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The Politics of Life Chances in Nigeria By Jide Ibitoye We read over the weekend of the Obasanjo Library extravaganza in Abeokuta. I believe OBJ was trying to do what any right-thinking leader would do especially when they remember the fact that the time to leave the seat of power is getting closer. Leaders all of the world pray and strive to leave lasting legacies upon leaving office. It is in this light that I think OBJ must have thought of dedicating a library to archive and serve as an institution to safeguard his years in office and public service. However laudable this might be, I think the idea is a bit misplaced in present-day Nigeria. I read of the vast amounts of money that were donated by individuals towards this project and marvelled and wondered if the Bretton Woods organisations and our other creditors were listening and watching as well as we are in the process of soliciting for debt forgiveness. We claim we do not have this money, don’t we? Yet individuals are donating money and we are counting billions. Na wah o! Much as a modern library is a good thing to have in Nigeria today (I should know, I use one everyday), I believe OBJ would be best to leave a legacy that would have an impact on the every-day lives of ordinary Nigerians. How many Nigerians would sincerely benefit from the resources in this OBJ Library if you ask? If OBJ was really keen, a specialist hospital or a specialist school or any other welfare-inclined project would be much appreciated and would definitely immortalise him. Modern libraries need recurrent funds to keep them running and I doubt if there would be such funds if OBJ leaves office in the next couple of years. However, a specialist hospital would be generating revenue from at least the multitude of Nigerians who travel to the UK and USA every year for the least of “check-ups”. I know of people with recurring ear problems that travel every year painfully to get treatment in the UK. Definitely OBJ’s legacy does not take into consideration the impact on the welfare of the people as one of its core objectives. What a legacy! I think this is more of a legacy to caress his ego. Our leadership has always failed to take the welfare of the people seriously. We are always into one project or the other that bears nothing on the lives of everyday ordinary Nigerians. Life in Nigeria is at best only worthwhile to the few with the wherewithal to buy luxury. We are at a loss yearly to the multitude of our youths who solicit for visas at embassies only to escape the unemployment and other anti-people conditions in Nigeria. Recently, there was much noise about the UK deliberately deciding to shut her doors to a particular group of Nigerians, while this is not what we should cheer about, we should ask ourselves what has actually happened to our nation whereby 2500 youths are seeking entry into the UK monthly? What is going to be left of that generation if their requests are granted? Where would they be when they are needed for nation building? Helping to build other societies maybe? Life in an ordered state should not just be for the privileged few cocooned in Abuja, or the few who are relatively wealthy and mostly due to the imbalance in our society. Government should be about monitoring the use of our collective actions to create a better society. The society which is a product of the state and its citizens itself should be about obligations. The citizens have their obligations in terms of patriotism, taxation, obeying laws and institutions of society and also the society should be seen as rewarding the people for honouring their obligations as well. It is a symbiotic existence. The people need to be oriented in a way to believe that the state and the people should exist symbiotically. One cannot survive without the other. The people or citizens need to be able to understand that they owe “duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of the human personality is said to be possible” This would also be only practicable in an atmosphere in which the rule of law and adequate law enforcement thrives. Government is not even the problem, lack of good governance is. There are the structures of government but they lack a spiritual or ideological core that should define their objectives. Quite recently I have been studying the documents on NEEDS (an economic reforms blueprint published by OBJ’s government) and much as parts of the goals of this reforms policy were laudable, I kept wondering about their feasibility in our socially unjust society. Reforms can not thrive in an atmosphere of chaos; in an atmosphere of insincerity both on the parts of government and the people; in an atmosphere of unbridled corruption; in an atmosphere where law enforcement and the sanctity of the judiciary are at best shaky. Corruption will not at least cease until our corrupt officials believe the repercussions of their deeds. Anyone will get away with stealing in present-day Nigeria! We need to go back to the foundations of our society and address the fundamental issues that have besought us. Should government be about welfare of the society or should it be to protect the interests of the few? We must tend towards a society of inclusion, a society that protects and encourages everyone to be the best they can be. As someone rightly said “unless people can get on, and have the means to get on, then the best chances in life are lost” the individuals are worse off and society is the loser. A testament of this is already written with the best Nigeria produces yearly knocking at embassies to join those who have already left in search of other climes. In reality, there would not be so much debate as we have now on resource control in the Niger Delta if the people are made to reap the rewards of a welfare-oriented system of governance. The bulk of the oil produced in the UK is situated around the North Seas and you hardly hear the people in Scotland shouting about resource control because the average citizen knows the essence of the state is based on welfare and the rewards of their obligations to the state. It is not a perfect scenario but it sure is working. We need to go back to the drawing boards as a nation, inject welfarism as the core of governance. We need policies that would affect the people in issues such as health, employment, education, in public services and in civic society.
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