|
 Daily Independent Online.
* Monday, July 26, 2004.
On Chikelu and information
management
Ordinarily, I have
often read newspaper columns with the conviction that whereas columnists
would hold the rights of expression the audience reserve the prerogative
to welcome, distil and possibly assimilate substance from such messages.
Yet what to my opinion remains instructive though is the fact, I believe,
that any opinion worth the publication must necessarily as a social
responsibility convey a message: and indeed a constructive one for that
matter.
It was with this mind poise
that I read citizen Maximus Uba’s piece in Friday, July 16, 2004 edition
of Daily Independent
titled: “Government Information Management: How Far can Chikelu
Go?” Though the caption was unmistakably indicting it remained seemingly
challenging to me, and of course should for Honourable Chikelu. Yes! Another patriot was
performing yet an ostensibly innocuous social responsibility auditing
Hon. Chikelu’s report card. Fine!
This should be the minimum
expected of a conscious civil populace. Our society must be awaken to its civic responsibility
to hold public officers accountable where necessary. Indeed for a society barely
recovering from a prolong military dictatorship, the survival of a viable
democratic culture must be a collective responsibility borne of checks
and balances. In fact,
public office holders entrusted with public estate must be prepared to be
answerable to the electorate such a culture of compatible social
engagement does not only form the basis for public trust and confidence
but remains in itself a democracy dividend.
Our democracy is unarguably
nascent and we thus must all be engaged in a collectivity of
learning. Hospitality to
opinion must be upheld by public officers as a virtue while public
opinion should on the other hand be constructive.
However, in the said article
the columnist in an attempt to appraise Hon. Chukwuemeka Chilelu’s
stewardship in the last lone year as Minister of Information and National
Orientation rather regrettably chooses to inveigh against the Honourable
Minister. He deliberately
dwells primarily on his (Hon. Ministers’) perceived limitations and
shortcomings and denies him the would be expected commendations where
necessary. At least for his
modest carriage and achievements especially in the field of corporate
structural reorganization in the Ministry of Information and National
Orientation, honest information dissemination, man power development and
capacity building and above all press freedom which is the hallmark of
democracy. Rather citizen
Uba all throughout his article resorts to besmirch the Honourable
gentleman’s record.
The columnist begins his
argument by insinuation that Hon. Chikelu’s most veritable credential
would have been the allusion that he (Chukwuemeka) is scion to an
existing patronage between his father (Owelle Chikelu) and president
Olusegun Obasanjo. In an age
and dispensation where young men and women proven integrity are making
their mark and marketing their niche out of sheer toil and wipe, such an
insinuation is verily uncharitable, especially to a learned gentleman who
cut his public teeth as an accomplished legislator of the Federal
Republic. He also had his
colleagues rise to the exalted number four position on the order of
precedence of our great country Nigeria. Was he less eminently qualified?
The task of marshalling out a
credible and acceptable government information management strategy, just
like that of marketing an entire administration and its policies, is not
a mean one. Though it can be
made easier by collaboration between the government and the
governed. All depending on
how readily available government disseminates information and, on the
other hand how credible the populace perceive such a government. For a Nigeria in a new and
sustainable democratic order which success largely depends on how
Nigerians embrace it, we must all begin to see ourselves as stakeholders
who must collectively nurture democracy to fruition. The act of successful governance
must be enabled by collective social responsibility. Government must be seen to be
responsive and accountable by way of providing readily information and
awareness. Only then can the
populace also be expected to be responsible, tolerant and participatory.
It was thus uncharitable for
the columnist to argue that “not a few Nigerians including information
watchers will agree that Mr. Chikelu has not performed to his
optimum.” What ever his
parameter for measuring optimization, it wouldn’t have been too generous
for him to see the minister as having had modest accomplishments. It is as well infantile to
further insinuate that the Honourable Minister would have been hobbled by
his youthfulness and thus “afraid of hurting those leading these agencies
particularly when many of them are quite older than he is.” We all know the constitutional
powers and limitations of an Honourable Minister. But must he rein in all his chief
executives to “kow tow” to show he is boss? Such bias again reinforces the military hangover
mentality I had earlier decried.
Under the military, public trustees like the Honourable Minister
got so inebriated with power so much so that they ministered by
coercion. The case is
different today.
Terna-Kester
Kyenge
Office of the Hon. Speaker,
National Assembly,
Abuja
|
