This is the sixth article in a series on public sector boards in Nigeria, and the last in which I will be diagnosing what is wrong. From the next column I will move to what we should be doing instead. But before we leave diagnosis behind, there is one pathology I want to name, because in my reading of our public sector it is the most pervasive of all. It is also the most invisible, because it disguises itself as good order.
I am referring to the ceremonial board.
The board whose meetings are run with such polish, such formality, such adherence to protocol, that the casual observer would assume it is the very picture of good governance. It is not. It is the picture of governance theatre. The meeting is performed, and what is performed looks like governance. But the substance, the actual work of governing, is largely absent.
A ceremonial board is not a board that does nothing. It is a board that does the wrong things, in the right way.
It is a board where the rituals are immaculate and the results are mediocre. It is, in my view, the single most common form of public sector board in Nigeria today, and it is the form that has done the most damage to our institutions while attracting the least attention.
