 Good governance. The word and how. The word governance derives ultimately from the Greek verb kubanyo, meaning to stay. It's occasional use in English to refer to the specific activity of rule in a country. According to Wikipedia, governance is all the processes of interaction, be they through laws, norms, power or language of an organized society over a social system, be they family, tribe, former or informal organization, territory or across territories. Governance objective. The main function or aim a governance system tend to achieve, be it of a country, society or an organization is summarized by the following. Decision making, creation of laws or constitution, enforcement, creation of access, occasional management of resources, justice delivery, security, achieving good governance. Good governance is a guarantee of the expectation of the governed. It employs fairness and upholding common values above individual interests. Joseph Robinette Biden Junior, the 46th and current president of the United States, once said that fighting corruption is not just good governance, it's self-defense, it's patriotism. This means that everyone from those in the position of authority or in the government to those at the grassroot level in a nation should make their personal responsibility to protect their nation or society from the shackles of parochialism, safe agrandizment and personal gain at the expense of common national values and progress. In order for a governance system to be viewed as good for its people, the following should be attained. Empathy in dealing with different constituents of the governed. There should be a healthy balance between equity and equality, inclusiveness and fairness. No national of a nation is more national than any other national of that nation but within and outside the reach of that nation. Putting it in local context, no Nigerian is more Nigerian than any other Nigerian but within and outside Nigeria. Thus, good governance should ensure that every constituent of the governed is expected and factored in fairly in decision making and planning. Provision of enabling environments, high integrity quotients and transparency, open to constructive criticism and feedback, building strong institutions. In conclusion, let us ponder on these words of Raghuran Rajan, the former governor of the Reserve Bank of India. Strong government does not mean simply military power or an efficient intelligence apparatus. Instead, it should be mean, effective, fair administration, in other words, good governance. When you talk about good governance, I think my experience, I have not had good governance as I was born. I have not experienced one, let me put it that way. I have seen it in other countries but I have not experienced one and it is unfortunate, very much unfortunate. Every patriotic Nigerian wants to see a better Nigeria. Every patriotic Nigeria wants the fact that whoever I am putting into voting for in that election would give returns on or would deliver on all the things that he is promised, he more has promised. So it begs the problem that we don't get to see good governance in Nigeria which is so unfortunate. We always refer to countries like Singapore, we refer to countries like the United States and we always want to become like them but realize that the foundation is that we have to be conscious of the fact that we are putting in the right people in power that way we can then demand for good governance and also there is a thing of where most times we tend not to even demand for good governance we assume that we will get it but it doesn't happen. Sometimes you just have to demand for good governance because our citizens are rights as citizens of a country to demand for good governance. I feel you're concerned because when in this situation I believe that good governance is a process. So I want to specifically through two pointers to Victor and their remote conversation. Victor, you are a life coach and most times you deal with constructive criticism and feedback. What can you see in this situation where the government of Nigeria as seen by various administrations before this current one find it difficult to deal with feedback. In this case, feedback would come in terms of maybe social media banter or protests. There is always a recurring decimal in regards to we don't want to look feedback. The next thing is we send the law enforcement agent to clamp them down. So what can you see about the government and the next thing is that Raymond is going to talk more about creating an enabling environment especially for the offshoot of tech, technology, young people participating in tech. So Victor, I want to hear your thoughts on that. Thank you so much Elijah. Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. So when people taste power, I was speaking to a young chap and said listen if you're getting there, how are you sure you're going to make a difference really? We don't know. When you squeeze something, I said that before when you squeeze something, when something goes through pressure the real content comes out. So you don't even know if you are corrupt until you taste power. So we can just be tweeting, oh we need to get the old guys out and everything but when you get in there I mean look at the answers and all of that. Like there was division, even the answers. Some people were for this group, so we were for this group, who started the answers. I mean it was just a war around who started the answers movement. Who cares about who started it? So someone is trying to say oh I am the pioneer, I am the initiator of the answers. This is just answers. So why did I become the governor of the president? I mean so I think why most of our leaders in power do not take feedback very in good faith or seriously might be from what I said earlier which is when you taste power and it goes back to personal values. Family is the smallest unit of a nation. Cell is the smallest unit of life to fix the societal decadence, the moral decadence, the governance decadence. We need to go back to family because the guys that couldn't pass Waik, the guys that jumped friends in class, the guys that are terrorizing people in streets, young guys that will end up in power in the next few years. So if you don't do something about it, if you don't fix that values from the grassroots, then they're going to go run for power. And they say I mean bad things continue to happen when good people do nothing. So because of the way the polity is so structured, good people do not want to go risk their lives. So what happens is the guy that couldn't pass Jamp, the guy that couldn't pass Waik, the guy that was a dropout would end up becoming the governor. And what happens, what kind of values has he built or has he or she built from that fundamental? So let's go back to the roots, to the fundamentals, the grassroots and begin to incorkit proper value system. I think that's how we can begin to create that chain of good governance. Can I see something? Sure, sure. Rima, just hold on a bit before you respond. The lady wants to say something. So I mean in addition to all Vita said, I'm thinking we need to build institutions. Because the truth is, regardless of whether you bring in... I mean if you take this crop of politicians to a country that has solid institutions, they would not... They would not survive. They would not be corrupt. They would not do anything because they know the consequences of the actions. And it's the same thing. But I just love you right now for saying that. Thank you very much. I was having a conversation with someone yesterday and I mean a senior person and she was saying that because it was a struggle around a particular person. And she said, it's not something that actually struck me. She said, you know, the issue that we have with this person, you can also do the same thing if we don't put structure. And then just hopefully understand the fact that we need to ensure that we set up structures due to institutions that can help us push what we want in terms of a correction free economy for holding people accountable to whatever it is that they promise, the electorates. So let me say something very quickly. I'm very excited to talk about this. For one, I am one person that never, ever, ever shout about corruption. I don't believe there is corruption. I don't believe that. I simply believe that there are no consequences for action. All over everyone in the world we have corruption. I mean, I've been privileged to travel to 14 countries and all these countries, none of them is an angel. None of them have sent field governance. But the difference is that they have set up system to ensure that people are severely or adequately punished for every action, for every decision. I think the problem we have back home in Nigeria is that there are no consequences for action and it's not just about the people in government and I think we also need to because when they talk about corruption, people think it's about the politician that was elected 3-4 years ago. No, corruption is about the driver who jumps the traffic lights. Corruption is about the individual who is asking for money before he can submit a file. Corruption is about the policeman on the road who saw somebody with a device, a gadget, a laptop and he's asking the person to give money or else he's threatening to kill the person. Corruption... Remont, thank you very much. Well, it's important that we build strong institutions that can stand the test of time beyond individual sentiments because if we focus more on the individuals we sabotage the system. So the institution is more important than the individual. Join us again next week on another edition of the Advocates. The Advocacy continues on our social media platforms. On Facebook at plusTVAfrica, hashtag the AdvocateNG and Instagram at plusTVAfrica, hashtag the AdvocateNG. To catch up with previous workers, go to plusTVAfrica.com slash the AdvocateNG. Don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel plusTVAfrica. Join us next week, same time, the station. Let's keep advocating for a better society.