“ My visit to this country is to show to you what kind of people we are.”
Address at a Press Conference at Nigeria Office Washington, by Sir Ahmadu Bello, Sardauna of Sokoto on the 11th July 1960

Some states of the Federation do have them; globe trotting Governors in the times of recession! Governors of ten northern states (ranked the poorest ten in the Federation!) of Borno, Sokoto, Niger, Plateau, Zamfara, Taraba, Adamawa, Bauchi and Kwara and the deputy governor of Kano States have just returned from United States after “a three day symposium organized by the United States Institute of Peace in Washington, DC.”!Paradoxically Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno, who is also the Chairman of the Northern States Governors’ Forum, had in his speech at the opening ceremony of the US symposium envisaged a non-complimentary critical reaction like yours truly.
Witness him; “By the time we wake up tomorrow print, online and broadcast media houses in Nigeria would have screaming headlines such as, ‘Ten Northern Governors storm Washington’ in the midst of economic recession, when our national currency, the naira, has sharply depreciated against the U.S dollar.” And that is the real crisis of governance in today’s Nigeria; the fact that elected officials routinely task the citizens for “change and sacrifices” but nonetheless on their part carry on in wasteful business-as-usual governance styles with utter contempt for public sensitivity even when such sensitivity was anticipated as Shettima rightly did. Many thanks to Daily Trust editorial board for reflecting on the controversial benefits in endless foreign trips of our governors. But the Editorial of 27th of October 2016 almost rationalized and even legitimized the unnecessary governance tourism which has clearly underdeveloped most of the States of the federation.

We must interrogate the false assumption that foreign countries including US or China (notable new African leaders’ destinations for “development miracle!) would help us fix our problems. The point cannot be overstated; the burden is on those who voluntarily took the oath of office to ensure the security and welfare of the people as contained in the Chapter II of the Constitution dealing with the Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy not some foreign benefactors. “Tangible benefits” from foreign trips of our leaders remain ever intangible because they reinforce a dependence mentality which is the bane of underdevelopment. Assuming it is all about free lunch in Washington, why in an Independent Nigeria would foreign “organizations or governments organize symposia and conferences on such issues as “peace” and underwrite the cost of such trips”.

At 56, its time we interrogated the collapse of our national dignity and sovereignty. What makes globalization attractive and real is NOT the handouts and dependency mentality it offers some lazy African leaders but the innovations and value additions all nations states bring to the productive world for global prosperity and equity.
Can we ever imagine ten governors from United States receiving some tutorials on how to curtail hurricane in Kaduna or Maiduguri? Nigeria parades high sounding tested National Institutes. One of them is the Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution (IPCR) established as far back as February, 2000 with clear mandate to “strengthen Nigeria’s capacity for the promotion of peace and conflict prevention, management and resolution”.

Another is National Institute For Policy and Strategic studies, Kuru Jos. If we must have executive pupils in Governors let them attend scores of national institutes set up for capacity building here in Nigeria. At a time we shout from the roof tops “buy Made in Nigeria”, our governors must source policy ideas at home and those who want to patronize them must come here to do so in Nigeria.

George Santayana observed that “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it”. In 2009, the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) under the leadership of the then Governor Bukola Saraki was severally condemned for taking scores of governors to USA for a phony “capacity building” workshop under a notorious Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) allegedly signed with Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy which turned out to be a hoax disowned also by Harvard university. But that was in 2009 when the problem was how to squander the oil revenue at $120 per barrel.

How can governors that cannot pay salaries of poor teachers at home pay for workshops of dubious value for themselves and themselves alone abroad? Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno was commendably the star of the recently concluded 2016 Nigeria Economic Summit Group (NESG), where he showed that in the condition of acute adversity as we witness in the North East, there are rooms, if there is the will, for Development through innovative policies in agriculture and education. However reading him being romantic about the performance of American economy while being muted about what they are doing for their region beats imagination.

Are we saying without US First Lady Michelle Obama’s girl-child education project for Africa, we cannot educate our children in the region which hitherto through robust public well funded education, educated and produced all of us? We certainly cannot as a people be seeking development through handouts. I recommend as a compulsory read for all our 19 governors the address of the late premier, Ahmadu Bello, Sardauna of Sokoto at Nigeria Office in Washington on the 11th of July 1960 entitled “Nigeria, the Commonwealth and USA” published in Work and Worship.

Therein the late Premier showed that his first trip to America was a mark of reciprocity because in his words Americans … as friends “have been making many visits to our country”.

But significantly the late Premier showed that the visit was not to receive tutorial on “development” or “peace” but to showcase that “ We (Northern Region) produce a lot of groundnut (or peanuts as you call them), cotton, soya beans, cocoa and palm kernels, and in the region we have large deposit of tin and columbite in which America is particularly interested. However we are trying to industrialise the region”. And he actually industrialized the region.
By Issa Aremu, mni | Publish Date: Oct 31 2016