Director General of the Progressive Governors’ Forum PGF, a platform for Governors of the ruling All Progressives Congress APC, Salihu Moh. Lukman has decried the continued inability of Nigeria’s organised labour and civil society organisations to proffer solutions to the country’s myriad of challenges, accusing them of being quick to engage in destructive criticisms. Lukman made the accusation in a statement issued Tuesday in Abuja also urged the APC to develop its capacity to engage in mass mobilisation of Nigerians to support government policies and programmes. He said “Generally, ‘situations of disorientation’ in the country has created problems whereby the character of Nigerian civil society, including the labour movement has radically changed. Most of the organisations that used to be knowledge-driven, based on which they have strong connections with academic institutions, are bereft of knowledgeable viewpoints.
“At least up to the late 1990s, most of these organisations were very active in policy engagements through campaigning for alternative policy frameworks. When they criticise government policy, they do not only explain reasons for such criticisms, but also propose alternatives. This is hardly the case today. The main approaches of the work of civil society are mainly to abuse and condemn whatever government is doing with hardly any recommendation for alternatives. If anyone is looking for evidence of how ‘sublime values’ have retreated form Nigerian public life, just look at the character of today’s Nigerian civil society and labour movement and compare them with what used to obtain in the past”. Lukman also lamented the lack of scholarly contributions by the nation’s pool of academics to national development. According to him “Beyond civil society organisations and labour movement, the sad reality is also that quality of scholarship in our academic institutions is, to say the least, below standards.
We have professors, researchers and lecturers who cannot engage in any useful enquiry about the challenges facing the country. Many so-called Professors, researchers and lecturers, rather than working to provide new insights about challenges facing the country and to that extent propose alternative responses, join the ‘complaining and wailing’ community. They speak in languages that are offensive to government and political leaders with unsubstantiated allegations. Part of what has been lost is the fact that categories of leaders of non-governmental organisations who used to have strong values that envisioned a prosperous country have disappeared. Instead, we have many leaders of non-governmental organisation who see nothing good in Nigeria and its political leadership. They promote campaigns for hatred against the country and its leadership. The culture of political intimidation using protests and strikes have become rampant. Most demands by non-governmental organisations come with threats of strikes and protests in the first instance. In the context of mobilisation to produce change in Nigeria therefore, what will be required to change the orientation of leaders of non-governmental organisations in the country for instance?
