Mr President, Good morning. My thoughts on the institutional crisis of the Nigerian state which I began four weeks ago, ends today with proffering solutions. Five years ago, Professor Eghosa Osaghae re-echoed the mission of social scientists. In his words, “the whole purpose of political construction or social engineering is how to make the state a fair agent to everyone” (2019, p. 7). In what follows, I articulate some prescriptions. First is ethical statesmanship.

The emphasis on strong institutions has provoked the logical question: who builds strong institutions? Institutions do not exist in a vacuum. It is a problem that Mohr and White (2008) have adverted to when they note that the nagging question among sociologists has always been how institutions can exist independent of agency “given that it is individual agents who act and, through their actions, give life to social institutions”.

President Obama, who gave currency to the issue of strong institutions in his Accra speech, did not address it but left a cue when he intoned that strong institutions also require strong commitment. I have always argued that the building of strong institutions requires strong ethical statesmen, they constitute Mohr and White’s individual agents.

This is a resolution to the problem of the duality of agency and structure. Indeed, strong institutions can be engendered by the power of example. Nelson Mandela could have continued in office after his first term ended in 1999, but he chose to step down to pave the way for a younger generation of leadership. In times of dilemma, leadership in South Africa has always posed the question: How would Mandiba have addressed this issue? Such is the power of example. Selfless leaders are imperative if we must build strong institutions in Nigeria. A leader may take his/her personal interest out of the realm of the state sphere while privileging the public good.

My second prescription is respect for the rule of law. It is essential to building strong institutions. It means equality before the law and no one is above the law. The renowned British Jurist, A. V. Dicey, is clear on this. He notes that “the rule of law means the absolute supremacy or predominance of the regular law as opposed to the influence of arbitrary power and excludes the existence of arbitrariness or even of wide discretionary authority on the part of the government” (The Law of the Constitution).

The spirit and letter of the organic law of the country must be obeyed. In this respect, the judiciary or the temple of justice becomes critical. It is where the relative autonomy of the state is operationalised. In the thick of Nigeria’s military dictatorship, Hon. Justice Dolapo Akinsanya, a Judge of the Lagos High Court, Igbosere, boldly ruled that Earnest Sonekan’s
interim government was illegal. That pronouncement marked the beginning of the end of that governance contraption that General Ibrahim Babangida had imposed on the country in 1993.

The third is the exorcisation of the demon of tenacity of office.Tenacity of office has remained a recurring problem for wielders of power in Africa. Nnamdi Azikiwe and Obafemi Awolowo, renowned Nigerian nationalists, have advised against this in their works. In his Jereton Mariere Lecture at the University of Lagos, Azikiwe (1974[1972]: 18) recognises the human instincts to perpetuate himself in power and poses the question: “Why must African politicians remain in office till death and not until the electorate so decides provided it is not a matter of one candidate standing for election?”

He further warns against self-imposition in office to the extent that “in normal times no man should impose his rule on any people unless he has been duly elected to do so in a free and fair election” (Azikiwe, 1974[1972], p. 19).

In the same vein, Awolowo (1981:73; quote originally in capital letters) defines tenacity of office “as a political monstrosity whose characteristics are an inordinate and shameless love of power for its own sake, and a morbid tenacity for public office even when all the legitimacy for continuing in such public has completely disappeared.”

According to the sage, avoidance of this power plague, calls “for courage, dedication and self-sacrifice…to overcome the lower but power natural instincts and inclinations” to remain in power. Mr President, the demon of tenacity of office is the seed of instability in the power architecture of any polity, in consequence, it can lead to rabid dictatorship and violent regime change. Thus, abidance by constitutional term limits by incumbent leadership is a desideratum.

The fourth prescription is social contestation, weapon of theory, and occupation of the discursive space. Nigerians in all walks of life must become social actors. They must organise powerful social movements with clearly articulated purposes that address nodal deficits in government.

The actors must be armed with the weapon of theory in ways conceived by Cabral (1966), that is, the total comprehension of the historical and fundamental reality of a country, its internal contradictions and knowledge of its weaknesses, and the amount of efforts and sacrifices required to transform the situation, in this instance, the weak institutions.

It is the pathway to building strong institutions in our country. The agents of change must win the discursive space regarding the vision of the country they want against its current captors.

The fifth and final prescription is the reconstruction of the foundation of the state. Nigeria currently suffers from the absence of nationhood/unity and a structural breach that a federal constitutional arrangement originally intended to address and which state captors have atomised. This deficit is unhealthy for state institutions. The country needs a good sense of its destination that can emanate from elite consensus.

The ‘bringing-together’ federalism, now skewed, and has not worked, is a critical constraint to building strong institutions. This understanding is the basis of the controversy on the 1999 Constitution as amended; the ever-present separatist impulses in the polity, and the enduring agitation for a Sovereign National Conference.

In my prescriptions, this may be the first order: state reconstruction and others will follow. Next week, I shall address your French dance, until then, please be careful.

Akhaine is a Professor of Political Science at the Lagos State University.