Democracy and the problem with Nigeria

The problem with Nigeria is simply and squarely, followership. This assertion is with due apologies to the great Chinua Achebe of blessed memory. In spite of the fact that the reading culture in Nigeria is very poor and indeed worsening with the advent of the internet, I am sure that many Nigerian adults and “child” students of history are familiar with Achebe’s book The problem with Nigeria which blames leadership for Nigeria’s gross underdevelopment.

When I read the book over 30 years ago soon after it was published, I had, though as a budding student of Political Science in the University of Nigeria, roundly disagreed with Achebe’s thesis in the book. My position was that – and still is – bad leadership was, is, only a symptom of a bigger problem namely bad followership. I recall bouts of arguments between some of us who shared this view and many others who insisted that the problem with Nigeria was, is, simply and squarely bad leadership.

Within the week that just ended we celebrated democracy in Nigeria. It is now an auspicious time to reflect on democracy and indeed the problem with Nigeria. If we want to dispassionately look at this matter then we may begin by looking at some happenstances or rather some facts.  Why is it that it is difficult, sometimes impossible for bad leaders to emerge in some polities, and why is it that it is difficult for good leaders to emerge in other polities? The answer is simply and squarely, a making of the system; a making of the people. Bad leaders will not emerge in some polities because the people – followers – will not allow them, and when by some fluke they do, the people – followers – will remove them.

In the same token, bad leaders emerge and stay put in some polities only because the people – followers – allow them. This latter assertion is one major extrapolation I make from Wole Soyinka’s classic The Man Died. Soyinka states squarely that the man is dead who does nothing in the wake of tyranny. Somehow related to this if properly analyzed is the Hobbesian assertion that man is innately selfish; seeks pleasure and avoids pain (Frued). When left unchecked a leader will naturally help him or herself with public good and would not be accountable to the people. And it seems that the absence of accountability in leadership is the main fabric of bad leadership.

If we agree with Soyinka, Hobbes and Frued, then we must hold followers responsible for bad leadership. In fact Joseph de Maistre (1753-1821) put it squarely when he noted: “every nation gets the government it deserves”.  Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859) the great French thinker was even more succinct when he declared “… in a democracy the people get the government they deserve.”

Indeed it will be against nature and against all known philosophies if any people expect any good from their leaders if they are apathetic to the way they – the people – are being governed or to the conduct of their leaders. No leader will genuinely represent the people if he knows he will not be held accountable for his actions or inactions. Even the Biblical maxim that: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9) goes to suggest the tendency for a leader to do evil unless checked.

But sometimes we find leaders who on their own shun greed and do the bidding of the people. We saw it all though the life and times of Nelson Mandela who practically sacrificed himself for his people in South Africa. We saw it in Julius Nyerere who could not build a house from his earnings as President of Tanzania for decades and only rented a three-bedroom flat after he retired as president. These are exceptions and not the rule. But even at that if we go by Hobbes’ point of view, when a leader does good even when he knows no one would ask if he did otherwise, it is to satisfy his inner being which also is an act driven by “the self”.

That said, the rule in leadership in Africa is as it applies in most other countries outside these two countries just mentioned. The flip side of this short analogy is what we saw recently in Italy and Israel where past leaders Silvio Berlusconi and Ehud Olmert were jailed for unlawful concupiscent conduct and corruption, respectively. And that is what happens when bad leaders emerge in such systems by some fluke. If they are not impeached, they go to jail after they leave office.

In all that is said so far, we must ask ourselves what we are really celebrating in democracy. Are we celebrating a leadership that is truly representative of the people? Are we celebration a followership that is alive to its responsibilities of holding their leaders accountable for their actions or inactions? As we prepare for general elections next year, how many people will truly vote according to their conscience? That is, believing that the politician will truly represent him or her; not swayed by temporary things; not swayed by the ethnic dimension; not swayed by personal access to the aspirant and what the voter stands to benefit as a person and not Nigerians as a people, and so on. It is only time, a very short time, that will tell.

Chuba Keshi