Odalije, Sir Chinyeaka Ohaa, the immediate past Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Power, Abuja has commended the effort of Enugu state government led by His Excellency, Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, in introducing and sustaining what he called, “the novel idea of Basic Community Government, facilitating bottom-to-the-top approach to infrastructural development, as a paradigm shift from the previous governance structure in Enugu state.”

Speaking in a keynote address on the topic, Entitlement Expectation Bogeyman and the challenge of Basic Community Government in the 8th Edition of the Annual Conference of the Nigeria Political Science Association (NPSA) hosted by the Coal City University, Enugu, Sir Chinyeaka Ohaa took a brief look at the pre-independence Eastern Nigeria projected economic trajectory from 1955, which led to the erection of industrial estates or parks such as:

1. Aba light industries which presently limps for reasons of subsequent failure of infrastructure. The Aba light industrial plan was designed, and it took off, as a corridor to coalesce with Port Harcourt in present day River State;
2. Biotechnology industries for Umuahia (also presently limping);
3. Steel, heavy industry and automation for Emene (now non-existent for failure of infrastructure);
4. Cement and building material belt for Nkalagu, Calabar, Port Harcourt (largely surviving today on the wings of private enterprise);
5. Commercial/retail trading emporium for Onitsha (which has remained a huge success despite several incidences of vast destructions by war and seasonal fire disasters);
6. Dairies, holidaying, private, group and corporate tourism for Obudu;
7. Vast spread of plantations: cashew, oil palm, cocoa, coffee, timber, etc, coordinated for Oghe (present Enugu State), Okigwe (present Imo State), Obudu, Akamkpa, Itumbenuzor (present Cross River State), and many others nursed and harvested in present day Abia, Rivers, Bayelsa, Anambra; and,
8. For necessity of the right kind of manpower or expertise, the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, arrived as the first composite university in Nigeria, offering professional courses, as three new other specialist universities were planned out for Port Harcourt (Science & Technology), Nnewi (Medical Sciences), Omor/Uzouwani (Agriculture), Owerri (Education), Enugu (conglomeration of colleges), etc. These were to stand side-by-side with varieties of specialist institutes in the areas of Administration, Management, Arts, Culture, Law and Customs, etc.

“The Emene plan,” according to Sir Ohaa, “Was to be a 90 kilometre industrial corridor stretching from Emene in present Enugu State, through Abakaliki in Ebonyi State, to Ogoja in Cross River State. Perhaps, if it had not been interrupted, it would have been connecting with Bamenda in Cameroon.

These ambitious start-ups were to be serviced by coteries of feeder industrial and agricultural outlets which were to jut from, and through, some localities primed to form their own clusters. “

Continuing, he emphasised, “Of course, we know what adverse effect the civil war had on the entire plan. We are also conversant with General Gowon’s civil war strategic political development which split the geo-economic entity into minute but disparate entities, forced to chart entirely independent, if not hostile, politico-economic identities.”

“But if the war tragedy was the reason for the collapse of these beautiful ventures in old Eastern Region, could it have been the same with other regions, which were into the same gainful development frenzy as the East at the same time?,” he queried

“Not exactly, I think.

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While it may be the same in the case of the political actions leading to multiple state system, the nexus, I hazard, was that Nigerians had quickly gotten over fed on the malaise identified by Professor Nnoli of UNN when he said, “Widespread expectation of benefits from public administration at little or no cost to the citizen … because there is a strong heritage of government involvement in many welfare functions … consequence of this great expectation is that the populace is not eager to calculate or make allowances for the cost of providing these amenities”

Sir Ohaa continued, “We had this vast blessing of petroleum and other natural resources, but, at the same time, we had unfortunately, and regrettably too, cultivated this massive relapse into indolent, indulgent, and suckling, expectation tradition, giving birth to a culture of entitlement mentality.

The arrival of the screaming petro-dollar wealth was supposed to impress greater strides on these. But it also speeded up the rise in urban population ambivalence, indulgence, indolence and shiftlessness.”

Taking a swipe on the role of Nigeria political scientists in post colonial Nigeria, he said, “Granted that the suddenness of its arrival, the vastness of the proceeds, and flamboyance of the time, were humungous; yet, socio-political science scholars should not have been off-guard their critical role of keeping post-colonial Nigeria leaders on their feet while the boom burst into a recipe for the present economic crisis pervading the nation. Regrettably, this has quickly bloated this “expectation community”, which props the bogeyman called “entitlement mentality.”

“Remember, having started on that framework where the citizens operate on the premise that there are rights to be provided for as is the case in welfare states, a great percentage of Nigeria population perennially hibernate in the “entitlement tradition” or “expectation” culture.

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I read about Nigerian intellectuals and analysts insisting that the presence of this bogeyman or the culture of “entitlement mentality,” so called, was a creation of practicing politicians. Some even go as far as attempting to situate the argument that politics, as a career, does not exist outside the beggarly tradition, which is the full manifestation of the “entitlement mentality.”

Conversely, pro-system scholars have situated that this, having originated in the welfarist colonial political management pattern, was sustained by those Marxist-socialist intellectuals who hold that the State is irreversibly indebted to the citizen for every item needed for existence and sustenance. However, as a trained professional manager of scarce resources, my thought is that we are currently faced with severe challenges on how to contain this bogeyman, ‘entitlement mentality.’

We remember, even as Professor Nnoli holds this as colonial heritage, in the old Eastern Region, East-Niger Igbo areas, have had our strong socio-economic culture of consensus-communalism, which spares no bogeyman. It is a practice that sprouted from age old culture. In the past, it aided us in sponsoring our brilliant sons and daughters to the best universities in Europe and America. We also erected numerous Community Secondary Schools, providing the platforms for our young ones to access education and advance in careers.

Till date, it baffles me that having known, participated in, and understood, these practices, the socio-political scientists, who specialize in the Igbo socio-political and cultural systems, have not paid much attention in building, formulating and spreading the principles of these informal institutionalized community governments across the south east Igbo heartland and elsewhere.

Already, there have been attempts by some governments to infuse life into this, but we know that government alone cannot be everything for everybody, forever time, at the same time. The Enugu State government under the leadership of His Excellency, Rt. Hon. Dr. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, has since realized the gains of this, and has been propping its brand of Community Government System quite impressively. To underscore its serious attachment to this, the State Government has so far recognized elected Presidents-General of over 400 autonomous communities in the state as integral part of community government system, besides ensuring the pride of place for our Royal fathers as the rallying points in community administration. Each President-General is paid monthly stipend. Most importantly, through the community government system, the State government, in 2017, approved the sum of Ten Million Naira grant for each of the autonomous communities, out of which Five Million Naira has already been disbursed to each community in the state for rural infrastructure.

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It was an opportunity for communities to brainstorm, conceived and prioritize their development plans and execute same without interference from the top, i.e. the state government. Some communities preferred to repair their boreholes, schools, health centers, local markets, etc. It was a rare privilege for every person, even at the lowest rung, to once in a life time, bear the burden of government, and have his date with the overbearing bogeyman.”

Sir Chinyeaka Ohaa droped a food for thought to political scientists as he enthused, “Please, permit me to now drop a challenge to our socio-political scientists who are supposed to be specialists in social organizations and political engineering to: conceptualize, outline, situate and dissect the principles of Community Based Governments (CBG) for the true activation of development in our communities; being also a panacea to pruning the edges of the bogeyman who, I dare hazard, is susceptible to being weaponized in the electoral and electioneering processes.

The urgency of now demands that we search for that which creates the institutional foundations on which the stability of the society is built, that which props sufficient platforms for the participation of the would-be disruptive bogeyman. Needless to emphasize that this can be found in retooling our community based government structures, which, no doubt, is the first line of understanding, percolation and defense of policies of government while, at the same time, exposing and training rising community leaders, and checking the dreaded “entitlement” bogeyman, in the working of government.