Food For Thought: Just Maybe We Have Been Diagnosing Our Problems Wrongly, Hence Our Lack Of Meaningful Progress. By Yusuf Ishaku Goje

"It seems we have wrongly been beating a dead horse by trying to solve our perennial problems with the wrong diagnosis of the manifestation (effect) instead of the right one, roots (cause)." Goje

"Bad governance, bad leaders, corruption, nepotism are all manifestation of the problem. The root is our failing values system and with covert imperialist manipulation that is producing political and economic elites that continue to build extractive institutions thereby enabling and empowering a few of them to aggregate political and economic power to the detriment of the majority of the population." 

Evidently since independence, although more pronounced with the return to Democracy in 1999, Nigerians have consistently, and rightly so, judged previous administrations better than the successors. With the Tinubu incumbency, while others are calling for the return of the once heavily criticized Goodluck and Buhari presidency/era, another vociferous section of the population, made up of mostly emotional youths with little or no knowledge of history, are now clamouring for the return of the then dreaded men in khaki (soldiers).

However, what seems to be missing is the basic understanding or appreciation that governance is a continuous relay of what the previous administrations sow, the successors reap. Just like in-between the period of sowing and reaping takes time in agriculture, likewise, what an administration sows, in terms of good or bad governance, will more or less not be fully harvested during its tenure but most likely by its successor.

Every administration in power finds a way of covering up the damage they do while in office, only for it to evidently manifest in the administration of its successor. More so, because the successors either by commission or omission uncovers and takes the damage a step further for the next one to inherit the problem and public outrage. Just like in a relay race, it is expected that the runner that is taking over the barton should run faster, the same way in reality successors end up running faster than the predecessors in deepening our problems.

To understand why this has been the norm rather than the exception, Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson in their book, 'Why Nations Fail,' rightly and agreeably attributes it to what they term, "extractive political and economic institutions." In the evidence-filled book they convincingly argued that, "poor countries are poor because those who have power make choices that create poverty. They get it wrong not by mistake or ignorance but on purpose." 

To better illustrate how this works, they posited further, "There is strong synergy between economic and political institutions. Extractive political institutions concentrate power in the hands of a narrow elite and place few constraints on the exercise of this power. Economic institutions are then often structured by this elite to extract resources from the rest of the society." 

No doubt, while the extractive economic institutions thus naturally accompany extractive political institutions, on the flip side, inclusive political institutions, which is what is desirable, vests power broadly; and according to them it tends, "to uproot economic institutions that expropriate the resources of the many, erect entry barriers, and suppress the functioning of markets so that only a few benefit."

The best part of the book for me is where it stated, "Political and economic institutions, which are ultimately the choice of society, can be extractive and become impediments to economic growth. Nations Fail when they have extractive economic institutions, supported by extractive political institutions that impede and even block economic growth." Need I say more? 

The relay of our problems as a people will continue to get worse with successive administrations until we fix the foundation upon which our institutions are built. The ice-berg model used in system thinking might help us out. The 'obvious problems/manifestation' everyone complains about is the results of 'patterns/behaviors' created by the 'structures/institutions' put in place by the dominant 'values of our elites'. The choices, decisions, actions and reactions are a product of our value system. That is why the more we change the leaders and institutions without changing the values, the more the problem gets worse. 

It seems we have wrongly been beating a dead horse by trying to solve our perennial problems with the wrong diagnosis of the manifestation (effect) instead of the right one, roots (cause). Bad governance, bad leaders, corruption, nepotism are all manifestation of the problem. The root is our failing values system and with covert imperialist manipulation that is producing political and economic elites that continue to build extractive institutions thereby enabling and empowering a few of them to aggregate political and economic power to the detriment of the majority of the population. 

Goje is an active Citizen, member of the Civil Society and OGP enthusiast.