Yahaya T. Baba, professor of Political Institutions and Comparative Politics, at the Department of Political Science, Usmanu Dan Fodiyo University, Sokoto, speaks with IMOLEAYO OYEDEYI on how Nigerians have left the country’s destiny in the hands of a few politicians who have been inflicting pains on them.
Looking at the way Nigeria has been in the last 63 years, how would you describe the country’s journey so far?
Well, I can say the country’s journey has been very rough. The nation-building efforts in the country have been confronted with daunting challenges that have to do with the integration of the country, its unity, and the kind of governance that the country has had in recent times. In terms of national integration, I believe the Nigerian elite have over the years not shown signs of commitment to national unity.
In the fight for political power and competition for the limited country’s resources, divisive tactics have been employed and this has left Nigeria and Nigerians more divided than ever. Therefore, the country’s challenges on the economy, political stability, and social cohesion are undermined by the inability of the elite to form a national consensus.
As a result of this, many Nigerians do not seem to believe that a lot of progress has been made in the country’s social, economic, and political transformation. Issues of origin, tribe, ethnicity, and religion are still forces and factors that have undermined Nigerians’ efforts toward national integration. It is pathetic that more than six decades after the country’s independence, it is still grappling with these challenges, which is to tell you that its state of unity is very weak.
We know what the country has faced: the Boko Haram insurgency in the North-East, the banditry still very rife in the North-West and indeed the separatist or secessionist movement in the South-East of the country, such that the resurgence of Biafra agitation has been at its peak in recent times. It has been observed that the peace of the entire South-East is compromised and undermined by the activities of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPoB).
In reality, the country, the government, and the people have not done enough to prove to those agitators and the South-Easterners that their grievances can be addressed peacefully and amicably other than taking up arms against the Nigerian state. And then of course, this disenchantment and dissatisfaction on the part of the locals, particularly in the North-West of Nigeria has brewed over time and degenerated into a full-scale violent conflict by the so-called Fulani herders, bandits, and kidnappers and undermined the economic progress of the country. The inability of the Nigerian government to tame this daunting security challenge is also dampening the morale of Nigerians, especially those in remote communities, who are not even formally connected to the government and economy in terms of getting political incentives and benefits. Now, what used to be their treasure which is security and their only means of livelihood, which is farming and rearing cattle have been completely taken away from them as a result of the growing insecurity. So the country’s government and institutions have become increasingly weak.
The government has been unable to unite the country and initiate programmes and policies that will not only unite the country but also transform it into a viable entity worthy of envy. Now, shadows are cast such that Nigeria’s influence, politics, and power potential in Africa are dwindling as a result of the country’s internal crisis and challenges. At the three levels of government in the country, corruption has become pervasive and drained available resources for those at the helm of affairs to invest in critical infrastructure that will lead to the revitalisation of the country’s economy, create wealth, generate employment for its teeming unemployed masses, kill inequality and create a sense of hope and belonging for Nigerian people so that they can collectively feel the ownership of the country and participate actively in its development process.
So, you can see now that the only success story that we can tell about Nigeria’s 63rd anniversary, as an independent sovereign state, is that the country has remained one entity despite the enormous challenges it has undergone, including the civil war fought for 30 months and the crisis, conflicts and violence that have gripped the country in recent times since its return to democratic rule. The country has over the years shown a great sign of resilience.
How do you mean?
The Boko Haram insurgency was seen as a major security crisis that many believe would consume Nigeria as an entity, but of course, the country emerged out of the crisis and the terrorism from the sect has somehow since been defeated. So we can say the government has made significant progress in suppressing the terrorists. But while we celebrate the technical defeat of Boko Haram, we have been caught in another challenge that cut across the North-Central and North-Western part of the country, which is the reign of armed bandits who are now ravaging most parts of these regions as they terrorise and drain the resources of those in the local communities in these zones through a collection of heavy ransoms.
This has caused huge economic losses to the country in terms of the inability of the farmers to go to their farms coupled with the climate change challenges which have both resulted in the acute food shortage gripping the country at the moment. As things stand now, there is this fear that Nigeria will be food insecure shortly owing to the inability of farmers to access and use the arable lands in the North-West of Nigeria to produce foods for the country due to the prevailing activities of armed bandits.
Nigeria has just come out of a transition programme. You know the tension that the country went through during the election process. You also know of the crisis and tension within the ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), and then of course how heated the battle it had with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party (LP), which is now an emerging Third-Force in the Nigerian political space. You also know that Nigeria had to come to the grip of the Presidential Electoral Tribunal and the various controversial reactions from the populace to the verdict of the tribunal. Apart from this, you also know what has been the image of the country in the global space as far as election is concerned. Don’t forget the current certificate saga that the president is grappling with. All these and many more are shaking the country. So while we celebrate independence as Nigerians and stakeholders in the Nigerian project, we all need to come to the full realisation that this is the only country we have. But finally, in my assessment, I will say the country’s 63-year journey has been dirty, rough, and tragic.
So we need to correct the mistakes. We need to go back to the drawing board and talk to ourselves. We also need to change the country’s poor profile and do what the people in countries like Rwanda have done and are doing to put their country on the track of development.
Observers have been of the view that the biggest challenge confronting the country has been poor governance. However, it has been observed that the country has been parading the same set of people who have been performing poorly in terms of delivering the dividends of democracy to the Nigerian people. Is it that the country cannot produce a good leader?
You see, a bad system cannot produce good and resourceful leadership. The body system, ranging from the institutions to the structures, the orientation and the psyche of the people about politics, democracy, political recruitment process, and political socialization and all are wrong. For instance, when you talk about democracy, its most important institution is the political parties. But look at the structure of the Nigerian political parties. Since 1999 till now, two or three political parties have been very dominant after every cycle of election. And these political parties, that have been producing leaders to govern the people in different parts of the country including at the centre, have been recycling the same set of elite. As a result, their structures have not been allowed to grow and be nurtured naturally to become institutions where rules, regulations, procedures, ethics, and codes of conduct govern as expected. Instead, weak men and personalities, who control large amounts of resources as a result of their privileged positions in government, have taken over control of this important institution of democracy. Worst still, because of their influence and access to state resources, these weak men have been able to manipulate this institution to ensure that they serve their self-centered interest as against the interest of the generality of Nigerians, which democratic government ought to serve.
When you look at institutions even like the civil society organisations (CSOs), which ought to check the political parties and be independent, you will see that they have also been taken over by these questionable political elite. And the manipulations of the CSOs and interest groups as well as the labour unions by the self-centred elite have made the institutions very weak in the discharge of their responsibilities in the Nigerian political space. So when you have this situation coupled with those of the political parties that have become defective, you will naturally imagine that the quality of the democratic leaders that will be produced at every level of the government will be a replica of the weak, vulnerable, and manipulated institutions. That explains why over time, since 1999, we have been having the same sets of people within groups, exchanging and changing platforms, from one platform to another, to emerge as leaders or recruit people for leadership at different levels of government to the point that politics has become an enterprise such that both the governors and presidents anoint their successors, while the people, that should determine the leadership, just remain powerless. This is to tell you how bad the Nigerian electoral process has become over the years and how it has inflicted ills like fraud, corruption, and all on the country’s political system.
But come to think of it, at the beginning of any new government in the country, there is always this promise to fight corruption but what we have seen from successive governments, especially the various indictments of fraud that have gripped many past political leaders will tell you the quantum of public-sector corruption that has sunk the country. That is why the quality of governance has been very porous and even getting worse in the country day by day. All that we have seen is a different mantra from the governments, but no concrete and decisive actions to weed out the serial systemic rots that have eaten deep into the fabric of the Nigerian system. This has been the stark reality of the country in the last 63 years.
But going forward, how do you think we can get it right?
Moving forward, I think the Nigerian people should set a clear-cut agenda for the so-called political elite. We are in this trouble because the Nigerian people left the destiny of the country at the hands of the self-centred elite. That is the major problem. The Nigerian people have not decided to make a strong statement about the ownership of the country. Unfortunately, the ownership has been left to these few sets of elite who just recycle themselves in power. Decisions as to who governs should come from the people. But over the years, this has not been the case. However, we are beginning to see a paradigm shift in Nigerian electoral behavior as demonstrated in the last 2023 election. Nobody expected the LP to pull off the kind of force and impact it had on the outcome of the election. Therefore, if this level of consciousness, education, and enlightenment on the part of the people can be sustained, then, we can break away from the existing status quo and have the right kind of leadership.
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