EDITORIAL: The Institutional Deficit
On the eve of momentous events, Nigeria’s malfunctioning institutions continue to be the albatross preventing the deepening of our democracy. Unchecked, it could affect it.
The manifestation is profoundly disturbing and must be checked. Right now, the registration of voters, which is a fundamental right is being hobbled by computer glitches and bureaucratic ineptitude. So deep is the trust deficit that in the conventional wisdom it is all contrived for the advantage of a political interest.
With elections just weeks away, there is a clear erosion of belief in the Independence of the Commissioner of Police in Osun State. This is an issue that has to be urgently sorted out, as it looks likely the trust cannot be restored. Then the federal authorities must intervene and use a corrective mechanism.
Nigeria cannot have an enduring democracy and become a competitive economy in a globalized world without demonstrable, effective and independent institutions of the state. For example, in the last 48 hours we have seen however contentious how independent court in the UK can be.
This has an independent impact from solidifying democracy; the judicial process in the UK bring in 3 percent of the countries foreign exchange earnings because people from across the globe come to use British Court in matters that have nothing to do with Britain because they believe that they are assured of justice.
For example, 73 percent of all processes in British commercial courts have absolutely nothing to do with the British economy, the processes are initiated by foreign companies seeking to use British Courts to sort out commercial issues and dispute.
Nigeria is not going to make any progress without building up admirably and efficacious institutions of the state. We should face this debilitating deficit with the utmost seriousness.
The issue which is now a problem starts from a method of recruiting and selections. We are simply not fielding our first eleven and this has had disastrous consequences for us as a nation leading to not just under-performance but the inability of the country to deliver the dividends of democracy, create tens of millions of new sustainable jobs and thereby make life more abundant. We should take the process of recruiting band selecting people into the public out of the political turf and emulate countries such as India where the recruiting process is sourced out to an independence private sector consulting farm. We really cannot go on like this.
