2015: The Missing Policy Debate
Ayo Olukotun
More than ever before, the elections which are only five months away have become the centre-piece of national attention. Campaigns, overt or covert, heated political discussions and bargaining, not to mention the furious carpet-crossing by political heavy weights signify the start-up of the political season. There have also been spectacular, if tentative, reverses in political fortunes. A few months ago, All progressives Congress (APC) looked very much like a party to beat, having amassed to side several defectors from the ruling party. Today, however, several of these stalwarts, including Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, Chief Tom Ikimi, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu and Mallam Shekarau and perhaps several others in the offing , have made peace with the ruling People's Democratic party (PDP).
Similarly, the PDP it was which name was associated with implosion several months back; today however, it is the opposition APC that at least on the surface looks more fractured, for example with the emergence of rival factions in such states as Bayelsa, Ogun and Kano. One should not make too much of the current status of the parties for as the saying goes twenty fours is a long time in politics. On balance, however, it is perhaps true to say that whether we like it or not, the possibility of Jonathan's re-election is beginning to lurk in the shadows.
Beyond temporary alliances and calculations, however, is a lamentable yawning absence of policy conversation and debate among the parties and outside of them. This is sad when you consider that one of the functions of political parties is to set policy agendas around which they will fight elections. Parties are not a mere assemblage of politicians hoping to gain power but rather represent platforms of ideas, policy options and visionary goals around which the electorate is invited to gather. For example, in the approaching November mid-term elections in the United States, one can discern in the national conversation policy divisions over such issues as the state of the economy, Obamacare, Women and Minority rights, Unemployment, and several other issues that pertain to the health and well-being of the Republic.
Specifically, democrats locate themselves around the success of Obama's health reforms, while continuing to advocate such policies as the minimum wage and women's rights which is strategic to Hillary Clinton's presidential ambition. Republicans, on the other hand, have emphasized the lackluster performance of the economy, the soaring budget deficit and the increasing premium taxes and other deductibles that accompany the implementation of Obama's health reforms.
True, no election is completely decided by policy issues and disagreements, personalities and costly slips or gaffes can play unforeseen roles in the success or failure of parties or candidates. Nonetheless, an election that is bereft of policy issues is a governance disaster waiting to happen; considering that there is nothing to hold the politicians to when they get into the office. The PDP has continued to harp, for instance, in bringing about an impressive economic growth rate; one of the highest in the world. It also attributes this factor and that of Nigeria's frontier position in attracting foreign investment to sound economic management. While the citizenry will be grateful for these little mercies, there is an uncomfortable silence as to how growth will translate into poverty reduction taking into account that Nigeria harbours, according to the World Bank, over seventy percent living below the poverty line.
In the same manner, if the opposition APC has clear ideas as to how to engineer inclusive growth and income re-distribution it is yet to come forward with them. All too often, the opposition takes on the administration by reacting to statements or slips; it has not sought, thus far, to initiate policy debate, or paint a broader picture of the utopia to which it will lead Nigerians should it gain power in 2015.
We can further illustrate the absence of debate by referring to the claim by Jonathan to have improved the position of women by appointing a galaxy of women ministers. This is a factually correct statement. However, a debate can be raised as to whether women empowerment is achieved by simply appointing more women ministers without advancing significantly the socio-economic status of the majority of women in the society. In other words, while we may give kudos to Jonathan for what he has achieved, we must understand the limited nature of that achievement by placing it in the context of a wider policy agenda of women empowerment which connects the issues of poverty, marginalization, and subordinate status in various spheres of social life. If we had an opposition platform that is thinking along such lines it is yet to make them articulate.
Part of the problem is that the parties, apart from lacking clear ideological perspectives are not fed by policy think tanks or intellectual groups from which they can draw vitality. As several commentators have observed our current parties are largely products of military engineering, which decreed them into life without caring to locate them in ideological and policy universes. Unlike the parties of the first and second republics, which were led by politicians reputed for their knowledge base and had clear visions which they articulated concerning the good society; we are up against politicians, who are almost totally divorced from ideological currents beyond slogans and catchwords.
What grieves one about all these is that we are a country with great potentials which are not being realized because we face existential challenges including a snowballing insurgency. This indicates it is not a time for waffling on policy issues but one demanding very clear ideas on how to get the nation working.
In almost any sector of our national life, the place of innovative thinking cannot be over-stated. Take for example, the educational sector, a time there was when our universities stood shoulder high and competed favourably with the best in the English-speaking world. Today, however, our institutions hardly make any appearance on the global knowledge map. The problem is complicated by mass failure in Senior Secondary Certificate Examination in recent years which portends a grow-worse syndrome in the entire sector. And so while we may acknowledge Jonathan's efforts in locating a federal university in every state of the federation, we must insist that a situation where a university graduate cannot write a letter of employment without grammatical errors calls for more than a casual approach to resuscitating education.
But again, the two major parties are silent on these urgent and important matters. Even the presidential candidates are not telling us what policies they will implement to see us out of the woods. In some political quarters, a Jonathan presidency is almost inevitable. If that is the case, are we talking about a Jonathan presidency with re-generative capacity; one that will deal with corruption in national life, foster an inclusive growth, make life less insecure and less nasty for the ordinary Nigerians, or more of the same? In the same vein, the opposition is yet to stimulate or invite us by policy ideas that can rejuvenate Nigeria.
It is time to fill this vacuum by setting up a new policy agenda in the run-up to the 2015 elections.
· Professor Olukotun is Dean , Faculty of Social Sciences, Lead City University, Ibadan
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