GUARDIAN
Thursday, March 23 , 2000
Gulliver's Troubles: Mazrui's treatise on Nigeria
By Oma Djebah,
Political Reporter
HE is regarded as an intellectual icon, especially in political science
circles. Having been a professor of the field since 1965, when he was at the
Makarere University, Uganda, Ali Mazrui, the Kenyan-born scholar is credited
with being very knowledgeable about the many socio-political and economic
problems confronting Nigeria and indeed Africa.
Expectedly, by 9.30 a.m. the auditorium of the Nigerian law school, Victoria
Island, was filled by guests, who came to listen to the erudite scholar who
was in town to give the keynote lecture on: Economic Development and
Political Reformation in Emerging Democracy. The atmosphere of excitement
was palpable among participants.
After surveying the audience, like a pope about to preach a sermon to his
congregation, Mazrui, declared that his lecture was bound to evoke
controversy, which he emphasized was the essence of scholarship. He titled
his 34-page paper - Gulliver's Trouble: Between exceptionalism and
typicality.
Responding to the challenge passed by the Sharia crises in some Northern
states and the rise of strident calls for confederation and National
conference he said: "What Nigeria needs now are 10 to 20-year political
plans. I realise that presidents and paliamentarians are elected for periods
which are much shorter than 10 years, let alone 20. But fundamental
political planning needs longer term units of time. This is why members of
the European Union took decision about long term monetary union which did
not depend upon which particular European government would be in power at
which time".
For Mazrui, a 10 to 20-year political masterplan, carefully designed would
address fundamental needs of the Nigerian federation. According to him some
of the salient needs of the Nigerian federation are: how to release the
developmental energies of the people, how to balance agriculture and
industry, how to reduce socio-economic inequalities especially between
regions, ethnic groups and religious communities, and how to sanitize the
political economic system and reduce corruption.
In addition, he emphasized that the Nigeria of the 21st century should be
that which empowers women in the Nigerian system, stabilizes civilian
supremacy in Nigeria's civil-military relation, entrenches human rights and
civil liberties, on actual practice and not just in the document of the
constitution, and reconcile the cultural autonomy of states with the
collective principles of the whole nation.
The electrifying speech drew a standing ovation from the audience,
comprising eminent Nigerians, including renowned historian, and former vice
chancellor of the University of Lagos, Prof. Ade Ajayi, former
Director-General of the Nigerian Institute for Social Economic Research,
Prof. Dotun Philips, chairman of First Securities and Discount House (FSDH),
Mr. Hakeem Bello-Osagie and former National Planning Minister under the
Gen. Sani Abacha regime, Chief Rasheed Gbadamosi. Harping on threats to
the Nigerian federation, Mazrui, maintained that inspite of the
multi-ethnic and multi-farious problems facing Nigeria under the
presidency of Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo, the nation will certainly survive
these "threats". To him, what Nigeria needs to survive, is to "find the
will to endore and fashion out a political masterplan that would dig
"further into the Nigerian predicament and dig deeper into the inner
recesses of self-exploration," He posited:
"Can the Nigerian union be saved?. If the union of the Republic of India
could be saved since India's independence in 1947, so can the Nigerian
Union. The population of India, almost ten times the population of Nigeria.
India is hitting a billion people, and will before very long, outstrip China
as the most populous country in the world, yet the Indian Union has been
holding since 1947. India is as multi-ethnic as Nigeria - encompassing and a
wide-range of languages, skin colour, other physical features, and cultural
identities. Yet the Indian Union has been holding since 1947. India is more
multi-religious than Nigeria - encompassing Hindus, Moslems, Sikh,
Buddhists, Christians and others. Some of these religions have from time to
time been highly politicized - including radical Hinduism, radical Sikhism
and radical Islam. Yet the Indian Union has been holding since 1947".
He continued: "India like Nigeria, has experienced conflicts and separatist
movements. This has included the appalling blood shed between the Hindus and
Moslems, following the creation of Pakistan in 1947, the continuing residual
bloodshed in Kashmir, the periodic violence of Sikh secessionism and Punjab
separatism, the tribal wars of the Naga people in the North. Yet the Indian
Union has held and survived since 1947. Unlike Nigerians, Indians are also
deeply divided by caste. From the Brahmins at the top to the untouchables
(HSI) at the bottom. While some Nigerian ethnic groups do have such castes
as the OSU among the Igbo, caste in African societies is much more modest
than caste among Indians. And yet the Indian Union has resiliently remained
since India's independence in 1947".
Concluding his Nigeria-India comparison, the scholar ended with an
electrifying optimism which attracted a long-standing ovation from the
audience.
He said: "If the Indian Union can survive inspite of being multi-ethnic,
multi-religious, multi-lingual, multi-caste and multi-conflicts, and still
be a democracy - surely the Nigerian Union can survive too. The Indian Union
survived by sheer will power. Nigeria too must find the will to endure".
Mazrui lampooned the Nigerian elite for their money-making attitude, "rather
than creating wealth". This development, according to him has culminated in
multi-effects for the country. All this and other factors have conspired
together to wreck havoc on the country's development growth and stability.
Identifying corruption, nepotism and violence, as threats to the nation's
growth in the 21st century, Mazrui canvassed the establishment of a "special
ombudsmen system on corruption control both at the federal and the state
levels".
He posited: "The raw Nigeria of the 21st century should consider having
special ombudsman system on corruption control both at the federal level and
in each state. Complaints about corruption would be lodged to the ombudsman
who would be equipped with resources and staff to investigate, warn and
where necessary sue. Corruption can be a deadly cancer on both the economy
and the political systems and deserves considerable investment of resources.
The ombudsman system may need the support of a corruption investigate
police. There will need to be a different ombudsman for Heiman Rights and
civil liberties. Complaints about violation of civil liberties at either the
state or the federal level would initially be lodged within the ombudsman
system. One of the purpose is to increase mediation and reduce litigation".
Wondering if Nigeria should go for a confederation or a federation of
cultures, the scholar noted that what is need in Nigeria is a division of
control "similar to the deal between ethnic Malays and ethnic Chinese in
Malaysia".
He said: "What was the defacto deal struck between blacks and whites in
South Africa after Nelson Mandela's release. In order to avert a racial war,
the whites said to the blacks: "You can take the crown, we shall keep the
Jewels".
"The whites transferred political power to the blacks but retained the bulk
of economic control. The whites retained the best businesses, the best
wives, the best jobs, the best shops in major cities, the blacks acquired
the power to govern within those extremes. The blacks had received the
political crown, the whites retained the economic jewels. Here again is a
situation not division of labour but a division of control similar to the
deal between ethnic Malays and ethnic Chinese in Malaysia."
He added: "the question crises whether in a defacto kind of a similar
division of control had developed between the North and South in Nigeria.
Was the North to be the hub of political power, while the South was the hub
of economic activity and wealth?
Were Northerners the equivalent of ethnic Malay - numerically strong
military protected but entrepreneurially less developed? Were southerners in
Nigeria the equivalent of ethnic Chinese in Malaysia - more westernised,
more entrepreneurial and better endowed in material resources? Was this the
defacto division of control between North and South? Was the north supposed
to have the political crown while the south kept the bulk of the economic
jewels? If this was Nigeria's natural compact of division of control in much
of the second half of the twentieth century, is it breaking down in the
first century?"
These questions were a recurring decimal in Mazrui's paper, to act which
never ceased to arouse the curiosity of the audience who were anxious to
know the point being made by the scholar.
According to him, with the election of Obasanjo as president, "another
challenge is to tackle the dangerous "economic ethnic group and between
regions."
The lecture elicited reactions from the crowd, particularly Prof. Philip,
currently on the Federal Government committtee on budget who wondered why
Mazrui kept comparing Nigeria with India. To Philip, it is wrong to argue
that just because the Indian Union has survived, surely Nigeria must survive
as a federation.
He said: "Will Nigeria hold when we are compared with India? There is also
the former USSR whose stay is different today. Eventually, everybody in the
USSR had to go his way. Maybe, it was the leadership that was responsible
for that ."
To him, Mazrui's comparison of the Nigerian situation with India is a
simplistic way of looking at grave issues affecting the country.
According to Philip, the problem facing Nigeria include the collapse of the
economy which has all the characteristics of a post-war economy.
"Now to revive and grow a post-war economy requires a different approach. So
what we are gaining at the political front, we are all losing at the
economic sector. So all this comparison do not make one comfortable. But I
dare not criticise Prof. Ali Mazrui. It would be most un-African to do so.
He belongs to the first generation of African scholars, the class you find
Prof. Abayode, and Prof. Ade Ajayi."
In his response, Mazrui argued that Philip's fear are unfounded because the
situation in the former USSR was quite different from that of Nigeria.
According to him, the former Soviet Union, "was a dynastic power and was not
conquered and colonized"
He said: USSR's case is different from Nigeria. It is India that has the
same features with Nigeria, hence the comparison. India, like Nigeria, was a
conquered territory by the British. But unlike India and Nigeria, USSR was a
dynasty. So, the features are different, so Nigeria, like India will
survive.
Responding to another question bordering on calls for self-determination
amongst the Ijaws of the Niger Delta, over resource-control, the eminent
scholar restated that Nigeria should design an equitable formula for
resource-sharing.
"On a vital commodity, nobody has total control. You have to design a
formula for sharing," he said.
"Can the Nigerian union be saved? .If the union of the Republic of India
could be saved since India's independence in 1947, so can the Nigerian
Union. The population of India, almost ten times the population of Nigeria.
India is hitting a billion people, and will before very long, outstrip China
as the most populous country in the world, yet the Indian Union has been
holding since 1947.
"The raw Nigeria of the 21st century should consider having special
ombudsman system on corruption control both at the federal level and in each
state. Complaints about corruption would be lodged to the ombudsman who
would be equipped with resources and staff to investigate, warn and where
necessary sue".
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