Democratic leadership or elite nationalism: Which is Nigeria’s problem?

By Tunji Olaopa It is often said that a large part of problem-solving is achieving an acute understanding of what the problem is. If this is not done, then critical time could be wasted on resolving what is not properly understood. It is this axiom that makes it imperative that we keep coming again and […]

By Tunji Olaopa

It is often said that a large part of problem-solving is achieving an acute understanding of what the problem is. If this is not done, then critical time could be wasted on resolving what is not properly understood. It is this axiom that makes it imperative that we keep coming again and again to the perplexing question of what ails Nigeria and the Nigerian state. How do we understand what is wrong with us—where, according to Chinua Achebe, the rain began to beat and is still beating us? Within the whole gamut of socioeconomic and governance woes being suffered by Nigerians, this might seem to be a mere academic nitpicking on theoretical matters. 

To parody Karl Marx, scholars have only hitherto analysed the problem of leadership in Nigeria in various ways. The point however is to change it. Unfortunately, this way of looking at it is not accurate, unlike what Marx said about philosophers changing the world. This is because there is a key relationship between analysing the problem of leadership in Nigeria and understanding the way to achieve socioeconomic and political transformation for Nigerians. And more so, given the global, national and local dynamics over time, there is a way problems and predicaments keep changing their texture over time such that we need to keep tracking what the problem means within the context of the changing time.

In Nigeria, the problem of leadership seems to have become aggravated even with the onset of democratic experimentation in 1999. If successive governments since then have failed critically to translate the idea of democracy into a better standard of living and empowerment for Nigerians, how do we continue to understand democracy and leadership in Nigeria? When Mills and Herbst talk about Africa’s Third Liberation (2012), after the fight against colonialism and post-colonial authoritarianism, they had in mind the liberation of Africans from the incapacities generated by political economies founded on corruption, graft, nepotism, cronyism, and widening social inequality that, for instance, keeps widening the gap between the rich and the poor in Nigeria. Mills and Herbst’s book has, as its subtitle, “The New Search for Prosperity and Jobs.” Indeed, it is this bad policy architecture that summarises the terrible state Nigeria finds itself in at the moment. It is bad policy, or even the lack of political will to create a good one, that has allowed the Boko Haram insurgency to attain the status of a national emergency, the same way the bandit menace is fast becoming one. It is definitely bad policy initiative that leads to the appointment of mediocre as ministers and commissioners when there are those who have the requisite competence and skill set to adequately comprehend and tackle Nigeria’s problems. In the final analysis, the Mills and Herbst’s hypothesis about Africa’s third liberation—and even Acemoglu and Robinson’s Why Nations Fail (2013)—speaks to the availability of a leadership dynamics that possesses the capacity to turn bad politics into a good one. 

Democracy has become critical to the understanding of good governance anywhere in the world today. Unfortunately, democracy does not always sit well with elite nationalism tied around the desires of the political class of a country. And this derives from the fact that the political elites often define their interests in ways that are antithetical to the demands of the people on whose behalf they are often called upon to make political judgments that orient national policies. The real problem with democracy now is that it makes it possible for unconscionable elites to politically bamboozle hapless and unsuspecting followers. In other words, democracy’s frame of operation leaves a tenuous line between it and demagoguery. A very smart and eloquent politician can scuttle the imperatives of democratic aspiration by merely speaking what the electorate want to hear. The democratic process got Donald Trump elected in the United States. It also got elected Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil and other fascists and virulent nationalist regimes from India to Hungary.

It gets increasingly worse within the postcolonial context of Africa. And Nigeria is a prime example. 2023 is near, and we have got right into the depth of political campaigns, intrigues and chicanery. So far, and as the political drama keeps unfolding, we have been treated to so many obscene narrative and melodrama—from the number of candidates vying for elective offices to the sheer poverty of ideological moorings for their campaigns. We have seen the back and forth negotiations between the North and the South. We have also been treated to the hanky-panky political behaviour of aspiring leaders in the face of serious national issues. Most of the aspirants have unfortunately been silent about the blueprints that speak to the revamping of the Nigerian state and economy. And the voters are swept clearly along in the tidal wave of ideology-less bad politics that is a façade for good intention. 

Concluded on www.dailytrust.com

Prof Olaopa is a retired Federal Permanent Secretary and can be reached via [email protected]