The 25-page Interview

Five weeks ago, The Guardian published a lengthy interview with the President of the Federal Republic, Umaru Yar'Adua. And when I say lengthy, I mean lengthy -- it was twenty-five pages long in Microsoft Word.

In a country where innuendo and rumour often masquerade as fact, it was refreshing to hear the President's thoughts in his own words. I do think the editorial staff (who incidentally conducted the interview) could have done a better job of organizing the material, they are professionals after all, not mere bloggers such as I. Still, it was highly informative.

There were a few things I agreed with, and many things I didn't, but even where I did not agree, it was "politics" not "morality" that drove the disagreement. In a functioning democracy, citizens are allowed to disagree on policy points. In fact, such disagreement is not only natural, it is the very spice of politics. Of course we are also supposed to have the right to use our votes to make decisions on these disagreements, a right that has yet to be established in Nigeria.

I do not blame Yar'Adua for the democratic deficit. I actually find it rather insane that so many commentators seem to blame him for EVERYTHING wrong in Nigeria. The man has only been in office two years; if these problems still exist, it is because nothing was done about them in the 47 years before he took office.

Oddly enough, many of Yar'Adua's fiercest critics are people who pliantly acquiesced or outrightly supported the eight-year Obasanjo regime that preceded his. To say it is a hypocritical position for them to take on MANY levels is under-statement, but I do not want to digress too much from talking about the 25-page interview.

President Yar'Adua put a lot of things into context, and made a good argument for his government in a number of areas. Again, the editorial team could have done a better job of structuring it, but his arguments are straightforward. Again, I agree with some things, and disagree with many things, but that is life.

Rather than talk about what I agreed with and what I didn't, I decided to focus on two things.

During his Senate confirmation hearing, the new Central Bank Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, was asked about the federal government's "Seven Point Agenda". He advised the government to focus on two or three points they can realistically finish in four years, rather than attempt to complete all seven.
His advice makes sense. But it is not just "seven points", is it?

Reading through the 25-page interview, there is SO MUCH President Yar'Adua wants to do.

Too much.

It is not bad that he wants to do these things. In fact, when you get a sense of what he wants to do, you start to realize how little the prior regime did in eight years. It appears Yar'Adua has spent the first two years cleaning up behind his predecessor (and erstwhile godfather). There are things he said off-hand in the 25-page interview that got me thinking, a good example being his comments on a $2.5 billion loan the prior government negotiated with the Peoples Republic of China. Again, I don't want to digress.

The point (and the problem) is there is no way Yar'Adua is going to be able to complete his to-do list in the two years left to his administration's first term. And even if he gets a second term, the six years will be just about enough to finish work or two or three things.

He has got to narrow it down!

I know that two or three deliverables are insufficient to reform and transform the federal republic. And I know that transformation requires a multi-faceted, multi-issue, multi-front assault on ALL of the institutional and systemic weaknesses and deficiencies of our federal republic. The "problems" feed on each other, and even if you weaken one "problem", the other "problems" will re-energize it nothing has been done about them.

But let us be honest. Our political system is not capable of the sort of sweeping, transformative reform we need. There is no way Yar'Adua (or anyone else) could get the full agenda effectuated under the current political circumstances.

And even if the software of our politics were to improve dramatically overnight, the hardware is still too unwieldy, inefficient and ineffective. I am sorry, but this 36-state, 774-LGA structure is a hindrance to effective governance under any political circumstances. Nigerians complain about "corruption" and "theft" but the bigger problem is "waste"; even when spending is technically "legal" and "constitutional", too much of it is wasted one way or another.

There was recently a dramatic example of this in Bauchi State, where Governor Isa Yuguda sacked over Nine hundred (900) gubernatorial aides! The list of sacked aides included 23 Special Advisers, 41 Senior Special Assistants, 265 Special Assistants, and 582 Personal Assistants! What the heck?

The articles (here and here) suggest the Bauchi governor decided the state could no longer afford all these aides, due to the effects of global economic downturn. The articles do not mention the fact that the federal and state governments are facing a combined total fiscal deficit of about $11 billion in 2009.

The reporters should have mentioned Bauchi State cannot afford such wasteful spending even in times of plenty! Even if the federal republic entered another Oil Boom, there are far better things to spend that money on; give me the money and give me Bauchi State and let me get to work! Not to mention the fact that each of those gubernatorial aides had a network of patrons and clients to "legally" support through the use of their influence (and of what budgets their offices controlled).

And speaking of patrons and clients, the "innuendo" mills are of the opinion these 900+ were appointed to these meaningless, ceremonial posts as a reward for work they did to propel the governor into office. Presumably now that he is the President's son-in-law, and a returnee member of the PDP, his position is secure enough that he can drop them. Such is Nigerian politics.

While the inherent tendency toward waste and inefficiency is clear, the atomized administrative structure itself makes systemic, transformative change unnecessarily difficult, almost impossible.

If I were an adviser to President Yar'Adua, I would tell him to focus on ONE thing, pushing through constitutional change to cut down the number of states from 36 to 7, to reduce the number of third-tier bodies from 774 LGAs to 84 districts, to cut down the size of the FCT, and to create 4 "federal territories" that are not affiliated to any state.

It would probably take the rest of his first term and all of his second term to complete, given the fact that the entire political system will fight him every step of the way. But he would win a second term in a free and fair vote if he campaigned on this very issue.

Not that there will be a free and fair vote.

In fact, President Yar'Adua will not push this. He couldn't even if he wanted to. He is in office because of the system, has no power outside of it, and could not operate outside of it or without it.

And sadly, he is not the only one. All of the major leaders, regardless of ethnic, religious, regional or political affiliation are all Men Of The System. They will all talk a big game, and then shy away from doing anything substantial for fear it will cause the end of a system they are ultimately comfortable with -- replacing it with a system in which they would never rise quite so high.

I read that whole 25-page interview. I really think Umaru Yar'Adua is at heart a decent, good man. But someone needs to tell him to prioritize constitutional reform to our administrative structure. We start there.