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On 11/12 17, I had to go to UCH Ibadan for medical checkup and I went with public transport. At the Oshodi terminal, the vehicle loading was short of one passenger. I requested the driver to reserve the space for me while I bought a newspaper about 50 meters away and he obliged.
A few steps later, I decided to forgo the paper so as not to keep others waiting. By the time I came back, he had allocated the seat to another passenger and when I reminded of our agreement he retorted: you did not charter the car.
No problem but he should have told me so earlier. I entered the next car and told the man I would stop at Iwo road which I believed was closer to UCH and he agreed. But when we got to Ibadan, the man discharged all of us at Challenge bus stop.
When I asked him why he did not drop me at Iwo road as agreed, he did not even favour me with a response! True to the name of the bus-stop, I had some logistic challenges!
On my return trip, I boarded a car where the earlier passengers were told that the fare was N1500. Suddenly, the driver came back and hiked it to N2000 and the whole passengers voted with their feet until a counter order came.
When we got to Lagos, the driver announced that he would drop all of us at Ojota terminal but the first passenger to board the car reminded him that they had agreed that he would be dropped at China Town on the Oworonsoki expressway.
My attempts to mediate were futile and as tempers were rising, I asked the driver whether he actually agreed to drop the man at China Town but he did not answer.
Anyway, the passenger threatened to set the car on fire if he was not dropped as agreed and he spoke like one with the capacity and will to do so. The driver dropped the rest of us a little about 100 meters from Ojota and did a detour to drop the fiery passenger where they had agreed.
All these four incidents (in just one day!) evidenced acute integrity-deficit in our society. In two cases, the driver got away with it because the victim was gentle while the other driver did not get away with it because as Fela would say, the people no be gentle man at all; they protested!
People are integrity-challenged when they agree to do what they cannot do or have no intention of doing so as to obtain temporary advantages. In so doing, they forget that all things being equal, the day of reckoning will SURELY come, when they would come face to face with the reality of their treachery.
This is lack of integrity and disobedience to one of the cardinal principles of Total Quality Management: DWYSYWD (Do What You Say You Will Do!).
My interest in this issue did not start today because as a self-certified poet, my shortest poem authored about 35 years ago was: Promise. Better made that made and not kept (Wole Soyinka should not see this!)
Three months before then, (September 2017) was a season of strikes all over the country. ASUU, SSANU, NASU, JOHESU( yes, the same JOHESU), NARD, United Labour Congress, Osun state NMA and NAFDAC staff, among others, were all on strike.
Kogi workers were also on strike but their own had a peculiar twist as the government declared that it was only the blind that did not see their achievements and that those on strike were political civil servants.
There was a common strand in all these strikes: The government refused or failed to implement and at times, even feigned ignorance, of agreements they willingly entered with the workers. And workers speak on the only language the oppressors, like the drivers I mentioned earlier, can hear!
Let no one remind Nigerian workers of the recent ( February 2018), strange protest by 544 Quebec doctors, supported by 162 medical students because the government had increased their salaries!
I am reminded of all these because JOHESU is now back on the trenches while several other unions are either on strike or are warming up for strike because the Government had betrayed their trust through integrity-deficit governance!
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That of JOHESU, like the poor, will always be with us ( Mark, 14:7) because as par a song by the Nwobodo-led Anambra Nigerian Peoples Party, people who know their position on the queue are deliberately jostling for other peoples positions in the same queue!
Mercifully Johesu has suspended its strike; unions never call off strikes because a suspended strike can be restarted without notice)
Trust may be emotional (you believe that people will not exploit your vulnerabilities) or logical (you conclude that the other party will behave as expected).
We reach agreement with people because we believe that they will keep to the terms of the agreement or that at worse, there are institutions that will compel them to do so.
Trust and integrity are somehow related because you can always trust a person of integrity; some one who is honest, positively consistent and predictable and truthful.
But trust and integrity are not all about individuals and firms. The government, elected by people who trusted them with national sovereignty , should also exhibit trustworthiness and integrity, keep to their words and comply with agreements.
So, why should Nigerian governments (yes; this is not a chaangi affair) make promises that they cannot or will not keep and therefore keep on fuelling a perpetual cycle of internecine labour strikes?
Because they just want to get away with it, or they believe the implementation will be for the next government, or out of shortsightedness, mischief, ignorance of the issues at stake or because of weak negotiating capabilities?
Whatever the case, governments should agree to what they can do and when they are unfortunately unable to comply, they should come out clean and plead mea culpa.
Meanwhile, this integrity is not a strictly Nigerian affair because the OECD had not too long ago raised alarm over the increasing lack of trustworthiness among governments, stating that only 43% of citizens can take their governments words to the bank.
This adversely affect confidence of investors, success of various policies( especially those which require behavioural response from the citizens) and economic health of the country.
OECD was kind enough to advise governments, ( pro-bono) that wish to raise their integrity quotient to improve their reliability, responsiveness, openness, regulatory capability, fairness and inclusiveness.
My advice to Nigerian government then is to go and do likewise (Luke, 10:37) However, we still have to contend with one simple question I asked several years ago: who and, more painfully, where is the government?
Ik Muo, Department of Business administration, OOU, Ago-Iwoye.
