Magnus Eze, Enugu
Former senator of Kaduna Central Senatorial District, Shehu Sani has identified consultation as one of the major ingredients of good governance, adding that lack of it was one of the reasons why Nigerians rejected the Ruga settlement programme designed for herders by the Federal Government.
Delivering the 9th Emeka Anyaoku annual lecture series on the Nigerian youth and the imperatives of good governance and sustainable national development in Owerri, yesterday, he said that good governance, leadership and national development were intertwined.
According to him, a closer look at the level of good governance at play and the leadership driving it could easily show a nation’s underdevelopment.
Sani described the former Secretary General of the Commonwealth of Nations; the only Nigerian to attain that lofty height so far, as one of the most illustrious sons of Nigeria, nay Africa.
He noted that the lecture series was a noble attempt to relive and teach the leadership and towering governance ideals of the great international civil servant who put Nigeria on the global map by demonstrating what can be conceived and attained as the zenith of the Nigerian possibility once generational opportunities were not imperiled.
He said that any nation that failed to properly prepare its youth risked a bleak future.
“In a democracy, a responsive government does not draw up a programme such as RUGA and shove it down the throat of citizens without proper and intense broad based, all-stakeholders consultation. Such a programme, no matter how laudable the intent might be, will be resisted by broad segments of the population as is the case with the RUGA programme,” Sani opined.
He also identified equity and inclusiveness as perhaps the most crucial factor underpinning governance and national development in a pluralistic entity like Nigeria.
Harping on the eight major characteristics of good governance, he said: “It is participatory, consensus oriented, accountable, transparent, responsive, effective and efficient, equitable and inclusive, and follows the rule of law. Good governance is responsive to the present and future needs of a country, exercises prudence in policy-setting and decision-making, and in the context in which the best interests of all citizens and critical stakeholders are taken into account.