How can we mend the grossly warped Nigerian mind?, By Uddin Ifeanyi
“Nigeria is different!”. This is how our mavens explain the harrowing circumstances that have plagued the country over the years. For this reason, policymakers cannot simply cross the pond and copy successful policies elsewhere to implement them here. At some point in any conversation, this excuse could pass for an argument to personalize what works elsewhere. Not just picking him up and slapping him. But by adapting to a myriad of local constraints. However, it is rarely presented as an argument in favor of adaptation. On the contrary, it is always a subtle rejection of anything that is not Nigerian. Cultural, behavioral, economic exception? No matter what you call it, its many results are evil.
Introduce markets in all sectors of the economy? A big "No". The Nigerian, prone to speculation, hoarding and ruthless greed, simply would not allow this concept to work well. Forget that all of these handicaps fuel the operation of the "invisible hand" in market economies. In their place, we erect a baby-sitter state, which seeks to determine how much everyone should consume, who should produce (and how much) what, and at what cost. Remember that where markets "work", the state is a strong regulator (and rarely a supplier of services or goods), and that the principles of regulation (at least three suppliers of a good/service on any which market, prevention of concentration of suppliers in any industry, etc. all for the protection of consumer welfare) are established standards of conduct, the retort is that, again, this mechanism could not work here. "Why do you ask. 'Because the Nigerian is too venal to aspire to, or ever reach the heights of objective assessments that are required of a competent regulator.
Dizzy? Naturally. For how do you deny the possibility of markets and an effective regulatory environment on the back of mass venality, while being prepared to invest all of these roles in a government comprising the same quality of people? In the end, the answer is much simpler. Nigerian essentialism is an alluring plant with imaginary roots. For once you renounce ethnic and religious considerations, the tiles from which the national mosaic is built are among the ugliest in the world.
This mosaic is as much about an inability to show up to an agreed event or place on time as it is about a reluctance, especially among high-ranking members of society, to say anything approaching the truth. It includes levels of impatience that the average farm worker finds difficult to accept. It is a corrupted expression of basic needs. Some will say that we are not, in this sense, more than other societies. With this difference: here, entire communities possess the corrupt in a grisly play to the title of Nkem Nwankwo's 1975 novel, "My Mercedes is bigger than yours." Is it also a thoughtless space? How, for example, does a community profit from the fact that its thief (a recent public office holder) is more ostentatious in spending his ill-gotten profit (the main actors are almost always men) than the last person who held the same office from the neighboring village? Conspicuous consumption by proxy, then?
Unable to understand the mechanics of this process, is it possible to ask, "Why does it persist?" Obviously, this is in no one's interest. Except for the derogatory activity of an ever-shrinking coterie of people with access to a shallow public vault. Yet you would have thought that the principle of a community's interest in its own survival should have significantly eroded much of this practice and the ethos that underpins it. Except Nigeria may not yet be a self-aware community (except when competing in football with Ghana). Nor is it a personal interest. Basically, this is the argument of those who argue that what the country needs on the road to maturity are independent institutions and better structures. Over the past eight years, however, this structuralist argument has been tested to breaking point. Key institutions in the macroeconomic space have had their legal and administrative independence reduced by administrators who have deployed the considerable weight of these institutions in pursuit of their whims.
Leaving us with the question "How can we fix the obviously distorted Nigerian mind?"
Uddin Ifeanyi, a failed journalist and retired civil servant, can be contacted @IfeanyiUddin.
Support the integrity and credibility journalism of PREMIUM TIMES Good journalism costs a lot of money. Yet only good journalism can guarantee the possibility of a good society, an accountable democracy and a transparent...
“Nigeria is different!”. This is how our mavens explain the harrowing circumstances that have plagued the country over the years. For this reason, policymakers cannot simply cross the pond and copy successful policies elsewhere to implement them here. At some point in any conversation, this excuse could pass for an argument to personalize what works elsewhere. Not just picking him up and slapping him. But by adapting to a myriad of local constraints. However, it is rarely presented as an argument in favor of adaptation. On the contrary, it is always a subtle rejection of anything that is not Nigerian. Cultural, behavioral, economic exception? No matter what you call it, its many results are evil.
Introduce markets in all sectors of the economy? A big "No". The Nigerian, prone to speculation, hoarding and ruthless greed, simply would not allow this concept to work well. Forget that all of these handicaps fuel the operation of the "invisible hand" in market economies. In their place, we erect a baby-sitter state, which seeks to determine how much everyone should consume, who should produce (and how much) what, and at what cost. Remember that where markets "work", the state is a strong regulator (and rarely a supplier of services or goods), and that the principles of regulation (at least three suppliers of a good/service on any which market, prevention of concentration of suppliers in any industry, etc. all for the protection of consumer welfare) are established standards of conduct, the retort is that, again, this mechanism could not work here. "Why do you ask. 'Because the Nigerian is too venal to aspire to, or ever reach the heights of objective assessments that are required of a competent regulator.
Dizzy? Naturally. For how do you deny the possibility of markets and an effective regulatory environment on the back of mass venality, while being prepared to invest all of these roles in a government comprising the same quality of people? In the end, the answer is much simpler. Nigerian essentialism is an alluring plant with imaginary roots. For once you renounce ethnic and religious considerations, the tiles from which the national mosaic is built are among the ugliest in the world.
This mosaic is as much about an inability to show up to an agreed event or place on time as it is about a reluctance, especially among high-ranking members of society, to say anything approaching the truth. It includes levels of impatience that the average farm worker finds difficult to accept. It is a corrupted expression of basic needs. Some will say that we are not, in this sense, more than other societies. With this difference: here, entire communities possess the corrupt in a grisly play to the title of Nkem Nwankwo's 1975 novel, "My Mercedes is bigger than yours." Is it also a thoughtless space? How, for example, does a community profit from the fact that its thief (a recent public office holder) is more ostentatious in spending his ill-gotten profit (the main actors are almost always men) than the last person who held the same office from the neighboring village? Conspicuous consumption by proxy, then?
Unable to understand the mechanics of this process, is it possible to ask, "Why does it persist?" Obviously, this is in no one's interest. Except for the derogatory activity of an ever-shrinking coterie of people with access to a shallow public vault. Yet you would have thought that the principle of a community's interest in its own survival should have significantly eroded much of this practice and the ethos that underpins it. Except Nigeria may not yet be a self-aware community (except when competing in football with Ghana). Nor is it a personal interest. Basically, this is the argument of those who argue that what the country needs on the road to maturity are independent institutions and better structures. Over the past eight years, however, this structuralist argument has been tested to breaking point. Key institutions in the macroeconomic space have had their legal and administrative independence reduced by administrators who have deployed the considerable weight of these institutions in pursuit of their whims.
Leaving us with the question "How can we fix the obviously distorted Nigerian mind?"
Uddin Ifeanyi, a failed journalist and retired civil servant, can be contacted @IfeanyiUddin.
Support the integrity and credibility journalism of PREMIUM TIMES Good journalism costs a lot of money. Yet only good journalism can guarantee the possibility of a good society, an accountable democracy and a transparent...What's Your Reaction?
