Nigeria: Which Paradigm?

As Nigeria approaches fifty years of nationhood, any sincere observer will agree that we have not fulfilled our potential as a people. This fact has been stark in the way we have conducted our affairs since November 23, when President Umaru Yar’adua took ill. We make the country look foolish in the eyes of the world, and other nations and peoples must often wonder what sort of people we are? Like Hillary Clinton wondered, why should we have so much crude oil and import refined petroleum products? Why is it difficult to conduct credible elections in Nigeria? Why in deed do our elections get worse at every run? Why are we so self-destructive that we steal all our national wealth, only to hide them in other nations while we don’t have good hospitals, roads and airports? Why do we kill ourselves every now and then in the name of ethnic, communal or religious conflict?
I am convinced that one explanation for our national drift is that we have not answered some basic questions about what we want as a nation. Or perhaps our answers to those questions are so different, varied or inconsistent that as a group of people, we become dysfunctional? Our perhaps seeing that we have different perspectives to these questions, we agree to do nothing about them and continue in an inefficient compromise in which every thing is open to negotiation, and nothing is resolved. Can we progress as a nation, if we don’t resolve on our basic corporate vision and strategy? Is it possible to achieve development without a shared sense of purpose, nationhood and direction? Some will say we have Vision 2020; or that we had Vision 2010 in the past; or National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS) or Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) before then; or a national anthem and national pledge all of which include lofty pronouncements on the issues I claim are unanswered.
My answer is that as a strategist, I know very well that strategy is not what you say; or what you write in your plan or strategy document; or the declarations contained in your vision and mission statement. Strategy is what you do, and do consistently! I have identified at least seven fundamental questions which our actions reveal we either do not have settled answers to, or our perspectives are so inconsistent or irreconcilable as to leave us hobbled and immobile as a nation.
Do we seek to be a modern, democratic nation-state, organised as a constitutional democracy based on the rule of law or are we a pre-modern, traditional, communalist or neo-feudal society ruled by men, negotiation, consensus or customs? Can we be both these things as we evidently seek to be? There is much evidence in favour of both of these conceptions of organising society in Nigeria. Yes we have a constitution, but we have difficulty obeying it, and are always looking for “political solutions” like our pre-colonial towns and villages in which when a conflict arises, every one assembles in the village square or traditional rulers palace to agree some consensus. We have governors, but mention one governor in Nigeria who does not defer to Obas, Emirs, Obis and other traditional institutions in matters of governance and policy?
Do we desire a competitive, free enterprise, private-sector led, entrepreneurial and transparent society or a prebendal, rent-allocating, state-controlled, dependent economy? Are we agreed on this question? Why do we for instance have difficulty privatising PHCN or the refineries in spite of the clear failure of these entities in government hands? Even our so-called private sector leadership turn into opponents of privatisation once they are in government only to rediscover the virtues of such liberalising polices after they leave their very rewarding government positions. Why in spite of the overwhelming evidence from telecommunications, broadcasting, financial services, aviation etc are we unwilling to deregulate power, downstream petroleum and solid minerals?
Do we want to build a progressive, dynamic, enlightened, forward-looking society in which everyone has access to qualitative health, education, employment and social protection or we are a conservative, archaic society in which everyone fends for himself and the poor are condemned to a sub-human existence? Why then have our leaders refused to invest in our human capital? Why do we leave over fifty per cent of our people in poverty? Why do we ignore the looming crisis of unemployment, illiteracy and social dislocation that threatens our society’s social fabric? What will be the relationship between the leaders and the citizens in Nigeria? Do we want a bottom-up society, a participatory democracy with access to information, free, transparent elections, fundamental freedoms and a free and ethical press or we are a top-down society ruled by cabals, cliques, oligarchs, patriarchs, chieftains or other unelected or unaccountable leaders? Why can’t our political parties-all of them-organise transparent party primaries? Why must our elections be rigged or violent? Why do we refuse freedom of information to the citizens?
There are others as well. Do we want a secular society in which we separate state and religion or we are a sectarian society? What we have today is a fudge that threatens to one day explode in our faces. Do we desire ethnic harmony or hegemony? Are we a nation or a group of peoples? Do we have one national interest or a set of (often conflicting) sub-national interests? As a people, are we interested in politics or policy? Do we seek development or decay?