What I Would Do If I Were The President
If I were the President of Nigeria, there are some seemingly mundane and inconsequential matters I would pay intense attention to, because of their innate capacity to affect the fortunes of the nation. Even though I would want to write my name in gold by tackling the big problem areas such as infrastructure, education, health, security, manufacturing, agriculture, manpower development, and others, getting those seemingly trifling issues right would make the serious matters to fall in place naturally.
What are these ostensibly unimportant matters that I would attack frontally if I were the President?
One of them is the distasteful practice of dropping our trash on the street. Those who don’t understand the psychology of social epidemics would sneer that “that is not our major problem.” But those who are discerning would tell you that big problems usually stem from little causes.
One of the most memorable points I remember from the lecture of Malcolm Gladwell at the World Business
Forum in the United States, which he expounded in his bestselling book, The Tipping Point (How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference), is his discussion of the Broken Windows Theory by criminologists James Q. Wilson and George Kelling. His words: “Wilson and Kelling argued that crime is the inevitable result of disorder. If a window is broken and left unrepaired, people walking by will conclude that no one cares and no one is in charge. Soon, more windows will be broken, and the sense of anarchy will spread from the building to the street on which it faces, sending a signal that anything goes.”
When someone drinks water and flings the bottle or sachet out of the car window or drops it on the street (if he is a pedestrian), ordinarily it looks like a case of dirty habit. But it goes beyond that. Most likely, the person is not a dirty person. Look at him, you would see that he is neatly dressed; the interior and exterior of his are clean; and his home may be tidy too, if visited. If that same person drinks that same water in his sitting room, he would not drop the bottle or sachet on the floor. To him, the sitting room is “my sitting room”, but the street is “their street”. It shows the two different cases of ownership. What such a person is saying is: “The street is already dirty. Dropping this on it will not make it any worse. The street is not mine. And nobody cares how it really looks. No punishment will come to me for dropping this. My car/bag is too clean to hold this bottle or sachet. It is not my business whatever happens to the environment as long as my own portion of the country is okay.”
That mindset affects the way the person relates to other bigger issues. Corruption in public office has its roots in such a mindset: “Let me grab as much as I can to ensure that my family is well off. The nation is not mine. Whatever happens to the state or nation is not my business. After all, everybody is stealing. Whether I steal or not, the money will still be stolen. And most importantly, nobody will catch me.”
There is absolutely no reason for a sane person to drop a used bottle or sachet on the street. The bottle does not stink; it does not stain the interior of a car (whether private or public) or a bag; it will not be in the vehicle or bag for a long time.
Some people argue that if they don’t make the streets dirty, those who clean the streets will be out of job. That is a lame excuse. Our country is dusty and sandy. There are trees in many places that shed their leaves on the roads. Therefore, that should provide enough work for the cleaners. Plastic materials are, however, dangerous because they don’t decompose, and subsequently block the drainage and cause flooding. Furthermore, the people who labour to sweep these streets are like our loved ones. We deserve to appreciate their work and show them some respect.
If I were the President, I would not use enforcement in this campaign for one year, to gauge its success level: I would use moral suasion. I would constantly mount the campaign at any opportunity I have to speak to the nation or the media. I would also lead the campaign by occasionally picking up trash from the streets, after which I would address the media and identify those who make the streets dirty as those who don’t mean well for the nation.
I believe that if Nigerians see their President lead such a campaign, they would take over the campaign in no distant time and even start shaming those with such bad habits.
Another seemingly minor issue that would get my special attention is the spirit of sacrifice. I would make it top priority to commend and celebrate the ordinary Nigerians who are agents of change in their communities or those who go out of their way to help others or save others from disaster as well as those who display uncommon honesty and integrity. A police officer who shows courage in a fight with armed robbers or extremists would be celebrated. A taxi driver who returns a bag of money forgotten by a passenger in his car would also be specially celebrated. I would de-emphasize the national honours given to people simply because of the office they occupy but emphasize the honour bestowed on common people doing uncommon things. That is one critical way of rekindling the spirit of service and nationalism in the people. Rather than fearing that they will get scorn and no recognition for doing exceptional things, ordinary Nigerians doing extraordinary things would know that such could get them a presidential award. Such people could be made to visit the President’s office for a dinner. Some of them would receive a phone call from me, while others would have a surprise visit from me to their office or home. Imagine the impact of such to the psyche of the ordinary Nigerian.
In addition, I would encourage the practice of whistle-blowing. Those who perpetrate evil in the nation do so because they believe that nobody would find out. Cases of bribery and corruption are rampant because many believe that no one sees them. The judicial process of nailing a person who abuses his office is cumbersome. Nigerians who know that they have the President’s backing would devise many means to get concrete evidence that would make it easy to nail a person who abuses his or her office. And when more people are named and shamed, with the government taking the cases seriously and commending the whistle blowers (even if such people remain anonymous), those who are brazen in corruption and abuse of office would adjust.
The best way to get the people involved in nation-building is to give them the impression that they are important and in charge. It is the top-bottom-top approach to governance: all-inclusive and all-round governance. When the power stops flowing just from the top to the bottom but flows from the top to the bottom and back to the top, the people see the nation-building project as their baby, and they will fight anybody who is seen as destroying that precious baby of theirs.
Currently, the Nigerian masses have a despondent, cynical, and detached attitude towards the issues of the nation. They love Nigeria but they believe that it belongs to the “ruling cabal.” They therefore make little or no effort to help build the nation, because, in their estimation, building the nation would not be in their own interest but in the interest of members of the “ruling cabal.” This is the critical thing I would fix first if I were the President. Regrettably, I am not the President.
By Azuka Onwuka
(azuka.brand@augustconsulting.biz)
