Statecraft, as the art of managing state affairs, is an old and complex engagement whose history has to do with the conservation of the vital interests of power holders of the establishment. Before the evolution of the democratic form of governance, power holders had been ecclesiastical, feudal and monarchical strong men, with ideological, economic and political interests as what must be preserved. Inequality has always existed as a human phenomenon, based on how individuals develop and deploy whatever talents they have.
Historical materialism, commonly known as political economy, traces the trends of power relations and the management of conflicts which often arise between power holders and the masses that do not control power. Nigeria’s political economy can be described as a dependent capitalism, where competitions, conflicts and differences of interests must always be there. What is often camouflaged as national interest turns out to be vital interest of the bourgeois or power holders. There is hardly any capitalist economy where corruption does not exists, even though the degree may differ.
What is happening in Nigeria currently between the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the Federal Government gives a clear demonstration of a vital tool in statecraft. Dodging culture employs excuses, shenanigans, equivocation, sophism and diversion as means of escape from responsibility or duty. The work of Niccolo Machiavelli: The Prince, Provides master plan for seizing and holding power.
Examples of excuses for failures of public facilities and expectations for better performance in governance include the following: decades ago, Nigerians were told that power failure was caused by some giant rats that ate up electric cables in Kainji Dam Power station. When President Muhammadu Buhari returned from medical treatment abroad, Nigerians were told that rodents ate up vital facilities in the office of the president. That was why Buhari would have to work from his residence rather than the Aso Rock office. Audacious rodents not afraid of the Presidency?
Recently a Katsina-based Muslim cleric and activist was quoted as warning against Peter Obi being voted into power as Nigeria’s president. Reasons for such warning include the possibility of reviving the agitation for Biafra. Nnamdi Kanu remains in detention as a terrorist and a danger to Nigeria’s sovereignty and stability. Yet, the kind of intelligence and efforts made to arrest and bring him back to Nigeria could not be applied in locating the audacious bandits and their sponsors who have been terrorizing Nigeria since the Chibok assault on a girls’ Secondary School.
Apart from the Kuje Prison break, there have been several audacious attacks on strategic state facilities including military installations, and hostage-taking of train travelers. For Bishop Matthew Kuka to admit paying millions of naira as ransom for a priest to be set free by terrorists, would mean that there is more to the spate of terrorism than what we know. Neither would state and security officials tell us if any ransom was paid for several hostages released.
In journalism there is what is known as managing information, which is a very special course which goes into deeper waters, the more adept that a practitioner becomes in the profession. With regards to the oil and gas industry in Nigeria, including non-functionality of the nation’s refineries. It is obvious that there are cans of worms whose exposure would possibly set the nation in serious crises. So, for security reasons, the journalist and security personnel are trained to say less than what they see and what information they have at their disposal.
For a presidential aspirant to say it in the open that the issue of fuel subsidy is an organized scam or crime, means that he has more information than the assertion he made. Similarly the old antics of politicians and their sponsors of using lies, deceit, bribes and false promises to win votes, have out-lived their usefulness. Happily one cleric Isa El-Buba was quoted recently was telling merchants of politics that “End of your lies has come”.
Same shenanigans and mendacities associated with politics of stomach infrastructure feature in the nation’s population distribution. Apart from the fact that controversies over 1963 national census was one of the issues which led to military intervention in politics, state officials use excuses and the dodging culture to cover up some hidden agenda. As Presidential flag bearer of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), in his interview with VOA Hausa service, Muhammadu Buhari asked Northerners, long ago, to boycott an on-going National Identity Card scheme. Why? Possibility of exposure!
After using various antics, strategies and styles of conflict resolution without effective results, the Federal Government of Nigeria used the court as a last resort to force striking lecturers to go back to the classrooms. An industrial court is not meant to be a burden-bearer that would take on the responsibility of a state authority without resolving the issues of contention. Although there is the possibility of ASUU facing a contempt charge for disobeying court order, there is also the possibility of the striking lecturers returning to classes to engage students in story-telling rather than teaching. Herein lies the folly of subterfuge.
Apart from the fact that inability to find an agreeable meeting point in conflict resolution paves the way for future crises, nothing has replaced the truth that justice is the foundation and pillar of stability. Use of blusters, high handedness and subterfuge in conflict resolution have never been known to produce lasting or satisfactory results. This goes to show that the use of excuses and the dodging culture are not reliable means of addressing contentions issues.
The result of a triumph of excuses and the dodging culture in any nation featured in the speech of Marcus Antonius after the death of Julius Caesar: “O judgement! thou art fled to brutish beasts, and men have lost their reason”. Rationality and sound judgment flee to brutish beasts as the culture of dodging responsibility and use of excuses as tools of states craft become enthroned in a polity. A battle line is drawn between patrons of the dodging culture and interest groups that insist on justice and transparency in statecraft.

Dr Amirize is a retired lecturer, Rivers State University, Port Harcourt.