Making Politics Work for Citizens, Governance and Development: Beyond the Edo Doctrine

INTERNATIoNAL

Bola A. Akinterinwa 

‘Making Politics Work for Citizens, Governance and Development: The Edo State Experience’ was the title of the lecture delivered on Tuesday, 22nd March 2022 as part of the 2022 Distinguished Lecture Series of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), by His Excellency, the Executive Governor of Edo State, Nigeria, Mr. Godwin Obaseki. Intrinsic in the lecture topic is the hypothesis that politics in Edo State has not impacted well for citizens, particularly for Edo State citizens and for governance and development in the State before now. Has politics really been working for governance and development of the whole people of Nigeria? If yes, how? How does politics work for other constitutive States of Nigeria and internationally? How does politics work for citizens, governance, and development internationally? 

In Nigeria, politics, especially in its mania of playing, has been more of an inhibition to national growth and development. Governance has been largely fraught with institutional corruption and political chicanery. Political parties are managed by doctrines of god-fatherism. They do not have ideologies and internal democracy. In fact, in many of their elections, votes do not count. Politics is grosso modo that of the jungle. 

In the eyes of Tunde Odunlami, politics in Nigeria is baffling, especially from the perspective of excessive interplay of ethnic politics. As he noted, ‘some scholars tend to over-emphasize the dominance of ethnic interplay in the understanding of Nigerian politics. What perhaps baffles one is that there is no nation in the world that does not have different ethnic groups within its boundaries. The Basques, Catalans and Galicians are examples in Spain, while we have the Irish, Welsh, Scotts in the United Kingdom. It is therefore a phenomenon that is visible in every human society that is pluralistic.’

Additionally, Odunlami has it that ‘what sustains a nation is the ability to manage relations amongst the various groups on the face of scarce resources. For Nigerians, this has been one of the most difficult tasks and it has played the issue of ethnicity to the highest level’ (vide, Tunde Odunlami, “Ethnic Militias, Political Agitations and National Security,” in John A. A. Ayoade, Adeoye A. Akinsanya, and Olatunde JB Ojo, eds., The Jonathan Presidency: The First Year (Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America, 2014, p. 197).

Without any whiff of doubt, ethnic politics is an issue in Nigeria but why is it an issue? Is it, rightly or wrongly, believed that Nigeria is not a nation but a ‘geographical expression? If it is nothing more than a ‘geographical expression,’ what prevents Nigerians from moving Nigeria beyond being a mere geographical expression? And perhaps more inquisitively, how is politics played in Nigeria? Why is politics not a good tool for good governance and development in Nigeria? Answers can be found in what can now be called the Obaseki Doctrine or EDO Doctrine on Governance and Development. 

The EDO Doctrine

Governor Obaseki’s lecture can be summarized into three main parts: E, D, and O. From the lecture title, by talking about ‘making politics work.’ necessarily implies that politics had not been working well before he took over power. The first intellectual challenge therefore is to seek self-education on why politics had not been working and well. Besides, there is the need, not only for self-education on the generality of problems in EDO State, but also on educational enlightenment of the people to create awareness about the challenges to be addressed. This is part ‘E,’ the first pillar of the Obaseki doctrine.

As regards part ‘D,’ it is about determination to address whatever might be responsible for non-workability of politics for citizens, governance, and development in EDO State. Determination requires doing what is needful at all costs. It means not looking backwards. It means achieving set objectives with courage and hope that better days are still coming. And more importantly, it requires carrying people that matter along and keeping the public abreast. Part ‘O’ is about the organization of the efforts to be deployed in translating the education acquired and the determination to succeed into action and manifest destiny. Organisation is about orderliness, programmatic arrangements, with emphasis on periodic evaluation and articulation of challenges.

Thus, Governor Obaseki has adopted the strategy of Education, Determination, and Organisation, which is synonymous with the name of his state, EDO, as the triangular pillars of his people-driven development policy. Deductively speaking, Nigeria’s problem of bad governance and non-development, which is partly induced by ethnic politics, exists largely because of miseducation or lack of good education on Nigeria’s problems, lack of objective determination to resolve Nigeria’s problems based on honesty of purpose, and lack of constructive organization of efforts that are free from corruption and political chicanery.

At the level of education, Governor Obaseki adopted a comparative methodology, comparing the non-development at the level of the Federal Government and non-development at the level of Edo State government. The problematique he identified here is ‘why our democratic experience to date has not provided good governance; why our economic and socio-political development have remained stunted’; and why ‘the political elite who have responsibility not only to institutionalise the democratic process but also to develop a political culture which should foster and enhance development, have failed to do so.’

In explaining some of the rationales for the problematique, he discussed the contradiction between existential challenges and the people’s democratic hopes; the promotion of individuals to the detriment of institutions; the inability to manage diversity; and the flaws of unitary federalism. As he put it, for instance, ‘our country is faced with existential challenges as it tries to cope with several transitions, from political transition in a few months, to the demographic transition and economic transition occurring locally and globally.’ And true enough, he observed that politics in Nigeria is that of bribery and money politics, use of thugs and dangerous physical weapons, and godfatherism.

Perhaps more disturbingly, he noted that the political system in Nigeria ‘is not designed to attract selfless service,’ for various reasons: unnecessary entry barriers to the political system (age restriction, high cost of nomination and expression of interest); prohibitive cost of the electioneering process; proliferation of political parties with no clear ideology; electoral malpractices; and hyper-commercialisation of the political process which makes the system inaccessible to honest people.

While these challenges exist, the democratic expectations of the people remain undaunted. As explicated by Governor Obaseki, democracy is to provide opportunity to participate in decision making within the political process. In other words, ‘democracy, be it liberal, African or modern, must include equal opportunity for all, there must be the fundamental recognition of popular sovereignty, representativeness, majority rule, protection of minority rights, popular consultation, the right of choice between alternative programmes and consensus on fundamental issues, as well as periodic elections.’

Most importantly, the expectation of the people is that democracy will create ‘a climate of true political and civil freedom which will enable the country achieve the fundamental conditions for development,’ and that it will ‘produce responsible government that is committed to the advancement of the public goods rather than private interest of the political actors.’

In recognition of the foregoing problematique, Governor Obaseki resolved to address it. He explained his determination in the form of seeking to promote strong institutions rather than strong individuals, promote Edo State as a constituent of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, in the strong belief that such effort will help remove the flaws of unitary federalism in Nigeria, and more significantly, promote governmental accountability by showing leadership by example. The belief of Governor Obaseki is that ‘a properly functioning democracy should not only provide basic social and economic goods’, but it should also ‘provide the right of groups and individuals to hold their governments accountable.’ 

And most importantly, he said, ‘it is only when citizens can hold government accountable that the State would improve on its ability to get things done accountably to citizens and be responsive to citizens’ rights and needs.’ This is the philosophy of determination that informs political governance in Edo State. 

As regards the third pillar, organization of all efforts, this is about the policy actions taken and to be taken. Concerning the policy actions already taken, they include the retooling of politics to engender development; adoption of people-centric policies and programmes; opening up the political space to a broad range of players to the chagrin of the godfathers; embarking on institutional reforms; revamping of the public service to reduce the cost of governance; opening up the business environment; curbing human trafficking and irregular migration; rolling out infrastructure projects and further strengthening people-centric politics with emphasis on the education sector (Edo Basic Education Sector Transformation, EdoBEST), which has transformed the lives of over 400,000 pupils across the State; strengthening partnership with the private sector, especially with the Ossiomo Power Company to provide stable power supply to government institutions; and making the environment more conducive for air traffic and high occupancy rate of hotels. The improvement is to the extent that the number of airlines flying to Edo State has increased from two when Governor Obaseki came to power, to five as at today. 

Above all, not only has the security situation in the state improved with the Edo State Security Network with the federal security structure, but the youths have also been upskilled, especially with the Edo Tech Park Programme, which is done in partnership with Decagon to train 15,000 software engineers in the next five years. Based on the EDO doctrine, Governor Obaseki advised that ‘it is time to set sentiments aside. The country is adrift. It is time to take tough decisions to rescue the country from the brink. We must now adopt proven methods and innovations in retooling our politics and democracy and make them work for the delivery of good governance and development of our people.’ 

Beyond EDO Doctrine: Nigeria’s Adriftness 

For Governor Obaseki, there is an EDO model from which national development policy can always borrow and which can make politics to work nationally for citizens, governance, and development. This is true. However, national, and international perception of politics and politicians raise more questions than answers. For instance, at the international level, while Otto von Bismarck argued in 1863 that politics is the doctrine of the possible and the attainable, Sir Winston (Leonard Spencer) Churchill had it in 1920 that politics are almost as exciting as war, and quite as dangerous. In war you can only be killed once, but in politics many times.’ If politicians die many times, the Holy Bible also says we all die every day regardless of whether we are politicians.

In this regard, politics considered as a possibility and the attainable, the issue of Obaseki’s determination is necessarily raised. If a set target can be attained, why not resolve to achieve it? More important, if politics is likened to a war, it means that the attainability of a set target may require the use of force or going to war. This shows that politics has a multi-dimensional character and must not always be taken with kid gloves.

Perhaps more interestingly, it was Ambrose (Gwinnett) Bierce who once told us that ‘politics is a strive of interests masquerading as a contest of principles and the conduct of public affairs for private advantage.’ If politics is believed to only serve private interests, in which way is politics in Nigeria different? How do we ensure that the conduct of public affairs serves public interest? Additionally, why is it that politicians are not statesmanlike? A former French president, George Pompidou, has noted that ‘a statesman is a politician who places himself at the service of his nation. A politician is a statesman who places the nation at his service.’ Are Nigerian politicians statesmanlike?

At the level of Nigeria, this view is corroborated by Chuks Nwaze who has observed that the Nigerian ‘politician is not dithered by what people say or think’ and that ‘the business of politics in our land is not just dirty, it is risky and dangerous, with hordes of enemies waiting for you at various bus stops. You need a lot of money, not just to protect yourself and stay alive, but also to leave for your family, should your enemies succeed in eliminating you. You may call this security fund.’

Put differently, engagement in politics and in sharp corruption is for self-survival in Nigeria. This cannot but largely explain the mega corruption as the driving force of political governance in Nigeria. Cases of contract scams, approvals in principle and cash backing, security votes, provision of constitutional immunity, ownership of offshore accounts, deceitful assets declaration, plea-bargaining, which is an incentive to steal or return ill-gotten money, legislative emoluments, or windfalls, etc. (vide Chuks Nwaze, Corruption in Nigeria Exposed: With Cases, Scams, Laws, and Preventive Measures (Yaba, Lagos: CIBN Press Ltd, 2011, p. 19 et s.) are obvious manifestations of mega and institutional corruption in Nigeria.

What makes Governor Godwin Obaseki probably different as a Nigerian politician is his similarity with the attitudinal disposition of former US president, Woodrow Wilson, to politics. President Wilson said he ‘would rather fail in a cause that will ultimately succeed than succeed in a cause that will ultimately fail.’ This means that politics must be very purposeful. The purpose must never be jettisoned because of its goodness, despite whatever challenges. This is better than making successful efforts when the ultimate target is bound to fail.

Again, there is the issue of the Nigerian policeman. Quoting the Nigerian Observer, Adeyo Richard described the behaviour of the police officers as follows: ‘the officers and men are doing a good job very badly. They are too materialistic, they have lost their credibility to enforce and maintain law and order without resort to the use of firearms, above all they belong to the first and perhaps the last category of individuals who would settle for the short-term benefit of the present rather than wait for a day to get a more rewarding long-term benefit. They qualify success and achievement in their chosen career in terms of naira and kobo’ (vide Adeyo A., The Nigerian police and its Publics: Issues and Controversies on Human Rights (Lagos: Chim-Chi Blessed Nig. Ventures, 2012, pp. 42-46). Richard

Thus, in which way is the Nigerian politician different from the Nigerian policeman? Can they be said to be different from the Nigerian people who easily acquiesced to the societal ills? Has the system of award of national honours not been corrupted? Is the award of traditional chieftaincy titles still based on merit and recognition of community service? In fact, how can we make politics work in Nigeria where President Muhammadu Buhari has flagrantly pushed nepotism to its crescendo without any feeling of self- and governmental shame?

For sure, the EDO model can be replicated in other States of Nigeria based on the educational enlightenment of the people, if the people acknowledge their own peculiar problems, if there is collective determination to succeed, and if there is collectivity of organizational skills.

In this regard, the Nigerian environmental conditionings must first be changed by determination and organizational restructuring of the polity. Without making a united Nigeria a philosophy in which Nigerians unrepentantly believe, the EDO doctrine may be quite difficult to replicate elsewhere. Besides, since many Nigerians believe that winning election is essentially by fraud, this belief must be repolished. EDO model cannot work if PMB has either Islamisation or Fulanisation agenda, because most Nigerians have been made to believe to believe that PMB has that agenda. In fact, the EDO model cannot but be most inapplicable with Muammar Gaddafi’s postulation that there will never be any enduring peace in Nigeria until Nigeria is partitioned into Muslim North and Christian South. These issues go beyond the Obaseki doctrine.