Opinion
Toyin Falola’s Suggestion Of The New Academic Field Of African Ancestral Studies
Published
3 weeks agoon
By Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
Compcros
The Question
What is original, what is new, in Toyin Falola’s suggestion of the new academic field of African Ancestral Studies and what represents a continuity of older ideas in this formulation?
What is original in Falola’s constitution of this field of enquiry is the integration of the study of endogenous African systems and processes of knowledge in terms of one field of study, facilitating dialogue between the findings and methods of various disciplines, enabling the creation of holistic bodies of knowledge in which interdisciplinary insights are integrated.
This field of study takes forward the insights, initiatives and methods of various disciplines in African Studies in the effort to foreground endogenous African bodies of knowledge, a central thrust of African Studies since the 60s and 70s and increasingly gathering momentum as part of the current emphasis on decolonizing the academic curriculum.
The Historical Context
The achievements of the Ibadan History School represented by Ade Ajayi, Kenneth Dike and others in exploring African history as lived by Africans and as seen through their eyes; the contribution to the creation of modern Nigerian art by the Zaria Rebels, Uche Okeke, Bruce Onobrakpeya, Yusuf Grillo and other members of the Zaria Art Society in unifying African subjects and artistic methods with Western techniques during and after their time at the Nigerian College of Arts, Science and Technology, Zaria; Ruth Finnegan’s decisive publication of her book African Oral Literature, signalling the establishment of understanding of the literary character of African orature, complemented by such works as Isidore Okpewho’s The Epic in Africa, initiatives putting paid to the ignorance highlighted by Wole Soyinka in his account, in Myth , Literature and the African World, of an early fellowship of his at Cambridge University where he learnt some influential people held that “there is no such mythical beast as African literature”; the philosophical achievements of Kwesi Wiredu, Paulin Hountundji, Abiola Irele and other foundational and later figures in African philosophy destroying the notion that the term “African philosophy is an oxymoron”, as I once heard someone declare; Rowland Abiodun, Babatunde Lawal, Barry Hallen and Olubunmi Sodipo on Yoruba aesthetics, epistemology-theories of knowledge and ethics-concepts of right and wrong; Aimee Dafon Segla on Yoruba mathematics and astronomy; Ron Eglash on African fractals; various works on the mathematics of Adinkra as created by the Akan and Gyaman of Ghana; Abdul Karim Bangura, Gloria Emeagwali and others on diverse aspects of science created within distinctively African contexts, and, in more recent times, the creation of a new style of filmmaking represented by Nigeria’s Nollywood, an example given by Falola in his recent introduction of the new field of study at the University of Ghana, are all initiatives, emerging in the 60s and 70s and ongoing, within and beyond academia, demonstrating the ultimate rationale of the new field of study Falola is initiating-foregrounding endogenous African creativity in all aspects of endeavour, exploring its contemporary, future and historic significance, but, in Falola’s new formulation, pursuing this goal in terms of interdisciplinary dialogue, as engaged with by individual scholars and constructed within learning and research programs conducted in the contexts of institutions of learning.
The New Initiative
This initiative is similar to literary critic Meyer Howard Abrams’ description of his achievement in his book The Mirror and the Lamp as the provision of a ribbon tying together previously existing material.
The ribbon, in this instance, is the new, unified field of study Falola is presenting. The previously existing material is the investigation of endogenous African knowledge as evident in various disciplines.
The Significance of Multidisciplinarity, Interdisciplinarity and Transdisciplinarity
What is the significance of such interdisciplinary dialoguing, after all, the methods of various disciplines, and, at times, their subjects of study are distinct?
Such dialogue, as is increasingly recognized in emphases on interdisciplinarity, multidisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity, facilitates constructing a synoptic understanding of existence, seeing the universe from various windows, windows, however, which are varied vantage points in the same house, the universe understood as a unified spectrum of possibilities.
This image, adapting Ulli Beier’s interpretation, in The Return of the Gods: The Sacred Art of Susanne Wenger, of Yoruba origin Orisha cosmology in terms of relationships between the orisha or deities, representing the universe as seen from the varied vantage points embodied by each orisha, unified in Olodumare, the creator of the universe, the sum total of all possibilities, is one approach to a perennial aspiration of the human mind across cultures, to understand the universe as a whole constituted by diverse but interrelated parts, parts requiring distinctive but ultimately interrelated strategies to understand, this being a somewhat basic description of what may be better understood as the effort to appreciate the seamless constitution of the universe in terms of its own intrinsic nature and the varied efforts of the human being to understand it, efforts representing the universe trying to understand itself, through the aspirations of human consciousness as an aspect of that universe, leading to the question suggested by Argentinian writer Jorge Louis Borges-to what degree are humanity’s efforts to understand the universe simply an addition to the universe , to the possibilities constituted by its ever unfolding wholeness and to what degree are they achievements in perceiving the universe from a pedestal that transcends its own configurations, the configurations of that whole to which the human being belongs?
Descending from such lofty heights of speculation, multidisciplinarity in the endogenous African context is demonstrated by healing systems, which, at their best, recognize the totality of the human being, as an individual as well as a social creature, for example, as Adeoye Lambo argues as fundamental for African approaches to psychiatric healing which he adapted in Aro Psychiatric Hospital in Nigeria; they involve the unity of mathematics, art and philosophy, as in Adinkra; of mathematics, literature, visual and performative arts, spirituality and philosophy, as in the Yoruba origin Ifa knowledge system; of relationships between space, time, spirituality and government through art in the lukasa mapping system of the Luba; of visual and performative arts, spatial organization of objects, spirituality and philosophy of the Nsibidi symbol system from Nigeria’s Cross River, among the few examples I am aware of in Africa’s landscape of interdisciplinary creativity.
The circle of the calabash and the pot, integrating the sweep of eternity and the bottomless depth of being; the spiral of being and becoming, of human existence defined by the sun of physical sustenance and mental illumination on the journey of life progressing against the context of infinity, images from Zulu, Igbo, Yoruba and Cross River thought, represent approaches of the human being trying to make sense of existence within the mysterious immensity in which he finds himself.
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By Leo Igwe
I have been tasked to present ‘African humanism’ and highlight the basic philosophy especially how African humanism differs from ‘Western humanism’, and by extension other cognates such as Eastern humanism, Asian humanism, Oceanian humanism, etc. I cannot pretend that this task is easy or without descriptive minefields. I am presenting ‘African humanism’ in English. I am using a Western language to discuss a non-Western phenomenon. That is difficult. But is that not all that we got? I am conflicted about strictly presenting humanism in African, Asian, or European forms because these compartmentalizations do not resonate. While the distinctions may make some explanatory sense, and promise to tell us more about strands of humanism, these grand narratives are fundamentally flawed, incompatible, and inconsistent with the universal outlook embedded in humanist philosophy. Considering these conceptual conflicts, contradictions, and inconsistencies, regionalized humanisms constitute vague representations; they explain very little. In situating this task, I have adopted a working title, African humanism as everything, anything, nothing, and something.
Africa is not a Western region, and Africans are not Westerners. So, seen as strictly Western, humanism beyond the West is not. African humanism could be argued as nothing, empty and devoid of real, substantial, and meaningful content. So conceived, the humanist cosmos leaves no room, no dignified place for the other or another, for the African. The African humanist cosmology is nothing but a poor imitation and mimicking of Western humanism, some exotic freakish formation or expression.
Traced to an intellectual movement in 14th- and early-15th-century Europe, the humanist outlook is often represented as a Western phenomenon and heritage, even though, the values and ideals codified in Western humanism apply to other cultures and societies. Incidentally, nothing is said about similar intellectual movements in Africa especially campaigns for cultural reformation and rebirth, the tension and contention with religious dogmas, magic, and superstitious orthodoxies. The timeline of Western humanism relates to Africa in ways that do not resonate with humanist values. The legacies of the contacts of Westerners with Africa since the 15th century constitute a mixed bag of conquest, slavery, colonialism, racism, apartheid, and other currents, and experiences that are incompatible with so-called Western humanist ideals and values. So, with Western humanism as the epitome and standard for humanism, an African humanism that deserves reckoning has to be differently framed.
Meanwhile, if the narrative that We are all Africans is anything to go by, then African humanism is arguably everything. It is the fulcrum and mother of humanism. Other humanisms are offshoots and take their bearing from the African humanist cosmology. They are extensions of the African humanist formation. So whether, Western and Eastern, Northern or Southern, American or European, Asian or Australian, humanisms of all stripes, shades, and colors constitute adaptations, configurations, and reflections of African humanism.
The plausibility of this proposition lies not only in the out of African explanation of the origin and spread of modern humans but also in the fact that humanism codifies a set of values and principles that resonate with, not just Western but all human beings – individual freedom and responsibility, reason, critical thinking, tolerance, compassion and cooperation with one another.
Just like the proposition that Western humanism is everything, African humanism as everything risks conflating varieties of humanist experience. It omits or ignores the particularities of universal humanism and other specificities that speak to and reflect the situations and contexts of cultures and societies over the ages. It is in highlighting these specificities and particularities that humanism could be presented in its fullness and richness.
Meanwhile, in arguing that African humanism is everything, one risks impressing that African humanism is anything, or could be anything. That African humanism is an anything-goes kind of humanism. Portrayed this way, African humanism lacks basic ideas, philosophies, principles, and values. The humanist outlook loses its credibility and reckoning because as anything, African humanism is bereft of distinct and distinguishing elements and characteristics. One could then argue that humanism is religion or religion is a form of humanism, even that humanism is inhumanism, anti- humanism and humaneism. Anything can be placed in the humanist box. It could also be argued that humanism is Africanism or Westernism. Humanism is dogmatism or racism. Or extremism is a form of humanism etc. So argued, African humanism is denied the rational and moral force, merit, and appeal.
Furthermore, the identification of African humanism with Ubuntu is well known, and constitutes a part of the problem, the problem of the conception and misconception, representation and misrepresentation of ‘African humanism’. Ubuntu, a term that originates from the Zulu and Xhola languages and cultures in South Africa, translates as meaning “I am because you are or I am because we are”. Ubuntu is an expression of African humanism. It emphasizes the interconnectedness of human beings and stresses the link of the individual to the social and physical worlds. Put differently, Ubuntu codifies human connection and community; it stands for common fraternity and humanity of human beings, and how humanity, and yes humanism manifests not only in the other but also with the other. Ubuntu is predicated on the values of sharing, caring, and trust. Ubuntu is a form of humanism forged in contention with traditional forces of supernaturalism and anti-humanity in the Zulu and Xhola cultural worlds. It is pertinent to note that thousands of other cultures, conceptions, configurations, and articulations of humanity and humanness exist and apply, and have always existed and applied as long as human beings have existed. Varieties of translation and adaption of humanistic ideas and impulses feature, and manifest within the region. For instance, concepts of Nwanne or Nwanna among the Igbos of Nigeria, the Yoruba idea of Omoluabi, the Swahili notion of Harambe, and the Wolof idea of Teranga encapsulate configurations and formations that speak to the same entity, humanity, as other humanisms.
Incidentally, cultural outsiders have rendered these concepts in exotic fashions. And their limitations and conceptual shortcomings lace these renditions. Meanwhile, cultural insiders have largely tagged along, they have romanticized these exotic formations, and hence, they have become ‘established’ knowledge. Cultural insiders have been unable to problematize and re-present these notions in nonexotic ways that highlight their universality, richness, and profundities, especially in the face of historical vicissitudes, anti-human encounters, incursions, and experiences, the onslaught of religion, superstitions, and other cultural beliefs and ideologies that degrade and undermine the human being.
As something, African humanism is beyond ubuntu, harambe, teranga, nwanne, and omoluabi cultural formations. African humanism is not a monolithic, but a tapestry that speaks to and reflects the diverse experiences of Africans. Humanism philosophically propels the struggles and anticipations for renewal and rebirth; the yearning for progressive emancipation of the African human spirit. It highlights efforts to contest and overcome traditional, Christian, and Islamic religious orthodoxies, ideological and structural inhibitions, threats, and forces that militate against human liberation, and intellectual and moral progress.
In conclusion, Africa is a crossroads of social, cultural, political, and economic influences that have positively and negatively impacted the region and its people. African humanism finds expression in contending with the crossroads and the disruptions and dilemmas, promises and possibilities. The African humanist testament encapsulates unique experiences and challenges linked to overcoming these tensions, contentions, conflicts, and contradictions that have resulted from these influences and encounters. These experiences are diverse, they differ from time to time, from individual to individual, culture to culture, country to country. They are social, political, economic, and cultural. These disruptions and dilemmas stare Africans in the face; they cast an ominous shadow on the future and prospects of the region. African humanism is a process, not a package, and is always in a state of change and becoming.
African humanism is a continuum, not a constant, a direction, not a destination. It is a constantly unfolding, revealing, and evolving phenomenon that mirrors, and reflects the needs of its time, each time, place, and season. In the absence of a saving and redeeming deity; the face of traditional, Christian, Islamic religious oppression and tyranny, African humanism presents each generation of Africans with opportunities and possibilities to remake itself; to reshape its destiny through creative, critical, and innovative endeavors. Will Africans rise to this challenge? Or will they cower or detour out of fear?
How Africans respond to these challenges and dilemmas; how they deploy humanist excellences; the virtues of defiance, rebellion, assertiveness, affirmation, and compassion, in response to these threats; the ability of Africans to redefine, reinvent, and recreate themselves in tackling these dilemmas would determine the differences and distinctions of African humanism from western humanism and other cognates.
Igwe, PhD, is a board member of Humanists International.
By Toyin Falola
It is an honor to have been invited to give the 2024 Convocation Lecture at Koladaisi University, Ibadan, on Thursday, December 7, 2024. I chose to speak to the project of advancing Nigeria’s future. I do not address the two practical platforms: can federalism work? Can democracy work? In this piece, I will anchor the Convocation Lecture to the larger issue of democracy.
We all remember this: the definition we learned by rote in my early academic years is that democracy is the government of the people, by the people, and for the people. Beyond the musical flow of the memorization process, the words may have meant quite little depending on the level of idealism nursed by the student at the time. But it was nevertheless easy to understand. It meant a leadership of the people expressed through power at the ballot; it symbolized the centrality of popular opinion in the decision-making process of the ruling class; finally, it also means that all policies and actions taken by elected leaders must be for the sole purpose of advancing the betterment of the governed population.
According to the United Nations Development Programme, around 3.7 billion people in the world, in 72 countries, will be able to fulfill the democratic requirement of electing their leaders in 2024. YThe headline of the relevant article reads, “A ‘super year’ for elections.” For Nigerians who participated in the 2023 general elections, the moments must have indeed felt ‘super.’ After all, according to the Independent National Electoral Commission, seventy-six percent of newly registered voters were young people, with the overall demographic distribution of the voters’ registers favoring youths who numbered approximately forty percent, compared to thirty-six for the next age group of middle-aged people. Analyzed by occupational distribution, registrants identifying as students dominated the 93.4-million register at 27.8 percent, nearly double the number of farmers, the next occupational class, at 15 percent. With these glossy statistics and a shiny new candidate, Peter Obi, what could go wrong? The newspapers had fired off streams of analyses, predictive data was aplenty, and you only needed to make your pick. Candidates had resorted to novel strategies to capture the fresh crop of voters who, from all indications, desired an agile, non-disabled president, open to listening to their grievances.
To silence the debates concerning his health and fitness, the Tinubu camp published a seconds-long workout video of the president-to-be on a stationary bicycle. Obi’s speeches were widely circulated in the media, running diagnoses of national problems and strategies for resolving them. Both candidates were notably the objects of entertaining memes across social media. Yet, myriad as the antics were, they could never equate to the aversion that defined the elections. At a turnout of just 25 million voters, the 2023 elections represented the lowest ever in Nigeria’s history. The implication was that far less than a third of eligible voters had shown up to partake in steering the country’s vessel. Even worse, the candidate who emerged as the winner did so by only a fractional margin at a 3- and 2-million difference between his votes and the second-and third-place candidates.
Even more astounding was the fact that the year’s elections trumped the previous record-low of 35 percent documented in 2019, deepening uncertainty about the future of elections in Nigeria. Another connected issue is the fact that these polling units are not empty without cause. The prevalence of electoral violence, often sponsored by political interests, mar the desire of people to participate. There is equally a general sentiment that votes absolutely do not count. Rather than improve the confidence of people in the validity of their choices, the 2023 presidential elections may have turned out to be a sorely missed opportunity. Across social media, rumors of irregularities at polling units kept flying. It was complicated by the downtimes suffered by INEC’s much-vaunted Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), which was supposedly designed to counteract the same issues that ended up besmearing trust in the elections.
The reports of interferences, delays in results uploads, and questionable electoral officers were far more potent than any mechanism the billion-dollar-equipped commission could have contrived to foster confidence in their work. Most recently, the local government elections in Rivers State have not been free of intrigues as stories of violence have been constant. In all, the wheel appears bent on reinventing itself. The definition of democracy no longer befits our country as there is neither a government “by the people” if their will is doubtfully expressed through elections, nor is there one for the people if the ruling class fails to consider the yearnings of a beleaguered populace. There is most certainly no government of the people if only a tiny fraction, far less than a third, of the voting population reach decisions on behalf of a teeming crop of over two hundred million citizens. Consequently, if elections are no longer a reliable metric for assessing the quality of our democracy, what is in place in our country? Before answering this, it is pertinent to reflect on the state of governance in Nigeria before the current age.
First, colonial legacies and military leadership. Nigeria’s journey towards democracy has been a complex and often tumultuous one, deeply influenced by its colonial past and subsequent military rule. The country’s colonial experience under British rule laid the foundation for many of the challenges it faces today. The colonial administration established a system of indirect rule, which divided the country into various ethnic and religious groups, fostering divisions that continue to shape Nigerian politics. Additionally, the colonial legacy of economic exploitation and a lack of investment in education and infrastructure created significant development disparities between different regions. The system of indirect rule machinated by the British colonialists saw to it that the ethnic divides that already existed in undercurrents in the country were emphasized upon independence. While the construct was inevitably necessary for accommodating the differences of unique communities, the interference that played out as the British prepared to leave created a gulf that continues to be maintained to date.
Political elites have often exploited this to mobilize support and maintain power, spiraling into humongous losses of lives and property through time. Additionally, the structure devised by colonial masters for the exportation of value to their shores entrenched voids in the hearts and minds of the different regions. There were discrepancies in access to education and infrastructure, inherently fashioning class systems with provincial rather than national identities. These disparities have contributed to political instability and resentment among marginalized groups, making it difficult to build a cohesive and inclusive democracy.
The colonial administration also established a centralized and authoritarian system of government, which limited the development of democratic institutions and practices. This legacy has continued to influence Nigerian politics, with a tendency towards strong executive power and a weak legislature. Present-day Nigeria is now hardwired to favor concentrating the bulk of the power and instruments of control at the center, right in the heart of Abuja. This situation has severely restricted trust in the ability of the current so-called federal system to actualize the needs of the various interest groups across the country. Naturally, crises such as the unrest in Nigeria’s most productive yet environmentally degraded region, the Niger Delta, secessionist movements by the Indigenous People of Biafra in the Southeast, Sunday Igboho’s Odu’a Republic agenda were all fueled by the distance of the administration from the people it was created to represent. The simplest of affairs, such as the payment of staff salaries, are delegated to the caprices of the federal treasury, as seen during the years of struggles with workers’ compensation in states. Even today, the problem persists as governors whose states are sorely incapable of raising sufficient internally generated revenue independently treat the payment of the new minimum wage as a favor to their employees. Some are notoriously arrogant, as they have flaunted these monies in workers’ faces in past and present elections. Still, all these are evidence of our broken democratic structure.
In addition, the colonial experience left a deep distrust of foreign influence and a desire for self-determination. Nationalist politicians have sometimes exploited this sentiment to mobilize support, but it has also hindered the development of international cooperation and the adoption of best practices from other democracies. An instance of this is the incendiary comment of the former Kaduna State governor, Mallam Nasir El-rufai, who threatened international organizations monitoring the 2019 elections with a promise of departure in body bags. This attack signposts an attitude of disaffection towards criticism unless convenient. Another example is the frequent rejection of unfavorable data published by international agencies on trends within Nigeria. While the politicians at fault may find these damaging to their character, the tendency to couch these sentiments in packages of nationalism is quite amusing. The truth when it comes to the country’s relationship with the outside world, particularly the influential corridors of the West, is that the standard by which foreign actors are held is one of near-worship.
Compared to anything that might be produced in-country, the validation from Westerners has always mattered to Nigerian leaders, the sitting president being no exception. I do not contest the role of diplomacy in ensuring the growth of a country; many times, in fact, one must deal cleverly, even with partners that do not entirely inspire trust. What I object to, however, is the oscillating, two-faced courtship of former or potentially neocolonial powers for political ends. During the elections, the ability of candidates to win hearts at Chatham House seemed like a strategy for bumping up individual profiles. It would definitely have mattered more to the average Nigerian if the same energy was committed to holding productive and interactive debates where the true intellectual colors of incoming leaders would have been detected. The period of military rule, which spanned several decades, further worsened Nigeria’s political and economic problems. Military regimes often prioritized their provincial interests over those of the people, leading to widespread corruption, human rights abuses, and a decline in democratic institutions. The military also suppressed political dissent and limited civil liberties, stifling the development of a vibrant civil society.
Nigerians with even the most modest awareness of history can recall the ostentatious tactics applied by the military to cement its political authority. From the deaths of the Ogoni Nine to the murder of Dele Giwa, the archives are replete with tons of violations by the state. Apart from uniforms, the approaches have not evolved much. People who were once cornered into reticence by the khaki-clad gunslingers now demand submission by force, too. Journalists are arrested and thrown behind bars under the auspices of vague legislative provisions; offenders are spared so long as they are lucky enough to have some senior officials within their debt; protests are silenced in courts and at the barrels of guns. The stampede on civil rights perpetually metastasizes with zero indications of reform. The quest for actual democracy continues to remain distant.
A further hindrance to democratic functions in Nigeria is the absence of institutional safeguards to deter corruption and mismanagement. According to the data compiled by Transparency International, Nigeria consistently ranks low, indicating a high perceived level of corruption in the executive branch. This perception is supported by countless allegations involving government officials, including embezzlement and bribery. While the president has the power to appoint ministers and heads of government agencies, the lack of strong checks and balances can contribute to a concentration of power and increased opportunities for corruption. References abound in recent memory of flagrant procedural violations by members of the executive arm, many of which the legislature cannot be exempted from culpability for. Consisting of the Senate and House of Representatives, the crucial role of lawmaking and oversight by these two houses cannot be overemphasized.
However, legislative effectiveness is questionable due, very importantly, to factors such as partisanship. Without a doubt, an executive arm will majorly only be as successful as its legislative counterpart allows. Where there is discord between both arms, the resulting strain impacts the smoothness of passing new legislation and obtaining approval for heavily impactful policies. This was evident during the persistent battles between the Buhari-led executive and Bukola Saraki’s senate. The opposite can be said to be the case in the Godswill Akpabio-led chamber. From ministerial vetting exercises that appeared more performative than deliberate to seamless passages of controversial legislation – the new national anthem being a case in point – the Nigerian legislative chambers certainly punch far below their weight in streamlining the affairs of the executive branch. The World Bank’s Governance Indicators show that Nigeria possesses an underwhelming level of legislative impact even when compared to other houses in the region. This is attributable to dismal levels of professional competence and non-partisanship amongst lawmakers. Often, it is conventionally pragmatic to regard the national houses as designed for circuses, given the disreputable conduct that frequently berths.
How, then, can the sightless lead another? The judiciary is not excluded as, despite being an essential pillar of a democratic system, it comes up short in the face of significant challenges in Nigeria. The institution has been criticized for delays in cases, corruption, and political interference. According to the Rule of Law Index published by the World Justice Project, Nigeria’s judiciary ranks low in terms of its independence, accessibility, and efficiency. The same source ranked Nigeria 120th out of 142 countries in its global index in 2023 and 24th out of 34 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Rwanda, the highest-ranked country in the region, placed 42nd out of 142 countries, showcasing just how desperately low-key Nigerian institutions fall in securing democratic mandates.
Still, even as leadership remains a highly critical determinant for gauging democratic strength, equally nuanced socioeconomic elements play integral roles, too. Poverty, inequality, education, youth unemployment, and religious and ethnic tensions are among the vital challenges that impede the consolidation of democratic governance. Poverty and inequality are pervasive problems in Nigeria, with a significant portion of the population living below the poverty line. These socioeconomic disparities naturally fuel episodes of political instability, seen across regions, as marginalized groups resort to violence to make their demands known. Grimmer versions of these forms of expression are discoverable in the ideological posture of bandit groups, who have previously emerged to cast their insurgency in a messianic light. And there is a great deal to wax messianic about. For one, youth unemployment offers a strong incentive to perpetrate crime. With a large proportion of young people unable to find jobs, social unrest, preceded by disillusionment with the political system, seems optional, whether wrapped in ideological monologues or not. Interestingly, where vulnerabilities of this nature exist, political elites have often found ways to harness them to their advantage. The strategy is as simple as doling out a few instrumentalist portions of rice – creatively termed ‘stomach infrastructure’ – motorbikes, sewing machines, school buses, or handfuls of renovated classroom blocks to trigger communal biases in their favor, to be used when the time seems right.
Research has traced the onset of violence to limitations in access to education and economic opportunities, which truncate the evolution of skilled and engaged citizenry. Little surprise that some of the country’s poorest and disaffected regions are also nerve centers of insecurity and endless violence. Inextricable from this train of analysis is the important role of education in fostering democratic participation and civic engagement. However, with Nigeria’s education system confronting significant challenges, including inadequate funding, poor infrastructure, and a lack of qualified teachers, the maxim citing the impossibility of giving something out of nothing holds. Low literacy rates and limited access to education can hinder the development of critical thinking skills and limit the ability of citizens to participate meaningfully in the democratic process. Year in and year out, this manifests its ugly head in the electioneering process. Uninformed, uncritical minds are susceptible to bigoted rhetoric and are most certainly vulnerable to the allure of commercialized votes.
On top of these, restrictions on the activities of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) contribute to undermining democracy and government accountability. CSOs are similar to the traditional town criers, except that their messages revolve around advocacy for human rights, good governance, social justice, participation in public discourse, and decision-making processes. They also aid in the mobilization of citizens to participate in elections and other democratic activities. However, Nigeria’s relationship with these agents of democracy is fraught with challenges. CSOs have encountered government harassment and threats to the safety of their employees. Litigation is one strategy that has proved useful for hamstringing the mobilization efforts of these organizations, as seen in the lawsuits against coalition movements behind the #Endbadgovernance protests.
Similarly, the Socio-economic Rights and Accountability Projects’ (SERAP) office was reportedly invaded by security forces. Individuals with activist characters have not been spared from the aggressive posturing of the state, as invitations for questioning are standard practice for discouraging criticism. In Oyo State, an ardent critic of the Seyi Makinde administration was invited for interrogation; at the University of Ibadan, protests against fee hike also saw students receive invitations or get arrested by security; members of the press are consistently one of the most exposed, as observed in the cases of FIJ journalists, Fisayo Soyombo and Daniel Ojukwu. The importance of the freedom of speech and assembly can not be understated in a democratic context. Surprisingly, the bearing of Nigeria’s supposed democratic leadership strikes a harrowing resemblance to patterns administered by the military. Just as journalists combated threats, intimidation, and censorship in the years before 1999, so do they even now. The consolidation of democracy in Nigeria depends on the ability of civil society organizations and the media to operate freely and effectively.
There must be an encouraging avenue for public debates and demands for accountability. By advocating for quality governance and social justice, these two sectors can help to build a more equitable and inclusive society. As stated above, the collapse of democratic functions casts a pall on the feasibility of democracy in Nigeria. The lack of foundational structural elements for driving the sustainability of freedoms paints the country in a disingenuous light. Still, if we ask whether democracy can function in Nigeria, the appropriate response must be: what other alternative do we have? In considering this, we must pay due regard to the diversity of colors in the Nigerian fabric. And as of now, there is no genius equivalent to democracy that is capable of, at a minimum, constructing the semblance of inclusivity that democracy provides. No template that is as effective at holding such an incongruent populace together. So, rather than commit time to ponder this question, I strongly believe that our core challenge is the labor of reforms. Already, conversations swirl as to what identity this might take. Restructuring along regional lines? True federalism? Constitution reform? The burden at present is the selection of the most workable device. Even then, we cannot be deluded into hopes of perfection. It is an iterative process.
P.S.: This is the third in a four-part series composed in Accra to mark the 4th Convocation Ceremony of Koladaisi University, Dec. 1st to 7th, 2024.
By Tony Afejuku
I feel the need to report to my readers one or two aspects of my earache, and the rounds of treatment, I underwent to the extent that I almost became an audiologist – even of the near amateur variety. I was more than determined to not allow the purloiner of my healthy ear, my “beautiful camel” (IBK’S “high and transcendent” reverence for it), to be purloined. Indeed, no purloiner, and nothing, and no one, should purloin my auditory power – or better said, my galloping auditory imagination. Thus, I must share with my readers my coconut oil as well as my magic leaf therapy. Who knows how many of you will need this therapy in some distant or not distant time and day? The power of coconut oil and magic of a mystery plant – how more real than the power of reality that is stranger than fiction that it is more powerful than!
Before I share this with you, let me reproduce here with pure pleasure words of passion from representative readers and diverse sources whose prose that is better than prose helped to play their parts in the obliteration of my depression and solitude when they asserted themselves with unimaginable intensity in me.
Barrister Rotimi-John Alade
Good read, this essay!
I am reminded that when a work of literature functions successfully, the two “notes” of pleasure, and utility not only coexist but coalesce. Your essay combines both essences. One is forced to locate the seriousness of your situation in the mass of the moral and social lessons the essay conveys even though you made light of it.
This is one variety of social criticism you are popularizing by which we attribute our art to some use proper to itself. It is an amalgam of philosophy, history, imagery, etc.
Sorry about your plight. I have a young Professor friend at the Medical University in Ondo who may be of useful help. He is a foremost ENT expert on this continent. If you care, we may contact him on your behalf.
Dr. Clement Eleghosa Odia
Good afternoon Prof. Your column screams loud against the systematic collapse of drug administration and the corruption eating every fibre of dignity in it. I am glad you survived the ear infection. As you recognized, many poor people in our society have paid with their lives for less. This shameful experience must not be allowed to continue.
Professor Owojemo Omoha
Reading you on a morning like this stirs the mind. You have gone into emotion studies and back again, to philosophy. Waiting to hear what IBK says of your aching ear, your literary ear, your philosophical ear; the ears of Nigerians are waiting, our great TA.
Dr. Albert Onobhayedo
These are words on marble. First-hand information about one’s health, willingly volunteered for the benefit of society, is rare in our part of the world. In a way, it is salvific because of its implications for the good of others. For the historian, it is a priceless primary source of information. It can only come from a mind that has waxed strong in truthfulness and philosophical inclinations. Thank you very much, Prof.
Professor Sonny Awheadada
Just done with my reading of your column. The health care situation in Nigeria is frightening. We pray not to fall sick. The hospitals are not hospitals and most of the medical personnel are dispensers of affliction. We pray for speedy recovery, sir.
Professor Ibrahim Bello-Kano
Prof. T.A., I shared your piece in The Guardian on many platforms. One response was that you and I are just playing with English expressions, that your ear-ache was a fiction invented by you and I to create an occasion for you (and later I) to philosophize about the human organ called the Ear, and you especially because your Kakaesque musings about ear pharmaceuticals gave the game away! One special response, from my daughter, a medical student, is that you didn’t have any ear ache but an eye infection but which migrated to the place you’ve all along taken for granted — your ear. And once the infection spread to the ear, it stimulated (your) huge grammatological productions. In short, her view is that your immune system would cure the infection but not your “semantic excesses” — your energetic need to produce a creative profusion of strange syntactical combinations in the English language. My medical student daughter said that ear-infected-pained people, mostly professors, became much more scholarly, much more academic, and much more intimidatingly philosophical. Indeed, her view is that most patients of phantom or real ear problems are professors, mostly humanistic and social science professors. Her view, finally, is that there’s a link between high scholarly erudition and ear infection.
Furthermore, Prof. TA, your marvellous ear-ached essay/column and my camellogic response helped many people to briefly forget their T-pains in the ear, the eye, and the neck. My little daughter (JSS3, St. Louis See School, Kano) came to my room this morning to ask; “daddy, you and the Prof. [TA] are bastardising the English language and polluting/ruining my efforts to learn proper WAEC English”. Her next query is “Daddy and the Prof, were you writing modern English or Old English?” Ha!
Dr. Paul Onomuakpokpo
Good morning, Prof. I’ve read your piece and Prof. IBK’s intellectualsing and literalising your ear affliction. It is painfully sublime. Your well-wrought piece on your health predicament, and Prof. IBK’s response to it threw into bold relief the uncanny capacity of the writer to turn pain into a source of pleasure not only for himself but also for his readers. We thank God you have been healed.
Dr. Clement Odia
Good morning, Prof. I am just done reading the second part of “My ear…” I read the piece giggling, laughing and holding my belly with gusto because of the heavy dose of innuendoes contained in the text. This is a true definition of a masterpiece crafted by two literary masters of letters. Well done, Prof.
Professor Owojecho Omoha
I have read part two of your glorious essay. That’s all IBK could say, and that’s all your ear could hear, and your eyes could read of IBK and your aching ears. This IBK’s philosophy is enough to cure any aching ears in Nigeria, but who is ready for the clinical cures? The head is involved. The whole human trunk carrying the head is to blame for the aches in Nigeria.
Dan Chima Amadi
May God not allow us see ear defect. Thank you professor for the piece. Fine as ever and memorable. God bless you.
Professor Omajuwa Igho Natufe
Thank God, your ear-ache is healed or is healing. Don’t know if it was due to IBK’s literary treatment or your ENT specialist.
Professor Sonny Awheafeada
Good evening Sir! Prof. IBK theorized your ear-pain in a literary cum entertaining manner. We thank God that the ear has healed. Well done Sir.
Saint Louis
Beautiful, beautiful; your ear article raises profound philosophical questions, leveraging ear infections, as a poignant catalyst… and the far-reaching implications.
Professor Dan Amadi
A good one. IBK played well on the ailment. I am happy you are improving, and pray you get completely healed. Regards.
Mr. Excel Rabiu
“IBK’s letter framed essay consists of the rhetoric of grandeur of the grandiloquence of incongruous incongruence.” Wordsmith! You are at it again. Chai! Great analyst, how is your ear now, marvellous writer? Hope you are getting better? And IBK? How is he?
To be continued and concluded next week.
Afejuku can be reached via 08055213059.
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