The Latin saying “Nemo dat quod non habet” which translates to ‘you cannot give what you don't have’ in English language brings to mind the lingering issue of good governance in Nigeria. Governance is the specific set up or way by which a political system is ruled. Put differently, governance entails rule based on accountability, consistent and cohesive policies, processes and decisions right.

A good government should be consensus oriented, transparent, responsive, equitable and inclusive, efficient and effective, strictly following the rule of law. With all this in view, the personal worth of any national, state or local government will be weighed based on the attainment of qualitative level of development as it is a crucial aspect of any nations drive to self reliance. Sectoral development remains a vital necessity to the growth and sustenance of any vibrant economy.
For good governance and true development to be ensured, sociopolitical and economic stability must be guaranteed at all levels of government as this will promote citizens natural inclination to development and attachment to the governance process.

In Nigeria, governance has been reduced to doing without thinking, engaging in cyclical motion without progress. Great nations are driven by ideas, intellect, philosophy, policy formulation, execution and evaluation but citizens choose to elect inept leaders and expect them to behave out of character.

Governance and leadership alike is key in times of dwindling fortunes as it provides leaders opportunity to shine, inspire and lift up the citizens to see beyond the tumultuous times into a future of hope. Only a few leaders in Nigeria have tried or are still trying to bridge the ever widening gap between citizens and leaders. Citizens are asked to pay more taxes only for the leaders to use such monies for purchase of cars and other items of luxury.

The Nigerian state becomes a thief expropriating huge sums for personal gain and giving the citizens nothing in return, not infrastructure, not security, not healthcare, not education; absolutely nothing which has left us at the lowest rungs of the development ladder.

As long as an overwhelming majority of national budgets are spent on the rapacious and corrupt politicians. The Nigerian economy is destined to remain faced with galloping inflation, unequal foreign exchange exasperated by devalued currency and persistent dependency on importation, widespread unemployment, under employment, dilapidated infrastructures exemplified in the death traps we call roads, death conservative nature of Nigerian hospitals, epileptic power supply that has doused all hope of societal development possibility.

It becomes puzzling to see a nation with enormous resources having such a huge developmental gap. Our over reliance on a petrodollar economy is also a bane to our development, not to forget our excessive and unnecessary borrowings. Fiscal discipline ought to be imperative but for spendthrift nations like Nigeria who continues to borrow with nothing to show for it could best be described like UNOKA in Achebe’s “Things fall apart” who borrowed simply to throw palm wine parties will sooner or later become beggarly nations.

Properly governed countries are those who have got their fundamentals right ensuring that overall macro economy is moving at even keel, devoid of bottlenecks, structural imbalances and distortion that hampers long term sustainable growth. Improvement is made with the aim of nurturing improvements in the quality of policy making, forward thinking, long term planning, creation of early warning indicators and early warning systems that allows leaders to take preemptive and precautionary actions which could be regarded as a standard capacity for emergency services.

A good leader should be able to spell out his/her policies clearly in the language of the citizens. To know how a country is doing politically, you observe closely the quality of the people aspiring for political leadership. When the political class in a country is the dreg of the society; the future of such a country is bleak. If crooks gets to the top first, it complicates the future prospects of the country not to forget the use of ethnicity, religion and clannishness as tools of oppression of the Nigerian masses.

Nigeria is headed by a president who is 77 years old, the Chief Justice of Nigeria is 66 years old, Ahmed Lawan the Senate President is 61 years old, and the average age of Buhari’s cabinet is 55 years and just recently Buhari appointed a 75 years old Ibrahim Gambari as Chief of Staff. Yet 60% of the Nigerian population are below 30 years old. One is forced to ask if Nigeria operates a democracy or gerontocracy system. Coupled with this is the ethnic line of appointments as the heads of Defence, Army, Police, NSA, DSS. NIA, DMI, DIA, NPS, NCS, NIS, EFCC and INEC are all headed by Northern muslim men. National issues should not be viewed from a standpoint of religion or ethnicity. Same applies for political appointees.

Conclusively, the UN has a template for SDG’S, 17 for government to aim for, which one has Nigeria achieved. It also has 169 targets and dozens of indicators to move with or evaluate, but we don’t seem to have gotten there just yet. Leaders should stop thinking for everything except the people as good governance remains achievable and should not be viewed as rocket science.[b]The Latin saying “Nemo dat quod non habet” which translates to ‘you cannot give what you don't have’ in English language brings to mind the lingering issue of good governance in Nigeria. Governance is the specific set up or way by which a political system is ruled. Put differently, governance entails rule based on accountability, consistent and cohesive policies, processes and decisions right.

A good government should be consensus oriented, transparent, responsive, equitable and inclusive, efficient and effective, strictly following the rule of law. With all this in view, the personal worth of any national, state or local government will be weighed based on the attainment of qualitative level of development as it is a crucial aspect of any nations drive to self reliance. Sectoral development remains a vital necessity to the growth and sustenance of any vibrant economy.
For good governance and true development to be ensured, sociopolitical and economic stability must be guaranteed at all levels of government as this will promote citizens natural inclination to development and attachment to the governance process.

In Nigeria, governance has been reduced to doing without thinking, engaging in cyclical motion without progress. Great nations are driven by ideas, intellect, philosophy, policy formulation, execution and evaluation but citizens choose to elect inept leaders and expect them to behave out of character.

Governance and leadership alike is key in times of dwindling fortunes as it provides leaders opportunity to shine, inspire and lift up the citizens to see beyond the tumultuous times into a future of hope. Only a few leaders in Nigeria have tried or are still trying to bridge the ever widening gap between citizens and leaders. Citizens are asked to pay more taxes only for the leaders to use such monies for purchase of cars and other items of luxury.

The Nigerian state becomes a thief expropriating huge sums for personal gain and giving the citizens nothing in return, not infrastructure, not security, not healthcare, not education; absolutely nothing which has left us at the lowest rungs of the development ladder.

As long as an overwhelming majority of national budgets are spent on the rapacious and corrupt politicians. The Nigerian economy is destined to remain faced with galloping inflation, unequal foreign exchange exasperated by devalued currency and persistent dependency on importation, widespread unemployment, under employment, dilapidated infrastructures exemplified in the death traps we call roads, death conservative nature of Nigerian hospitals, epileptic power supply that has doused all hope of societal development possibility.

It becomes puzzling to see a nation with enormous resources having such a huge developmental gap. Our over reliance on a petrodollar economy is also a bane to our development, not to forget our excessive and unnecessary borrowings. Fiscal discipline ought to be imperative but for spendthrift nations like Nigeria who continues to borrow with nothing to show for it could best be described like UNOKA in Achebe’s “Things fall apart” who borrowed simply to throw palm wine parties will sooner or later become beggarly nations.

Properly governed countries are those who have got their fundamentals right ensuring that overall macro economy is moving at even keel, devoid of bottlenecks, structural imbalances and distortion that hampers long term sustainable growth. Improvement is made with the aim of nurturing improvements in the quality of policy making, forward thinking, long term planning, creation of early warning indicators and early warning systems that allows leaders to take preemptive and precautionary actions which could be regarded as a standard capacity for emergency services.

A good leader should be able to spell out his/her policies clearly in the language of the citizens. To know how a country is doing politically, you observe closely the quality of the people aspiring for political leadership. When the political class in a country is the dreg of the society; the future of such a country is bleak. If crooks gets to the top first, it complicates the future prospects of the country not to forget the use of ethnicity, religion and clannishness as tools of oppression of the Nigerian masses.

Nigeria is headed by a president who is 77 years old, the Chief Justice of Nigeria is 66 years old, Ahmed Lawan the Senate President is 61 years old, and the average age of Buhari’s cabinet is 55 years and just recently Buhari appointed a 75 years old Ibrahim Gambari as Chief of Staff. Yet 60% of the Nigerian population are below 30 years old. One is forced to ask if Nigeria operates a democracy or gerontocracy system. Coupled with this is the ethnic line of appointments as the heads of Defence, Army, Police, NSA, DSS. NIA, DMI, DIA, NPS, NCS, NIS, EFCC and INEC are all headed by Northern muslim men. National issues should not be viewed from a standpoint of religion or ethnicity. Same applies for political appointees.

Conclusively, the UN has a template for SDG’S, 17 for government to aim for, which one has Nigeria achieved. It also has 169 targets and dozens of indicators to move with or evaluate, but we don’t seem to have gotten there just yet. Leaders should stop thinking for everything except the people as good governance remains achievable and should not be viewed as rocket science.[/b]The Latin saying “Nemo dat quod non habet” which translates to ‘you cannot give what you don't have’ in English language brings to mind the lingering issue of good governance in Nigeria. Governance is the specific set up or way by which a political system is ruled. Put differently, governance entails rule based on accountability, consistent and cohesive policies, processes and decisions right.

A good government should be consensus oriented, transparent, responsive, equitable and inclusive, efficient and effective, strictly following the rule of law. With all this in view, the personal worth of any national, state or local government will be weighed based on the attainment of qualitative level of development as it is a crucial aspect of any nations drive to self reliance. Sectoral development remains a vital necessity to the growth and sustenance of any vibrant economy.
For good governance and true development to be ensured, sociopolitical and economic stability must be guaranteed at all levels of government as this will promote citizens natural inclination to development and attachment to the governance process.

In Nigeria, governance has been reduced to doing without thinking, engaging in cyclical motion without progress. Great nations are driven by ideas, intellect, philosophy, policy formulation, execution and evaluation but citizens choose to elect inept leaders and expect them to behave out of character.

Governance and leadership alike is key in times of dwindling fortunes as it provides leaders opportunity to shine, inspire and lift up the citizens to see beyond the tumultuous times into a future of hope. Only a few leaders in Nigeria have tried or are still trying to bridge the ever widening gap between citizens and leaders. Citizens are asked to pay more taxes only for the leaders to use such monies for purchase of cars and other items of luxury.

The Nigerian state becomes a thief expropriating huge sums for personal gain and giving the citizens nothing in return, not infrastructure, not security, not healthcare, not education; absolutely nothing which has left us at the lowest rungs of the development ladder.

As long as an overwhelming majority of national budgets are spent on the rapacious and corrupt politicians. The Nigerian economy is destined to remain faced with galloping inflation, unequal foreign exchange exasperated by devalued currency and persistent dependency on importation, widespread unemployment, under employment, dilapidated infrastructures exemplified in the death traps we call roads, death conservative nature of Nigerian hospitals, epileptic power supply that has doused all hope of societal development possibility.

It becomes puzzling to see a nation with enormous resources having such a huge developmental gap. Our over reliance on a petrodollar economy is also a bane to our development, not to forget our excessive and unnecessary borrowings. Fiscal discipline ought to be imperative but for spendthrift nations like Nigeria who continues to borrow with nothing to show for it could best be described like UNOKA in Achebe’s “Things fall apart” who borrowed simply to throw palm wine parties will sooner or later become beggarly nations.

Properly governed countries are those who have got their fundamentals right ensuring that overall macro economy is moving at even keel, devoid of bottlenecks, structural imbalances and distortion that hampers long term sustainable growth. Improvement is made with the aim of nurturing improvements in the quality of policy making, forward thinking, long term planning, creation of early warning indicators and early warning systems that allows leaders to take preemptive and precautionary actions which could be regarded as a standard capacity for emergency services.

A good leader should be able to spell out his/her policies clearly in the language of the citizens. To know how a country is doing politically, you observe closely the quality of the people aspiring for political leadership. When the political class in a country is the dreg of the society; the future of such a country is bleak. If crooks gets to the top first, it complicates the future prospects of the country not to forget the use of ethnicity, religion and clannishness as tools of oppression of the Nigerian masses.

Nigeria is headed by a president who is 77 years old, the Chief Justice of Nigeria is 66 years old, Ahmed Lawan the Senate President is 61 years old, and the average age of Buhari’s cabinet is 55 years and just recently Buhari appointed a 75 years old Ibrahim Gambari as Chief of Staff. Yet 60% of the Nigerian population are below 30 years old. One is forced to ask if Nigeria operates a democracy or gerontocracy system. Coupled with this is the ethnic line of appointments as the heads of Defence, Army, Police, NSA, DSS. NIA, DMI, DIA, NPS, NCS, NIS, EFCC and INEC are all headed by Northern muslim men. National issues should not be viewed from a standpoint of religion or ethnicity. Same applies for political appointees.

Conclusively, the UN has a template for SDG’S, 17 for government to aim for, which one has Nigeria achieved. It also has 169 targets and dozens of indicators to move with or evaluate, but we don’t seem to have gotten there just yet. Leaders should stop thinking for everything except the people as good governance remains achievable and should not be viewed as rocket science.