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I.....B.....B......@ :
A society that does not correctly interpret and appreciate its past cannot understand its present fortunes and adversities and can be caught unawares in a fast changing world. This "Book Launch" may not necessarily be a mere ceremony to celebrate the past as embodied in the reforms, which were undertaken in the 1985-1993 period. Incidentally, "the IBB years" as that period has come to be popularly referred to are easily the most discussed years in Nigeria’s recent history. The multiplicity of interpretation of the period and of specific policy reforms and episodes, the vibrancy of the political economy and robustness of the regime as well as the populist activism of that period, have occupied and will continue to occupy the intellectual and media landscapes, indeed, the policy frameworks of governments for yet many more years, in-sha Allah. Yet, one detects in those interpretations certain elements of new ignorance and lack of capacity to grasp the true meaning of the regime’s reform packages.
Ten years after "the IBB-years," is perhaps, an appropriate time for scholarship and journalism to begin to provide better insight into the objective motives and motivations of our choice of the reforms, which we undertook at that time.
The informing ideas and motivating force behind the change of government, which we led in August 1985 were not "personal reasons" but to stem the tide of a potential violent revolution, and safeguard those fundamental values, which our people hold dear. Our choice of a reform framework dictated that we looked at the fundamental assumptions that had driven Nigeria’s economy, society and policy hitherto and to seek ways of either abandoning or transcending those assumptions and their supporting institutions. We set out to assist in gradually changing the orientation of our people.
We said much about the reformative forces, which propelled the regime change in our inaugural address to the nation in August 1985 and in several other landmark speeches—thanks be to Allah for the competent documentation of these major speeches by respected scholars and journalists. We proceeded from the assumption that the inherent human creativity's, initiatives and energies of the citizenry ought to be driving force of socio-economic life while government should provide the appropriate legal and infrastructural environment to propel and sustain the imperatives of a free market economy. We were conscious of, and therefore, concerned about the consequences of the regime’s reforms, especially for the larger majority of the poor, both in the urban and rural areas, and we, accordingly, instituted a variety of measures and projects to generate social justice and poverty amelioration across the length and breadth of the country.
That was why we indicated our commitment to a reform trajectory along the core areas of economic self-reliance, building the infrastructure for political democracy and for social justice. We were by no means naive as to think that these fundamental changes in the historical direction of the post-colonial Nigerian state was going to be painless or yield instant results. However, we believed that our people possessed the resilience and understanding to tap the attendant opportunities and to cherish the long-term goals.
We were also cognisant of the fact that the rhetoric of our socialist compatriots contains certain truths about the conditions of the masses and the failure of the state. But we thought of the need to pursue reforms that would include some of these ideas while steering the state away from ideological orthodoxy and fundamentalism. We also knew that the path of the reform would in the long run produce revolutionary changes in the ways our people do things.
While we believe in the fundamental freedom of our people to express themselves, and organise and participate in the affairs of the nation, there were aspects of freedom that were incompatible with the spirit of the reforms.
We, therefore, needed to subtly check those segments of the society that were bound to increase the urge for the distracting revolt while protecting the basic freedom of the majority. We also recognised that the Nigerian Federation was not deeply rooted; and that it was in fact afflicted by centrifugal forces, which, left unchecked, could tear the Nigerian Nation-State asunder.
We, therefore, identified and insisted on certain no-go areas in our national life; the unity and indissolubility of the Federation even though the Federation needed further restructuring; multi-religious state; values of Federalism and de-concentration of powers, liberalism and republicanism of constitutional government; and independence of judiciary, among others.
The challenge as we saw in the Nigerian project was to restructure the economy decisively in the direction of a modern free market as an appropriate environment for cultivation of freedom and democracy and the natural emergence of a new social order. These ideas remain dear to our heart even today, and nothing has happened in the last ten years to negate the soundness of our perspective. Indeed, we have been roundly vindicated by developments in the global economy and society; and we can justifiably with hindsight, claim to have had an appropriate and enduring foresight.
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KUSHERKI
It is not the critic who counts; nor the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotion; who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumphs of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat...THEODORE ROOSEVELT 1910
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Comments
soapstone carvings handcrafts business samuel omweri | Feb 4th, 2007
Dear sir/ madam,
We are non prifit organisation found here in kenya ,we are making soapastone handcraft just direct from the source .
from this business we trading locally here in ours homes ,it is wher weare gitting our daily needs and surporting ourchildren to go to school
now we are looking for assistance to get market to sell these product, we also need partnership, represetatives, agents, and importers
here below here is our www.geocities.com/jrfkebee.
you can see our photo sample and other information
you are to ask where you dont see.
Thanks
secretary '
Samuel
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