Nigeria is buckling under the weight of Jonathan's propensity for the absurd. Allegations are flying everywhere about the monumental level of government ineptitude in responding to insecurity.
Poverty is endemic in the country as over 70 per cent of the citizens live from hand to mouth. An estimated 11 million Nigerian children of school age are out of school. Out of this number, about 7.5 million are girls....
Regrettably, the Jonathan administration is no longer evincing any hope.... In the life of this administration, corruption has assumed a monstrous status. According to SUNDAY PUNCH investigation, over N5tn in government funds has been stolen through fraud, embezzlement and theft since President Jonathan assumed office on May 6, 2010. Sadly, as The Economist puts it, "Many Africans are ambivalent about their leaders' extravagance; disgust at profligacy mingles with pride at the display."
The Punch editorial
I will be interested in how you will explain this analysis off. And while you are at it, try the paradox of association mentioned by the Economist: while most Nigerians are disgusted by the obscene megalomaniac display of their oppressors, they also want to have a go at it!
Your call for a 'culture of mobilisation' is still largely valid. We just have to fashion a way for it to undercut years of deprivation and disillusionment in Nigeria.
Adeshina Afolayan
Sent from my BlackBerry wireless device from MTN
From: OLUWATOYIN ADEPOJU <tvade3@gmail.com>
Sender: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Date: Mon, 3 Dec 2012 20:27:05 +0000
To: <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
ReplyTo: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Okay Ndibe: A case for abolishing democracy in Nigeria
An analysis of a nation's political economy cannot be adequately conducted outside a comprehensive survey.
If I were to counter Shina's anecdotal approach with a similar strategy, all I would need to do would be to point out where in Nigeria roads have been tarred and remained tarred. I would point out positive developments in private power generation and developments in mechanical industrialisation. I would point out efforts of states working hard at human power development through high level education for particularly skilled indigenes.
I would be able to source such examples by looking through listserves alone, without going farther.
While I acknowledge the role of the government as a leader in development and policy, as the reference Shina suggests leans towards, I am also interested in the development of the culture of citizen advocacy in Nigeria beyond crisis periods such as the last struggle over fuel subsidy.
I think that citizens also need to mobilise to put pressure on government to address interests that are dear to the citizens.
The fuel subsidy struggle was one such example.
I can point out other struggles by the public that succeeded, without government repression.
I think that we need to develop a culture of mobilisation as a way of life not only for crisis periods.
That is where pressure groups and political parties come in.
My central attitude is this-this country did not exist before it was created by the colonial power.
My central attitude is this-this country did not exist before it was created by the colonial power.
Is the country as it is constituted better as it is or is it better broken up into smaller pre-colonial units?
Whatever the answer to that, while the country exists in its present form, make the most of it by working actively to build it.
To the best of my understanding, the US has been extremely brutal to African-Americans, but they had no other option than to work with the existing system.
The Nigerian political system as it exists now may be described as a logical development from its origins in rulership by a colonial elite who used the country significantly if not largely as a self serving system.
At the same time, they enabled an expansion of creative possibilities, even though at a high price.
I am a keen admirer of traditional African religion but the only way I will exchange a history without colonialism with the one we had is if in this scenario free of colonialism we still have the exposure given by the colonial experience and the freedom to choose.
I would not want to be compelled to live unexposed to scribal literacy, to advanced scientific and technological thinking, among other possibilities which Europe introduced to most of Africa, except the mysterious Egyptian civilisation which seems to have had little impact on the rest of Africa.
I think we were rather backward before these people came. I think to some degree they contributed to civilising us.
It was not fashionable among Africans at one time to hold such views as I have expressed but I dont know about now.
There is a world of difference between Western and African civilisations even now and the sooner we understand that difference and truly internalise in our own way what is positive about the core of Western civilisation, realising that the post-colonial states states represent a unique opportunity to move beyond our rather circumscribed pre-colonial civilisations, the better for us.
So, lets get down to work and build on what we have instead of wishing it was something different.
Corruption, tribalism etc are not likely to go anywhere.
How are we going to work to change the system organically in ways that carry as many people as possible along ?
Thanks
toyin
On Sun, Dec 2, 2012 at 11:40 PM, <shina73_1999@yahoo.com> wrote:
Toyin,
Aristophanes, the ebullient Greek comic playwright, characterises Socrates, in The Cloud, as always philosophising with his heads in the sky. I take it that that is what you meant by 'an example of criticism from the sky'. The sweet irony is simply that I could say the same about you!
It seems to me that your recommended indices for coming to the critique of Nigeria undercut your own intention. This is because Ndibe's list suggests exactly that we are seeing what we are seeing because government's policies in the areas you enumerated have failed to produce the expected outcomes. The facts are on the ground for the discerning (except, maybe, they live in the diasporan sky!).
Ayo Obe mentioned the fact of roads. I however glimpsed from her post a grateful acceptance of whatever is served us Nigerians in terms of government performance. Roads have become political factors that contribute to electioneering campaigns. I live in Ibadan, Nigeria. A portion of the road network that leads to my house was recently 'tarred'. We went literally through hell as a result of the tarring. You have to stay resigned in a long traffic jam due to the logjam created by the road engineers. After the entire dubious exercise, the roads were declared open with much political fanfare. In less than two months after the opening, the decline sets in! And it will get increasingly worse...until the next election eve. Need I say more about energy, education, security? Thieves are carting people's hard earned materials away almosy everyday; but the police are not catching thieves. When they are caught, you see the same thieves the following week of a retributive reprisal attack on your home.
I am here. I will refrain from exploring the implications of saying 'you are there'.
"Democratic processes are learning processes." I agree with you totally. The question however is: Have we learnt anything? Are we learning? Is the rampant greed of the leadership not undercutting that learning process? And you can't interject the argument that we have just started (after all, it took America more decades to get it right!).
Another valid point. The query however is what would constitute 'valid criticism' for you? To what extent can one be 'faithful' to a 'democratic' systemn that has remained consistently dysfunctional? A system that consistently ask its masses to sacrifice with any willingness by the elites to do the same? Try asking the 'honourable' members of the National Assembly to forgo just a fraction of their allowances. Hell will break loose.
"Democratic processes need support. The growth of the nation is not helped by perpetually running down or by truncating its democracy.
On account of the long stages of growth of democratic systems they need to be supported through faith in them, through engagement with them, through participation and through valid criticism and praise."
I will recommend that you read Billy J. Dudley's brilliant inaugural lecture: 'Scepticism and Political Virtue' and his idea what a valid scepticism entails especially in the political context in Nigeria. For Dudley, scepticism entails the process of withholding assent to government policies and proposal until justification is provided for those proposals. The justification involves a process of give and take that ensures that government takes the desires and inbterventions of the populace to heart in crafting policies. Hardly do you find Nigerian governments justifying or consulting with Nigerians on matters that affect their lives and destinies. Remember the removal of fuel subsidy on Jan 1st and the subsequent agonies it unleashed on Nigerians. Eventually, soldiers were brought out to the streets and Nigerians forced to swallow the bitter, oily agbo. I also hope you have followed the manners in which committee reports i.e. On fuel subsidy and the oil sector by the government (Ribadu and Farouk) are being tactically suppressed. Believe me, you won't hear anything more on those reports.
Valid criticism involves, for me, drawing certain conclusions based on perceived inadequacies of government in Nigeria. Believe me, Toyin, the Jonathan administration lack a decisive blueprint for addressing Nigeria's problems, or a significant portion of them. All the proofs you need is to analyse the government analysis of the problems themselves. It becomes too clear why the government is conceptually clueless.
If you can't discern this, maybe you are too far away. Or you still carry in that head a romantic vision of your time in Nigeria. I can't even imagine any such romantic vision except the one we cobbled together from comparing one bad governance system with another.
Adeshina Afolayan
Sent from my BlackBerry wireless device from MTNFrom: OLUWATOYIN ADEPOJU <tvade3@gmail.com>Date: Sun, 2 Dec 2012 11:53:59 +0000ReplyTo: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.comCc: Toyin Falola<toyin.falola@mail.utexas.edu>Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Okay Ndibe: A case for abolishing democracy in NigeriaAnother example of criticism from the sky:
"The conceptual cluelessness of the Jonathan administration"To properly assess a nation and its government, you need much more than a list of good or bad things.You need a synoptic approach covering strategic areas of national development.Such strategic areas includeeconomicscivil societyeducationsecurityamong othersin relation to economics, you need to consider issues dealing with the management of resources in relation to such fundamentals as standard of living, which itself is built on such indices as availability and affordability of food across a broad social spectrum, levels of access to purchasing power and the scope of goods available for purchase, the scope of jobs, scope of productivity etcYou need to look into levels of access to energy for the most basic needs such as cooking to the most sophisticatedYou need to examine the state of security across the nationYou need to examine levels of access to quality transportation-this includes quality of roads and the vehicles that ply them, along with air and water transportYou need to examine the quality of general freedom in the country-freedom of association, freedom of self expression, freedom of worship, freedom of learning, among othersYou need to examine the general quality of educationHaving examined all these across all the states of what is the most populous country and perhaps the largest in Africa, do you still conclude that-the entire country and its government reflects ""The conceptual cluelessness of the Jonathan administration"?On Democracy in Nigeria"I am therefore only confused when people attempt their glossy rescue of Nigeria and her 'democratic' experiment. "
Does this statement demonstrate the qualities of a serious engagement with the issues?I described Shina's comments as criticism from the sky because they seem to me a form of analysis that imposes itself wholesale on its subject rather than trying to understand the subject.What is democracy and what is politics?Democratic processes are learning processes. On account of their nature, based in reality on dialogue between the elite and the larger group of people, they undergo change. On account of the power they allow the larger group of people, they allow room for maneuver among the populace and compel the elite to relate with the larger group.That is one reason why democracy is superior to rulership by a chosen rather than an elected elite, the chosen elite rulership being the kind oif arrangement Ndibe seems to be suggesting, the kind of arrangement that Karl Kopper challenges in his critique of Plato's philosopher king vision from Plato's Republic in Popper's The Open Society and its Enemies : The Spell of Plato.Democracy is an organic process that succeeds to the degree that it integrates group opinion,even though group opinion is not always the best opinion, but even then, the group is likely to learn from the consequences of its actions and is more likely to make better choices after learning from its own mistakes.It is this vision of group choice and group growth that is at the heart of democracy.To impose the technocratic style of leadership on the group that Ndibe suggests is tantamount to depriving the nation of its capacity for learning through experience.A related technocratic vision was behind the faith in the army, described by one view as military professionals who were the last bastion, the custodians of the country's democracy.
We have seen painfully how they are custodians only in the sense of contributing to providing security, and no more.A related vision was behind the metamorphosis of Communism from what I understand is Marx's vision of rulership by the proletariat to rulership by 'wise men', leading to the abuses of the kind represented by Communist and contemporary China where the leaders select themselves and seem to run through the country through a culture of internal censorship, the perpetual self succession in the one party state of Castro's Cuba, which has now passed to his brother, and the horrors of repression in the former Soviet Union and its satellites, demonstrating George Orwell's famous summation of the subversion of Marx's vision: "All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others".If you are to choose an enlightened elite to rule the nation, how do you choose them? Who selects them? Are they going to chose among each other or will the nation choose them? If the nation chooses them, would that not be the same democratic process you are trying to escape?Whatever way you want to approach the practical implementation of the technocratic dream, you will need to decide between a democratic or an autocratic process of selection.You are then back to the old challenge of criteria of choice and of conflicting interests, and with a massive native nation like Nigeria, you could come to see that the problems are not as simple as you thought.Democratic processes need support. The growth of the nation is not helped by perpetually running down or by truncating its democracy.On account of the long stages of growth of democratic systems they need to be supported through faith in them, through engagement with them, through participation and through valid criticism and praise.Whatever you see as bad in the system you could contribute to changing through the various methods available -through criticism, through the press, through the global reach of the Internet, through mobilization and lobbying, through the law courts, through demonstrations, through participation in politics., among others.Through such methods, the system grows in robustness, in accommodation of a plurality of perspectives, though an expansion of general social consciousness and of recognition of the space for action enabled by that democracy.I am yet to see any political system superior to a democratic process.ThanksToyin--On Sat, Dec 1, 2012 at 6:11 PM, Okey Ndibe <okndibe@yahoo.com> wrote:
Here's (a rather small) list of some facts/conjectures to disturb Ms. Gloria Emeagwali's prescription for an "analysis...tempered with reason": Nigerian state governors collect more than $2 million per month in so-called security vote (that they don't account for); every three months, Nigeria's federal legislators receive several times the annual salary of President Obama (even though these law makers haven't passed a single law acknowledged as having improved the condition of Nigerians); Nigeria's health care system is so scary that few (if any) "prominent" Nigerians (president, governors, ministers, legislators--and members of their families), ever consider being treated in a Nigerian hospital (instead, they go to such locations as Germany, the UK, the US, South Africa, Dubai, India); roads that are hardly ever better than death traps; an educational system that produces mediocre graduates in many fields (most of them unemployed and unemployable); a Federal Government (under President Obasanjo) that squandered between $10 and $16 billion on the power sector (and actually achieved the feat of worsening power outages!); a country that continues to rank near the top of generator importers in the world; a country that's now a global leader in private jet ownership; a country where elections (despite a few isolated success stories) remain fraudulent exercises; a country whose security apparati aren't able to curb the incessant killing of innocent Nigerians by Boko Haram; a country whose constitution offers immunity to governors and the president even when they commit crimes (especially then, in fact!); a country whose judicial machinery has managed to convict only one ex-governor (Alamiesiegha) for corruption in more than 12 years (even though the EFCC and other anti-corruption agencies--to say nothing of the evidence of our eyes and ears--suggest that most of the governors have engaged in unconscionable looting); a country whose police have not solved any major homicide case in the last twelve years (not Bola Ige, not Oyerinde, not Funso Williams, not Harry Marshall, not Dikibo); a country whose police force provided cover for thugs who in November, 2004 swept through Anambra State destroying public property (thus earning the title of lawlessness enforcement agency); a country whose police force frequently lends itself to the ruling party as a rigging tool; a country whose soldiers and police have slaughtered innocents in Maiduguri, Odi (and elsewhere in the Niger Delta), Onitsha, Zaki Biam etc; a country in which the vast majority of rural and urban dwellers have no access to pipe-borne water (much less decent private or public toilets); where many (if not most) people defecate and pee in the open; where the powerful and wealthy ride roughshod over the weak and poor; a country whose citizens pay for 100% of the president's/governors' meals (a billion naira budgeted for the Presidency's yearly food consumption)--even though (as Ms. Emeagwali well knows) Mr. Obama and US governors must pay for their personal meals and those of their families); a country where the minimum wage is a measly N18,000 . The list goes on and on and on!One is bemused when some defend or excuse Nigeria's dysfunction by inventing fictitious narratives of success or drawing attention to the existence of similar (or worse) problems in places like the US, UK and elsewhere. It's sheer hypocrisy, I'm afraid. Nobody can make light of the serious crises in the US, the UK, Germany etc. But I dare say that Nigeria should be so lucky to be in the shoes of the US (trillion dollar debt and all)! In Nigeria, we have squandered most of our oil wealth without developing our infrastructure even to the levels that now obtain in such addresses as Ghana, Botswana, South Africa, Lebanon, the Philippines, Uganda, Jamaica, Kenya etc!We can romanticize the so-called gains, "progress," and "significant reconfiguration of social consciousness" all we want--the truth is that Nigeria is in awful shape. And I think things are getting messier in critical areas.Nigeria's crises are so deep-rooted that the diseased phenomenon that passes for "democracy" there is in no position to begin to address them. Instead, the operators of the "democratic" system are concerned, above all, with perpetuating their unconscionable privileges. Their greed is compounded, I suggest, by their incompetence, lack of imagination, and absence of a vision of transformation. That's why a growing number of Nigerians are looking for other departures, new approaches, even idiosyncratic answers. My recent piece was written in that spirit. If it did not rise to what the likes of Ms. Emeagwali consider to be "reason," I offer no apologies.Okey
From: OLUWATOYIN ADEPOJU <tvade3@gmail.com>
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Sent: Saturday, December 1, 2012 12:35 PM
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Okay Ndibe: A case for abolishing democracy in Nigeria
Prof. Emeagwali,I am humbled and uplifted by your endorsement of my opinion.toyin--On Fri, Nov 30, 2012 at 3:38 PM, Emeagwali, Gloria (History) <emeagwali@mail.ccsu.edu> wrote:
'This progress has been painful in significant instances but it represents a significant
reconfiguration of social consciousness in ways that move the country forward.....'Toyin
I agree with Toyin.
The greatest irony is that the same people who call Nigeria a failed state, hold up as a model
a country with $14 trillion debt; laws that sanction arrest without trial;
contractors who make much more than the proverbial 10% on military and prison contracts;
penal systems that host most of the prisoners in the world and execute an alarming amount of them;
make- shift tent cities with the homeless, thanks to a fraudulent housing/ banking foreclosure system;
students who accumulate as much as $50,000 debt for an undergraduate/ university education;
countless graduates without jobs; highest on the list for obesity; centuries of discrimination against
its minority population; and corrupt politicians who make laws to suit campaign donors. Don't get
me wrong. I think the U.S is a great country, and much has to be done to get
Nigeria where we want it to be, but analysis should be tempered
with reason.
Professor Gloria Emeagwali
www.africahistory.net<http://www.africahistory.net/>
www.vimeo.com/user5946750/videos<http://www.vimeo.com/user5946750/videos>
Documentaries on Africa and the African Diaspora
________________________________
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of OLUWATOYIN ADEPOJU [tvade3@gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2012 5:53 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Okay Ndibe: A case for abolishing democracy in Nigeria
I think Ogugua's effort to analyse Nigeria's democracy as not working is rather mechanistic. Mechanistic beceause he describes a complex system in terms of a few parameters in a manner better applied to mechanical or less complex forms.
A democratic system, however, is social not a mechanical system.
I think democracy in Nigeria is better described as 'developing' rather than having failed.
What is democracy?
Democracy may be understood as a social arrangement in which collective opinion is harnessed for the benefit of society. This is often done through representatives understood as embodying sections of this opinion.
I observe some significant progress in Nigerian democracy. This progress has been painful in significant instances but it represents a significant reconfiguration of social consciousness in ways that move the country forward.
What is or is not possible or likely within a society is an index of a society's health.
One demonstration of the growth of Nigerian democracy is the fact that the possibility of a military coup has become remote or impossible after the Abacha era.
This represents a sterling, major development in the consciousness of Nigerians beceause in the various coups up till Babangida, from the bloody Nzeogwu coup of January 1966, the even bloodier counter coup of later that year, the Buhari coup, the Babangida coup, to mention those I have either read about or remember how they were received, the coups were celebrated by large sections of the population as messianic interventions. On the Babangida coup, the Guardian, the most respected Nigerian paper at the time, ran a full page story of him, with an almost full page picture of him in full military uniform, charting his extensive travel within and acquaintance with Nigeria.
After the slow horror of Babangida, as he educated us on the nature of intrigue, and our eyes opened slowly but surely, an experience spiked by the Dele Giwa assassination which some predicted on the very day it happened that nothing would ever emerge from any investigation into it as has turned out to be the case, and the morphing into the Abacha nightmare, climaxed by his horrifying effort to succeed himself in the midst of a national reign of terror, we were now largely or fully cured of military myopia.
I believe the military knows this too. Any military coup, with whatever level of firepower or cunning, is almost certain to fail simply by absolute rejection by Nigerians.
That is great progress that took us more than 40 years to achieve.
We now run a more democratic system in which the peoples' voice is significant even if the system may be manipulated to a degree.
The competitive space in Nigerian politics has expanded with the appointment of Goodluck Jonathan as President.
The tight hold of Northern Nigeria and the military on the Presidency was shifted by that appointment.
The Boko Haram horror, designed by the terrorists and their backers to undermine his credibility, among other goals it seems, has strengthened that credibility.
The sheer embarrassment and confusion it caused the Northern elite has and further weakened the bargaining power of the North, compelling a more equitable bargaining between that region and the rest of Nigeria.
In fact Boko Haram may be seen as cathartic in relation to the North in exemplifying the possibilities of certain tendencies in the region when taken to an extreme. The cycle of the crisis has seen various perspectives and personalities come and go. Through it all, the Presidency has been strengthened as as a pan-Nigerian institution through its approach to the crisis an approach at times misfiring against the victims but generally balanced in favour of the task and against a sectionalist approach to the problem.
Significant examples exist of people electing popular politicians through the ballot box. Oshiomole in Edo state and Fashola in Lagos are two examples.
There are serious problems of crime, from Boko Haram to kidnapping and armed robbery. Does the scale this has reached sugest a failed state?
I dont think so and the govt is fighting these steadily as it is doing with Boko Haram.
What is the scope of efforts to combat some of the root causes of these problems through poverty alleviation?
I dont know since I know less about the economics of the country.
I see the country however as virgin territory for many business opportunities.
This is my understanding so far.
toyin
On Thu, Nov 29, 2012 at 8:19 PM, Anunoby, Ogugua <AnunobyO@lincolnu.edu<mailto:AnunobyO@lincolnu.edu>> wrote:From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com<mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> [usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com<mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>] On Behalf Of John MBAKU [jmbaku@weber.edu<mailto:jmbaku@weber.edu>]
If a system is flawed that system is not working. A system works if it is efficient and effective which are measured by costs and expected outcomes achieved respectively. Democracy in Nigeria is neither efficient or effective. Costs are exceptionally high, increasingly unaffordable, and rising. Expected outcomes are unclear and hardly ever achieved. Public officials and politicians have authority, some responsibility, and little or no accountability. The rule of law is jagged and a joke. Those are not what one finds when democracy works. My question to some who choose to argue that democracy "is working in Nigeria but it is flawed" is a simple one; what is their statement intended to mean? How flawed does a system have to be before it is acknowledged to have failed?
Political systems are a choice for independent countries. Systems can always be replaced by better systems as Nigeria's political systems' experimentation and experience bear out. Would it be correct to argue that military dictatorships work but they are flawed? NO. Not if the one knows what purpose government should serve and does serve for free peoples who have ownership of it.
oa
________________________________
Sent: Wednesday, November 28, 2012 4:23 PMTo: tvade3@gmail.com<mailto:tvade3@gmail.com>; usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com<mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
(801) 626-7442<tel:%28801%29%20626-7442> Phone
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Okay Ndibe: A case for abolishing democracy in Nigeria
Why is Nigeria's democracy flawed? If we know why, then perhaps we could make it more efficient and responsive to the needs of the people. "Flawed" democracies have the habit of imposing significant costs (economic, social and political) on vulnerable groups and communities.
I am quite interested in working to make things better. Educate me.
JOHN MUKUM MBAKU, ESQ.
J.D. (Law), Ph.D. (Economics)
Graduate Certificate in Environmental and Natural Resources Law
Nonresident Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution
Attorney & Counselor at Law (Licensed in Utah)
Presidential Distinguished Professor of Economics & Willard L. Eccles Professor of Economics and John S. Hinckley Fellow
Department of Economics
Weber State University
3807 University Circle
Ogden, UT 84408-3807, USA
(801) 626-7423<tel:%28801%29%20626-7423> Fax
>>> OLUWATOYIN ADEPOJU 11/28/12 2:16 PM >>>
I am certainly hopeful.
Democracy is working in Nigeria.
It is a flawed democracy but it is functional.
Rigging exists but the voice of voters also plays a significant role.
There exists an active culture of political engagement by people of various social strata.
There is plenty of poverty but the country is significantly an economic virgin territory, where so much is available to be done and can be done, even if with more difficulty than necessary.
Also, we all need to consider the challenge a challenge for all of us, rather than a challenge for 'them', the government authorities and the political class and other authority figures.
Government is central to national development, but efforts of individuals and groups are also central to national growth, both forms of effort operating as either a dialectic or a unity.
The Jewish saying is most apt "The task is not yours to finish but neither are you free to take no part in it".
thanks
toyin
On Wed, Nov 28, 2012 at 8:44 PM, Anunoby, Ogugua <AnunobyO@lincolnu.edu<mailto:AnunobyO@lincolnu.edu>> wrote:From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com<mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> [mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com<mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>] On Behalf Of OLUWATOYIN ADEPOJU
Everyone hopes that democracy will work in Nigeria sooner rather than later.
The exasperation and frustration that many Nigerians and others feel and have expressed are not based on figments of the imagination. The predictions being made by some attentive friends and foe alike about Nigeria's likely future are not "doomsday prophesies" as some have described them to be. They are based on facts. Nigeria is a grossly underachieving country for its endowment and potential. The country is not working for the vast majority of citizens. There is not enough that is being done to change things for the better. Everyone know that this has been and is still the case. The hope is that things will change and soon too.
A country is not very likely to achieve its true potential if her problem is her people, more than anything else.
Hope is still alive and well. Will it continue to be? That is the question in my considered opinion.
oa
Sent: Wednesday, November 28, 2012 1:30 PMTo: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com<mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Okay Ndibe: A case for abolishing democracy in Nigeria
I think we should give the country a chance and wish it well.
The doomsday prophecies and perpetual lacerations are excessive.
Toyin
On Wed, Nov 28, 2012 at 7:11 PM, John MBAKU <jmbaku@weber.edu<mailto:jmbaku@weber.edu>> wrote:(801) 626-7442<tel:%28801%29%20626-7442> Phone
There is a case to be made that what is being practiced in Nigeria's political economy is not democracy--at least, not the type undergirded by the rule of law. At a minimum, the behavior of many state custodians is not in line with what is expected of public servants in a country with a fully functioning democratic system.
JOHN MUKUM MBAKU, ESQ.
J.D. (Law), Ph.D. (Economics)
Graduate Certificate in Environmental and Natural Resources Law
Nonresident Senior Fellow, The Brookings Institution
Attorney & Counselor at Law (Licensed in Utah)
Presidential Distinguished Professor of Economics & Willard L. Eccles Professor of Economics and John S. Hinckley Fellow
Department of Economics
Weber State University
3807 University Circle
Ogden, UT 84408-3807, USA
(801) 626-7423<tel:%28801%29%20626-7423> Fax
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com<mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> [mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com<mailto:usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>] On Behalf Of Ikhide
>>> "Anunoby, Ogugua" 11/28/12 11:09 AM >>>
What do you do with a very high cost arrangement, process, or system that does not and will not deliver expected outcomes after reasonable time? Do you persevere with it infinitely? I am just asking?
oa
Sent: Monday, November 26, 2012 4:46 PMJoin me on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ikhide<http://www.facebook.com/ikhide>
To: Toyin Falola
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Okay Ndibe: A case for abolishing democracy in Nigeria
"Nigerians have worked awfully hard for more than fifty years to achieve expertise in sheer badness. Even if we discounted the reports that ranked Nigeria as the most fraudulent place in Africa or the worst address for a new-born baby, we can hardly deny that Nigeria is a shadow, an inhuman space. We have lifted mediocrity to an art.
Name any sector of life in Nigeria and it?s infected by a malignant disease. Each year, Nigerian universities, private as well as public, churn out hundreds of thousands of unemployed and mostly unemployable illiterates. Too many academics sell grades for sex or cash. The Nigerian police strike fear in the heart not of criminals, but those without the cash to offer bribes. Too many Nigerian bishops, priests, pastors and imams are embedded with the politicians who daily wreck their country. For a bag or two of naira, these ostensible servants of God are willing to venerate any form of evil. The Nigerian president?s only formula for tackling serious crises is, one, to issue a hollow speech or, two, to form a committee. With either approach, the goal is to buy time for people to forget how messy the particular problem was. Most members of the president?s cabinet are in it for what they can steal and put away. Nigeria?s legislators, whether in Abuja or the state capitals, don?t have the foggiest idea how to use the legislative process to improve their environments.
Nigeria is worse and more dangerous than many other failed states. Its failure is both comprehensive and deep. It?s in a state of suspension, waiting for something to give, for an inevitable explosion to take place. Unless we act now, the roof is bound to fall on all our heads."
- Okey Ndibe
Read on...
http://saharareporters.com/column/case-abolishing-nigeria%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%9Cdemocracy%E2%80%9D-okey-ndibe
- Ikhide
Stalk my blog at http://www.xokigbo.com/
Follow me on Twitter: @ikhide
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com<mailto:USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-unsubscribe@googlegroups.com<mailto:unsubscribe@googlegroups.com>
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com<mailto:USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-unsubscribe@googlegroups.com<mailto:unsubscribe@googlegroups.com>
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com<mailto:USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-unsubscribe@googlegroups.com<mailto:unsubscribe@googlegroups.com>
--
Compcros<http://danteadinkra.wix.com/compcros>
Comparative Cognitive Processes and SystemsTo post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com<mailto:USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>
"Exploring Every Corner of the Cosmos in Search of Knowledge"
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-unsubscribe@googlegroups.com<mailto:unsubscribe@googlegroups.com>
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com<mailto:USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-unsubscribe@googlegroups.com<mailto:unsubscribe@googlegroups.com>
--
Compcros<http://danteadinkra.wix.com/compcros>
Comparative Cognitive Processes and SystemsTo post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com<mailto:USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>
"Exploring Every Corner of the Cosmos in Search of Knowledge"
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-unsubscribe@googlegroups.com<mailto:unsubscribe@googlegroups.com>
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com<mailto:USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-unsubscribe@googlegroups.com<mailto:unsubscribe@googlegroups.com>
--
Compcros<http://danteadinkra.wix.com/compcros>
Comparative Cognitive Processes and Systems
"Exploring Every Corner of the Cosmos in Search of Knowledge"
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
--
CompcrosComparative Cognitive Processes and Systems"Exploring Every Corner of the Cosmos in Search of Knowledge"
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
--
CompcrosComparative Cognitive Processes and Systems"Exploring Every Corner of the Cosmos in Search of Knowledge"
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
Compcros
Comparative Cognitive Processes and Systems
"Exploring Every Corner of the Cosmos in Search of Knowledge"
You received this message because you are subscribed to the "USA-Africa Dialogue Series" moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin.
For current archives, visit http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
For previous archives, visit http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue-
unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
No comments:
Post a Comment