Our dear country Nige
ria and the rest of Africa today face a multiplicity of political, economic, social, environmental, security and cultural challenges that have disrupted our developmental efforts at all levels of governance and social engineering and eroded our identity. Violent conflicts associated with the unremitting struggle for power and scarce resources often result in costly crises at the national and continental levels. As we are all too aware, the African continent is not poor on account of lack of resources; rather, we are victims of ‘resource cause’ and poor leadership that have combined to impoverish our people, who are compelled to helplessly watch this shameful power struggle amongst their insensitive elite classes from the sidelines for too long.
What end should politics serve in contemporary times? As two famous Colombian University scholars, Daron Acemoglo and lames Robinson note in their explosive book appropriately entitled: Why Nations Fail, describe politics as process by which society chooses the rules that will govem it. Politics, according to them, surrounds institutions for the simple reason that institutions may be good for the economic prosperity of a nation, some people or groups, such as the elites of the ruling party or common citizens. Conflicts usually plays out in favour of the powerful groups in any society. It, therefore, follows that the political institutions that are in operation in any society largely determine the quality of life to be enjoyed by the citizens.
In Nigeria, for instance, the correlation between this unrelenting power struggle amongst the elite class and national underdevelopment is so strong that in many instances, citizens willingly forego their franchise in a desperate attempt to avoid being engulfed in election related conflicts that inevitably result in loss of lives and widespread destruction of property by hired thugs and private armies that are commissioned and armed by these despate professional politicians. For instance, in the build-up to the 2011 and 2015 general elections, there were violent conflicts that posed concerns to Nigerian election managers, the helpless electorate, the international election observers and even analysts in the political science community.
Our situation is worsened by the sad fact that political parties are in a constant state of unhealthy rivalries and Implosion from within. The lack of internal democracy in these parties have left a huge dent in our brand of democratic practice. Our experience is that rather stay put to build a formidable opposition to the ruling party, members troop to the winning party to safeguard their pecuniary interests that are usually at variance with the best interest of the people. A former Senator recently declared and I quote him: Life outside the Senate is very suffocating”. He did not ask the rest of us who may never get near the premises of the Senate how life is treating us. That is the paradox of the Nigerian situation today.
Given the inexplicable desperation of the average Nigerian politician to cling to power with or without the expressed mandate of the electorate, it is only by the special grace of God and a dose of good luck that we have not been consumed by the dire security challenges posed by the insurgency in the North Eastern parts of the country, the unremitting daily violence in the
Middle Belt between farmers and well-armed herdsmen, the agitation of Blafran separatists in the South East and militancy in the Niger Delta.
Now, if we add the rising cases of kidnapping of innocent citizens, especially academics to the tally, the full burden of the various conflicts we face in Nigeria begins to become clear. Wherever you look, there are more than enough centripetal forces lurking in hidden and open places, seeking to dismember our nationhood. Some of these contrived or genuine grievances have waited for too long to be frontally addressed by our. leaders, who appear not to read the warning signals emanating from the various crises flash points.
This Conference is coming at a time when security challenges in our environment, particularly during elections are at their peak. The distasteful phrase: Inconclusive elections, is gradually finding a lasting place in our political lexicon. The increasing violent struggles for power is at the centre of several inconclusive elections in recent times, making it not only impossible for election umpires to discharge their statutory obligations, but also leaving many constituencies without representation at both the State and National Assemblies.
I am also happy to note that in the midst of the contrived chaos that brings us a negative image, countries such as Botswana, Malawi, Ghana, Zambia, Tanzania, and lately Nigeria, have conducted relatively free and fair elections that resulted in peaceful transfer of power from the ruling party to opposition parties on the continent. We hope that this trend would be replicated in the rest of Africa where leaders sit tight in power
until death do them part with the victims of their high-handedness and family dynasty.
Let me hasten to add that Nigerian political scientists stand in a good position to help the nation overcome these challenges through research and enlightenment programmes. As a nation, our journey to improved socio-political and economic advancement would depend so much on committed scholars like you who have a moral and professional obligation to proffer functional solutions to some of the problems I have outlined above.
Prof Ibe is of the University of Port Harcourt.