One of the most magical experiences in America is how you can join their systems and through institutions they have developed, over time, you will begin to see dramatic improvements in whatever that you are doing. You get in as a PhD student, largely knowing not much, but 4-5 years, you become a thought-leader and an expert with new ideas in that domain. Take it or leave it, across many domains, anybody can be anything because the institutions already established ensure that many management and operating risks are eliminated.
Nigerians hailed when we had A-stars of the Obasanjo era. The question remains: if they departed and things suddenly returned to the old state, what is the end-point then? Take the issuance of international passports. They were so effective that you could take the photo and get the passport on the same day. But that extremely efficient system has gone.
Why? What happened to the system within the immigration service ? Why did someone disband a great process? So, if we can take forward 10 steps and suddenly move back 12 steps, what should be the strategy, going forward? I visited a university in Nigeria. I was told that only a center run by the wife of the VC could coordinate external events. If you have a conference, the center must be paid to coordinate and manage it. But that was not the way it used to be. So, what happened to the old process?
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It does seem like the next Nigerian president must think deeper on how we can build resilient institutions instead of thinking that humans can do magic? Otherwise, you can do the magic and a few years ahead, things will fall back to level zero.
Indeed, we need a leader who can build sustainable institutions in the nation. Through that playbook, we can keep improving, step by step, on our processes. Today, we have mainly human-centric elements and the systems are vulnerable as great A-stars can “hide” poor processes, but over time, things will blow up, revealing internal defects. Yes, we do not need to have super-humans to thrive. We need resilient institutions which common people like us can run. The next president must have that memo.
Comment on Feed
Comment 1: Yes, we need institutions in Nigeria not strong men as Barack Obama once told a gathering of African leaders but our current crop of politicians do not understand that, they try to build selfish structures that serve very narrow interests. They only realise too late in the day when they have left the system and a new emperor have been crowned. We do not have a fit for purpose civil service but the civil servants are always on the watch out if the new sheriff wants to change things, if not they will “show you the way” we need not only a president with the will and intention but also legislators and higher cadre civil servants who want professionalism to reign.
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There is way to go about it, and I am not going to write any epistle for it. If we have a visionary and honest president, we can help him build. You can never lie your way to enduring prosperity, but with twisted minds all over the place, legitimacy has been redefined.