Challenges Of Nation Building: Nigeria As Case Study

MAF Logo In the vanguard of the struggle to build a great nation .: Our Vision & Mission .: Institutional Goal .: Objectives .: Policy Guidelines .: Board of Trustees .: Management Council .: Advisory Comm. .: Bello Akanbi-Oniyo Academy .: Programmes .: Site Map Back to previous page Thursday, 25 August 2016 Presentation by PROF. IBRAHIM A. GAMBARI Under-Secretary-General and Special Adviser to the United Nations Secretary-General THE CHALLENGES OF NATIONS BUILDING: THE CASE OF NIGERIA First Year Anniversary Lecture Mustapha Akanbi Foundation Sheraton Hotel Abuja, Nigeria 7 February 2008 I. Introduction: It gives me great pleasure to have this opportunity to address this distinguished audience and I thank Justice Akanbi and the Mustapha Akanbi Foundation for giving me this opportunity to share my thoughts with you on this important topic1. When I was approached to deliver this talk, I readily agreed for three important reasons. Firstly, to honour Honourable Justice Mustapha Akanbi, a distinguished jurist, and an outstanding public servant who has served this country well as a classroom teacher, judge and the Chair of ICPC. As I intend to argue in my presentation, nations are built by exemplary men and women and sustained by institutions that promote good governance and thus socio-economic development. Justice Akanbi is a shining example of one such a person and he was a pioneer head of a sensitive public institution. Secondly, I accepted the invitation so as to identify myself with the noble objectives of the Mustapha Akanbi Foundation which seeks to render ‘significant services to the people in the area of education, health, anti-corruption crusade, ethics, judicial responsibility, rule of law, democracy and good governance.’ It is particularly gratifying to note that the Foundation has been giving refresher training to teachers who mould the minds and intellect of our future generations. My most important reason, however, for accepting this invitation has to do with the subject matter for discussion. In my letter of invitation, I was asked ‘to examine our past critically, [and] find out why after close to five decades of attaining independence, Nigeria is still not out of the woods.’ As we move into the 21st Century, in this age of globalization, this should be a matter of concern to all of us. We need to reflect on our journey so far, so we can do better in the future and leave a better legacy for posterity II. Building a Nation: Nations are an important part of modern society. If we go back into history, we see that the world used to be divided into empires and kingdoms. In the modern period, however, nations or nation states have replaced empires as the basic unit of human political organization. I myself have had the privilege of close association with the United Nations, an organization set up to ensure the peaceful coexistence and the social economic development of the worlds numerous nations. As an integral part of the modern world, therefore, Nigerians are rightly concerned about nation-building. However, I would like to emphasise the fact that nations just don’t happen by historical accident; rather they are built by men and women with vision and resolve. Nation-building is therefore the product of conscious statecraft, not happenstance. Nation-building is always a work-in-progress; a dynamic process in constant need of nurturing and re-invention. Nation-building never stops and true nation-builder never rest because all nations are constantly facing up to new challenges. Nation-building has many important aspects. Firstly, it is about building a political entity which corresponds to a given territory, based on some generally accepted rules, norms, and principles, and a common citizenship. Secondly, it is also about building institutions which symbolize the political entity – institutions such as a bureaucracy, an economy, the judiciary, universities, a civil service, and civil society organizations. Above all else, however, nation-building is about building a common sense of purpose, a sense of shared destiny, a collective imagination of belonging. Nation-building is therefore about building the tangible and intangible threads that hold a political entity together and gives it a sense of purpose. Even in these days of globalization and rapid international flows of people and ideas, having a viable nation remains synonymous with achieving modernity. It is about building the institutions and values which sustain the collective community in these modern times. I shall return to the imperatives of institution-building later in this presentation. In Nigeria, however, there are some people who represent our national importance by calling us the ‘Giant of Africa’. This is an ascriptive perspective. We are seen as giants not necessarily because of the quality of our national institutions and values, but simply by virtue of our large population and oil wealth. But in reality, the greatness of a nation has to be earned and is not determined just by the size of its population or the abundance of its natural resources. China and India have the largest populations in the world, but they are only now rising as important global players. On the other hand, Japan has few natural resources, but has long managed to turn itself into a global economic powerhouse. In today's world, skills, industriousness, productivity, and competitiveness are the determinant factors of national greatness. Not even the possession of the nuclear bomb is enough to make a nation great without reference to the industriousness and creativity of its citizens. Since the time of Adam Smith, every serious nationalist and politician has come to know that the wealth of a nation is not based on the wealth and opulence of its rulers, but on the productivity and industriousness of its citizenry. The real question is why has the task of nation-building been so difficult in Nigeria, and the fruits so patchy, despite our enormous human and natural resources? I suggest that we should look for the answer in three critical areas: (1) threats and challenges posed by the environment for nation-building; (2) the quality of leadership that has confronted these challenges; and (3) the fragility of political and development institutions. We need to understand the environment for nation-building in Nigeria, so we can clearly identify our strengths, weaknesses, and core challenges. We also need to evolve a system of leadership selection and accountability which produces the sort of leaders that will confront the challenges of the environment in a way that is beneficial for nation-building. As I have argued at the beginning, nations are a product of the human will and imagination and the institutions that sustain their collective efforts. Therefore, we must find these resources in ourselves if we are to succeed in building our nation; otherwise, to paraphrase Shakespeare, “default would be not in our styles but in ourselves”. III. Challenges before Nigerian Nation-building: Nigeria faces five main nation-building challenges: (1) the challenge from our history; (2) the challenge of socio-economic inequalities; (3) the challenges of an appropriate constitutional settlement; (4) the challenges of building institutions for democracy and development; and (5) the challenge of leadership. In our quest for nation-building, we have recorded some successes, such as keeping the country together in the face of many challenges. But these challenges continue to keep us from achieving our full potential. It is to these challenges that I devote the rest of my presentation. 1. The Challenge of History The historical legacies of colonial rule create some challenges for nation-building in Nigeria. Colonial rule divided Nigeria into North and South with different land tenure systems, local government administration, educational systems, and judicial systems. While large British colonies like India and the Sudan had a single administrative system, Nigeria had two, one for the North and one for the South. It was almost as if these were two separate countries, held together only by a shared currency and transportation system. Many members of the Nigerian elite class in the 1950s and 1960s had their education and world outlook moulded by the regional institutions. Some had little or no understanding of their neighbouring regions. Under these conditions, it was easy for prejudice and fear to thrive. During the period of the decolonization struggle, Nigerian nationalists from different regions fought each other as much as they fought the British colonialists. Nigeria never had a central rallying figure like Kwame Nkrumah in Ghana or Nelson Mandela in South Africa. Instead, each region threw up its own champions. From this historical legacy, therefore, regionalism has been a major challenge to nation-building in Nigeria. To their credit, however, the founding fathers of our nation tried to deal with this challenge by adopting federalism and advocating a policy of unity-in-diversity. Unfortunately, the lack of consolidation of Nigerian federalism around commonly shared values and positions means that this challenge of divisive historical legacy continues to undermine our efforts at nation-building. One current manifestation of this historical legacy is the division between ‘indigenes’ and ‘settlers’. This division has been a source of domestic tension and undermined our efforts at creating a common nationhood. While we should learn from history so as not to repeat its mistakes, we must never see ourselves simmply as victims of our history; it is our responsibility to overcome the challenges posed by our history.