Dear Ekiti Sons and Daughters,

Introduction

I hope this piece of message, in the form of an open letter meets you in excellent condition.

This letter or article is about selection education regarding the process of choosing a right candidate during elections, with particular interest to Ekiti State, Nigeria. We observed that the previous writers about Nigeria leaders versus economic development have not delved deeply into the selection education, in other words, selection principle for right candidacy, but identified some frailties of current and previous governments (Kehinde, 2018, Kolawole, 2018). Though the previous writers pointed to the weaknesses and affirmed that “if leadership fails, citizens must not fail and there lies the beauty and importance of democracy” (Obasanjo, 2018 as quoted in Kehinde 2018, last paragraph), the ideas developed in their writings fail to give actual direction to the people for the choice of right candidate. Even the coalition party advocated for requires a proper guide to select a right person for development sake. So, this letter or article, firstly, identifies the practical weaknesses of governance in development paradigm as applicable to Sub-Sahara Africa, Nigeria and in particular, Ekiti State. Secondly, it presents a selection principle as a guide for the electorate rational selection of political aspirant in the coming Ekiti election with extension to nationwide elections. In so doing, we crave your indulgence and patience to read, download and keep the letter for future reference.

Permit me to digress a little to clarify my interest and personality. Firstly, I am very unpopular, but I always have the interest of Ekiti people and its development at heart. Currently, I Live outside the country as a Student. I suppose to remain calm, but my recent experience and knowledge of development do not permit the absolute silence because development is a burning fire that controls and satisfies human needs. On the one hand, I would have kept quiet because of my status as a secular worker. On the other hand, the inspired book says that my people are dying because they lacked knowledge. I am further motivated to write the article because of the impact of the recent World Bank seminar I attended in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where the issue of market failures that lead to government failures was thoroughly discussed with the support of empirical findings. The guest speaker suggested information dissemination to the people as a reliable weapon to resuscitate market and government from further failings.

Being that said, I want to make it clear that I am not a politician neither am I in any political party. I am just a potential electorate, advocate and preacher of development due to my current experience in Development Studies. In a similar vein, I am not campaigning for any political aspirants to assume the office of the Governor. In other words, consider me as a neutral person as per politics of the State. Instead, find the writer of the letter as a person who wants the good of the State.

Back to the issue. The writing inspiration arose from two scenarios. Firstly, there is a crawling development in Nigeria that spill over to Ekiti State. Realizing that Malaysia and Nigeria almost started the same time in politics and development, the speed of development in Malaysia outlived Nigeria development that makes souls depressed. The lagging behind raises a question – why is Nigeria development resides at the back door of sustainable development? Secondly, making people aware of how to prepare the incoming Governor of the State for development activities, somewhat demands a cursory look at Selection Education which is the keywords of this letter

My dear people, I want to make it clear that all the aspirants vying for the position of the governorship in the State are good as well as possess characteristics of evil. This reminds us of our imperfection from the origin of creation. Each aspirant past and present behaviour contains suitable and unsuitable for acceptance and rejection to take place. As such, the principle of selection should be set-up for people guidance to make the right choice from the numerous emerged aspirants that have both characteristics of good and evil; suitable and unsuitable. Also, remember that all aspirants are desperate. The letter is organized into two parts (Part I and Part II) because it is a “so long a letter”.

Governance Weaknesses

Before setting the selection principles, let us identify some weaknesses of leadership that permeate Sub-Saharan African countries, with particular interest to Nigeria.

1.      Underrating Power of Research and Development (R&D) - Both Federal and State Governments are guilty of sustainable research and development (R&D) in Nigeria. Professors are expected to be known and prominent in the society by their research activities towards economic development and improvement of welfare. However, governments have confined the Professors and Lecturers in tertiary institutions into teaching theories and administrative capabilities. But why so concluded? A Professor in an efficient economy represents the seers, prophets and preachers of development either in science, education, social, arts, technology and others. When the duty of PhDs, Associate Professors and full Professors is limited to teaching theory and administrative capacities, it is then you will know that the society is hopeless as we have in Nigeria. Over the years, knowledge is static instead of dynamic. It will be dynamic if R&D is 100 percent taken into consideration. The 100% is attributable to the identification of society’s problems, find solutions, state policy implications and government’s readiness to use the outcome. This aspect is a missing gap in the Nigeria governance system as well as Ekiti State.

2.      The Missing Knowledge of Development. Poor understanding of what development represents and the knowledge required to set up development tools are missing gaps in most Sub-Saharan African administration particularly Nigeria and Ekiti State. Accessibility into government is excellent and rewarding to the occupier but a general knowledge of development to manage people and the available resources are deficient. For example, if a representative of government (Read Independent Newspaper February 1, 2018,) is saying that electricity does not contribute to the growth of the economy, how will the government perform efficiently and improve the life of the people without an efficient power supply? Is that not suicidal? Can the US switch off electricity for one day or month without effect on the US and world economy?

3.      Social Inclusion and Exclusion -  Seeing government as personal property where the society is excluded in the planning and implementation of policies is an issue in the development process of Nigeria and Ekiti State. Inclusiveness is understood as “a process by which efforts are made to ensure equal opportunities for all, regardless of their background, so that they can achieve their full potential in life. It is a multi-dimensional process aimed at creating conditions which enable full and active participation of every member of the society in all aspects of life, including civic, social, economic, and political activities, as well as participation in decision-making processes.” (DESA, 2009, P.3). The President of any country or Governor of any State should not claim he/she knows all things without adequate consultation to the house of knowledge. The Holy writing points to the fact that Ancient Kings or Leaders consult with the Seers and Prophets of their time to carry out appropriate actions. They never ignored the prophets and the Seers like we have in Nigeria and Ekiti State. The modern Seers and Prophets regarding knowledge reside in the educational institutions such as Federal, Ekiti State government and private tertiary institutions (i.e. EKSU, College of Education, Health Technology, Federal Polytechnic, ABUAD and FUOYE). Avoidance of knowledge is avoidance of development.

4.      Lack of Definition of NEEDS and WANTS – Sometimes government is confused about the two concepts, wants and needs. Economically, wants is different from needs. Wants are numerous and insatiable, but NEEDS are the selected items from WANTS, in other words, WANTS are DESIRES.  If I should ask the readers about the States’ NEEDS, it is not unlikely that WANTS would be at most listed. Whereas, it is easier to budget on the NEEDS than WANTS. On the one hand, people, in general, don’t know or can’t define what they need and channel them to the appropriate arms of the government. No doubt politicians came to them and brainwashed them only to tell them all the WANTS of this planet earth instead of NEEDS of the people. All the WANTS later turn to political lies. At the end of the tenure, none of the WANTS is achievable. On the other hand, experience showed that there is always a misplacement of priority by the government (Federal and State). When people need food, but food money is diverted to build houses or construct roads, what then is the consequence? This raises a pertinent question for welfare consideration. Who will live in the developed houses or drive cars on the constructed roads when all the hungry people of the society had died or admitted in the hospital suffering from related hunger diseases? That is an example of misplacement of priority due to the poor efficiency of the State allocation of economic resources.

5.      Lack of Interest – INTEREST invites PERSEVERANCE. Hence, not all people vying for leadership in Africa have interest in development. In fact, I presume to have 90% of African leaders have reduced interest in developing their country. Whereas, development is not too difficult to come by, if and only if, INTEREST is fully demonstrated because perseverance would make the target activity come to reality. The parameters for developing a society or country are on the pages of textbooks, journal articles and internets. Also, the World Development Indicators (WEI) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) togetherness with the current Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) have development indicators to transform any economy. Full interest in development to put development parameters in place is required in any developing economies like Nigeria, with particular reference to Ekiti State. On the contrary, we are poorly developed because the people in government LACK INTEREST in developing the economy through deficient behaviour in using the appropriate economic indicators. Over the years, they put on pretence face to deceive people. Development depends on the Interest of the President and State Governors, togetherness with their teams.

6.      Political Party Defence – All the forces in Nigeria and most developing countries of Sub-Sahara Africans’ political arena are in defence of their political party instead of the society and national economic goals. That is not to say that political parties should not have their programmes as strategies of campaigning, but caution need be taken not to replace the general goal with political party programmes. It is suicidal in development journey. For example, is the sitting President/Governor a President/Governor of the people or President/Governor of his/her political party? This is a paradoxical and confusing scenario in development paradigm. For instance, distribution is predominantly a problem of the government but politically influenced because of political party demands with lopsided political party programmes. Specifically, when official portfolios are to be distributed, the distribution had been used to favour political party members whose area of knowledge acquired in the knowledge institutions is far from the office requirements (Kolawole, 2018). Do you expect such a person to perform miraculously with the near-zero scenario? Do you think that development would take place in such a near-zero knowledge environment? Rhetorically, should a sitting President/Governor look for experts if he has interest and passion for development? Should the political party programme outlive the general goal and interest of State development? In my opinion, the political party programme is nonsensical if it does not change the society for better, which should call people attention to rethink their fortune where their fortune is in their hands. Otherwise, poverty and other insecurities (life and social) would remain stable in the Nigeria and Ekiti State social environments.

7.      Corruption – Corruption is an issue in the national development process. A lot of money went into a private purse, kept inside the water tank, graveyard and the like, only to acquire wealth. In a simple analysis, stealing is socially and colourfully defined as corruption. In other words, a corrupt person is a thieve. Hence, a thieve need not be shielded but need be prosecuted irrespective of the status as applicable in the developed countries.

The Selection Principle

Based on the preceding arguments, the selection principles to follow in the process of casting of one-man-one-vote for a new person to mantle the leadership of Ekiti State Governorship seat are stated in section A and B.

Section A: Major Selection Principle

1.      Love and Honesty - Be honest with yourself and your family (the immediate and extended families) before you support any aspirant at the election. Remember that your fortune and happiness are connected with the one vote you have. Likewise, be aware that if an emotionally stable person becomes a king, the people and families are happy because they will not be excluded from the sharing of economic and social benefits of governance. On the other hand, if bad person becomes the king, people and families live in economic and social agony such as an increase in poverty and social vices. As earlier said, all aspirants are desperate to extort or steal your brain, in other words, your mental thinking, with their machinations, use you during the election, dump you like refuse after the election and later rob you of your fortune, joy and future. Never, I said never should you be guided by stupidity such that the absurdity becomes a stimulant to cause poverty upon yourself and family after the election. The principle is: BE HONEST AND LOVE YOURSELF, FAMILY AND FUTURE THAN POLITICIAN MACHINATIONS. This principle anchored others.

2.      Avoid gratification from ANY Aspirants. Be honest to your selection of aspirant. The N500 or N1000 being distributed at the polling booth is just beggars, poverty acceptance and ritual money to rob you of your fortune, family, society and economic happiness. It is cursed money. Avoid taking it. The consequence is bad.

3.      Avoid political promises but search in the context of concrete pledges - The political pledges include “I will construct roads, I will build hospitals, I will provide employment for all. In fact, I will make education free. There will be electricity 24/7 of the week. Likewise, water will flow in your houses, I will prosecute and jail all corrupt people and many more.” These are loose and empty promises that had never been achieved by the government of Africa particularly Nigeria after the election. Why? The politicians know that people lack knowledge of what they need from their numerous wants. Also, currently, observation shows that brainwashing the people is easy because almost 95% of the population is poor (either relative or absolute) and inability to make a right choice due to the N500, 1000, 2000, 5,000 bribes for voting, thereby erode the benefits of governance after the election. What then are the concrete pledges expected? I implore you to read section B.

Conclusion

Part I of this letter covers the weaknesses of governance and section A of the selection principle. Read the Part II regarding the remote principles that electorate should consider while attempting to vote any candidate to an office.

Folorunso Obasuyi T. Obasuyi

Department of Development Studies,

University of Malaya, Malaysia.

Obasfot2017@gmail.com

Department of Economics

College of Education,

Ikere - Ekiti