‘At 58, Nigeria’s economic development still tied to West’

As Nigeria celebrates its 58th Independence anniversary, a Port Harcourt-based constitutional lawyer, Festus Oguche, has called for socio-political and economic reforms in accordance with the aspirations of the people and not necessarily a wholesome application of Western principles, prescriptions and theories. He spoke with BRIDGET CHIEDU ONOCHIE.
In discussing Nigeria’s independence, we will recall that imperial colonies granted independence by the metropolitan countries – Britain, France and Portugal – after they scrambled Africa, shared it among themselves and took control of its destiny. And Africans rose up and started agitation for political, economic and social emancipation. The social emancipation touched on redefining the dignity of the black man. It was this trend that resulted in the independence status granted most of the countries that were colonized by Britain and France. It was a good thing then, though, a lot of people had expressed skepticism over the capacity of the black man to govern himself. One General Norton de Matos, a Portuguese administrator in one of the South West African countries, stated, “giving these people autonomy or self-rule will be quite dangerous because they lack the capacity to govern themselves.”

And along the line, a lot of arguments went to and fro, and there was much pendulum swinging on the side of granting independence to these people. But since then, the independence status granted them has not been much except for the fact that we see a lot of black people in offices. But there hasn’t been much independence, especially in the economic and political realm, because our economies are still tied to those of the West. It determines a whole lot of things – our Gross Domestic Products (GDP), our income per capita, the strength of our currency and the value of our economic indices are determined by the West, particularly, their institutions, which control the financial power of the globe.

In the political realm, we still find it difficult to accept that we are yet to be fully and completely independent or exorcised from the manipulations of the West. Democracy for instance, is one aspect of it, which we are beginning to experience the other side of it, and we are beginning to see that it has its own hiccups and these hiccups are tied to the Western interests that want to use political elite in Africa to manipulate things in the continent.

I will not say outrightly that the independence has brought much course for celebration in the sense that Africans have not been totally emancipated from the clutches of the West. We are still very far away from there, because our economies are tied to the West, our political decisions and international relations are still defined by our ex-colonial masters.

What should be the crucial pillars for a new Nigeria?
Well, some people have argued that the independence was granted us too soon, and that they ought to have allowed the structures to develop just as they did in South Africa, irrespective of the dehumanisation of the continent or dehumanisation of the people of the country. They felt that it would have been in our own interest to have allowed it linger like in South Africa, where infrastructures and structures were well developed and institutions very strong. Yet, others felt it was a witty-washy argument, but look at where we are now. One would have wished that the independence were extended a little bit further to sometimes in the 80s or 90s to allow the structures to develop in accordance with modern trends and in accordance with the ideals of modern governance. But then, what do we do? The colonial structures are very much around and very active. It was captured vividly in the book – How Europe Under-developed Africa to the effect that these capitalist economists in the Western fold still determine what happens economically in this part of the world. To a large extent, I agree because in so many ways, they are the ones that define our essence and beings economically through financial institutions – the World Bank, World Trade Organisation and other institutions in the West.

There was no total abolition of colonial structures; we only have some bit of reforms to fine-tune them to suit our local needs. The important thing is for the leaders to look inward to the peculiar need of the circumstances of our economy, and not to have a wholesome application of Western principles and prescriptions and theories in our system.

The balance of trade payment is another instance, the international relations regarding trades and business between countries – these are redefining moments for us to look inward to see how we can articulate a system that would be much in accordance with the aspirations of the people of the country and not necessarily what happens in the US, and that also means having a thoroughly defined and focused financial system and the economic policy that can stand the test of time.

It also involves bringing in technocrats. And this is where we have failed woefully because this country has been in recession for no justification for up to four years, and there is nothing anyone has done to prepare the economy towards the right direction.

A particular President had said that no matter the price of oil in the international market, he would sell oil to the people of his country at a subsidised rate, because it belonged to them. A former leader of Malaysia came to Nigeria at a time and said that Asian Tigers did not rise up from the blues, but it took years of articulation and planning, years of under study. They took their time to train their people and at the end of the day, they got what they wanted.

Does it look as if the leadership recruitment process is capable of enthroning accountable and visionary leaders?
The answer is no. It is not. Chinua Achebe captured it in one of his books – The Trouble With Nigeria. The problem with Nigeria has to do with leadership and that problem is yet to be addressed. We have a situation where we have the wrong people in the right positions in the form of putting square pegs in round holes.

The leadership question has been responsible for every degradation that this system has suffered politically, economically and socially. And the issue now is, beyond the expectations of our national policy, objectives and national identity as a people, do we really have leaders that possess the requisite traits, sufficient to lift this country out of the doldrums and into the limelight.

The answer is ‘yes, they are there, but lack of leadership structure is what is making it difficult for the right people to emerge, both under the military and under the civilian rule. First of all, the religion has become one factor because sentiments are involved. Secondly, we have political and military elites that are very desperate for political power. We have been able to do away with the military aspect of it but now; we have in democracy, a political system where you have political elites that act like predators. Their objective is selfish accumulation of wealth. They are there for self-serving purposes. They lack every sense of patriotism. What is important is for somebody to get into a position of authority by all means and hang on there, and do all the impunities and get away with it at the end of the day.

We don’t have a system that will crop out quality leadership in the sense that somebody who is coming for a governorship position for instance, will ahead of time, understand the dictates of that office and what the expectations of leadership to the people are. The leadership as we have it today does not have obligations to the people because there is no connection between them and the people. It is true that sovereignty belongs to the people from whom the government derives its authorities and powers, and that sovereignty is manifested in the ballot, but now, we have a system where the ballots are abused to the extent that you don’t necessarily have to go through the ballot to emerge in a democracy. All you have to do is to understand how to manipulate the process and you foist yourself down on the people. Do you expect to have good leadership from that kind of leader, especially in a system, where these vices are not condemned even by the establishment and the elite, and where sometimes, they have the collaboration of the judicial system which has failed to do its biddings and constitutional responsibilities to act as checkmate to the excesses of the political class.

What do you wish Nigeria at independence?
Well, that we enjoy the celebration as much as we can, even though we try to stomach all the degradations in the system; that things get better, and that sometime, along the line, good leaders be enthroned; that God will give us leaders who have moral obligations to the people, those who will remember that we all members of the human family.