Oloja, CICAN seek focus on nation building, private sector approach to governance

Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief of The Guardian, Martins Oloja, has urged the incoming administration to focus on nation-building, stabilise a deeply divided country and adopt a private sector approach to governance and management.

Oloja, who gave the charge, yesterday, during an agenda-setting seminar and investiture of new executives of the Commerce and Industry Correspondents Association of Nigeria (CICAN) held at MAN House in Ikeja, said when political leaders see citizens as customers that must be pleased, they will do better.

He said: “We may not have achieved some things with the last elections, but in some ways, it showed us that the ‘customer is a king.’ We keep talking about power failures and outages but the truth is that if we get rid of national greed, our national grid will work.

“Some things that are celebrated by state governors are supposed to be done by council chairmen, such as remodelling of schools, reconstruction of small roads and so on but instead, we see the governors celebrating things, which were done with tax-payers money, on television.”

According to him, priority areas that must be focused on to stabilise the country include nation-building, public service reform, parliamentary reform and education/knowledge development.

“Whoever manages this complex federation must be conscious of our diversity and complexity as a nation. Nation-building is the number one job of the new administration because many Nigerians don’t feel they have a country and they must use the institutions to do this. Civil service needs to be revived and actually work for public good. If the civil service works the way it is supposed to, many other agencies won’t be needed and once it is revived, corruption would be eradicated. It is clear we do not need 48 ministries and the over 500 agencies that abound, doing nothing.

“Why do we have Police Affairs Ministry different from Ministry of Interior? Why do we have disaster management different from FERMA?” he asked.

CICAN Chairman, Charles Okonji, who urged government at all levels to revamp the country, said: “Inflation rate according to the government is over 20 per cent but our findings show that it is actually over 40 per cent. Goods are lying fallow in shelves and warehouses because purchasing power is at an all time low. Government must create enabling environment for manufacturers who are struggling.”

He, therefore, urged the incoming government to honestly address the ease of doing business, build a smart economy, secure the lives and property of firms and ordinary citizens and protect the media.