THE GOVERNMENT led by General Muhammadu Buhari on coming to power in 1983 thought that it has answers to all the problems confronting the country. It saw Nigeria’s problem basically as that of indiscipline.
Nigeria, like other countries of the world that are class-structured, is bedevilled with conflict of interest that leads to antagonistic contradictions. So, morality could not define the problem at stake without the parameter of class relationship associated with the economy as well as politics too. This is the very reason the state covered up an officer who was reported to have stolen the pension funds of workers running to billions of naira while at the same period a report had it that a petty thief was sentenced to three years imprisonment.
This scenario made Fela’s lyrics that ‘pen-robbers pass armed robbers’ is still very relevant till today; because pen-robbers deal and rob people with billions of naira from the nation’s treasury thereby killing millions of people in silence; whereas armed robbers are of lesser status as they kill people in order to deprive them of thousands or millions of naira in their possession.
Any government that cannot plan for her citizens and meet their basic needs is not worth being called a government and should not in the least be relied upon. In the same manner, a genuine government out to right the wrongs of the past century of economic and political injustice could not but come to the realisation of the futility of capitalist path of development in addressing this and this is the more reason the intervention of IMF will only compound the problem rather than solving it.
In setting the record straight, Nigeria achieved her political independence for self-rule in the year 1960. There is no gain saying that the problem of the country as it concerns leadership started from this period. Right leadership in power that could mobilise the working masses along developmental process was lacking. Then the country has henceforth experienced changes of governments that passed from one hand to another with promises of good governance but what has been experienced in turn has been government of self-delusion. A case of two steps backward and a step forward. The result was such that the working people has been deceived and treated as gullible. The characteristic of the various governments has been that of opportunistic civilian regimes to extreme military dictatorships. This became the norms for the past five decades after independence without any serious achievements apart from the fact that we survive as a nation.
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Instead of far-reaching economic independence needed for the transformation of the country the political leaders have been contended with political independence that is limited in scope as it is restricted to serve their own personal purpose together with that of their peers on the altar of exploitation, oppression and poverty for the rest of the working people. This is our predicament up to the present period. The independence we have is limited as the interest of the people is not served, while the dominant force remains the economic and political players that include foreign and Nigerian capitalists.
On the control of the economy, the foreign capitalists have been having the upper hand since the colonial period and this continues thereafter in the post-colonial period. And there have been no attempt to shift from being supplier of raw materials to serve the purpose of the foreign industries. This significantly limited our foreign exchange earnings as the price of the cash crops we export are being dictated by the forces of world market that we are part and a player. Alternative way of diversifying the economy into other areas such as industries, manufacturing that could improve our GDP considerably have been jettisoned while the successive governments played lip service in accepting this policy. Fundamental change in terms of socio-economic transformation of the system that is required has been jettisoned only to focus on a cosmetic measure such as the campaign against indiscipline by the military ruler under the government of Muhammed Buhari as if that was what Nigerians deserved and needed.
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Any government that cannot plan for her citizens and meet their basic needs is not worth being called a government and should not in the least be relied upon. In the same manner, a genuine government out to right the wrongs of the past century of economic and political injustice could not but come to the realisation of the futility of capitalist path of development in addressing this and this is the more reason the intervention of IMF will only compound the problem rather than solving it.
The notes of warning by no other persons than Professor Babu and Indira Ghandi (Prime Minister of India) against IMF are enough for us to take a second look on this before accepting to swallow the killing therapy suggested to us by such multilateral institutions. There are avalanche of reasons to justify such advice as no country has ever succeeded with IMF loan While in principle there is nothing wrong in credit or loan facilities to other business players in the world of business as the importance of loan could not be overemphasised but in this instance, the multilateral institutions as IMF and World Bank must be noted to have been created for the purpose of addressing the problem of the developed countries and this is the very reason the mechanism and ideology of their operation do not feat in to the situation of the less developed nations. And the management of those institutions seem conscious in trying to impose the same conditions as being operated in the developed countries of the world on the less developed countries in order to serve the interest of the former. Typical of this was the common conditionality for IMF and World Bank loan to devalue the currency of the debtor countries from less developed countries; while at the same time they refused the same policy to apply to other developed countries as China and Japan that willingly choose to devalue. Whoever does not learn the trick here that those institutions are weapons of domination and exploitation by the extant developed countries has not learnt anything. If there is any reason to accept loans by these institutions it must be well thought out under our own conditions that our interest could be protected rather than being subjected to perpetual slavery.
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The incoming government and its supporters have been putting emphasise on the issue of indiscipline as the problem confronting us while all their efforts are geared towards this in resolving the problem at hand. But can this be correct? The fact remains that we cannot isolate the effects from the causes. The causes have to be understood and studied in order to find a lasting solution to the problem as this. On the other hand, if effects is given a priority as the government did, the case could be likened to a patient who is suffering from a boil pain but made to treat headache and high temperature while the intrinsic problem is left unattended to as a result of a misplaced priority of treating effect rather the cause of the problem. So the core of the sickness has to be cured to save the patient.
This brings one to the conclusion that there is no way indiscipline can be checked if its cause is yet to be identified. With this contradiction in mind something tangible has to be done as opposed to the cosmetic measures that are meant to degrade the poor people more in form of levy and taxes of different kinds and retrenchment of employees. As it is a common saying in the study of criminology that stopping crime could not be limited to punish the individual but largely depending on the anti-social sources of crime that have to be destroyed.
In addressing the problem posed by indiscipline therefore, the priority should be how to transform the socio-economic institutions in such way that the interest of the people could be enhanced.
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I cannot but agree with Nigel Harris when he stated that: “The health status of thousands of millions of people steadily improved as a result of the post-Second World War boom rather than “simply changes in medical technology or improvements in public health (as) often these facilities did not reach the rural areas where many of those affected by the changes live. A large part of the change must derive from improved diets, fewer mothers suffered the combative effects of protein deficiency, the body weight and the diet of the new-born improved. One of the greatest sources for permanent anguish throughout the ages, the death of children, was curbed.
They wrongfully assume that the basic goal of any society is to achieve the same values that characterised the culture of other developed countries they look forward to imitate. This is why some assumptions of capitalism have been taken for granted. Such assumptions include exploitation of others instead of collective oriented enterprise, possession of luxury instead of emphasis on necessity of lives for the poor, individualism instead of collectivism, importation of industrialisation instead of transformation of agriculture and industrialisation based on the resources available to us.
My argument therefore is that the political machinery in the hands of the new helmsman Major General Muhammadu Buhari is to be used to develop the economy in such a way that social inequality can be drastically reduced, employment guaranteed, living wage made possible while adequate funding of education and health and social infrastructures assured. It is in this way that the wellbeing of the working masses could be guaranteed and this will go a long way in leading to multiplier effects by the economy as well as in other areas especially in bringing down crime, insecurity, corruption and other vices associated with indiscipline.
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This is the best way out if we are not out to deceive ourselves by concentrating on misplaced priority of embarking on War-Against-Indiscipline that will only serve the purpose of some few individuals that are going to benefit at the level of bureaucratic head of such institutions as crime has been constituted into a veritable institution within the state in providing jobs for security, lawyers, judges, the criminals and their facilitators. This has also earned the government revenues coming from charges on criminals and made them to confiscate their loots and properties with other penalties imposed by the authorities.
Pondering further on this, one would expect the Federal Government to campaign in favour of the true value expected of the individuals in the manner that portray civility rather than the present mode of oppression. There is no gain saying that everybody’s true value as at now is consumerism. This is rampant among our elites who are at the corridor of power in collaboration with the bosses in the control of the means of production at the detriment of the working class. The government could not be exempted from being a party to this wrong concept of social value imposed on the working people.
They wrongfully assume that the basic goal of any society is to achieve the same values that characterised the culture of other developed countries they look forward to imitate. This is why some assumptions of capitalism have been taken for granted. Such assumptions include exploitation of others instead of collective oriented enterprise, possession of luxury instead of emphasis on necessity of lives for the poor, individualism instead of collectivism, importation of industrialisation instead of transformation of agriculture and industrialisation based on the resources available to us. Making use of consultant and foreign experts over Nigerian trained abroad or in Nigeria. The result of this false value that is alien to us is responsible for what we are experiencing daily in form of insurgency, terrorism, armed robbery, impatience, bribery and corruption, looting of public treasury, indecent dressing, and purchase of employment; kidnapping by gunmen for ransom, ethnic chauvinism, and unwarranted killings by terrorist gangs.
