Obasesam Okoi|13 December 2015|12:20pm
Recently I took a training at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public Policy at Princeton University in
USA. The purpose of the training was how to make government work in difficult societies.
We reviewed over 100 cases of successful governance initiatives
across the world. Lagos and Abuja under Fashola and El Rufai were two of the few case studies from Africa. I had to put Cross River State in the list of case studies by introducing Duke's urban development programs and Imoke's rural
development programs including his recent initiative, the Songai Farm, which is a model of Agro
innovation in Nigeria. By 2016, Cross River will be used as an empirical case of vision driven
governance innovation when the program would be offered by a new cohort.
Our role as development
researchers, consultants, scholars, educators or whatever we call ourselves, is to study these
governance models, including their successes and failures, and then use the cases to educate the world about Cross River. I would advice Governor Ayade to stop making noise and get to work. Let the
earth moving equipment -the tractors and bulldozers, make the noise. Let the employees in the Green Police, the Garment Factory or the new ministries make the noise.
When the government begins to add new names to the payroll, the
evidence will make the noise.
Today, you can place a call to Songai Farms and hear 500 youth making noise through the machines. That's the kind of noise
we need in Cross River. Today, you can visit ITM Ugep and hear hundreds of students making noise
in the classrooms. That's the kind of noise we need to hear in Cross River.
Once our Governor can complete one project, the impact of that success will generate noise. Yes. The governor has vision. He's doing what no one has done. He's planning this and that. And so what? We've heard about these stories a million times. We need action. Let the governor's success make the noise. Shikena!
*This article was originally titled: 'Why the Governor Should Talk Less and Act More'
Obasesam Okoi
Is a Cross River-born Canadian-based University Don