Building Excellence in Governments
Nigeria does not need angels to make our systems work. We need to develop institutions which would be agnostic of whether we have angels or devils running our governments. That is how great nations build resilience in their processes [sure, we hope we recruit and employ angels].
So the comment credited to the Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi (II), is right on the money: “It is not about the persons in the NNPC but about whether anyone can make a system operate honestly when there are such huge arbitrage opportunities”. To fix that problem, Nigeria does not need to be looking for saints. It simply needs to close the loopholes through regulations where necessary. In my LinkedIn Nation address, I pointed a way forward.
The Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi (II), says the subsidy regime in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation has compromised the corporation to the extent that only an angel may be able to run the corporation honestly. […] He had also complained about the lack of transparency at the nation’s top oil firm occasioned by the dubious payment of petroleum subsidy.
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He added, “It is not about the persons in the NNPC but about whether anyone can make a system operate honestly when there are such huge arbitrage opportunities. We need to import angels for that to happen.
“So, for me these are the issues. It is an economist’s nightmare. Sadly the very reason this subsidy should be scrapped is probably the reason it never will be. For those who profiteer from it, it is just too good to be true.”
In Nigeria, the way we setup many of the structures can be likened to keeping a hungry man in a room full of delicious and assorted foods, but at the same time warning him not eat those foods. It's a common saying in our local that you do not keep goat and yam in the same room, else do not blame the goat for eating the yam.
It's a sign of ignorance to infer that with integrity or untainted past, you would not steal money when the money keeps dangling on your face, and you have pressing needs: useful or useless to meet up. Human nature doesn't work that way, you do not keep on tempting a man with beautiful and desirous things and at same time expect him not to cave in at some point.
You cannot stop people from stealing, but you can make all their attempts futile by making sure that there's nothing to steal. In Nigeria, we have refused to do this, but somehow we keep shouting that corruption is our problem; what a people, what an irony.
