Reflection On Project Nigeria1

Reflection on
Project Nigeria:
Towards De-politicizing Development
and Democratizing Transformation (1)
By Abdulwarees Solanke,
For Nigeria as a democratic project, the ideal government that can
build the nation is not one in which the winner takes all. It should be
an inclusive government in its constitution or composition. It should
be a representation of the interests and needs of all constituent
stakeholders in the nation. Necessarily, this would include the
opposition, giving it consideration or factoring its input in decision
making, policy design and implementation.
It should also learn from the best practice of past governments’ and
sustain the prospects of their public interest-based programmes
and projects. This will be found in a government that is driven by a
patriotic desire to stimulate national development and engender
transformation in the country. It is a government that transcends the
zero sum game characteristic of our political history.

Happily, from the pronouncements and actions of President
Muhammadu Buhari so far, this is the prospect that is emerging in
the nation, requiring the understanding and support of all. It is this
context that we should explore further, the development challenges that have
endured in the country, threatening our national security and cohesion , to the
extent that resources that should ordinarily be deployed to developing
capacity of the citizens and providing supporting infrastructure for
development are now being channelled or stretched on security and
combatting corruption.
If this is a demand of public agenda setting that is in the domain of the mass
media, we may ten ask: what is the role of the media in all these, especially
public service broadcasters in de-politicizing development and democratizing
transformation? How have they played it in the past? Are they playing it now?
Are they empowered to play it?
On another scale, if economics is the science of efficient allocation
and utilization of scarce resources to achieve optimum
value/returns for the benefit of the society, it becomes imperative
for leaders and managers of the public sector in the developing
world to undertake critical evaluation of the options and choices
available to bail them of the quagmire of development crisis in

which they are enmeshed. Ow have the public and social media
assisted in setting or mainstreaming issues to be on public agenda?
Remarkably, these issues however are not merely economic
challenge, but entirely development-oriented as the crises we are
confronted with are structural and political, calling for innovative
and pragmatic approaches, options and measures that are
sustainable and truly transformational to unlock us them from the
tragedies.
Unfortunately, when the subject of reform is raised, most citizens are
not clear as to what it entails. Indeed, many interest groups, for
parochial reasons, obfuscate the very essence of reform in how
they aggregate to challenge or support reform programmes. This
obviously explains the failure of reform or development projects
and measures we have attempted to pursue in the past but unable
to deliver dividends of development which the reforms are
intended for.
For us in Nigeria, we are not impeded by any lack of appreciation
of our development crisis. Rather, we are constrained mainly by the
politics of approaches and choices we take to push through our

reform projects. For this reason, we often disagree or vacillate while
trying to generate ideas in the planning stage or we waste time and
resources in the implementation stage to compound our
challenges.
In both cases, we corrupt or compromise reforms. This seeming lack
of collective sincerity and courage therefore portrays the nation in
negative perspective as evidenced by our standing in many global
ratings and development indices. The direction most countries
pursuing reform now is to interrogate the size and role of
government in public service delivery, the involvement of other
sector providers including the international government and
multilateral agencies.
At the same time, they try to evaluate the political, ideological and
cultural parameters that clarify group interests, in the creditable
delivery of such development and reform projects. How well do we
take cognizance of these imperatives? First, let me enumerate
some reform projects and programmes the nation has embarked
upon since the mid-70s and leave you to evaluate our success in
them: Land Use, Local government Service, the various agricultural
development programmes, WAI, MAMSER, Better Life, Code of

Conduct and Anti-corruption initiatives, Vision 2010, Vison 2020,
SERVICOM, the Seven Point Agenda, Transformation Agenda, and
the heart of Africa Project. We can also cite Operations Feed the
Nation, and the green Revolution Projects of the late 70s and the
early 80s without forgetting the post-civil war initiative of the Triple
R: Reconstruction, Rehabilitation and Reintegration. The ongoing
Change Project is in the league of efforts at national transformation.
In all these we see expression of good intention and huge financial
deployment. But in most of them, we also see public disdain,
process subversion and implementation exploitation. Why?

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Reflection on

For Nigeria as a democratic project, the ideal government that can

an inclusive government in its constitution or composition. It should

be a representation of the interests and needs of all constituent

stakeholders in the nation. Necessarily, this would include the

opposition, giving it consideration or factoring its input in decision

making, policy design and implementation.

sustain the prospects of their public interest-based programmes

and projects. This will be found in a government that is driven by a

patriotic desire to stimulate national development and engender

transformation in the country. It is a government that transcends the

zero sum game characteristic of our political history.

Muhammadu Buhari so far, this is the prospect that is emerging in

the nation, requiring the understanding and support of all. It is this

extent that resources that should ordinarily be deployed to developing

capacity of the citizens and providing supporting infrastructure for

development are now being channelled or stretched on security and

public service broadcasters in de-politicizing development and democratizing

Are they empowered to play it?

On another scale, if economics is the science of efficient allocation

and utilization of scarce resources to achieve optimum

value/returns for the benefit of the society, it becomes imperative

for leaders and managers of the public sector in the developing

world to undertake critical evaluation of the options and choices

available to bail them of the quagmire of development crisis in

assisted in setting or mainstreaming issues to be on public agenda?

Remarkably, these issues however are not merely economic

challenge, but entirely development-oriented as the crises we are

confronted with are structural and political, calling for innovative

and pragmatic approaches, options and measures that are

sustainable and truly transformational to unlock us them from the

Unfortunately, when the subject of reform is raised, most citizens are

not clear as to what it entails. Indeed, many interest groups, for

parochial reasons, obfuscate the very essence of reform in how

they aggregate to challenge or support reform programmes. This

obviously explains the failure of reform or development projects

and measures we have attempted to pursue in the past but unable

to deliver dividends of development which the reforms are

For us in Nigeria, we are not impeded by any lack of appreciation

of our development crisis. Rather, we are constrained mainly by the

politics of approaches and choices we take to push through our

trying to generate ideas in the planning stage or we waste time and

resources in the implementation stage to compound our

In both cases, we corrupt or compromise reforms. This seeming lack

of collective sincerity and courage therefore portrays the nation in

negative perspective as evidenced by our standing in many global

ratings and development indices. The direction most countries

pursuing reform now is to interrogate the size and role of

government in public service delivery, the involvement of other

sector providers including the international government and

cultural parameters that clarify group interests, in the creditable

delivery of such development and reform projects. How well do we

take cognizance of these imperatives? First, let me enumerate

some reform projects and programmes the nation has embarked

them: Land Use, Local government Service, the various agricultural

development programmes, WAI, MAMSER, Better Life, Code of

SERVICOM, the Seven Point Agenda, Transformation Agenda, and

R: Reconstruction, Rehabilitation and Reintegration. The ongoing

Change Project is in the league of efforts at national transformation.