Competence vs Incompetence

A friend once told me that after reviewing Nigeria's issues and problems, he had come to the conclusion that the problem with Nigeria is not so much of corruption as it is incompetence. While that may be a hard sell to the generality, after listening to his arguements I certainly do agree that he has a strong point.

But what is incompetence? A look at MS word for synonyms gives "ineffectiveness", "ineptitude", "stupidity" and "uselessness" as synonyms. What strong words!! Yet, a look around the public sphere in Nigeria shows that our nation reeks of incompetence!!

All around the world, the smartest most intelligent people are voted into public office. The American Senate is filled with Harvard, Oxford and Princeton style lawyers, successfull business men and generally men of real timber and calibre. But what do we have in Nigeria? The exact opposite. Those who fill our NASS, civil service, Police, PHCN etc seem to be the dullest and most unintelligble, unimaginative people possible. In America, the Army,Navy and Police compete with some of the best companies in the country to recruit the best brains for its services. The best engineers, IT specialists, Operations researchers etc can be found in these forces, but our own Army, Police, Navy etc are filled largely by non graduates. What do you expect from a police force that has primary 6 education as a minimum requirement!?

If these scenarios are representative of the entirety of our public institutions (which they are), then can we actually hope for any improvement in the way this country is administered? The sooner we exit from the throes of the incompetent the better.

And why should we? A cursory look at a scenario dominated by "competent" people will suffice. Take a look at the government of Lagos State. I look at that administration and I see competent people. The results are visible to all!!

My worst personal experiences in the county have come from the Police and PHCN. Imagine a PHCN staff cutting my power supply when I had paid to the same office a week prior. And his only explanation was that I should have pasted my bill on my gate. What incompetence!!! In a full week, a local PHCN office (Rumuokwrushi, PH to be exact) cannot reconcile its records to identify who has paid and who has not!!? That is really astonishing!! Even common MS excel can provide a means of keeping tabs of who has paid and who hasn't.

I'm not exactly clear on how this country can get out of the grip of the incompetent, but what is clear is that it must!!!