When nepotism delivers it is the right thing to do

Reading two books at the same time can create a market buzz surrounding in the mind. The two books begin a dialogue of their own. In no time at all, the reader becomes an onlooker and a recorder of the fruits of inter-library loans! That happens when the two books are an older one In Praise of NEPOTISM: A History of Family Enterprise from King David to George W. Bush by Adam Bellow at the time of the publication of this book an editor-at-large at Doubleday publishers.

The book was published in 2003. Here is something said about the book to make you think again: “Adam Bellow is like the best teacher you ever had. You are awed by his range and erudition, and you are carried along by the page-turning drama he makes of ideas and history. To see nepotism as a natural human impulse, a force in the advancement of civilisation, and an enemy and friend of democracy and free market was all a revelation. And Bellow’s description of a benevolent and inclusive nepotism is a strikingly original idea that will make this book a landmark.”

The younger book is GANGSTER STATE: Unveiling Ace Magashule’s Web of Capture by Pieter-Louis Myburgh, an investigative journalist in South Africa. The book was published this month April 2019 by Penguin Books. Here is the promo for the book written by the publishers: “In spite of Cyril Ramaphosa’s ‘new dawn’, there are powerful forces in the ruling party (African National Congress ANC) that risk losing everything if corruption and state capture finally do come to an end. At the centre of the old guard’s fightback efforts is Ace Magashule, a man viewed by some as South Africa’s most dangerous politician.

In this explosive book, investigative journalist Pieter-Louis Myburgh ventures deeper than ever before into Magashule’s murky dealings, from his time as a struggle activist in the 1980s to his powerful rule as premier (read governor in Nigeria) of the Free State province for nearly a decade, and his rise to one of the ANC’s most influential positions (Secretary General).”

What Adam Bellow teaches in his book and what Pieter-Louis Myburgh reveals of Ace Magashule is what Ifa taught thousands of years ago when money first appeared in the pocket of human beings: when money comes into the home/there let it stay awhile/money that does not stay at home/is known to simply go and roam. Ifa divination was performed for a group of age-mates going to Edo Ibini (modern Benin City In Edo State of Nigeria). They wanted to know if their venture to Edo Ibini selling different products and services would lead to their individual prosperity. Ifa bade them make sacrifices and thereafter cautioned them thus:
When money comes into the home
There let it stay awhile
Money that does not stay at home
Is known to simply go and roam.

This wisdom makes nepotism simultaneously condemned and highly practised, makes it an enemy of democracy because of inequality and friend of democracy because of family and friends’ prosperity.

Where nepotism works best, the qualification of the family member is never in doubt. Her competence is never in question. And his ability to deliver the goods and service is the guarantee of the prosperity nepotism seeks. Here is what an American journalist wrote about one of the appointees of W. Bush junior’s presidency accused of reeking of nepotism like a pile of dirty clothes: “I am not saying that Michael Powell, (son of Colin Powell, former national security advisor to President W. Bush senior) is unqualified for his job,” he went on. The real question was whether he had gotten his job over the heads of other qualified applicants on the strength of his family ties. Evidently, the answer was yes.”

For now nepotism is hardly working in African countries. Those who practise it in South Africa and have been the ideological defenders of state capture divide the country’s economy into two unequal parts – white monopoly capital WMC and radical economic transformation RET. White monopoly capital is what exists. Radical economic transformation is what former President Jacob Zuma was about in what his enemies have now labelled state capture.

Jacob Zuma chuckles, his now famous chuckle, and wonders if others especially the captains of white monopoly capital did not have to capture the state to get where they are? Moreover, throughout the time the row about Nkandla was roiling the country, President Zuma kept maintaining that nobody told him what he was doing wrong. His Gupta capture son Duduzane insisted that all his Gupta benefactors were doing was doing legitimate business. Nobody has set out in any orderly sequence the nepotism that works and the nepotism that does not work. No where in his more than 400 pages of investigative journalism does Pieter-Louis Myburgh set out that nepotism that has no required skills cannot deliver the goods and services that would lead to prosperity.

Who are the beneficiaries of Jacob Zuma’s state capture? Pieter-Louis Myburgh’s previous book The Republic of Gupta: A Story of State Capture tells it all. Three non-South African Indians have carted away from South Africa billions of South African rands to live lavishly in Dubai with their extensive families. For these billions there are no services provided or goods delivered for the betterment of the South African citizens.

Ace Magashule did at the provincial level what Jacob Zuma did at the national level. But not without handing two of his sons to the Guptas as well as some projects as well. He gave contracts to unqualified people, with no expertise for what they were contracted for. So, they failed to deliver.

One of the most difficult outcomes to explain of the failure of African government by Africans for Africans is the nexus, the link rather, between our nepotism and our failure to prosper. Like, what is the link between the bribe a traffic police person takes and the fatal accident that results from the rickety state of the overloaded vehicle of the driver who gave the bribe? The witches met last night. The children drop dead this morning. Who is so daft as not to join the dots to know that the witches who met last night are responsible for the death of the children this morning?
bankole.omotoso@elizadeuniversity.edu.ng