For those expecting immediate dividends to validate confidence in newly elected government, former Ekiti State Governor Dr. Kayode Fayemi yesterday warned them to desist.
Government, the minister-designate said, needs time to deliver such dividends to their people.
Fayemi, who spoke as guest speaker at the 2015 Akintola Williams Distinguished Lecture Series in Lagos, said long-term visioning and succession planning were essential to avoid failed leadership.
He presented a paper titled: “Leadership factors and good corporate governance: Key to national growth and development”.
He warned politicians who often make “wild promises” before they are voted into office.
Participants at the lecture included the renowned chartered accountant in whose name the lecture was held, Mr. Akintola Williams, former Head of Interim National Government Chief Ernest Shonekan, Ogun State Governor Ibikunle Amosun and one- time Lagos State Commissioner for Finance, Mr. Wale Edun.
Fayemi said people want immediate results from their elected officials, but governments must realise that succession planning takes time.
“The electorate tend to want immediate and tangible dividends to validate their confidence in their elected governments. Politicians, especially in our clime, are prone to crude populism, often making wild promises to perform immediate miracles once they are voted into office. The result is often mutual disappointment,” the former governor said.
He added: “Successful development planning, like succession planning, is a long-term endeavour. The economic miracle of Southeast Asian nations was built on the back of long-term planning.
“China’s emergence, which is perhaps the most talked about and analysed development story of recent time, was nurtured over the course of 30 years. These are the countries we want to emulate.”
Fayemi suggested that Nigeria’s long-term plans must be protected from negative political influences, such as those exhibited by certain African leaders, who continually perpetrate themselves in power.
He said: “We simply cannot afford to legitimise the reasons given by some of our African leaders for perpetuating themselves in power indefinitely.
“In this regard, it has to be said that Africa’s legacy of developmental under-achievement has something to do with lack of careful succession planning. What we see in Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi today in terms of the pursuit of perpetuation of power clearly attests to this.”
He praised the Buhari administration for its commitment to transparency and accountability in government.
Fayemi noted that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), for the first time in many years, published details of its earnings, adding that openness now characterised incomes generated from the oil and gas industry.
“These are some of the transformational acts that signify a new dawn in the relational dynamic between leaders and those that are led,” Fayemi said.
He urged the public sector to place merit above issues such as ethnicity, state of origin or religion in recruitment, as “only a public service populated and led by our best and brightest can justly and efficiently provide the public goods such as education, healthcare and housing that will achieve the developmental aspirations of our people”.
Fayemi urged Nigeria to tread cautiously in the area of privatisation, as authentic economic growth is impossible without a competent public sector.
He said: “Not everything can be privatised nor should every area of society be surrendered to the whims and caprices of market forces.”
The lecture was organised in honour of the 96-year-old Williams, a renowned doyen of the accounting profession in Nigeria, to promote integrity, professionalism and sound corporate governance in the country.
The Nation.
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