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Text of Remark by Dr. Sam Amadi as a Reviewer of “Politics, Leadership and Development in Nigeria” written by Dr. Ihechukwu Madubuike, at the Merit House, Abuja on Thursday, May 29, 2008

POLITICS: BETWEEN IDEAS AND POWER
“Politics, Leadership and Development in Nigeria” by Dr. Ihechukwu Madubuike, Nigeria’s former Minister of Education (1979) and Health (1995), is a major contribution to public discourse and politics in Nigeria. It is a long while we have the opportunity of such beautiful intellectual offering from one of Nigeria’s finest public intellectuals who straddles both the world of ideas and the world of power.

The binary between ‘power’ and ‘idea’ constitutes a veritable conceptual rubric to anchor this review. There is a long standing dissonance between ‘power’ and ‘idea’ in popular mentality, at least in Nigeria. This dissonance expresses itself in the denigration of people of power- the politicians. It is often taken for granted, and with good evidence that those who jostle to control state power are people whose disinclination to ideas and the life of serious reflection is so intuitive and endemic that it reinforces their murderous irrationality in power. But, once in a while a denizen strolls through this chasm and integrates the quest for power and the passion for truth and beauty. Such a philosopher-king holds the promise of transformation.

Dr. Madubuike is such a philosopher-king. He is a reflective politician, an intellectual who does not scorn the utility of political power. Like Plato, Madubuike seeks to make rulers wise and virtuous. But, unlike Plato, his journey to Syracuse does not end in despair and abandonment. Ever since he joined the political class in 1979, Dr. Madubuike has remained closely engaged with politics. The pathologies of power and inanities of Nigerian political culture have not sapped his idealism that the world of political power could also become the world of ideas. This book is an unequivocal testament of this idealism. It brittles with hope that we can transform our political landscape; that politics can still become the art of the possible; and that we can with greater sense of mission overcome the ‘dictatorship of no-alternative’.

There are two broad ways to review a book. We can review the aesthetical and literary qualities of the book and the philosophical cum ideological merits of the book. To dwell briefly on the literary and aesthetic, I will confidently describe Madubike’s book as a literary and aesthetic delight. It is quite an easy book to read. Its reader-friendliness does not detract from its lofty ideas. In fact, its loftiness and grandeur is exemplified and enhanced by the rhetorical felicity and structural simplicity in which it is written. Of course, we don’t expect any less form a man who made just fame scandalizing those who take delight in turgid and tangled prose. In Nigeria it is almost commonplace to confront books that betray lack of editorial attention. It seems as if the authors of these books have the greatest disrespect for their readers that they decide to punish them with an unedited book. But, this book does not belong to that burgeoning class. The book received thorough editorial attention. You encounter little errors and omissions as you navigate through the pages. The size of the book, the arrangement of the chapters and the paragraphs and the quality of the printing make the book a pleasure to hold and read.

Although the essays in the book are written in a time frame that spans about two decade, they have symmetries of language, expressiveness and structural finesse that one would think they were written in a continuous exercise. For example, the second essay in the book (not counting the preface and the introduction), Wealth, Power and Recruitment into Nigeria’s Ruling Class, was written in 1979 as a news commentary by the Imo Broadcasting Service, Owerri. The last essay in the collection (not the concluding remarks) titled “Life Long Education in Nigeria”, was written for the State University of New York, Buffalo, in 2001. These essays are separated by over two decades yet you see astonishing similarities of free flowing and crisp English; lucidity and clarity of thought and almost equivalent degree of analytical dexterity and ideological orientation. These go to show many positive attributes of the author. He is consistent both in the technique of his craft and his ideological disposition to issues and event. In 1979 the author argued that “we must make sure that the power to influence political, social, economic, religious, educational and other events that affect the livelihood and future of the Nigerian population is not concentrated in the hands of a few individuals, simply because they are wealthy. We must insist that transparent honesty, hard work, tolerance, talent and accomplishments be the guide post for recruitment into the ruling class. This is the hope we have for a peaceful, prosperous and stable government in Nigeria”. In 2001, in the Buffalo essay he opined that “Equity and justice are important in education just as they are in other sectors of human endeavor. It is criminal to allow some 80% of our youths between the ages of 16-25 to idle away their time and talent by denying them access to higher education. This is one example of under utilization of resources and capacities whose consequences can only be disastrous for the corporate existence and stability of our country”.

Can anyone miss the common passion, commitment and dialectics that radiate from these two essays written 20year in between? Can anyone doubt the egalitarian and humanitarian impulses that underwrite these essays? Can any one doubt the intellectual sincerity and pedagogical urgency of these essays? We can multiple examples of such positive symmetries in the essays that constitute this collection. They tell the story of a man who has remained consistent to the verities of his profession as a literary critic and the progressivism and radicalism of a left of the centre intellectual politician.

Another delight of the book, indeed a marvel, is the thematic coherence of the book. With the eye for beauty of a poet and the precision of a clinician, Dr. Madubuike has assembled together essays on diverse subjects firmly and finely held together by the thread of transformation. The author is a transformative thinker and politician. This overriding trait is easily seen in the tone and message of the essays. In his dialectics, the author exposes the pathologies and inanities of our present practices and summons us to a new practice for a new future. As a progressive, the author believes in the possibilities of transformation. As a realist, he does not make light the anarchical, conservative and something tragic social and economic contexts that make changes difficult, if not impossible.

In the introduction, the author ably summarizes the theme of the book. It is about nation-building through creative and intelligent harnessing of human and material resources and the construction of alternative narratives and praxis to counter the globalizing hegemony of the TINA –There is No Alternative. In other words, it is about national leadership in the context of globalization. The author starts with this panoramic statement: “Nigeria is one of the unfinished national projects of the twentieth century. To consummate the enterprise, much needs to be done and resolved. The leadership question is in my mind, one of the key issues. That, in essence, is the raison d’etre of this book. Politics, the art of winning and exercising power provides the platform for the leadership and development challenges in Nigeria” (page 3). I doubt if there could be a more succinct summary of the book. This is a book about the national question, not posed in the jejune formula of how we can share the oil revenue or how we should share federal posts along religious, ethnic or religious configurations. This is about the national question in terms of making true the dreams of the founders of the Nigerian nation; a dream for a society of prosperity, solidarity and freedom.

This is a book written by a nationalist summoning his compatriots to higher degree of nationalism through seeking common grounds of civility and the ethics of the common good. As far back as 1979, at the advent of the so-called Second Republic, the author has realized the damages to the dream of Nigerian unity and prosperous which a politics of ethnicity can cause. He argued for the emergency of ideological parties that provide alternative idea-platforms for the value orientation of politics and the socialization of the Nigerian peoples. He wrote at page 25 as follows:

“The traditional political socialization in Nigeria do not make fully for easy cultivation of those political virtues enumerated above which will help the national political life more meaningfully and help us put the right kind of persons in office next year. These processes have emphasized the cultivation of narrow and ethnic political outlooks rather than liberal ones. The result is that Nigeria has several political cultures and not one political culture, as is the case in many of stable democracies in the world. And instead of cultivating values and attitudes relevant to the entire country perceived as one political unit, values and attitudes are cultivated to respond to the specific ethnic, sectional and parochial interests. And because of the deep rooted nature of these attitudes, nurtured and sustained by political biases and indoctrinations of the past, not even the legislations against the formation of ethnically based political parties may provide the long overdue panacea to national political ills or effect radical changes in our national political behavior” (page 25).

Dr. Madubuike was prophetic. The Second Republic emerged with ethnically based political parties. The NPN had its base in the north; the UPN and NPP could be said to be Yoruba and Igbo parties respectively. When Dr. Nnana Ukegbu and Alhaji Waziri, left NPP to form the GNPP, with Alhaji Waziri, a northern as President in resentment at the takeover of the party by Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, an Igbo, Dr. Madubuike, inexplicably remained with the Igbo party. There is some wistful pessimism in the statement. He argued that the deep-rooted nature of the negative attitudes in Nigerian politics, sustained by existing processes of socialization and mobilization ensures that Nigeria remains trapped in a heinous path-dependency and a self-fulfilling prophesy. He locates this crisis of values in the conservatism of Nigerian cultural and social institutions and calls for a radical deconstruction that will enable Nigerian electorate go beyond the rhetoric of ‘old’ ‘new’, ‘young’, ‘old’, ‘progressive’, ‘conservative’ politicians and ask penetrating questions about the value orientation of the political platforms and the politicians themselves. His compatriots did not heed the counsel, hence we ended with a disastrous leadership that betrayed the promise of greatness and encouraged the military step in to cremate the carcass of the nation.

Dr. Madubuike devotes a significant portion of the book to essays he wrote on party and political culture. This confirms his claim in the introduction that the objective of the book is to look at leadership and development from the point of view of politics. Politics is the handmaiden of leadership and development. If we fix politics we fix the leadership crisis at the heart of the failure of development. The problem with politics in Nigeria is that it is has refused to escape the path-dependency of the past. In many chapters, especially chapter 5 (The New Breed and Party Politics) and chapter 6 (A Novel Idea in Party Formation), he argues for discontinuation of the politics of the past based on atavistic political culture and hierarchical and conservative norms, and inauguration of a new politics of value and integrity. He deplores ethnicity in politics and affirms the national agenda at every turn of his political career as shown in these essays. But, we must say that the author escapes the tragedy of some Igbo ‘nationalists’ who do not know how to articulated commitment to the Nigerian agenda without disguising or mutilating their Igbo identity. You do not become good by being something else. You become good by being the best of you. The best an Igbo can be is to be a true Nigerian who fights for the common good, including the good of his own people. As Chinua Achebe said it in one of his essays, an African writer becomes a universal writer by just writing to the world as an African writer. It is in celebration of the author’s robust Igbo identity that he includes in the book a polemical essay mercilessly demolishing the myths of [the] Igbo as greedy and valueless. That is Chapter 20 titled Ndiigbo 2007: Propaganda and Politics of Distrust.

Nigeria is conservative in its politics hence it always fails to take advantage of moments of transformation. Politics in Nigeria continues to be assailed by two evils; the evil of ethnicity and parochialism and the evil of predatory gangsterism. Each time we have opportunity for a new beginning the ethnic champions and war lords rush out of the woodworks and manipulate the processes away from national consensus and universal idealism. Then when ethnically and parochially organized parties emerge, the war breaks out between contending bands of predators. Because the typical Nigerian politician is engaged in a primitive battle for economic survival through politics, politics become a vicious and all-out battle for control of resources and privileges. The message of this book is a summon to another vista of politics; a sunny view of politics were compatriots deliberate on how best to achieve the common good. The mantra of the politicians becomes, in Baldwin immortal words, how to achieve my country.

This book is very rich in ideas that can constitute an endless national discourse. The author served in government as political head of two important ministries, education and health. He has graciously offered his reflections on the management of education and healthcare in Nigeria. In some of the chapter, he outlines the policy mixes which enabled him achieve remarkable success as a minister of education and health (for example, Health Reforms in Nigeria: the National Health Summit). It should be noted that the author was the first, as much as I know, non medical or para-medical person to become a minister of health in Nigeria. His success as a minister of health challenges the orthodoxy that it is only medical or allied professionals who can successfully manage the health ministry. It is the same clarity of thinking and incisive social diagnosis evident in this book that enabled the author to succeed as a minister of health.

I will like to end this review on those chapters that express the author’s views on the challenges and opportunities globalization presents to national leadership and development. In the introduction, the author argues that Nigeria’s exposure to the dynamics of globalization could compound its crises of development if it does not understand the nature of the forces driving economic globalization and strategize on it can survive the storm like Japan and South Korea that succeeded by “balancing social harmony with the principles of market forces and by being in charge of her political agenda”. Although the author is not an economist, he handled the economic globalization ably by relying on the insights of economists who have taken critical perspective on globalization and human development. It is in these chapters that the author’s reformist and social democracy credentials come to the fore. For example, he challenges the market fundamentalism of those who insist on rapid privatization not withstanding its social costs by arguing that “There is, without doubt, a justification for the current pro-market reform sentiment. But we must remember that Nigeria is still an emerging market, not yet fully backed by factors that prevail in developed economies. Government must therefore be wary of entering into unholy alliances with businesses, local or international, because these are conducted for private gains and are part of an imperial arsenal for our sustainable poverty and a continuation of the white peril” (page 7).

If the author needs an authoritative support for this view, then he readily finds one in Ha-Joon Chang, a Korean economist at Cambridge whose latest book, ‘Bad Samaritans: the Myth of Free Trade and Secret History of Capitalism, lampoons the myth that nations become prosperous in the global economy by yoking themselves to the ship of free trade and the prescriptions of dominant orthodoxy championed by the World Bank and the IMF. He disagrees with the New York Times Columnist, Thomas Friedman who in his classic, The Lexus and the Olive Tree, argues that there is no alternative to the neo-liberal formula which he calls the ‘Golden Straitjacket’. According to Friedman, “unfortunately, this Golden Straitjacket is pretty much ‘one size fits all’. It is not always pretty or gentle or comfortable. But it’s here and it’s the only model on the rack this historical season”. Ha-joon Chang retorts that “However, the fact is that, had the Japanese government followed the free trade economists back in the early 1960s, there would have been no Lexus. Toyota today would, at best, be a junior partner to some western car manufacturers, or worse, have been wiped out. The same would have been true for the entire Japanese economy. Had the country donned Friedman’s Straitjacket early on, Japan would have remained the third-rate industrial power that it was in the 1960s, with its income level on a par with Chile, Argentina and South Africa…. In other words, had they followed Friedman’s advice, the Japanese would now not be exporting the Lexus but still be fighting over who owns which mulberry tree”.

This should serve as a lesson to Nigerian leaders today. We must recover political leadership to choose our destiny in the world. Although the present globalization is very constraining, there is still enough space to chart a different course like China, Japan, Korea and other successful economy in the Asian continent. This is the message of this book. And to do this, the author urges us to break loose from the dictatorship of the so called economic experts, the technopoles of the World Bank and IMF fame. Drawing from Professor Joseph Stiglitz, the author argues that “economic policies are usually not technocratic in this sense. They involve trade-offs; some may lead to higher inflation but lower unemployment; some help investors; other workers”, therefore economic policymaking is not only for the doctrinaire economists. The ultimate responsibility for making choices about economic policies rests with the politician-leader. Therefore, he or she should develop an expansive policy framework, not the narrow framework of the economic hit-man.

One can go on and on in reviewing the book. But, I will resist that temptation. The book is better than howsoever I describe it. Dr. Madubuike has offered us a great book. He has enriched our repertoire of ideas for change, change from poverty to prosperity; change from politics of eternal returns of regurgitated ethnicity and parochialism to a new politics of changing values for a changing world. Dr. Madubuike summons us to a new horizon of public discourse that enriches politics. As an inhabitant of the barricaded worlds of idea and power, Dr. Madubuike argues that we should break down the walls separating politics and wisdom and re-inaugurate a seamless world of the politician-intellectual. The question is: can we avert the failure of Plato who discovered to his disappointment that the politician can never be a philosopher; and hung his last hope for redemption on the rarest possibility that the true philosopher becomes the King.

Howsoever the riddle unravels this is a great book and needs no further advertisement.

Política, liderança e desenvolvimento em Nigéria
Automatically translated into Portuguese thanks to WorldLingo
Texto da observação pelo Dr. Sam Amadi como um revisor da “política, da liderança e do desenvolvimento em Nigéria” escrita pelo Dr. Ihechukwu Madubuike, na casa do mérito, Abuja em quinta-feira, POLÍTICA maio de 29,

2008: ENTRE AS IDÉIAS E O PODER
“política, liderança e desenvolvimento em Nigéria” pelo Dr. Ihechukwu Madubuike, ministro de Nigéria da instrução anterior (1979) e Saúde (1995), são uma contribuição principal ao discurso e à política públicos em Nigéria. For um quando onde longo nós temos a oportunidade de tal oferecer intelectual bonito de um dos intelectuais públicos os mais finos de Nigéria que escarrancha o mundo das idéias e o mundo do poder.

O binário entre o poder do `' e a idéia do `' constitui um rubric conceptual veritable para escorar esta revisão. Há um dissonance longstanding entre o poder do `' e a idéia do `' no mentality popular, pelo menos em Nigéria. Este dissonance expressa-se no denigration dos povos do poder os políticos. É feito exame frequentemente para concedido, e com evidência do bom que aqueles que jostle ao poder do estado do controle são os povos cujo o disinclination às idéias e à vida da reflexão séria é assim intuitive e endemic que reforça seu irrationality murderous no poder. Mas, uma vez em um quando um denizen dá uma volta através deste chasm e integra o quest para o poder e a paixão para a verdade e a beleza. Tal filósofo-rei prende a promessa da transformação.

Dr. Madubuike é tal filósofo-rei. É um político reflexivo, um intelectual que não scorn a utilidade do poder político. Como Plato, Madubuike procura fazer réguas sábias e virtuous. Mas, ao contrário de Plato, sua viagem a Siracusa não termina no desespero e no abandono. Sempre desde que juntou a classe política em 1979, Dr. Madubuike remanesceu acoplado pròxima com política. Os pathologies do poder e dos inanities da cultura política Nigerian não têm sapped seu idealism que o mundo do poder político poderia também se transformar o mundo das idéias. Este livro é um testament unequivocal deste idealism. Ele brittles com esperança que nós podemos transformar nossa paisagem política; essa política pode imóvel transforma-se a arte do possível; e isso nós lata com sentido mais grande da missão superamos o dictatorship do `da nenhum-alternativa'.

Há duas maneiras largas rever um livro. Nós podemos rever as qualidades aesthetical e literárias do livro e o filosófico cum méritos ideological do livro. Para residir momentaneamente no literário e aesthetic, eu descreverei confiàvel o livro de Madubike como um prazer literário e aesthetic. É completamente um livro fácil a ler. Seu leitor-friendliness não diminui de suas idéias elevadas. No fato, seus loftiness e grandeur exemplified e são realçados pelo felicity rhetorical e pelo simplicity estrutural em que se escreve. Naturalmente, nós não esperamos menos formulário um homem que faça a fama justa que scandalizing aquelas que fazem exame do prazer na prosa turgid e tangled. Em Nigéria é quase commonplace confrontar os livros que betray a falta da atenção editorial. Parece como se os autores destes livros têm o disrespect o mais grande para seus leitores que se decidem os punir com um livro não editado. Mas, este livro não pertence a essa classe burgeoning. O livro recebeu a atenção editorial completa. Você encontra erros e omissões pequenos enquanto você navigate através das páginas. O tamanho do livro, o arranjo dos capítulos e dos parágrafos e a qualidade de imprimir fazem ao livro um prazer prender e ler.

Embora os essays no livro sejam escritos em um frame de tempo que a década aproximadamente dois das extensões, têm simetrias da língua, expressiveness e o finesse estrutural de que se pensaria eles fosse escrito em um exercício contínuo. Por exemplo, o segundo essay no livro (não contando o prefácio e a introdução), na riqueza, no poder e no Recruitment na classe governando de Nigéria, foi escrito em 1979 como um commentary da notícia pelo serviço de transmissão de Imo, Owerri. O último essay na instrução intitulada vida da coleção (não as observações conclindo) da “por muito tempo em Nigéria”, foi escrito para a universidade de estado de New York, búfalo, em 2001. Estes essays são separados perto sobre duas décadas contudo você vê similaridades astonishing de fluir livre e de inglês crisp; lucidity e claridade do pensamento e do grau quase equivalente de dexterity analítico e de orientação ideological. Estes vão mostrar muitos atributos positivos do autor. É consistente ambos na técnica de seu ofício e de sua disposição ideological às edições e ao evento. Em 1979 o autor discutiu que “nós devemos se certificar de que o poder influenciar eventos políticos, sociais, econômicos, religiosos, educacionais e outros que afetam os meios de subsistência e o futuro da população Nigerian não está concentrado nas mãos de alguns indivíduos, simplesmente porque são ricos. Nós devemos insistir esse honesty transparente, trabalho duro, tolerância, talent e as realizações sejam o borne da guia para o recruitment na classe governando. Este é o governo da esperança que nós temos para um calmo, o próspero e o estável em Nigéria”. Em 2001, no essay do búfalo opined que a “equidade e a justiça são importantes na instrução apenas porque está em outros setores do esforço humano. É criminal permitir afastado a algum 80% de nossas juventudes entre as idades de 16-25 ao idle seus tempo e talent negando lhes o acesso a uma instrução mais elevada. Este é um exemplo da utilização inferior dos recursos e das capacidades cujas as conseqüências podem somente ser desastrosas para a existência e a estabilidade incorporadas de nosso país”.

Podem qualquer um faltar a paixão comum, o compromisso e a dialética que radiate destes dois essays escritos 20year in-between? Pode qualquer um duvidar os impulsos egalitarian e humanitários que subscrevem estes essays? Pode algum duvidar o sincerity intelectual e o urgency pedagogical destes essays? Nós exemplos múltiplos da lata de tais simetrias positivas nos essays que constituem esta coleção. Dizem a história de um homem que remanesça consistente às verdades de sua profissão como um crítico literário e o progressivism e de radicalism de uma esquerda do político do intelectual do centro.

Um outro prazer do livro, certamente uma maravilha, é a coerência thematic do livro. Com o olho para a beleza de um poeta e a precisão de um clínico, Dr. Madubuike montou junto os essays em assuntos diversos firmemente e prendeu-os finamente junto pela linha da transformação. O autor é um thinker e um político transformative. Este traço cancelando é visto fàcilmente no tom e na mensagem dos essays. Em sua dialética, o autor expõe os pathologies e os inanities de nossas práticas atuais e chama-nos a uma prática nova por um futuro novo. Como um progressista, o autor acredita nas possibilidades de transformação. Como um realist, não faz a luz o anarchical, conservador e algo os contextos sociais e econômicos trágicos que fazem mudanças difíceis, se nao impossível.

Na introdução, o autor sumaria capaz o tema do livro. É sobre o nação-edifício através de aproveitarar creativo e inteligente de recursos humanos e materiais e da construção de narrativas alternativas e do praxis para opôr o hegemony globalizing do TINA - não há nenhuma alternativa. Ou seja é sobre a liderança nacional no contexto do globalization. Os começos do autor com esta indicação panoramic: “Nigéria é um dos projetos nacionais unfinished do vigésimo século. Para consummate a empresa, muito necessita ser feito e resolvido. A pergunta da liderança está em minha mente, uma das edições chaves. Aquele, essencialmente, é etre do raison o d' deste livro. A política, a arte de ganhar e de exercitar o poder fornece a plataforma para os desafios da liderança e do desenvolvimento em Nigéria” (página 3). Eu duvido se poderia haver um sumário mais succinct do livro. Este é um livro sobre a pergunta nacional, posed na fórmula do jejune de como nós podemos compartilhar do rendimento do óleo ou de como nós devemos compartilhar de bornes federais ao longo das configurações religiosas, étnicas ou religiosas. Isto é sobre a pergunta nacional nos termos de fazer rectifica os sonhos dos founders da nação Nigerian; um sonho para uma sociedade da prosperidade, do solidarity e da liberdade.

Este é um livro escrito por um nacionalista que chama seus compatriots a um grau mais elevado de nationalism com procurar t