Desperate efforts to address Nigeria’s development crisis continues to meet brick walls. Poverty remains entrenched in defiance to the ludicrous, wide mouthed efforts of the Nigerian establishment. For the umpteenth time, therefore, it is important that we re-examine the cause(s) of Nigeria’s retrogression.
Karl Popper’s “Open Society and Its Enemies” could be of relevance here. I’m excited about Karl’s attack on the ideology of “historicism” which seeks to convince us or rather confuse us, that change is impossible. The attitude of “social engineering” is a powerful contrast to pessimistic historicism.
In this piece, I would seek to attack the retrogressive tendencies in Nigeria with a social engineering attitude. My thesis is that Nigeria’s problem is caused mainly by a powerful cabal in powerful places, who masquerading in an open society garment are the real enemies of open society, and hence the real danger to Nigeria’s development.
In his “21 Irrefutable laws of leadership”, John Maxwell made a living statement: “Everything rises and falls on leadership” Nigeria is unlucky on the issue of political leadership. We have not been able to break the cycle of autocracy. During the locust years, we lost the sense of what democracy; open society means. As a people we suffered a psycho-emotional breakdown that has refused to heal.
In 1999, we went into the polls without adequate preparation. We rushed to a democratic poll without a democratic constitution. The 1999 constitution as we all know was imposed on the Nigerian people by an autocratic regime that was consumed with a passion to perpetuate itself in power. The independent Electoral Commission (INEC) that was conceived by this constitution was in fact contrived to be an appendage of the executive. The notion of federalism which thrives in decentralization of power was carefully distorted to pave way for totalitarianism.
But we rushed to polls in a frantic hurry to end that terrible period of military autocracy and Obasanjo emerged as a “messiah”. It was not long before it began to dawn on us all that the road to the “Promised Land” was still afar and that the long sought messiah was not yet on sight. But we failed to do much beyond rhetoric and soap box oratory. It is important however to applaud the efforts of people like, Chief Gani Fawehnmi, who saw the warning signals earlier and went to court to challenge the flawed logic of democratic conscription. The case was Musa Vs INEC. Gani’s unassailable argument in that case led to the registration of 22 new political parties.
In 2003 presidential election, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), the most powerful party in Africa was on song again. The PDP swept the polls like a mad hurricane. It looked as if there was no other party in Nigeria. The new parties seemed destined to be weak. It is interesting to note, however, that the last elections have been widely adjudged to be the worst in the history of Nigeria. An analyst, talking specifically about the recent local government elections stated that in the election, “the devil came to the polls”. In several polling stations, there were no elections, yet results emerged. In my local community, villagers still tell shocking stories of how guns were freely used to scare them from coming out to vote in the election
What has happened therefore, is that we have in governance, several people that cannot in the real sense of democratic assessment, trace their mandate to the people. The critical connection between the people and their leaders has been severely broken by electoral fraud.
John Maxwell’s law of magnetism, which requires the leader to connect to the people, has been broken with impunity. Hence, when we say we are hungry, our leaders fail to understand our language. When we complain of our increasing difficulties in accessing social amenities, like electricity, water, good roads, etc, our leaders laugh to scorn and point out to us their giant achievements in those regards.
It is not surprising therefore, that a majority of Nigerians are suffering and dying in the silence of their bedrooms. They are afraid to come out to the cities to confront the shocking contrast of opulence. People are still building sky scrappers and changing exotic cars like articles of clothing in a country that has become notorious as a poverty stricken one, where human development index remains at the lowest ebb. For some, this is a mystery. For others it is not and can be explained like this: a few persons are using their positions to pauperize others by milking dry the financial cow of the nation.
We should not be surprised therefore, that our leaders are keen to increase the pump price of fuel in a continuous basis. The simple reason for their action is because they do not understand why we cannot spare few notes in buying fuel. They are so consumed by the gospel of “deregulation” hence they have failed to appreciate what we are saying about “our take-home pay being unable to take us home” They do not care about the widespread unemployment that has made life unbearable for Nigerians, especially the youths. There is nobody keeping the statistics of the number of Nigerian graduates that are unemployed and unemployable. No one is taking note of how many retired workers, who spent their whole lives, working for government have died as a result of frustration, hunger and anger.
Our tragedy therefore, is that we have not been able to empower a transformative and a visionary leader. We have not been able to enthrone a democratic culture that would pave way for the emergence of a visionary leader, who would utilize our abundant resources and catapult us to the first world. I am afraid that unless we start today to make conscious efforts in this regard, the march to the Promised Land remains long, winding and arduous.
As an apostle of social engineering, I am certain that change will occur.
Everybody must be involved in these conscious revolutionary reforms.
First, we must stand up, as the Nigerian Labour Congress is doing to say “No” to autocracy. We must give fresh blood to opposition politics. The South African example is there for us to learn. In the last South African election, we all saw what transparent election meant. It is interesting also to learn some few lessons from Kerry’s strong opposition to Bush. It may be helpful to note that one central issue in the forthcoming elections in the United States is the question of which ideology is stronger. Whose programme is better and more convincing? It is not right; raw powers as we often see in Nigeria. Political violence and intimidation are triumphing in Nigeria because we are yet to realise the astonishing power of ideas over might.
It is also important that we find a way of pushing the current illiberal regime to pay more attention to education at all levels. There is no doubt that hardship is impacting seriously on intellectual development of our youths: the only hope we now have in the struggle for Nigerian’s emancipation. We must insist that facilities for acquiring good knowledge be put in place. Education, good education would be a critical tool in the impending intellectual and political revolution in Nigeria
Before I draw the curtain on this reflection, it is important to note that many people that fall within this category of “open society enemies in Nigeria” are not presently in governance. They are in the private sector and may soon cross to the other side of political leadership. They are powerful men and women that hate Nigeria passionately.
This should take us to the issue of citizenship. It struck me recently that although Nigeria’s population is put at over 140 million (estimate) we may be surprised that when it comes to counting real “citizens” we may not be able to secure 10%. I am using citizenship restrictively to refer to persons that truly love Nigeria and are truly concerned to see the country through this difficult development pavement. This proposition can easily be tested, wherever there is a gathering of Nigerians. Just make a simple inquiry in a gathering: “Those who want to drop Nigerian citizenship and take up American or UK citizenship, show by raise of hands” I have tried this before in an extra mural class of over 100 Nigerian youths and I was shocked at the response. The whole class preferred to take up another country’s citizenship. In fact, one member of the class said, she will be excited to drop the Nigerian passport for that of Ghana!
That’s the level; we’ve sunk the ship of the nation. There is nothing to inspire hope again. Those who should inspire hope and confidence in us are continuously demonstrating to us how they do not believe in Nigeria. When they are sick, they fly abroad for treatment. They send their children to the best schools abroad and bluntly refuse to provide facilities in our public schools. Increasingly, therefore, we continue to nurture more enemies to Nigeria’s growth.
In conclusion, let this truth be told, that Nigeria can only change, if we are able to deal with the critical problem of leadership. The real enemies are from within. We must either change them or push them away and re-connect our society to the global march towards an open society. I remain confident that “the ravening clouds shall not be long victorious” Change must occur, if not now, certainly later.
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