Leadership they say comes with resposibilities. It’s a responsibility of a leader to think beyond the boxes and ensure that his subjects are in good position economically and sustain the tempo of development into the future. Foresight in leadership is not what a leader should dream of, it’s what a leader should possess.
When I read of the development plan in the offing for Oyo state , two things come to my mind. American s 100 years development
plan titled Extending the legacy and NEPAD.
Nepad is a product of the outcome of Eggheads on how to fast track development in Africa and position her for sustainable growth
The goal is to lift up Africa from the ennui of underdevelopment to the pond of posterity.
Several strategies involving PRS(poverty reduction scheme) has over the years been facilitated by word Bank with the aim to fight poverty all over the world. In such plans, operational collaboration of the civil society can not be over emphasised. They are mainstreamed largely to improve on Country Assissted Strategy of the Bank.
Going back to Extending the legacy, it was to move design a workable plan for Americans development in another 100 years. It was all encompassing involving active participation of all that know about Economy and the Civil society that know American history. It is working.
The synergy between a market economy and democracy has been highlighted in several fora , I don’t want to sound repetitive here. That it can work in other climes means it can also work here.
For development to take place, one has to put in place democratic order. It’s not a one start event but a continuous process.” It is not a unilateral process,but one that’s relative , incremental and variegated” ( Osaghae 199: 7). We are starting in the right direction.
As Samuel Huntington once captured it ” experience clearly shows that only democracy produces good government over the long haul ” I would therefore thank our visionary Governor for involving the representative of university community, economic planners, civil society organization , UNiCEF, the world bank and the Public to key in into the moulding of such laudable development plan Oyo State. We can think it, we can achieve it. It’s equally riveting to hear that inspite all odds of covid 19 and Economic lockdown, we are still faring better. I will want the Roadmap to exceed 2023 till a far longer period. GSM isn’t just part of history, he is already making history.
Thanks.
