Nigerian citizens’ quest for good governance

The first place to start is to express gratitude to our host, The Redeemed Evangelical Mission (TREM) for providing this platform to commemorate the birthday of the presiding Bishop of TREM. This is the 16th in the series of the Annual lectures and very many pre eminent speakers have graced this platform to examine developmental issues facing our country.

They have done so in honor of a man of ideas. A man who turns 70 on the 6th of September, a man whose heart is in the right place, a man who has proven to be dependable, a man who speaks truth to power, a man deserving of the honor we gather today to give, a family man called Mike Okonkwo. Happy Birthday sir and many Happy Returns.

For those of you who were not here at last year’s lecture, or those who are attending this Annual Lecture series for the first time, permit me to attempt to locate for you; the relevance of this lecture series. Last year, in September 2014, Nigeria was in the throes of a defining election, when many things were foretold and many did not even know what to expect.

Nevertheless, the 15th Mike Okonkwo Annual Lecture held on the 4th of September 2014. The Theme was: “The Power of your Vote, a catalyst for a Stable and United Nigeria”. The lecture was delivered by the erudite Professor Akin Oyebode. Permit me to share some of his conclusions as we approached those defining election, by quoting some of what he said: “Nigeria is today very much at a crossroad. Many Nigerians are filled with tension and foreboding regarding the 2015 elections…”

“This is why the governing class is charged to do all it can to assure the people that their vote would count…”

“Quite frankly, I believe that democracy would not have come of age in this country except and unless and only to the extent that the people are able to vote ruling governments out of office in a free, fair and peaceful manner…”

Ladies and Gentlemen, that was the contribution of the 15th Mike Okonkwo Annual Lecture to the political discourse, and Nigerians National Development. And the question to ask is, what did Nigerians go on to do? They voted out a ruling Government and power changed hands in a peaceful; and at the time, unprecedented manner. That was the recommendation of the 15th Lecture and Nigerians implemented it, and here we are.

Nigeria became better for it, but the work is not done, and I believe that the organizers of this year’s lecture recognize this in choosing this year’s  theme which is: “The Nigerian Political Class and the Citizens Quest for Good Governance”. It is implicit in this topic that the purpose for which government exists is to provide good governance and with this I agree; and the corollary is that a Government that does not provide good governance, must be changed by the ballot which is what Nigerians have done.

Before I examine my topic in more detail let me share some statistics with you which reveal quite surprising results between democratic and non-democratic Governments, as far as Good Governance is concerned. It is a report of developments across the World published by Newsweek Magazine on August 23 & 30, 2010 edition titled “the Best Countries in the World”, Newsweek Top 100.

An article by Rana Foroohar posed the following question before delivering the report of a survey of 100 nations: “If you were born today, which country would provide you the very best opportunity to live a healthy, safe, reasonably prosperous and upwardly mobile life?”

In the answer, Finland was number 1, Nigeria was number 99, Ghana was number 86, South Africa was number 82, Brazil was number 48, Singapore was number 20, USA was number 11, United Kingdom was number 14. Greece, with its recent economic and debt crises was number 26, Russia was number 51. The United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, that are not democracies in the contemporary sense of the western conception were rated 43, 53, 54 and 64 respectively. Out of the 53 African countries on the continent, only 18 made the ranking, the highest being Tunisia 65, Morocco 67 and Egypt 74.

South Africa, which is reputed to be arguably the best democracy in Africa and at the time, the largest economy ranked lower than these “undemocratic” North African countries at 82. What you will see is that the better countries are not democracies. But let me be clear that I will rather have a democracy if ever it became a choice. Now how do we use democratic structures to deliver good governance? The question then is “what is good governance? Can we agree on a definition?

I think that it is easy to agree that a Government that provides electricity and water supply, can be considered as a good one. It will seem that the abundance of supply of electricity and water should make the majority of people happy. The emphasis must be on the MAJORITY because not all of the people will be happy with regular power and water supply.

Those who import generators, or who supply water in tankers, will not be happy with a Government that makes power and water regularly a available. It is bad for the business of generator importers and for the water tankers suppliers. Indeed regular fuel supply cannot be good news for those who sell in kegs at many notches above the recommended market price. So it is the majority that matters, and this is why the time tested principle for testing the value or benefit of government policy is whether it brings the greatest good to the greatest number and not whether it brings the greatest good to everyone.

Even at this, what represents the common good, (as the driver of good governance,) is not a matter of easy agreement and some examples will again help to demonstrate this point. Ordinarily, the delivery of public good in large quantity as the aggregate of good governance should be the basis for electing a Government or party back to office.

But in our democratic experience, can we truly say by empirical evidence that this has been the case, except in the 2015 elections. For some people, their own measure of good governance is sponsorship to Hajj and Jerusalem by the Government of the day. By current figures revealed recently, sponsorship to Hajj this year will cost about ₦785,000 per person.

Yet some poor woman or a child would lose their lives during childbirth because they cannot afford to pay the cost of a caesarian section which ranges between N150,000.00 to N1,000,000.00 (One Hundred and Fifty Thousand Naira to One Million Naira Only). Some people will die of malaria because they cannot afford anti-malaria drugs that cost between N300.00 – N1,500.00 (Three Hundred Naira to One Thousand Five Hundred Naira). Is it good governance to sponsor pilgrims with ₦785,000 and lose human life that could have been saved by less than N1,000,000.00 (One Million Naira) at the maximum?

Some have argued that the people prefer to have the services monetized. So instead of building schools, hospitals, power plants, refineries, roads, bridges, jetties and life enabling infrastructure, the proponents of these new but strange thinking do nothing for 4 years or thereabouts. On the eve of elections, when they are called to account, they start to distribute money, rice, kerosene and stoves. This they say is a direct response to the “infrastructure of the stomach”. It has produced some interesting results in elections and is an indication for us of what some of our people define as “good governance”.

I will give you one more example of the lack of consensus on what constitutes good governance. At one point during my tenure as Governor of Lagos, we received monthly reports of at least 15 (Fifteen) deaths per month, 600 (Six Hundred) accidents of varying degrees per month from Government hospitals and increase in bank robberies through the use of motorcycles.

In one instance a young medical doctor was shot on Ikorodu road and it was impossible to track the assailants because they simply hopped onto a motorcycle on the other side of the road and rode away. Is a situation where lives and limbs are lost in avoidable circumstances a situation of good governance? So how did we respond? We went back to law and order. We amended the road traffic law which has been in existence in Nigeria since 1949. Our House of Assembly held a public hearing, inviting all those operators who would be affected by the amendment to make their contributions.

On the 2nd day of August 2012, I signed the bill into law which restricted motorcycles of less than 200cc from plying a total of 475 (Four Hundred and Seventy Five) roads out of over 10,000 roads in Lagos (the restriction was in respect of 5.6% of the roads in Lagos). In places where there were no restrictions, the law required riders to have registration plates on the motorcycles for identification. It required them and their passengers to wear safety helmets; it prevented them from carrying pregnant women and little children and from carrying more than one passenger. The law also prohibited them from riding against traffic. It required them to obey traffic signs (we installed over 15,000 traffic signs) and to stop at traffic lights.

Ladies and Gentlemen, is this good governance? Again there was no unanimity.

Let me start with those who opposed the Law. Some of them said there were bad parts of the Law; but I don’t recall any of those who made those allegations, refer to any specific sections that they had quarrels with, to even suggest that they had read the law they were criticizing.

In any event, we were the first to acknowledge that no law made by men could be perfect because men are not perfect. But if the quality of a Law must be assessed, it seems to me that the standards of assessment must be the policy intent of the Law itself rather than a few sections that may have been inelegantly written. This is because a law is an expression of policy. So a Law that makes murder an offence is an expression of a policy that seeks to protect human life even if sections of it may be badly drafted.

Therefore the quality of a law must be tested against the policy intention off Government that it seeks to project. Some people felt that we were anti-poor. Our opponents joined the chorus in a deceitful act of double speak because many of their states had done the same thing without even passing a law. They deliberately christened a restriction on 5.6% of roads as a ban.

But let us look at the result of the policy. The 15 (Fifteen) deaths per month dropped first to 3 (Three) per month, later to 1 (One) per month and later there were no reported deaths in the whole of 2014. The over 600 (Six Hundred) reported accidents dropped to about 100 accidents monthly (83%) and the Commissioner of Police reported an 85% drop in crime over a 10 (Ten) month period of the enforcement of the law.

For those who say this is not good governance. I will refer to section 14 (2)(b) and (c) of the 1999 Constitution where it is provided as follows: “(2) it is hereby accordingly, declared that: (b) the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government; and (c) the participation by the people in their government shall be ensured in accordance with the provisions of this constitution.”

This is what we sought to do by holding a public hearing before the law was passed and the security and welfare of the people was achieved by the lives we saved with the law. This is the primary purpose of Government as prescribed by our Constitution. As far as policies go, sometimes you do not even need laws.

When we decided to deepen our commitment to Exclusive breastfeeding for babies, it was clear to us that while there was a lot of advocacy and public enlightenment, the compliance levels of what we were preaching was dependent on its practicability. We thought, and ultimately came to the conclusion that we must lead by example.

The existing policy was that nursing mothers were entitled to only 3 months (90) days days paid leave. We concluded that a baby of 3 months was still extremely dependent on milk and not able to take any semi-solids or full solids. Our policy of exclusive breast milk feeding would be impracticable for a nursing mother for a nursing mother after 3 months is she had to resume work.

In the debates that took place in the State Executive Council, we found that the need to return to work early was one of the reasons why mothers quickly returned to processed milk. After a decision was made in Council, I issued an Executive Order extending the period of paid leave from 3 months to 6 months for nursing mothers. I am sure that if you asked the affected women whether this is Good Governance, I know that the majority of them will vote YES.

But that is not the end of the matter. There is a lot of scope for improvement. Our intention was to provide leadership in the public sector, in the hope that the private sector which employs more people will consider and make similar extensions of paid leave for nursing mothers. As for the necessity and compelling goodness of the policy, I am happy to report that two American businesses, Netflix and Microsoft, have adopted and announced extended periods of paid leave for nursing mothers.

One of the reasons they are responding, is because this has become a tool to recruit diligent people, especially women, and companies that do not want to lose their talented manpower are competing with one another by offering generous paid leave periods for nursing mothers. I hope that Nigerian companies will follow suit shortly. In my view the short term profits of businesses cannot be more important than the health and well-being of the next generation of Nigerians.

Ladies and gentlemen, I have said earlier while reviewing the quality of life in those countries that are not democratic, that I was going to focus on the delivery of good governance in a democratic setting and this is what I have so far sought to do.

I will dive even deeper, by repeating the assertion of Fareed Zakaria that “democracy is not concerned with good governance” and if you look at his reasons, you will find it difficult to disagree. He argues that the democratic process of constituting Government and choosing leaders is only concerned with the prevalence of the will of the people. In other words, once the popular candidate who was voted for emerges as the winner, the purpose of democracy has been served.

 

Put that simply, he would appear to be correct, because the ballot paper never tests the knowledge of the candidate, his compassion or competence or indeed his sense of responsibility. So democracy does not concern itself with whether the candidate knows anything about roads, security, healthcare or whether he understands how the public service works.

 

Once he has the minimum education and becomes the most popular (even if by providing plenty of “stomach infrastructure”) he is good to go as far as democratic process is concerned. It is other processes and institutions like electoral debates, the compliance with the rule of law, that help to determine whether the people will experience good governance or not, even though as we have seen, the people themselves will not be unanimous about a definition of good governance.

 

So to the big question, how do we achieve good governance in a democratic dispensation? It seems to me to be a combination of (1) Education (public enlightenment); (2) Participation (Taxation and accountability); (3) Rule of law; and some application of (4) Science, are useful ways to achieve good governance.

 

I will start with the last one.

Science and Good Governance

 

As I have shown, there is no convergence of opinion about what is good governance. But it seems fair to assert that if the provision of the public goods to the majority is achieved, then we can assert that there is good governance. But we must understand that this is about human perception and behavior which is constantly changing. So science, in studying human behavior has become most useful in getting a feel of what the people want, and no government or leader must assume it.

 

Over the last 8 years, our government relied on a lot of studies, polls, research, to get an approximation of what the people expected of us. These polls, studies Household surveys and researches helped in no small measure in formulating policies. For example, immediately after I was elected in 2007, I commissioned a statewide poll to ask people what they expected of the Government they had just elected.

 

When the results came, we embarked on the local Government tour, where we met the people in a town hall to confirm the results of the poll. The outcome of the polls and the Tour formed the basis of our first full budget in 2008 and we embarked first on things that the people themselves had chosen, in addition to what we had promised during the campaign. While we could not make everybody happy, I believe the majority were pleased with us, and this resulted in an even bigger electoral mandate in the 2011 election.

Rule of Law

 

I have given the example of the Traffic Laws; and I will only add the improvement of general security in the State as an example of good governance. No Government can really expect to go anywhere not to talk of going far, without placing Law and order as its principal pillar of development. Nothing good can come out of a society where Law and Order has taken flight. To quote Thomas Hobbes “life will be short and brutish” in such a society. This will be the anti-thesis of good governance. (Security Trust Fund Laws, Landlord and Tenant Law, Cremation Law, Coroners Law).

 

Participation (Voting, Taxation, Social Contract)

 

It seems to me that the 1999 Constitution has been most helpful in defining participation in section 24(a)–(f) where it sets out the “duties of the citizen”. It provides as follows: “It shall be the duty of every citizen to: (a) abide by this Constitution, respect its ideals and its institutions, the National Flag, the National Anthem, the National Pledge, and legitimate authorities; (b) help to enhance the power, prestige and good name of Nigeria, defend Nigeria and render such national service as may be required; (c)  respect the dignity of other citizens and the rights and legitimate interests of others and live in unity and harmony and in the spirit of common brotherhood; (d)   make positive and useful contribution to the advancement, progress and well-being of the community where he resides; (e) render assistance to appropriate and lawful agencies in the maintenance of law and order; and (f) declare his income honestly to appropriate and lawful agencies and pay his tax promptly.”

 

The first thing that is striking is that the Constitution makes it clear that we all have roles to play if we must have a good life. So it is not enough to elect a brilliant or honest President and Governor and think that is the guarantee of good governance. I must emphasize the fact that government after government has sought to involve citizens in their own affairs and I am not sure how successful they have been.

 

But if you hear statements like, “government cannot do it alone”, “citizens have a role to play”, “citizens must be interested in their own safety”, “this is a commonwealth or common patrimony” you will in essence see the justification for enactment of the provision of section 24(a)-(f) of the 1999 Constitution. I will argue that if there was any provision that captures the “social contract” essence of democratic practice, it is this provision of section 24(a)-(f).

 

Participation is the “social contract” essence of democracy, and it is the heart of the matter, which makes it the government of the people, by the people, for the people. Participation takes many forms, voting, payment of tax, helping out, asking questions and speaking up. How many of us voted in the last election?

 

In Lagos we registered 5,822,207 (Five Million, Eight Hundred and Twenty Two Thousand, Two Hundred and Seven) voters. In the Presidential and Gubernatorial elections only 1,495,975 (One Million, Four Hundred and Ninety Five Thousand, Nine Hundred and Seventy Five) and people 1,284,577 voted respectively, representing 25%% and 22% of the registered voters. The uninspiring voter turnouts took place in an election where people had a right to choose which candidate or party they wanted to vote for.

 

This must be contrasted against the North Korean Democratic style. In their recent Local Government election that took place in July 2015, it was reported that the National Government and the maximum Ruler , Kim Jong-Un, had picked all the candidates. Yet people still turned out to go and vote in an election where there were reportedly no choice of candidates. The voter turnout was over 99%. The less than 1% who did not vote, were either those who had died or those who had left the Country.

 

My message is simple. Participation is a critical component of democracy. As far as Taxation is concerned, this is another matter entirely. Some politicians and political parties are still campaigning that they will stop the payment of some taxes in order to induce votes and deceive people. To the extent that democratic governance is representative, then taxation is the basis of representation. Those who earn income and do not pay tax do not deserve to be represented.

 

Not only is it illegal not to pay tax, it is corrupt to benefit from the proceeds and services delivered by taxes when one who is entitled to pay does not pay. During my tenure of service, our data showed that about 9 million people were employed and earning income of one form or the other out of our population of 21 Million people (the remainder were either minors, in school, too old or unemployed). Nevertheless only 4.5 million were paying the taxes that run the State for all of us.

 

The number was only about 500,000 tax payers in 2007 but thankfully, because of the services we provided, more people started paying until we got to 4.5 million, but there are still over 4 million not paying. If these people fulfill their part of the social contract, if they participate, if they put their money where their mouth is, the burden will be lighter, the pie will be bigger, the delivery of public goods will get better, the cost of enforcing tax compliances will reduce and can be put to other services.

 

Ladies and gentlemen, voting and taxation are only examples of participation that deliver good governances and until we all imbibe this as part of life, where voting and payment of taxes become a badge of honour, we will be in breach of our participatory covenant of the social contract. Can we then expect good governance under the democratic structure when we are in breach of our own part of the contract?

 

Education (Public Enlightenment)

 

This is a very important subject that must continue. We must get many more people to understand why governments are formed, what governments are supposed to do and what each arm of government can do. Some people do not understand why government exists, some people expect very little or nothing from government, some people see the role of Government as serving their personal and private needs; and I will illustrate.

 

My Friend The Lawyer

Many years ago a friend of mine used to criticize the Lagos state Government and our party. But after a new high Court Complex was built by the Lagos State Government, he called to tell me in 2002 to say he was going to vote for the Alliance for Democracy our Party. He said that as a lawyer, the new Courts had helped the speed with which his client’s cases were being tried and concluded. As a result he was making more money, the Government had served him, and he will support the party with his vote.

 

The Woman at Ajegunle

 

Shortly after my election as Governor in 2007, I was returning from a tour of Ikorodu when I noticed an unusually high level of water in the river at Ajegunle near Majidun which I thought will pose a threat to the community. I stopped, walked closer to the community and a woman who recognized me came forward. Upon my enquiry, she explained that they were experiencing flooding as a result of the opening of the Oyan Dam in Ogun State. I asked her if she voted in the last election and she answered affirmatively.

 

When I prodded further why she did not report the matter to Government, her response was to her effect that she did not know that Government can do anything. When I asked why she voted, she simply said that people told her to vote so she voted. I then explained to her that her vote entitled her to have expectations from Government. Needless to reiterate, we contacted the Ogun State Government, who explained to us the need to release water from the Dam from time to time, in order to avert the possibility of the Dam being breached and causing more flooding if the pressure causes a failure.

 

We agreed with them to plan the release of water from the dam in the Dry season when the River tide is low, and not in the raining season as they had done, when the River level is already high. Except for 2011 when we had 18 hours of uninterrupted rainfall in Lagos, that community was never displaced by flooding again in 8 years.

 

Legislators

 

Perhaps the most misunderstood part of our democratic institution is the Legislature. There seems to be a lack of knowing by large swathes of the populace that legislators can’t execute projects. That is the work of the Executive arm. The situation has been appropriately summed up in a link that was sent to me http://www.walebakare427.com/2015/07/public-servant-private-hell/ which was authored by Wale Bakare.

 

This is what he said:

 

“I have a friend who recently lost his seat in the House of Assembly. One of the few cerebral members of that assemblage in the last dispensation, he was very passionate about Nigeria and went into the House to ‘make a change’. Over lunch one day, he walked me through what his life had become since he became a Legislator and I didn’t know whether to pity him or say “na God catch you”.

The unbelievable pressure on him from his constituents who couldn’t differentiate between the Executive and the Legislative arms of government and who expected him to be responsible for everything from their children’s school fees to their daily supply of snuff! From family members who read about the ‘stupendous’ amount of money they were getting and could not understand why he couldn’t spare ‘just’ N100,000 to put their car back on the road. Friends who wanted all sorts of contracts and introductions which he had no power to award or was not in a position to effect.

I had gone to see him about helping me to get a copy of the Occupational Health & Safety Bill and he was quite delighted to be able to spend an afternoon with someone who wasn’t wanting him to pay his house rent!!! He built a 30 bed hospital for his constituency but still lost the election to someone who was able to provide immediate ‘stomach infrastructure’!!”

 

This state of affairs has created a lot of unrealistic expectation by the populace, resulting in legislators seeking office having to make promises to do things like build schools, roads, hospitals, and execute public works, which are matters over which they have no direct responsibility or absolute control. This often times created trust issues, when ultimately votes are given and promises are not delivered because in many instances they should never have been made.

 

I must however be quick to make the point that while the real responsibility of the legislator is to make laws, especially the appropriation law, (which is the budget) they can use those powers to influence what gets done in their communities in terms of civil works and they are entitled to legitimately claim credit for these works when they get done even if it was the Executive who had the responsibility for implementing the project.

 

The truth is that without a good budget, the Executive is also limited in what it can do. This is why I have always done my best to give credit to legislators anytime I go to their constituency to hand over a civil works project so that their constituents will know that they are working. This way the public is better informed about the role of the legislator by the public acknowledgement made by the Executive of the Legislator’s contributions.

 

Local Government

 

As far as its capacity and its ability is concerned, perhaps the most misunderstood level of public service is the Local Government system. I have heard people comparing the current Local Government system (in Lagos for example) with old Lagos Town or City Council. Ideally, this should be a good comparison; because in the American Federal system, the City of Mayors should be the equivalent of our Local Government system.

 

But that is as far as the comparison can validly be made. What used to be the old Lagos Town or City Council covered Apapa, Yaba, Surulere, Lagos Island, and Eti-Osa (comprising Ikoyi, Victoria Island and Obalende) Ikoyi, Victoria Island, is now a total of about 12 Local Governments and Local Council Development areas. So in terms of size alone the Local Governments are much smaller entities than the old Town or City Council, which was bigger and more homogenous.

 

I must point out that I remain convinced that they are the most important levels of Government in terms of the impact they have directly on our lives, having regard to the responsibilities they bear, such as sanitation, primary health (child birth, vaccination) primary education (Foundational education reading and writing). These are substantially the same responsibilities that Mayors in London, USA have; and that is why people in those Cities pay close attention to what their Mayors do, then what their Governors or Presidents do.

 

Regrettably in the Nigerian situation, this responsibility is not supported by adequate funding. The current revenue allocation formula, which I think is urgently in need of a more Federal type review, currently vests 52.68% of the Nation’s resources in the Federal Government, 26.72% to 36 States, and 20.6% to 774 Local Governments.

 

I will not join issues here about prudence of Local Governments with their fund, because the allegations have been sweeping and general which I know is not the case. The point to be made is that by the time one Local Government pays salaries of Primary School Teachers, and Primary health Care workers, apart from statutory pension obligation, there is barely anything left for service of the community and Good Governance, in other sectors like environment, roads, and other areas of their responsibility.

 

Some Local Governments have roads that are as long as 2 – 7 kilometers. In Lagos alone, out of about 10,000 roads, about over 100 roads belong to the Federal Government, over 3000 belong to the State and the remaining over 6000 roads belong to the Local Government.

 

The Primary Schools in Lagos alone are about 1007 some requiring reconstruction, many requiring maintenance where they are in good condition, and all Local Government’s requiring to build more schools and more health centres, employ more teachers and health works in order to afford service to a population that is growing at an estimated 6% per annum.

 

The question is where will the resources come from if 774 Local Governments have only 20.6% of the nation’s resources to work with. How many of the Hundreds of Millions of people resident in the various Local Governments can get to Abuja that has 52% of the nation’s revenue? Is good governance at the lowest level and perhaps the most impactful level possible if the mandate remains largely unfunded as a result of limited funds?

 

Perhaps this scenario becomes revealing as to why in this Federation the centre of attraction is he Central Government rather than the municipal Government. As far as a measure of Good Governance is concerned, if we do a flat arithmetical calculation, the combined resources of the 36 States and the 774 Local Governments amounts to only 47.32%. That cannot constitute a pass in any examination even if they achieve 100% of budget implementation which is difficult.

 

What we have done in Lagos is to create additional funding support for the Local Governments in our annual State Budgets by creating a Head that we called “Local Government Intervention Fund” which was introduced in 2008. This way we have been able to assist with Local Government roads, in some instances we have helped to pay salaries, and we have assisted with the upgrading equipping and staffing of primary Health Care Centres.

 

Conclusions

 

I will now bring this discourse to an end by highlighting some findings and making some recommendations:

 

1. Good Governance is the only purpose for which a Government can legitimately exist

 

2. The definition of Good Governance is not a matter that all citizens can easily agree upon; because what constitutes good Governance to a section can be opposed by another segment of society on a subjective basis.

 

3. The test of Good policies, and by extension Good Governance should be whether it brings the greatest good to the greatest number of people in terms of their welfare, safety and security and not whether it brings the greatest good to EVERY member of society.

 

4. The active participation of citizens is a pre-condition for Democracy to translate to Good Governance

 

5. Democratic Governments must constantly keep in touch with the changing needs of their citizens through polls, surveys and other Scientific models of empiric information gathering before formulating or concluding on policies.

 

6. Good Governance in a democracy is not an utopia, it is possible because it is a journey whose milestones are dynamic.

 

7. Continuous public enlightenment through all legitimate means of information dissemination is a necessary condition for Good Governance.

 

Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen, it has been an honour for me to be here, I am done.

Being the text of the lecture delivered by Fashola, former governor of Lagos state, at the 16th Mike Okonkwo Annual Lecture with the theme, “The Nigerian Political Class and the Citizens Quest for Good Governance”, in Lagos September 3, 2015.