Public conversation, ideas, values and how politics under-develops Nigeria 

It is the ultimate paradox. Politics is supposed to generate robust public conversation. The outcome of that public square is supposed to drive optimal public policy choices resulting in stout economic performance, the raising of the quality of life of citizens and the advance of the Common Good of all.  

On the contrary, in contemporary Nigeria, politics is the arena for demonizing people who do not cheer for your track for hugging power to yourself. And political conversation is generally about verbal bullying, especially through social media contractors paid to badger non-cheer leaders for the paymaster. 

The result is the flight of ideas from the Public Sphere and the descent of governing into the abyss of uninformed action by people usually selected for positions on the basis of cronyism and parochial reasons. It is not surprising that politics underdevelops Nigeria almost in the way Walter Rodney said for how Europe underdeveloped Africa. 

Contemporary German Philosopher of the Public Sphere, Jurgen Habermas, would probably find Nigeria’s political area the antithesis of modernity which for him is the function of rational public conversation. We should probably make all public officials read our own Olufemi Taiwo’s book African Must be Modern.
 
As we repeatedly recurse to policy choices that failed in 1980 and 1990s it is clear that the loss of institutional memory and the retreat of the Public Sphere is significantly responsible for Nigeria’s underperformance. 
 
What are some of the issues that merit robust public discussion which has shaped the course of Nigerian history and are still of great consequence for today’s troubles? Among them are the questions of production versus the sharing of revenues as source of the advance of our material well being; the attitude of justice or social justice in dealing with others, individuals or groups; the nature of our politics and the role of Political Parties; and the literal collapse of culture in the face of the truism that values shape human progress. Related to values is the nature of our institutions which are invariably weak; and how religion ethnicity and economic cleavages are managed so they do not take us down the road to Somalia or the Coming Anarchy which Robert Kaplan predicted two decades ago. 
 
Maybe I should begin with the subject Public Conversation itself. In a talk I gave recently, I said if you read anything attributed to me and it is not in the Guardian or one or two other newspapers the chances are 95 percent that I did not say it. By now I am tired of issuing disclaimers on things attributed to me, not even as reports but as statements in the first person.  
 
Reminds me of watching Prof. Wole Soyinka so agitated at a Fake News Conference organized by the BBC in Abuja last year. Truth is we encourage it by an unthinking swallow of all we see. It is sometimes easy to tell. In my observation, some of the biggest victims are Bishop Mathew Hassan Kukah, Prof Wole Soyinka, President Olusegun Obasanjo and myself. But I have learned a lot from how people treat this phenomenon. 
 
One that someone ensured went viral dealt with me ascribing my successes to some real and imagined persons. It took a view of ethnicity and religion that I would take but took incredible license. While it generated all kinds of comments from people I expected to know better, given that it was scripted partly as commentary from me and partly as a report from somewhere I went to, I was impressed when I ran into Governor Nasir el-Rufia. He said he read it, liked it, but thought it was not my style and language. 
 
This discernment which many are lacking is important in these times much damage can come to public conversation that can be quite nuanced. Investigative reporting that can unveil the sources of such fake news can do the system much good. 
 
On Production vs Revenue sharing, I think it is so important for us to educate each other so we can reduce the folly that currently afflicts policy. First, it is important to make the point that it is not about the right or wrong answer. This is why rigorous public conversation matters. I will illustrate this matter of right or wrong answer more when we discuss the issue of taxation.  
 
When Nigerians discuss how best to maximize their material interest from the soverign the emphasis seems to be on shares of revenues. This evident in the so-called “Restructuring” debate in which oil-producing states push for a better sharing formula for revenues.