reaching and somewhat damaging. There is an
adage which says that nobody can take care of your property like you would
do. In essence, the Western drugs cannot be as accurately efficient as the
herbs we have, if only we can design cheap and inexpensive ways of making
them available in a standardized format. I do not believe that medicare needs
to be expensive to be effective. Because of our faulty start off the block, we
have largely and patently ignored preventive medicine. We all know that it is
cheaper to prevent than to cure. Yet we usually allow a small wound to
fester into an unusually large open sore.
One aspect of preventive medicare that we seem not to be cognizant of is
the continuous degradation of our environment and the uncontrolled and
widespread usage of pesticides and the newer emergent phenomenon of
importing toxic waste.
Opening Address
by
I also hope that this team will find it possible to firmly indicate what
minimum percentage of the GDP the nation will require in order to finance
its health needs. This figure should reflect the level of priority enjoyed by
health matters in the affairs of the nation.
In examining the problems in the traditional divisions of the health sector,
we should hunt particularly for new ideas for the solution of current
problems. I also hope that we will be able to examine some fundamental
national problems that are currently inhibiting Nigerias progress in all
sectors including health. I am referring to the pervasive problems of
indiscipline, corruption, excessive materialism, and a precipitous decline in
the pursuit of excellence.
Preventive Medicine
Health problems are traditionally discussed under the heading of preventive
and curative. Until recently, lip service rather than solid achievement was
characteristic of the practice of Preventive Medicine in this country.
In 1959, on the eve of our independence, a distinguished British Physician,
the late Sir Graham Bell visited Nigerias health establishments at the
request of the Colonial Government. A quick look at the budget and the
economy convinced him that the most cost-effective way of handling our
health problems lay in the vigorous pursuit of preventive medicine
Immunization, environmental health programmes including countrywide
attention to water supplies, material and child-health, and data collection.
Bells advice was politely accepted but the emphasis on curative medicine
continued unabated, and an audit around 1985 still showed that only one
quarter of the health budgets of the nation went to the prevention of disease.
It is gratifying that with Professor Kutis new initiatives in primary health
care, which combines preventive medicine with curative medicine at the
village level, and with the support of international agencies like WHO and
UNICEF in immunization, a new horizon has dawned in the areas of
preventive medicine in Nigeria. However, to make appropriate impact, this
initiative must be continued indefinitely.
Members of the forum will need to comment on the present situation and
make proposals for improvement in the operations of the programmes.
At the same symposium, Nigerias former Chief Medical Adviser, the late
Dr. Adesuyi quoted the WHO as recommending that priority attention in
health matters should be given to the training of medical manpower followed
by control of communicable diseases, environmental health programmes and
the expansion of basic health services.
Today, 16 years later, it is possible to say that much has been achieved in
training of basic manpower in Nigeria, and that, for the first time, primary
medical care, which integrates preventive and curative medicine at the
village level is receiving appropriate attention, and seems to have climbed to
number one priority position on the WHO programmes recommendations.
At the Nigerian Medical Association Conference held in Enugu in 1973, a
suggestion was made that one way of defeating the drug-out-of-stock
syndrome in our hospital was for the items purchased with the drugs vote to
be sold to patients at their cost price and the proceeds re-cycled repeatedly to
keep the drug supply at a satisfactory level throughout the year instead of
returning all the money to the Accountant-General as stipulated in
Government Regulations. The idea was accepted in principle by the
commissioner for Health, East Central State at the time but his civil servants
advised against it saying that it would sabotage orderly compliance with the
rules of the civil service. It took another 15 years for the idea to be
resuscitated and put into practice. In the last two and a half years, this simple
procedure has radically changed the drug supply situation in places like the
University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, the Hospital of the University of
Nigeria. The Borno State Ministry of Health is the latest ministry to embrace
the drugs budget re-cycling practice. There is a need for the practice to be
adopted in every local Government throughout the country.
Now what are the unresolved problems of the health sector?
What are the major constraints standing between perfect health and us for
development?
The major unsolved health problem is of course the dismal health of our
national economy, which is responsible for the all round shortage of funds.
The problem of the national economy is too important to be left alone to the
Government or the economists alone. Everyone with fresh ideas on the
problem must make them available to the nation.
Other general malaises that pervade and which inhibit national progress, by
as much as 30 to 40%, include indiscipline, lack of accountability and
corruption. They should no longer be ignored.
A third malady is ignorance in the area of health education and poor
communication facilities. This is amenable to treatment through a vastly
improved communication network, linking the village health centre and so
the health pyramid with the primary school as well as the media, starting
with new specially prepared educative programmes on radio and television.
The fourth problem is malnutrition, which afflicts, in my experience, as
many as 40% of the children of school age in the rural areas of some parts of
the country. With the improvement in the food supplies and the growth of
school farms and a better supply of fertilizers, I suggest that we should aim
ultimately at one good school lunch for all our primary school children
throughout Nigeria.
The shortage of clean water is really a problem though it is being handled by
various other agencies. The ideal of one water point to 1000 citizens is still
unrealized in spite of the feverish activities of DFFRI. How to accelerate its
realization is one of the topics that should be addressed by this house. It is
one sure way of improving the health status of the citizenry throughout the
country. One of the most difficult problems of the nation has been how to
12
Food and Development
What is Food?
Food must not be seen merely in terms of what is edible. Its definition must
recognize nutritional value, the constituents and what people consume for
energy, growth and sustenance, drawing essentially on their areas natural
endowments and available resources. Food for a people must be based
principally on what they can produce within their environment. Participants
were thus convinced that any wise nation would do everything possible to
avoid the trap of reliance on imported food, and seek to achieve a high
degree of self-reliance, if not self-sufficiency, in food production. This must
involve and include the ability to produce, procure, process and store, within
the nation, the essential food items and constituents required by the Nigerian
people.
National Food Security
The Dialogue defined national food security within the context of national
food reliance and balance. It agreed that food security must imply adequate
access by all the people, at household levels, to adequate and largely
domestically produced food at all times. The Dialogue observed that
dependence on commercial and foreign exchange-consuming imports has
more often than not been detrimental to national and local production. It
noted that increased consumption of imported food items, particularly grains
and their derivatives, has been made possible because of the availability of
foreign exchange, which was misapplied in the past essentially because of
our over-valued exchange rates. This was accentuated by the subsidies given
by the exporting countries themselves to facilitate such imports. The
combined effect of all these was that food import became artificially cheap
while local production was simultaneously depressed as a result of price
disadvantage.
In the opinion of the Dialogue, it was high time that researchers and
inventors took cognizance of the need to incorporate womens knowledge of
traditional food production and marketing practices into the corpus of
received ideas. They should also clearly delineate the roles of the sexes in
Nigerian agriculture and the implications of this for service delivery and
equipment design and provision.
Correcting the marginalization of rural women in the national scheme of
things must therefore involve the sensitization of Nigerian policy makers
and the active encouragement and empowerment of womens organizations
and groups. In addition, efforts must be made to reflect, in rural development
policies, some appreciation of sex differential in the intra-family allocation
of time and resources and in the resolution of the technological problems
associated with the equitable distribution of intra-family incomes.
Small Scale Farmers
The Dialogue observed that, in the Nigerian agricultural production process,
the role of the small-scale farmer is central to the all-important question of
food security. Ironically, the implementation of some government policies
has shown an undisguised discrimination against the small-scale farmers
even though as much as 80% (eighty per cent) of our marketed agricultural
surpluses come from them.
Agricultural research has made limited progress partly because of the
repeated failure to observe, and partly from a near obstinate refusal to learn
from the traditional small-scale farmer, whose production systems and
techniques have a track record of successes against environmental vagaries
and difficulties. The stock of experimental knowledge that the traditional
small-scale farmer acquired through a process of inter-generation transfer of
farming skills, based on trial and error methods, is not being fully tapped and
integrated into modern agricultural practice through the use of scientific
methodologies of enquiry and appraisal.
The Dialogue, therefore, strongly recommended that policy makers must
make conscious efforts to move away from the stereotype that vilifies the
small-scale farmer as conservative and resistant to change. A better
understanding and appreciation of the farmers extremely sophisticated
adaptation of his production system to his environment must be sought as a
matter of urgency and priority. Researchers must work with the farmer
rather than against him. Henceforth, policy makers must ensure that
researches are not only on inter-cropping and the size of farm holdings, but
also on seeking complete understanding of why small-scale farmers do what
they do and how they can be helped to do them better, cheaper and with
reduced effort and tedium.
Participants were convinced that achieving food security for the nation
requires that the small-scale farmer be persuaded and trained to embrace the
integrated farming system, which combines crop and livestock production,
agro forestry, fisheries and fish farming, water development, conservation
and management. A move in this direction is now imperative. Agricultural
extension workers need to be attuned and orientated towards a more
persuasive approach that emphasizes participation and commercial
demonstration as a more viable means of convincing small-scale farmers to
adopt new technologies and new practices.
In addition, participants urged that, in the area of research, small-scale
farmers should be encouraged to become veritable sources of data.
Large Scale Farmers
Recently, large-scale farmers have emerged as another producing unit of the
Nigerian agrarian system. Because they are yet to constitute a critical mass,
government policies seem as yet not to be favourably disposed to them. It is,
however, the view of the Dialogue that it would be unfortunate, at this stage
of our agricultural development, for policies to show a strong bias against
any scale in the farming system. An integrated view must be taken whereby
large-scale and small-scale farmers are seen as mutually complementary and
collaborative in their efforts. Of special interest among large-scale farming
enterprises is the category commonly referred to as agribusiness.
Agribusiness was defined broadly to include, apart from farming activities,
both the processing of farm produce and the upstream activities of farm
input production. The enterprises that constitute this category in Nigeria are
few and far between and their collective impact is as yet not sufficiently felt.
Participants noted and commended, as a welcome development, the entrance
of international agribusiness into agricultural production in Nigeria but
observed that they cannot be relied upon to solve the problem of food
insecurity in the country. However, they can be very useful in such areas as
the development or expansion of processing plants to handle farmers crops,
with or without the nucleus of an associated estate. An important factor is
the ability (and self interest) of an agribusiness to offer an assured and ready
market to outgrower farmers, as well as provide credit and extension
services if these are needed in large-scale crop production as technical and
financing partners with local landowners (or land owning companies.) This
may be particularly relevant with regard to the production of certain crops,
which may be unattractive to small farmers, because of high costs, the long
maturing period of abnormally difficult physical conditions.
The Dialogue however entered a caveat by enjoining policy makers to pay
special attention to the need to prevent a situation whereby agribusiness
establishments are simply out to exploit small-scale farmers/outgrowers.
This may happen especially when such agribusiness concern is the sole
buyer of the produce of the small farmers as is the case with tobacco.
Participants also observed that agro forestry is one aspect of the Nigerian
agrarian practice that has not been given sufficient attention in the past. It is
now more critical than ever before that the tidal wave of environmental
degradation due to deforestation be stemmed. A plausible combative
strategy must be worked out as a matter of necessity and which must be
anchored on the development and promotion of agro-forestry. Private sector
initiative should also be induced and encouraged in this regard.
The strategy must sensitise Nigerians to the need to plant trees everywhere
possible in our cities and countryside. In addition, adequate and attractive
incentives should be provided to those engaged in agro-forestry to make it
an attractive venture in their lifetime.
Subsidies
Participants frowned at the usually terse arguments advanced against the
subsidization of agricultural inputs such as fertilizers, herbicides, cutlasses,
hoes and machinery. It was argued that the reality of the lived experience of
farmers and farming enterprises around the world confirms that there is
hardly any country that is today self-sufficient in food production but which
has not, at some point in its history, substantially subsidized agricultural
production. It was felt that it was time that Nigerians fashioned out a
carefully packaged subsidy programme that would be consistent with its
drive for food security and food self-sufficiency. Participants were however
quick to point out that such a subsidy programme must be tailored towards a
non-inflationary growth and fiscal balance. It also must target its incentive
clearly to the farmers and, where and when possible must be reduced
progressively over time. In deed, if the programme is to be effective,
deliberate efforts must be made to ensure that it does not fall into the hands
of intermediaries between farmers and consumers.
Human Capital and Energy
The Dialogue agreed that the overall and wholesome development of
Nigerian agriculture is fundamentally dependent on her human resources.
Regrettably, however, our agricultural policies have consistently neglected
the development of our human resources in agriculture especially at the farm
management level. Yet, our success at achieving food security in Nigeria is
contingent upon our collective ability to initiate and execute programmes
that aim at releasing rural-urban migration.
The Dialogue reasoned that, to enhance national capacity in agricultural
production managers for farms and agricultural projects must be trained and
utilized for the jobs for which they are trained. The Dialogue decried the
rapid rate of turnover of political and professional heads of agriculture
ministries and establishments. Continuity of policy is adversely affected by
such a high rate of turnover. Such a trend as this does not allow for a
sustainable development of our agricultural production process. It is indeed
imperative that a modicum of stability be injected into our Ministries of
Agriculture to allow for the maturation of agricultural development policies.
In a similar vein, the Dialogue observed that some considerable amount of
agricultural research information exists in our various universities and
faculties of agriculture as well as in National Agricultural Research
Institutes. Regrettably, this information is neither being utilized nor
effectively packaged and passed on to, the small-scale farmers, who
paradoxically carry the food basket of the nation on their heads and
shoulders. For us to achieve food security, it is important that an effective
bridge be erected between the research laboratories of our agricultural
institutions and the small-scale farmers. The Dialogue therefore
recommended that extension workers be re-motivated, re-mobilized, reenergized and empowered to carry the results of our research institutions to
the fields where they are needed.
This would require the provision for them of facilities such as motorcycles,
bicycles and motor vehicles. Although this would involve a considerable
outlay of capital, in the opinion of the participants, such funding should be
provided from cuts in our military and defense expenditures. Participants
reiterated their belief that food must and should be treated as a security issue
just like the defence of the territorial integrity of the country and protection
of life and property.
The role of energy, particularly renewable energy, was also considered
important as another major factor in our agricultural production process. It is
deemed vital that access to such energy be democratized. Energy must be
available and affordable. Its generation must be based on potentially
renewable sources in Nigeria as in the rest of Africa. These sources, it was
noted, are in abundance. What is more, they are environmentally
wholesome.
The Dialogue noted the current configuration and re-alignment of forces in
Europe and the rest of the world and re-emphasized the futility of an
isolationist stance. Nigeria, like the rest of sub-Saharan Africa, must develop
an inter-connecting and inter-penetrating network of close cooperation and
collaboration with other nations. This is especially important in the area of
research and development. Given the capital intensive nature of research and
development, the Dialogue suggested that, as an issue of primary concern,
efforts should made to exploit the potential contributions of locally-based
international research centres like the IITA, in addition to our national
research organizations that address the problems of our basic food supplies.
Specifically, our national research system must, in a co-ordinated fashion,
seek to exploit research results from the various international research
centres and the complementarities in basic and applied research that exist
between them and such centres.
Political Will and Commitment
Participants at the Dialogue were convinced that, above everything else, the
most important requirement for a sustainable and progressive development
of agricultural production and food security in the nation is the commitment
and the will to achieve success at the highest political level. The current
situation whereby Nigeria is producing less than 80% of its food and fibre
requirements is regarded as precarious, crisis prone and insecure.
The national interest requires that our political leaders see agriculture as the
bedrock of our overall development. The transmutation of this into food for
the hungry can only be pursued to a realistic conclusion only if and when
decisive political will, vision, steadfastness and commitment are displayed.
13
Culture and Development
As a nation and a people, Nigerians cannot expect to pick up the gauntlet of
the development challenges of the 20th and 21st century with the attitude,
belief, mental disposition and predilection of The Stone Age. Because of this
countrys cultural plurality, it is necessary to pick out and clarify those
elements in the various Nigerian cultures that are conducive to progress and
development for culture is no doubt central to virtually all issues of
development.
Defining Culture; its Parameters and Dimension
While acknowledging the fact that culture can mean many different things,
participants agreed on the need for a working definition. They decided on
the following formulation, drawing largely on the definition of culture as
articulated in the booklet, Cultural Policy for Nigeria, published by the
Federal Department of Culture. Culture is the totality of the way of life
evolved by a people in their attempts to meet the challenges of living in their
environment.
Expatiating on this definition, the Dialogue observed that culture gives order
and meaning to the social, political, economic, aesthetic and religious norms
and values of a people, and thus distinguishes them from other peoples. It
comprises material, institutional, philosophical and creative aspects. The
material aspect has to do with artifacts in their various forms, namely tools,
clothing, food, medicine, utensils, housing, etc. The institutional aspect deals
with the political, social, legal and economic objectives while the
philosophical aspect is concerned with ideas, beliefs and values. The
creative aspect concerns a peoples innovativeness in literature (oral or
written), their visual and performing arts, and their scientific and
technological endeavours. Culture also relates to the values of a society in
terms of the societys conception of what is right or wrong (moral values),
what is good or bad (ethical values), what is ugly or beautiful (aesthetic
values).
Culture is not merely a return to the customs of the past; it embodies the
attitude of a people to the future of their traditional values when faced by the
demands of modern technology, which is an essential factor of development
and progress. When we talk, therefore, of self-reliance, self-sufficiency and
a national development objective, we are referring to our culture as the
fountain of and the underlining spirit behind all the policies on educational,
social, political and economic matters. The strategies for national
development would thus depend on the understanding of culture, the
adaptation of its elements for political, educational; and economic
development, as well as the utilization of its strengths for social integration
and development.
It was pointed out that culture has universalistic and particularistic
dimensions that should be taken into account in considering the implications
of the accepted definition.
Culture in the Nigerian Context
Participants at the Dialogue took due cognizance of the multi-cultural nature
and base of the Nigerian nation. They noted that this situation presents
special problems particularly when it is remembered that, even within the
supposedly homogeneous cultural setting, there are basic contradictions and
conflicts. It was however agreed that, in spite of this, it was still possible to
identify common strands that could enable one to talk of a cultural unity
within the nation.
Participants observed that while ethnicity might be seen as germane to the
understanding of the emergence of a culture, the role of economic
development, especially in the evolution of a national culture, was of equal
significance. For instance, the mode of production in Nigeria has changed
and has affected the social relations of production across the nation. The
emergent culture is a broad-based one indicating that the role of ethnicity in
social relations is more or less vertical in the diverse Nigerian cultures.
Development and the emergence of cultural homogeneity, it was agreed,
were usually a function of power relations. The process of national
integration compels the cultivation of a better and a more united cultural
stance. In the Nigerian context, forces that make for such integration include
the common legislative and political processes, education, inter-regional
trade and labour movements as well as the National Youth Service Corps
Self-assertiveness;
commitment to free expression and a free press;
abhorrence of oppression;
love of freedom;
respect for elders;
hospitality;
The Dialogue further observed that it was indeed a shame that, over the
years, Nigeria had not built a thriving film industry. The first positive step in
this direction must include the provision by the government of needed
incentives to the enterprising young men currently striving to develop the
Nigerian film industry. It was emphasized that a Nigerian film industry must
be based on our culture and the films must be made to project and reinforce
our positive cultural values.
On the general issue of culture as it relates to development, the Dialogue
concluded with the following recommendations:
a. The State should provide the necessary policy climate and incentives
to encourage cultural production.
b. The development of science and technology should go hand in hand
with humanistic studies in our educational institutions.
c. The role of the family in sustaining the values necessary for
development should continuously be emphasized.
d. A climate should be created that would encourage people to make
things work and to participate in making things happen.
e. The right to be consulted and striving towards consensus.
f. Women should be further assisted through government patronage as
well as national shopping centres to stock and sell cultural artifacts.
g. Our film industry should be developed in a manner that would
encourage the creative expression of our best cultural values.
h. Young and enterprising film makers should be given access to funding
and technical resources as a matter of public policy.
State, Culture and Development
The consensus of opinion at the Dialogue was that the nature and formation
of the Nigeria cultural super-structure have tremendous and pervasive
influence on the sort of cultural policies that shape and direct our national
development. The Nigerian state, it was argued, must strive to perpetuate
those values and virtues that Nigerians have come to accept. The noticeable
failure of our public institution to bring to bear on their operations our
established cultural practices needs to be consciously obviated. Virtually all
of these institutions have over the years failed to reflect, in their actions, the
social aspects of our cultural life such as hospitality, politeness, warmth and
courteous reception of people. The consequence has been a situation wherein
civil servants and other state officials have become civil masters. Institutions
under such civil servants have become associated with insensitivity, a bossy
and uncaring attitude and insincerity. On the basis of the above discussions
participants suggested that:
a. Our leadership should encourage our public institutions to apply our
cultural values of hospitality, respect and sensitivity, to their day-today activities.
b. The State must show a greater interest in the development of our
human resources and foster more opportunities for the re-training of
workers.
c. The State should consciously promote the reading culture in the
people.
d. Libraries should be established at all the levels of governance
including the community level.
e. Schools should be encouraged to give books rather than cash as prizes
in recognition of good performance by studies.
f. Government should plan its activities in such a way that bottlenecks
are removed from the process of delivering public services. Such
bottlenecks are usually exploited by public servants to create
opportunities for corruption, and by so doing, subvert our positive
cultural values in public institutions;
g. State should review all ordinances that have negative impact on our
culture.
Propagation of the Nigerian Culture
The propagation of the Nigerian culture is an imperative for our
development process. The Dialogue was dismayed that the usual prominence
given to cultural shows in our officially organized cultural festivals has
tended to give a narrow picture of the Nigerian culture. This is because it
allows such shows to overshadow other aspects of our culture such as
literary arts, and technological and scientific inventions. It is absolutely
essential that a broader perspective be taken when presenting and promoting
our culture.
The educational system is a powerful means of propagating and transmitting
culture. For this reason, there is a strong need to check the negative
projection of the countrys image in textbooks as is the case with some of
the existing textbooks. Indeed, efforts should be deliberately made to
encourage the production of books that paint a more positive, dignifying and
Opening Remarks
by
The first two decades of our independence have been spent diagnosing and
lamenting our woes. Now is the time to anchor our precepts in the sea of
positive reinforcement, if our adaptation to the reality of our efforts at
changing our life chances as a people must have meaning.
I believe that culture is a dynamic phenomenon and that, when it becomes
static, stagnation sets in, the rot begins and we cannot, within such a
scenario, possibly talk of embracing, undertaking and confronting headlong
the challenges of development.
What remains crucial for us is to identify how we can root our development
in our culture. Culture is a way of life, and if its development is to enjoy a
mass approach and be popularly embraced, it must be pursued as a way of
life. A culture-informed and induced development process is an easier task
compared to a process that is abstracted from the mainstream of the peoples
thoughts, attitude, disposition and behavioural processes.
What aspects of our common collective consciousness, our culture, need to
be reinforced, augmented, refined, re-defined and re-directed to aid our
development process? Nigerians are, for instance, said to be assertive,
resilient, ingenious and audacious as a people and as a nation. These no
doubt are good attributes of humankind. Similarly, I believe that there is no
ethnic group in Nigeria whose culture encourages those who do not work to
live in indolence and eat off the sweat of the rest of the community. Neither
is there any aspect of the various sub-cultures that have congealed into the
Nigerian culture, that extols pilfering as a virtue. How then is it that we have
come to accept these anti-development idiosyncrasies as a norm? How come
that we have turned normal hospitality and expression of gratitude into the
extolling of bribery and corruption? But perhaps the bigger and more knotty
and certainly more challenging question is: how might we utilize the positive
virtues and aspects of our culture in the effective management of our
resources such that our attempts at development would be more meaningful,
more concrete, and more effective?
I believe that our individual tasks must start from the basic social unit, the
family cell. For far too long, most of us, in our individual attempts to keep
up with the Joneses, have thrown decorum, decency, morality and cultural
inhibitions overboard. We have harangued and allowed ourselves to be
bullied into accepting the status consciousness and symbols as a major preoccupation and, in the process; we have largely socialized our children and
our young ones into an inverted culture.
Opening Address
by
Abimbola, Vice
Chancellor, Obafemi
Awolowo
Mr. Ndu Ughamandu, Business Times, c/o Daily Times, Ikeja, Lagos
Mr.Clem Baiye, NAL Merchant Bank, Marina, Lagos
Dr. Keneth C. Orji, 59, Awolowo Road, Ikoyi Lagos
Alhaji Kabir Dangogo, USIS, 2 Broad Street, Lagos.
Engineer (Mrs.) O. T. Adeife, Federal Technical College, Yaba, Lagos
Dr. Uma Eleazu, Infodata Limited, 84, Opebi Road, Ikeja, Lagos
Dr. J.T. Bendega, 17/19 Boyle Street, Onikan, Lagos
Alhaji Mujitaba Abubakar, Afribank Nigeria Limited, Lagos
Mr. Olusegun Adebayo, Executive Editor, Resolute Magazine, 187 Old Ojo
Road, Amuwo Odofin, Lagos
Dr. Udo Udo-Aka, Applied Resources Consortium Limited, 37 Campbell St.
Lagos.
Dr. Ismaila A. Tsiga, English Department, Bayero University, Kano
Mr. Muyiwa Bamgbose, Nigeria Junior Chambers, P. O. Box 3304, Ibadan
Mrs. Aishatu I. Ismaila, Military Governors Office, Kano
Mrs. Adetutu Adeleke, Tate Industries PLC., 47/48 Eric Moore Road,
Iganmu, Lagos
Deacon G. O. Onosode, 44, Adelabu Street, Surulere, Lagos
Mr. Ted Iwere, Business Magazine, 27, Ayinde Giwa Street, Surulere, Lagos
Nyaknno Osso, Newswatch Publications, Oregun, Ikeja, Lagos
Dr. Billy S. Bitiyong, Centre for Management Development, P.M.B. 21578,
Ikeja, Lagos
Objectives
The purpose of the forum is to encourage a thorough diagnosis, broad
understanding, and an informed search for solutions to local, regional and
global problems, taking full account of their interrelationships and mutual
consequences.
To that end, the Forum will develop, organize and support programmes for
the training of young and promising Africans with leadership potential so as
to expose them to the demands, duties and obligations of leadership
positions and to prepare them systematically for assuming higher
responsibilities and meeting the challenges of an interdependent world.
The Forum will also endeavour to generate greater understanding and
enhance the knowledge and awareness of development and social problems,
within a global context, among young, potential leaders from all sectors of
society, cutting across national, regional, continental, professional and
institutional borders. This may foster close and enduring relationship among
participants, relationships promoting life-long association and cooperation.
Furthermore, the Forum will support and encourage the informed search for
appropriate and effective solutions to local and regional African problems
and to global problems from an African perspective within the framework
of global interdependence. This will nevertheless include the consideration
of phased action programmes, which can be initiated by various countries,
sub-regions and institutions in the continent.
In addition, there will be specific weekend seminars organized as FarmHouse Dialogues to be held quarterly.