The needle and the plough

Leadership is action, not position.

Donald H. McGannon

When Hausa people want to caution against the possibility that resolving a small problem could invite bigger ones, they say it is important to ensure that a needle does not unearth a plough. This is the type of advise that conservatives will give to leaders who embark on radical policies. In some instances, it is sound advise, particularly if leaders do not have firm feet to stand on solid ground as they move from contemplation to action. In other instances, it represents a natural fear for change that could be benign, beneficial or bountiful. In either case, it serves the purpose of reminding us that not all plans work out.

Policy makers and analysts will find plenty to learn from the school feeding programme of Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State. Here you have an excellent initiative with the potential to achieve many results. Give primary school children a meal at school, and you will dramatically transform school attendance levels. Child nutrition will improve. Parents will be saved the cost of a meal, a genuine relief for many families. Children of the poor will enjoy direct benefits of public resources. Millions of Naira will trickle down to housewives, labourers, assistants and food suppliers. Why should there be a problem?

Plenty of reasons. Engineering larger attendance means you will have to increasingly spend more to feed additional mouths, some of which turn up only for the food. Large turn out of pupils expose limited and dilapidated classrooms. A programme centered around school children reminds teachers that they have not been paid for months, and they grumble over supervising other peoples’ children free feeding when their’s are unfed. The Islamic school children/beggars grab attention, demanding equal or better attention and investment in their lives. Opponents ring bells around many other pressing social and economic challenges, and accuse you of poor prioritization. Finances are stretched and threaten to stop a key initiative and create massive problems for the credibility of a leader. Managing a massive programme creates potential avenues for abuse and corruption. Finally, because monitoring and evaluatioin mechanisms are weak (or worse, suspect), the programme’s real impact, beyond the achievement of immediate political goals, will be difficult to establish. Opponents of the policy will stretch this list.

The faint-hearted will not embark on a school feeding programme, provision of new furniture, school uniforms and no-fee policy simultaneously, or at all. But then governance, particularly under current economic challenges, should not be for the faint-hearted. There must be quite a few governors paying very close attention to the trail-blazing role of el-Rufai, and it is safe to assume that some have already made up their minds that school feeding and other subsidies are best left among some of the many colourful promises in APC manifesto.

Millions of people who voted for 16 APC governors in the North will be praying that they do not have weak and poorly – prepared leaders lifted and deposited into governor seats by the Buhari tsunami. Even if they are discouraged and frightened away from the initial results of el-Rufai’s swashbuckling, they will need to sit up and assume some control over affairs in their states.

The 10 million almajirai Dame Patience Jonathan reportedly said northerners breed and throw away represent a crippling ulcer at the soul of the North. Add them to tens of millions of other children who attend government primary and secondary schools without getting any education or preparation for productive adult lives, and you see how the region is wasting its most valuable asset and jeopardizing its future. More than two million northerners live in I.D.P camps, and millions more live in fear of insurgents, or of inability to find any means of subsistence. The North has been virtually de-industrialized in the last three decades, and it is now more pauperized than ever. Peasants still feed its burgeoning populations, and its youth is growing on the margins of existence with bitterness and a pronounced disposition for settling all scores with violence. Drugs ravage young men and women, and elders have lost control of all levers of influence in communities.

A huge fire of expectation was lit in the north by last year’s elections. Most northerners believe President Buhari can walk on water and are willing to make many excuses for him if he doesn't. They will lower the bar for their governors, and they will punish incompetence, insensitivity and corruption. Rising frustration among millions of people who thought they voted for instant change will not be easily assuaged by comfortable elites’ arguments over declining revenues or the strength of the Naira. Few people will wait until the next elections to turn their backs on elected persons. They now know they can change leaders through elections, but many think four years is too long to wait. The future of Nigeria’s democratic process actually depends on the degree to which millions of the poor believe it can change their lives.

The lot of today’s leaders in the North is unenviable. Yet, they asked for it, and they will have to deliver. Buhari’s federal government will not come rushing to fix problems which state and local governments should fix. It is not Buhari’s style, and even if he wants to, he cannot. His own problems are overwhelming enough, and the North should not expect a favoured treatment from him. Northerners and their governors are on their own. Many governors are still counting their problems and lamenting an inheritance they expected to be less intimidating. Many are challenged by intra-party disputes and desperately weakened institutions. A few have made a habit of staying almost permanently away from the people. There are a few flashes of hope here and there. Nasir el-Rufai has beaten the starter’s gun, risking all the historic penalties of pioneers. Bindow in Adamawa is darting between political sharks, rebuilding urban roads at a rate that makes you wonder where he gets his funds from. Tambawal in Sokoto appears set to embark on a productive outing after a careful and controlled preparation. Shettima appears set to follow every bullet or bomb of Boko Haram with some relief and comfort from public funds. There may be other heroes, but in the gloom of want and the glut in expectations, it is difficult to see results.

The fundamental lesson to be gleaned from el-Rufai’s initiatives in the education sector is that it is a priority that should be tackled by all Northern governors holistically and decisively. Half measures will merely expose the magnitude of the problem. From teacher education and welfare, to rehabilitation and expansion of schools, to genuine subsides and other policies which improve attendance and quality of teaching, every step towards revolutionizing education in the North in the next decade must be addressed. Educating children of the poor does not show up immediately as a political dividend. It requires visionary leaders and concerted efforts of every level of authority and influence to achieve. The challenge for northern governors is to address the future while keeping a firm control over immediate challenges.