By Charles Onunaiju
2023, being a year of another significant leap in the transition and consolidation of democratic process and Civil rule in Nigeria, when an incumbent of the office of the presidency would not be on the ballot in the presidential election is being framed as a milestone, decisive and even of destiny for the country and the people. The election season is now in full bloom, with campaigns for all elective offices in Throttle. The Nigeria’s irrepressible media and its army of commentariat are waxing lyrical and humbling office seekers at all levels with barrage of questions of what they would do, how they would do it but more importantly, how they will do it differently from what has been done in the past in other to get the country and her people out from the ever mutating challenges in the security and economic sectors.
Candidates in the elections especially to the highest office in the land, the presidency have been bullish in their responses, delivering copious action plans, manifestoes and real time graphic details that have the appeals of seduction. Despite that none of the leading presidential candidates are new, having played roles in governance at various levels in the past, their respective analysis of the failures of the past governments are considerably simplistic and did not grasp the fact that problems and challenges that appear to have deteriorated or grown worse now, simply mutated and evolved and have their origins in the inability to grasp their origin and nature and design efficient mechanisms to engage their trajectories at various and specific stages of their development. There is no Nigeria’s contemporary challenge, despite its seeming novelty that its roots cannot be traced to the foundational structure of the country, whose acuteness has exacerbated by institutional dysfunction and the notorious missing link in the trajectories of our historical process. The original sin is the colonial state whose persistence to the current form and times is characterized by Institutional decay and incremental hollowness. The institutions exist in themselves, for themselves and lacking in cultural and social connection to the people from where its broad legitimacy and constant refreshment, revitalization and vigor would have come, carry on as arcane and legalistic machine whose dead weight constrains the people instead of inspiring their devotion, dedication and engagement. The political wobbles, socio – economic atrophy and the seeming endangered pathway to the future is foretold in the socially orphaned state, whose origins and consequent trajectories in institutional evolution did not bear any identifiable identifiable political, social or cultural chromosomes of the various people of Nigeria.
The historical lacuna in carrying on with the orphaned state without adopting and adapting to our unique characteristics especially in representing its institutions, processes, procedures and rules presupposed our current dilemma where institutions are not primed for problem – identifications, let alone problem – solving. To carry on, as we have done in the past half century, believing now that anyone has a magic wand to conjure away our ever mutating and evolving challenges without adequate understanding of the origins and nature of the crises and challenges, would amount to another leap in the dark. The most plausible point of departure in the journey to recovery is adequate knowledge of the origin and nature of the crises and this implies a correct and realistic assessment of our weakness. Without understanding our existential weakness and the acute nature of its current form, any talk of the strength to leap would be exercise in a reckless adventure. The questions that should be correctly posed to the candidates for the presidency especially those considered front runners is exactly what is their understanding of why every effort made by previous occupants of the high office have failed. It is not enough to suggest that the previous rulers lack competence or lack genuine intention and goodwill to improve the country. What are the objective structural constraints that have vitiated and constrained all previous efforts to improve the country? What are the objective character and nature of the Nigeria’s State that have historically and so summarily impeded and obstructed the boldest of visions, smart policy measures and even decisive will power from transforming into concrete aggregates for national renovation, stable and inclusive development? As Fredrich Engels, co – founder of the theories of scientific socialism, puts it “Freedom does not consist in any dream of independence from natural laws, but in the knowledge of these laws and in the possibility this gives of systematically making them work towards definite ends”, and further clearly outlined that “freedom of the will therefore means nothing but the capacity to make decisions with knowledge of the subject”.
And the “natural laws” in the Nigeria’s context which has suffered considerable neglect in the trajectory of our national construction is the confluence of our unique socio – cultural categories and the nature of our productive base. The consequence for the wholesome neglect is the fettering of our productive capacity, leading to decay of political institutions, implosion of civic and social bonds and existential arrest of national development trends and possibilities. The questions is not which strategy or what platform would get the country working but what are the existential constraints that have defied previous attempts and even made prospective progress difficult, if not impossible. Why has the best efforts not turned out any durable and subsisting results. Why are all the ingredients for implosion especially ballooning inequality, declining quality of life for the majority of Nigerians, desperate anti – social indulgences especially of insurgency, banditry and kidnappings especially among the youths on the rapid rise, ethnic and religious tensions showing renewed intensity and corruption getting worse and reaching unprecedented heights? Since the campaign season went into bloom, a common refrain of almost all the candidates is the strategy of private sector – led economic plan but none has articulated or draw a fine line between private sector operators and the public and this is simply for the reason that it is hard to draw such line. Typically, in the Nigeria’s context key state actors at various levels of government wear the toga in the day time and are private sector shakers and movers in the night.
Conversely publicly known high wired private sectors operators in the day time are active high – stake state actors in the night. the reality is majority of Nigeria working people whether public sector workers or private sector operators of enterprises are cheated out by the vicious trinity of the high wired state actors and Private sector plutocrats who swap identity at will and the state bureaucracy that enforce their will and officiate their hegemony. With a state narrowing in outlook and retreating to factional struggles, and the seeming exclusion of the majority of the Nigeria’s working people, decline, stagnation and even an implosion is ever looming prospects. Except the new political season and its gladiators, both the candidates and other critical stake holders, including the media, intelligentsia, civil societies popular mass organizations probe deeper and beyond the current sound bites, our generation would bear the historic responsibility as the notorious emperor Nero who fiddled while Rome was on fire.
President Buhari despite his messianic political odyssey particularly took governance to new lows for mostly his inactions and do nothing, except perform the most banal of routine public functions of budget presentations, giving out medals and speeches at public events. While he could never be yard stick to what is to come or expect, any leap without adequate knowledge and search for the objective structural constraints that have vitiated our efforts in the past would be a dangerous lurch to a blind faith.
Onunaiju is a research director
of a Think Tank