Political and constitutional objectives

FOURTHLY, if the need arises, and the staff have been given the requisite training, the Commune would be a handy unit for ensuring full employment. At this level, the unemployed and the underemployed could be much more easily and efficiently organised into Development Corps which would be deployed into full-time agricultural and other development activities within the overall national plan.

It will be noticed that I have qualified the foregoing remarks at every stage with’ if properly and efficiently organised,’ ‘if competently and adequately staffed,’ etc. I have done this because organization and staffing are the real crux of the matter. To be successful and serve the purposes for which it is intended, the Commune must be properly organised and competently staffed.

The first thing to do, therefore, is to attach the greatest possible importance to the Commune as the base of the country’s governmental pyramid, and appoint well-qualified and well-trained staff to organise and administer its affairs. It is my considered opinion that whoever heads the public office in a Commune must be a graduate of a recognised university. He must have had some years’ experience in government administration, and must have undergone rigorous courses in community development, in the collection and compilation of information and data, and in all the aspects of public administration relevant to his assignments. He should be a member of the State or Federal Public Service, and should be eligible for promotion to any post, for which he is qualified, like every other member of the public service.

He should have one or two full-time junior staff to assist him: a clerk/typist, and a messenger. For the rest, he would be assisted by part-time voluntary workers normally employed in school, health centre, and any other public institution situated within the Commune.

We must recall, in this connection, that under Section 12, in Chapter I, we have advocated the assimilation of salaries and conditions of service of all employed persons, to ensure equal pay and conditions of service for equal qualifications and merits. It follows, therefore, that, under this new dispensation, teachers, for instance, would be treated in the same way as any other employed person, no matter in whose service he may be. I have no doubt that in such circumstance, teachers, who to some extent have always been helpful to the community in which they work, would be more enthusiastic than ever before to lend a hand in promoting the development, and running the public services of the Commune in which they work.

Most probably, in a Commune, the number of primary school teachers would be between 23 and 46, whilst the number of children in primaries V and VI would be between 230 and 460. A Commune of 10,000 people would sustain a vocational school, whilst a group of four or two Communes, as the case may be, would need to have a secondary school. In this state of affairs, no teacher needs give more than one or two hours a week to help in catering to the welfare and happiness of the people.

In the collection of vital and other statistics, the Commune’s full-time and part-time workers would have the ready assistance of about 230 to 460 pupils in primaries V and VI, and about 113 to 226 in vocational schools. Indeed, it should be part of these pupils’ lessons in civics to collect such data. Furthermore, in any Commune where there is a health centre, health officers would be a tremendous asset, particularly, in the collection and compilation of vital and health statistics.

Apart from the functionaries which we have mentioned, the Commune would have its own Council which would be elected in the same way as any Local Government Council, and with the same sort of composition – that is, so many elected members, and so many traditional members. The Commune’s full-time officials and part-time workers, though not employees of the commune, would have to work in close and harmonious collaboration with the Council.

Any official who is unable to achieve this objective would be unfit for his special assignments in the Commune. But any official who makes a success of these assignments should be amply encouraged and rewarded in an appropriate manner.

I would like to say, in passing, that it is my considered opinion that in the people’s republic of Nigeria, Local Government staff should be members of the State Public Service, in the same way as members of the staff of the Commune, and should enjoy the same conditions of service, and be entitled to promotion in the same way, as any other member of the Public Service. But they too would be enjoined to work in close and harmonious collaboration with the Council which they are appointed to serve.

In order to avoid bottlenecks leading to unnecessary delays, and to emphasise the equal importance of the Commune and the Local Government, both the Commune and the Local Government Council, while co-operating actively between themselves, should have direct access to the State’s Ministry of Local Government, and Department of Statistics which will, in turn, have direct access to the Federal Department of Statistics.

One important point remains to be disposed of under this Section. If the idea of the Commune is accepted, the State Government would not need to spend large sums of money in building offices in the Communes. Indeed, not only would the people be ready, by communal labour and voluntary cash contributions, to build these offices, but they would also be quite willing to expend a good deal of their efforts and money in building schools, health centres, postal agencies, etc.

4. and 5. Research and Statistics

In any sphere of human endeavours, no sensible planner or organizer can embark on his work, without adequate and up-to-date information and data, and hope for significant success. It is generally agreed that, in Nigeria, our information and data for purposes of planning are pitiably inadequate, and that the few that are available arc notoriously and hopelessly out-of-date. Detailed soil survey and the collection of geological data are still in their infant stages, that is if they have seriously begun at all.

If we would plan for assured progress and the welfare of our people, we must have the necessary information, and data. It follows, therefore, that we must be prepared to spend much more than the paltry amounts which we now dole out to research establishments and projects, to soil and geological investigations, and to the Departments of Statistics, throughout the Federation. In other words, we must see to it that new and strong research units are established in sectors where they do not now exist, and that existing ones are reactivated and strengthened. We must also see to it that our Departments of Statistics are enlarged and sufficiently staffed to enable them to attain swift and up-to-date collection, compilation, analysis, interpretation, and publication of information and data. At the same time, wherever necessary, like in the agricultural and industrial sectors, extension services should be established, or reactivated and strengthened, to facilitate the propagation of the’ results of research for application by those concerned. Simultaneously with all these, we must, as a matter of the utmost urgency, institute surveys and inquiries, and appoint teams of experts, for the purposes which we have suggested in previous Chapters.

Unless we do all these things, and do them quickly, the people’s republic of Nigeria would be devoid of materials adequate for and indispensable to intelligent and scientific planning. Hitherto, we have groped in the dark, with mixed results. We have” avoided disaster simply because we crawled. But, in the people’s republic of Nigeria, we are resolved to make a big leap forward; beyond the yawning gulf of ignorance, disease, and poverty, into a new era of accelerated all-round progress and assured welfare for all our people. We cannot afford to embark on this momentous venture in the dark. We need the bright light of accurate and up-to-date statistical information and data to lighten our path, and to illuminate the extent of the width and depth of the chasm we are about to clear.

6. National Planning

The need for planning is no longer in dispute in Nigeria. What is in dispute are the objectives of planning. Different interest-groups in Nigeria have different ideas as to what our objectives should be. Many will agree with the objectives set out in Chapters 1-3, and there will be some who will not. But once the objectives, whatever they are, have been declared, it becomes a matter of necessity that the plan for attaining them should be worked out with care and in every possible detail, if success is to be assured. In this connection, it has to be borne in mind that different sets of objectives demand different modes of planning. The path, the direction, and the means of locomotion chosen in the course of any journey are absolutely dictated by where you are going and when you want to get there.

It should be clear to anyone that the attainment of the objectives and goals, which I strongly urge for acceptance by the people’s republic of Nigeria, demands, indeed compels, rigorous, detailed, scientific, and expert planning, as well as constant and equally expert and competent surveillance of the day-to-day working of the plan.

The kind of planning which I have in mind, and which is dictated by our objectives, must be organised by the States from the level of the Commune upwards, and directed and co-ordinated at the Federal level. That is why I advocate the establishment of State Planning Boards, and National Planning Commission.

These Boards and Commission would be quite different from the old Regional Planning Committees and National Economic Council in that, unlike the latter, they would be composed wholly of experts. Each of the Boards and Commission would have its own secretariat, the personnel of which must be suitably qualified and high-powered.

The National Planning Commission would, in addition, have Technical Committees, each of which would specialize in, and deal- in much greater detail with, one subject or a group of related subjects.

The Boards and Commission would be permanent, and their’ members would be full-time; so would the Technical Committees and their members. From time to time, the Boards and Commission may invite other experts from outside their members to advise them on any issue or problem.

The National Economic Council would be replaced by a National Development Council, in order to reflect the more comprehensive jurisdiction of the new body. On this new Council all the Governments of the Federation would be represented, and it would be its responsibility to consider the final proposals of the National Planning Commission for the next plan period, before they are presented for acceptance to all the Parliaments in the Federation. It is perhaps superfluous for me to point out that the attainment of political and constitutional objectives is a matter within the exclusive competence of the country’s organised political parties, and, therefore, quite outside the purview of the State Planning Boards and National Planning Commission.