Prior to his coming, Nigerians had high expectations of the Muhammadu Buhari Presidency. But appraising his two years in office of Buhari’s administration in a chat with ABDULRAHMAN A. ABDULRAUF, President, Nigerian Political Science Association, Professor Shuaib A. Ibrahim, says the expectations are far from being met, adding that the APC-led government is getting it wrong
Let’s start on a very inquisitive note. Is politics a game or an art?
To the best of my understanding, I will describe them both as an art and a game. An art in the sense that, at least we have actually, those who are very well in the routine of looking at the science of politics and the sophistication of what politics is all about, and that will allow for you to see if you can have some control, you can have some prediction based on one or two feelers. That makes it scientific. It can be a game in terms of those who don’t take as a routine, just as an ad-hoc, they are willing just to have the satisfaction of it or the nuisance value of it. By that I mean very well , we have those who are routine. You can say scientifically, this is how it goes on one or two predictions or postulates. It becomes a game where you have all comers, political riffraff, those of who just wake up, thugs, and they widened the scope, the hemisphere, the parameter of the political chess play. Howsoever, much of it is seen within the framework as an art, but for the pleasant value and nuisance value because the nuisance value gives pleasantry to politics.
Within the context of the last general elections, how predictable is politics in Nigeria?
For me, from all indications, the last experiment in terms of going to the election in 2015 was a leveller because the conundrums were there, the indices were there that things were very much in bad shape and so you could easily, if you are going scientific, predict that one or two things can happen if you want to go scientific. And I think the prediction, most people that actually predicted and played game on it, over 80% were proved right , because, already the environment was rife. You could see a lot of indices that showed very well that the government was not going to survive based on the economic , political, social and even some religious sentiments too.
If you look at it along religious line, you could see one religion being played against another which was not supposed to be. And if you take the economic aspect, a lot of people believed the economy was in shamble. Some were actually making it while others were hanging on here and there. Then if you go politically, a lot of lawlessness, impunity, abuses, which in themselves, if critically were not actually groundings for a thorough-bred political sagacity. In that manner, you could see it in the malfunctioning of the system. The institutions that were supposed to carry out were so weak that they could not carry out their statutory and extant functions, and be that as it may, it created an environment where you have a lot of malfunctioning in the system, and whence a subsystem malfunctions, it is likely to affect the holistic nature of the system itself. And you could see about one, two, three or four system malfunctioned. On the political framework, especially in term of governance, no recourse to law, a lot of abuse and impunity was even more than any other.
Based on such feelers that were very rife in the society, it was very clear to say look, there was no way the last election would have come up with the same operators. A lot of people had desired change because they felt they were not getting the best from government.
Over three decades of military rule, how then do you describe politics in Nigeria since independence? Has this really benefitted the masses?
I have always said very well that if we had actually fiddled or played what I call a toddler role which we started immediately after our independence in 1960, we went on until the military stuck. If they had allowed us to try just like a toddler standing up and falling and falling, I am sure by now we would have been able to get it right. But the intrusion of the military which became prolonged nature of the military rule, actually created strong feelings that we were going to have some serious instability factor . instability in the sense that , military had come and harangued the whole society and a lot of people, I mean even civil laws became militarised. The military incursion itself even made civilians militaristic in their approach to issue of governance , the approach to issue of family feud, you see the man charged because of the new relationship he has had with the military. Thank God the military left and we have had steady democracy for 16 years. But I think the military rule, is, to a large extent responsible for the problems we had. If they allowed the first regime t continue, I am sure by now, we would have had our acts together and been better off. It is a postulation anyway which we don’t have the power to know would have been alternatives to our actions and inactions.
Isn’t politics scientific again?
Well, if you go scientific, you can say this is it. But the scientific itself is dependent on al lot of things; the idealist and the realist positions that all things must be equal under social sciences, which cannot be under social sciences. Under natural and applied sciences, anything that goes up must come down . Although, some people have even said that even at the natural level, things that go up may not come down. But it is an agreed fact in social sciences that things can go up may never, never come down, under demand and supply. Why are rent going up? I have always taken Ilorin where I schooled. It’s one of the peaceful places I have seen. In Ilorin , rent is very, very minimal compared to Abuja. Using options A and B comparatively, food and rents are relatively cheap in Ilorin than Abuja, and life is not a fast lane type of target we have here (Abuja).
Impunity and disregard for the rule of law characterised the last administration, like you said. Has anything really changed now?
You know I told you that how I wish we knew our alternatives, that if I take action A, am sure that B would come out. How I wish we knew, only the almighty has the power to know the differentials between actions and inactions, and the outcome of the alternatives. We went headlong, we ‘bankrolled’ this government, and gave the support, massive support we could muster . Many of us would now sit down , and ask; how did we get it wrong , what is happening and what is not happening? The expectations are not there. The great expectations that this is what you want , and you are seeing that the desired goals that you chose are not forthcoming. Many of us have our hiccups on whether the government was what we voted for, what are the expectations and what we are getting? There are a lot of misgivings about that. Many people have the feelings that we still haven’t gotten it right and the cries we had last time, seem to have come up again, and some are even saying more than what it was before.
The only thing that has changed between PDP and APC, it’s a matter of just name. Other than Buhari and very few people, APC is just PDP reincarnated in another form. So, you could see very well that not much has changed, and since not much has changed, the cries, the yearnings, the aspirations are still as yesterday, yesterday being the last regime and the other regimes. This can’t be put clearly at the doorstep of this regime alone, it is a backlog. I have talked about military intrusion which actually created a hiccup created a bad step. We have always said the most benevolent military regime is worse than a bad democratic regime , worst form of democratic regime. That is the notion politics scientists would have because the intrusion itself, the contraption of a military regime is an aberration, is heresy, it should not be…….
And you don’t think that could be faulted, going by the fact that government is all about the peoples welfare?
Yes , it should be faulted. Good, if you go by Alexander Pope, he says for forms of government, let fools contend, whatever is best administered, is best. We are not talking about the methodology, but the point is that the welfarist nature of a state should always be what is uppermost. What do the people want? They want security. What do the people want? They want food, they want education, they want good health, they want infrastructural development . Whether it is a military regime, whether it is a monarchical regime, whether it is a democratic regime, as long as it can give one, two, three of what the society needs, we don’t need any definition of form of government.
That is why the concept of toying with diarchy came in. Some said, the military based on her nature, class orientation, the military is always fast in doing things. The legislative law, the military has no time for that, the governor says I want this done, it is done. In this case, you proposed a bill, and the bill goes three years, no response coming in , and you get a lot of setback by the luxury of the three arms of government.
Buhari called the judiciary one of the most problematic headaches of the current regime because he felt he has been frustrated in the ways and manners he wanted to do. I want to assume and conclude on that that it is serious that the form of government does not matter as long as governance is about good supply of water, good roads, health, security and self-actualisation if I may add, then we don’t need any form of government. All we need is how to sustain ourselves as human beings.
Then where is the Buhari administration getting it wrong if there doesn’t appear to be any change?
The administration seems to have forgotten that once you institutionalise mechanisms that are supposed to tackle identified societal problems, then definitely you will be getting it right. Let me tell you why. If you say you are tackling corruption, we have always said corruption has symptoms. Corruptions are reflections of innermost things. Why must people go corrupt? If I know I have to cut corner to get the N50,000 I deserve, I have 10,000 and I cannot afford the differential of 40, then definitely I have to cut corner.
Why don’t you tackle the mind problem rather than what we call the generic ones that are mundane, that you can see? Between the mind and the brain, which is more difficult to tackle? The problem of the mind is more of a problem than the problem of the brain, because the brain is more of a coordinate that takes all the mind has.
So, comparing the danger of the mind and that of the brain, that of the mind is conceptual , because that is where things are conceived. Why don’t you look at the corruption very well? The institutions are not just say, ICPC, EFCC or DSS. Look for inherent, where is the generic problems coming from? What are you doing about youth unemployment? How do you allow for everybody to go to school? Some people can’t be going to school and some hawking on the streets. I have always said that democracy without checks and balances is anachronistic. When you allow people to have same environment, to have what you called compartmentalised welfarist packages . People are doing the same work but because of privileges here and there, some people go home rich with more than others. The dichotomy between the man and woman working. Before now, woman cannot bail. My wife cannot bail me now if I am arrested, I don’t know if that has been changed. When you have such segregated system, you are likely to have problem.
What we are saying is that , give strength to the institution, and not this ad-hoc approach of go today, go and arrest this and that. By the time you have institutions that are fundamentally on ground doing that type of work, not this eye-service approach, definitely you are tackling security problem.
At my inaugural lecture, I said we thank Boko Haram for reawakening our consciousness . if security as an aspect of our living, we have given our trust and support by paying taxes, government must play its role, just like J.J Rose on social contract. If we give you, we expect you give and we have every right to withdraw our support if you are not giving us. if security had been tackled over time and we don’t go to sleep each time we put out fire, and go back home getting ready for another fire-brigade approach , that is not solving problem. We are saying strengthen the institution and let them be there 2/4/7.
Boko Haram , we saw it coming and everybody kept quiet, just like we saw Shi’ites coming, and we allowed. When it becomes from benign neglect to what I call malignant tumour, and you now say you want to treat it. Why must workers go on strike? Workers have table one, two, three and you won’t do anything until they go on strike. What were you doing in the early hours when you had the packages of negotiation. So, we have to change. When you neglect the workers and you expect maximum performance. Human motivation, Abraham Maslow’s law on human motivation, is vey important. My wife knows that if she does not motivate me, things won’t go smooth.
Do we need another loan at this period?
I listened to DMO director general, Abraham Nwakwo on Channels ecently. He is saying that the loan is packaged for one year. We can draw loans for three years to the extent of that money Buhari is asking for. So, if we are asking for $US30billion for three years, it presumes that we can take ten each year. But my quarrel is if we are qualified , must we say because we are, we should go and do it. What have we been able to do with the recovered loots? We have collected more than $30billion in terms of recovered loots , just within the shores. I have right, well-built, am strong. Despite all these, must I do that? It’s not good economics. Government should look inward and not mortgage the future of Nigerians.
Manner of arrest of judges
The judiciary is one of the arms of government based on the concept of separation of power, and therefore not immune from the corruptive tendencies. A nation is as strong as its leaders. If the judiciary is part of the leadership, number four is the press, giving the government the voice and the people the right to reply. I want to say that the judiciary itself cannot be exonerated from the travails in the entire system. The system is as strong and as weak as the smallest problematic of the system.
If a chain has an opening, that is where the chain is likely to cut. A chain is as strong as the weakest part. So, if the judiciary, just like the legislature and executive are engrossed in corruption which they cannot come out of, the national malady will also affect the judiciary. Muritala Mohammed in the 70’s, started purging the civil service and the academics asked him to go ahead. When he finished with the civil service, it was the turn of the university and protest followed, but some of us said we are part of the Nigerian system. So, if Nigeria is corrupt, so are all facets, very corrupt lecturers, very corrupt vice chancellors, very corrupt registrars and administrative personnel. So, the Judiciary is part of the problem
As to how it was carried out, some of us took exception to that. The judiciary has an enshrined ways and means of checkmating such practices, but I think the grouse of the security agencies is that they had tried all the necessary procedures, it’s either they (judges) were being shielded by the NJC , and that they have the right under the law to do what they did. But I think, due processes must be allowed. Because by the time you carry out any act that is incongruous to democracy, it will be dangerous for our existence.
Fears over Buhari candidacy misplaced?
I wouldn’t say it is misplaced. If you heard President Buhari well, he said ‘I wish I had been 20 years younger. I think what he was saying then was that , ‘I wish I had the enrgy to do more than what I am doing’. We want to believe very strongly that the fear of Nigerians , to a large extent has been misplaced, because they felt very well, he would go the military way which may not be palatable to the wider civil society. My feeling is that a lot of people believe they have misplaced their trust. A lot of people express this sentiment. This is not our bargain, this is not our great expectation, this is not our desire.
