Monthly Archives: April 2017

The Horizon By KayodeKomolafekayode.komolafe@thisdaylive.com 0805 500 1974

It was grim news again recently when the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) launched the 2016 Human Development Report. On the table of Human Development Index Nigeria is ranked 152 out of 185 countries surveyed for the indicators of progress. Relatively, Nigeria was even better rated in 2014 to be in the 151st position. The country is, of course, in the unenviable league of other poor African countries. Nothing illustrates the fact that Africa is being left behind in the global journey of development more than the ranking in which those in the 170th to 185th position, the last, are all African countries. Norway is rated to have the highest human development index in the world while Burkina Faso has the lowest.

This report is eminently worth pondering in the light of the legitimate criticisms of the style and substance of economic management of the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari. It is also instructive that prominent among the critics are those who once had the opportunity to shape policy for public good but failed to do so because of their ideological orientation and other reasons. When some of the trenchant critics were in the saddle, their policy orientation did not suggest that they would agree with the director of the Human Development Report Office (HDRO), Selim Jahan, when he posited at the launch of the report that every human being counts and every human life is equally valuable. To overcome Nigerias development delay, the strategy of development that should be embraced is the one that is informed by this HDROs simple credo.

The indicators used in the latest ranking include healthcare, education, jobs, human security, gender, environment, communication, mobility and poverty in general terms. The issues remain the basic ones school enrolment; girl-child education, communicable diseases (such as the recent outbreak of meningitis); air pollution; sanitation, potable water etc.

Inequality markedly defines the access of members of the population to those things that count for human development. And policy choices determine whether a majority of the population would have access to these necessities of good life. The negative trend has been there for decades now. The present condition is actually the cumulative result of not taking a pro-people path to development.

The paradox of the Nigerian situation is that the critics are not in any fundamental disagreement with the government on the strategy of development that Nigeria has pursued (or failed to pursue). The consequence of taking this path of development is this shameful rank in human development. Basically the same ideas informing policy today were the same ones that informed governance when some of those critics were in charge of policy conception and execution. That is why most criticisms focus on selling of assets, exchange rate, growth rates, size of the economy, endorsement of International Monetary Fund etc. The critics are concerned about how far the government can go with privatisation or liberalisation. They are worried about how the government should proceed in that direction. The critics are not focussing on the trend in which quality healthcare and education are increasingly becoming commodities that only a few could afford. For instance, the education sector is becoming a big industry where market forces are expected to allocate quality education to the children of the poor and the rich. This does not feature prominently in the mounting criticisms of governments at all levels.

A nation cannot be said to be doing well in human development when a majority of its people lacks these basic services in the social sector. That is an index of inequality. Universally, inequality has been identified as a social plague. Nigeria continues to be rated low in human development because as a matter of policy social spending is not a priority. But hardly do you hear that from the economic experts criticising the government. Yet the government has to increase social spending to reverse the trend of inequality. In fact, an intellectual attack on the festering inequality is not a favourite theme of the critics. It is as if the critics are oblivious of the consequences of unchecked inequality on the overall economic development as well as social justice.

Perhaps, the criticisms themselves deserve a critique so that the critics are also held accountable. This could help in focussing the criticisms on why economic management has failed to enhance human development. The critique is to draw attention of the critics to a troubling question: why cant poverty eradication be the focus of governance at this time? Take a sample. After eight years of opportunity to reshape the political economy for the greatest good of the greatest number, a former president struts all over the place admonishing that youth unemployment is a time bomb. Meanwhile, there is no addendum of the millions of jobs created as a result of the strategy of development he adopted while in power to accompany this pontificating.

Yet no one bothers to ask this leader if the bomb that he has just identified was planted in the social space only last night. Former Central Bank governors are warning against the risk of economic collapse. But they fail to tell us how monetary policies during their tenures energised the real sector to create jobs in millions. These former public office holders get away with their grandstanding because here is a nation where no one bears responsibility for why development has remained a dream in this land when it has become a reality elsewhere.

People who have held public offices should be held accountable for their record of performance especially when they elect to lecture us on the same problems they failed to solve. Besides, the criticisms do not get to the root of the problem. Critics attack consequences of a wrong approach to development. They do not question the strategy of development itself. The problem at hand requires more radical questions to be posed on why things remain the way they are at present. Some honest liberal observations have been made about the nations socio-economic problems. They should be commended. However, only a radical probing would get us to the root of the matter.

Remarkably, the 2016 Report emphasises the element of national policy matrix for human development. An element of the matrix in the Nigerian context is the outlook of policymakers who are to design and implement a strategy of development. The greatest worry should be that fundamentally nothing has changed in terms of a strategic approach to development.

All told, socio-economic debates should also focus on human development.

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Of Critics and Human Development - THISDAY Newspapers

On April 18, US Secretary of Defense James Mattis arrived in Saudi Arabia to meet with King Salman and other high-ranking officials in the kingdom as part of a regional trip, which also included stops in Djibouti, Egypt, Israel, and Qatar. Mattis said that his frankcandidhonest talks with the Saudis could not have gone better. The Pentagon chief praised the kingdom, which he called one of Washingtons best counterterrorism partners, for stepping up to its regional leadership roleto restore stability in this key region of the world. The following day an official from the administration suggested that Donald Trump may soon make his first visit to Saudi Arabia as president of the United States. While speaking with Mohammad bin Salman, Saudi Arabias Deputy Crown Prince and Defense Minister, Mattis stated that it serves Washingtons interest to see a strong Saudi Arabia.

Building on Mohammed bin Salmans visit to the White House in March, which Saudi officials claimed marked a historic turning point in US-Saudi relations, Mattis recent trip to Riyadh served to further strengthen Saudi confidence in the Trump administrations approach to countering Irans mischief. After commending Saudi Arabia for supporting two close US alliesEgypt and JordanMattis condemned Iran for backing Lebanese Hezbollah and Bashar al-Assads regime in Damascus, as well as deploying its own military forces to Syria. He asserted, Everywhere you look, if there is trouble in the region, you find Iran.

In continuity with the last administration, Mattis expressed the White Houses support for pursuing a diplomatic settlement to Yemens civil war, which involves bringing Iranian-backed Houthi rebels to the roundtable. The Trump administration, at least based on its words, seems to have joined the consensus that military action alone cannot bring peace to Yemen. However, in reassuring the Saudi leadership, Mattis stressed the administrations view that Iran, rather than the collapse of the Yemeni nation-state or other socio-economic and sectarian problems, lies at the heart of Yemens crisis. He pointed to Irans delivery of weapons to Ansarullah (the dominant Houthi militia), saying that Iran once again is no help. Although the international community can make progress on Yemen, Mattis declared that it must first overcome Irans efforts to destabilize yet another country and create another militia in their image of Lebanese Hezbollah.

Read it at LobeLog

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Trump and the Yemeni Quagmire - International Policy Digest (press release) (blog)

On May 12, the Bortolami Gallery will open in its new home at 39 Walkerits moving from Chelseawith a show by Daniel Buren. Below: An in-progress shot of the space.

The TV show Bull is back shooting in the Warren/W. Broadway vicinity on Friday. If the Mayors Office of Media & Entertainment really does give certain areas a break from filming every now and then, this area is overdue.

Simit + Smith, the Turkish bakery on Worth (between Broadway and Lafayette), has closed. I suspect it closed a while agothats a block I rarely walk down.

I was looking on OpenTable the other night, and it lists City Vineyard in the West Village and Schilling in Tribeca. Whats the point of the site if you cant sort accurately by neighborhood?

Three new shows open May 2 at Alexander and Bonin. One: Summer and Winter, an exhibition of recent paintings, drawings and watercolors by Sylvia Plimack Mangold will be presented in the main gallery. Beginning in the late 1970s, Plimack Mangold focused her attention on the landscape around her property in Washingtonville, New York, and eventually to individual trees. Working from direct observation, Plimack Mangold has painted the maple tree outside her studio window in the summer and winter over successive years. Two: Want, an exhibition of new sculpture by Robert Kinmont, will be on view on the lower level. Kinmont grew up in the desert near Bishop, CA and has lived most of his adult life in northern California. These rural environments have provided the practical and conceptual foundation for his work, exemplified by his recurrent use of commonplace and natural materials such as wood, pine, and dirt. Kinmont uses these modest materials to explore the relationship between the environment and his own body and life. Three: Willie Dohertys No Return (2017), a single channel projection, will be installed in the video gallery. No Return was shot in Braddock, a town once known as the cradle of Western Pennsylvanias steel industry, before suffering from its collapse in the 1980s. While the work engages with the landscape as it looks today, it also approaches it as both a repository for the memories of past experiences and a witness to the ravages of socio-economic change. Below: Summer Maple Detail by Sylvia Plimack Mangold.

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Seen & Heard: Bortolami Gallery Opening Date - Tribeca Citizen