Weak institutions led to the kind of massive, senseless corruption that we now have —Utomi

RENOWNED economist, Professor Pat Utomi speaks with WALE AKINSELURE, on major political happenings, other developments in the polity in 2023 and how the nation can navigate towards a better future, beginning from this year.

What is your examination of politics in 2023, especially looking at the major political event, which is the general election, and there was a change of government at the federal level?

The problem of Nigeria is the triumph of politics. Everything seems to be reduced to politics, very little, to engineering progress. So, people don’t think how we are going to move the country forward. They think, how are we going to get our share and that is what informs our politics. 2023 was a tragedy for Nigeria in many ways. There was somewhat a rallying; people were fed up; they wanted something different. The Peter Obi phenomenon came not because of Peter Obi, it was because somehow the fact that people were fed up came across certain things that fit into that quest for something different. Then, there was the groundswell, perhaps saying let us use this vehicle to have a new beginning but the system brought despair to many who had left the country or many who were leaving. The economy tanked in many ways and we see how the multinationals are leaving. Almost exactly pre-1993, the things I said at a NECA governing council meeting warning business leaders about where the country was going and how they needed to step up to avert the consequences for their businesses, the same things have happened this year. There is a legitimacy crises and Nigeria political class has never understood the issue of legitimacy. They think once you grab power, it is okay. Because there is a legitimacy crisis, Nigeria is not being taken seriously around the world. I am now spending more time out of the country and I go to serious places and there is this contempt of Nigeria that is so painful to the heart. Amid all of these, how much progress can we make? I feel sad that an imaginative and thinking elite has not emerged that is dedicated and patriotic to get this country right. If only a thinking and imaginative elite is ready to chrystalise. There are a number of fundamental things about how human progress takes place. The last over 40 years of my life has really been dedicated to the struggle to understand how human progress takes place, I have attempted to study countries where progress has taken place and those where failure has happened to see if I can somehow find sediments of what makes one progress and others to fail. I suspect I have a fair sense of a number of them. The one that I speak often of is the importance of institutions in human progress and this is an area of consensus from historians, economists, political scientists, political sociologists and so on. Barack Obama said in Accra, Ghana, in his first speech on the African soil that Africa needs strong institutions, not strong men. What we see however is a political class that consciously moves to destroy Nigeria institutions because of personal desire for power. What they seem not to realize or realise and don’t care is that if institutions are destroyed, everything they seem to have come to nothing. Ultimately, the only outcome of this kind of situation is anarchy.

Weak institutions lead to the kind of massive, senseless corruption that we now have in Nigeria; the fear that Nigeria will go anytime soon, so grab as much as you can. I have just finished writing a book that will come out in a few weeks. The title is, ‘Power, Politics, the Public Policy Process and Performance.’ One of the interviews I had with a former Head of Service, Professor Oladapo Afolabi, the thing is there isn’t really a civil service anymore because political parties have no agenda. Ordinarily, when a political party comes to power, it should have an agenda that you have broken down so clearly that everybody from the Permanent Secretary to Level 8 officer knows what their role is in achieving the agenda. But the political parties really come with no such things so you get this adhoc moves. For example, there is a meeting in Paris so everybody just jumps on a plane; there is COOP and people go, so you just see people travelling up and down, civil servants come to work not knowing why they came to work, hoping that one day, somebody from their tribe will make them permanent secretary and they dedicate their time to seeing how much of the natural resources they can get for their people. It was such a remarkable statement. Do you think that kind of country is going anywhere? Absolutely nowhere.

What must be done for the country to progress remarkably?

We desperately need strong institutions but what we see is a political class that has damaged the most important institution, the judiciary, the rule of law. Few people believe there is rule of law in Nigeria; few people believe this judiciary can deliver justice. You can buy justice in Nigeria. Invariably, when people find that they can’t get justice, they do it themselves and violence becomes the norm. Second, values and culture, these shape human progress. Any society that wants to be something gets very jealous of the character of its leadership. Character matters. There is a famous saying that when wealth is lost, nothing is lost; when health is lost, something is lost; when character is lost, all is lost. Any society that can say the character of its political leader does not matter, is a lost society. Unfortunately, if you look at everywhere around Nigeria, all manner of character have taken over, and you can see it in the behaviour of governors. They seem to travel with the cheque book of the state when they travel. You wonder, is this government or a kind of Banana republic? We concentrate too much on the centre. We forget that in many of the states, Nigeria does not exist as a functional democratic order. We have collapsed. So, values, institutions are in crisis in Nigeria.How do you predict what will happen? You need desperate move by serious patriots to institute these two. It is only when these two are in place that you can have entrepreneurship that will create value, jobs, peace and security. Many people are hungry so it’s a myth to believe you can have peace and security when people are desperate, are just surviving, could kill their neighbour to survive. Every big man runs around with policemen all over the place.

There is a lot of talk about restructuring being the answer. Moreover, the APC government set up the El-Rufai committee on restructuring, which submitted its report. Why is it looking difficult to implement restructuring?

It is because politicians are looking at their narrow, short term interest; someone canvassing for restructuring gets into power tomorrow and stops talking about it because he wants to abuse like the one before him. In the end, all of us will be abused.

Is it all despair, no hope in the Tinubu government giving Nigerians the desired change?

There is a problem of values, legitimacy, institutions. You can draw your conclusions.

The government has showed renewed desire to make our refineries working. Doesn’t that offer a glimmer of hope about what the administration has in store?

We are a very funny country where something small countries take for granted is what we make a national issue. Refineries working! Isn’t that a joke? There is so much celebration that Port Harcourt refinery may start work. Are you kidding me? Refineries were working in Nigeria seamlessly, run by Shell in the 1960s. My father worked in the industry. There was a tank farm in Gusau where I lived and privately refined petroleum in Shell refinery in Port Harcourt came by train to Gusau and then it was transported to Sokoto even Niger Republic. And we are making a lot of noise about refineries working. We should all bury our heads in shame. We built a non functional state. We all failed.

Is it all gloom in the new year, 2024?

If people get determined to change it, it is changeable. But I don’t see that happening. I am starting a couple of initiatives like raising a new tribe of Nigerians who are passionately committed to good conduct, dignity of the human person, being patriots, putting the country first. If we can raise such a tribe, they will make impact that is meaningful, they can reconstruct our political parties. We need to rebuild and reconstruct the civil service. If we don’t do that, we will have a hard time going anywhere. Who are those to commit to these things? They can be found. Politics has been used to ruin the country. Young people can’t even think anymore. All they do is to abuse people. Because this man doesn’t like my people, you abuse him for everything he says. We can’t build a country like that. We need elders who will really say, is this how we want to die? We really need to do something to help the society.

To have elders and patriots intervene, do we need another national conference?

We sure do, if we have to. In terms of what is on ground, it is true that you take the 2014  confab report, the Muhammed Uwais report, you have got what you probably need. But people need to talk about it so that we know what is in it. We need to publicise national public conversations. Recently, Reverend Father Anthony Akinwale said, Nigeria is a state held together at gunpoint. We need people to sit down and agree whether we want to be together. There is so much that is valuable in our being together but if people say they don’t, it’s fine and we say let’s go quietly. Let’s stop deceiving ourselves. Whether you call it a conference or whatever, people need to talk about how they can live decently together.