It’s not a thing of joy to always enumerate the negatives of anyone or more so a society. The impact is, it demoralises and puts off the possibility of attracting positive patronage in which ever form one might imagine. So, I was in a conversation with a young man recently and at a point, he got stuck in expressing himself and said ”I don’t want to talk about anything relating to Nigeria, are those supposedly leading actually leading?’’, he asked. At that instance, I looked at him and decided to explain and educate as best as I could the dilemma that many Nigerians have to deal with daily, without of course appearing emotive or dramatic. My explanation opened up the theory of state capture as exposited by Professor Patrick Utomi in several of his writings.
What is state capture? The classical definition of state capture refers to the way formal procedures, such as laws and social norms and government bureaucracy are manipulated by private individuals and firms to influence state policies and laws in their favour. In effect players indirectly hijack the instrument of government and by extension dictate the direction and appearance of governance in society. When this happens, its only the few hijackers who gain at the expense of the majority.
Governance in Nigeria has struggled to shake off the impact that vested interests have had on it since 1979, and it’s still ongoing. With such culture, politics in some instances revolves round money bags, where aspiring to get into office is most likely possible if an individual has enough money or through proxy to pick up a ticket. What that achieves is, it kills representative democracy and undermines the recruitment process of qualitative and purpose driven political leadership.
On the hand, a group of rich individuals who would like to stay close to the corridors of power for their interests to be permanently protected, would rather prefer to sponsor an amenable candidate. With such scenarios, the needs of citizens are usually either directly or unconsciously overridden. Some political actors during their careers ally or team up with non-state actors to push their agenda. Such non state characters are well known street urchins, hooligans, gang bangers who in the course of their career had built up a solid reputation for pushing terror and other forms of enforcements.
Lagos state is a classical example where an individual has an intimidating political clout ably enforced with the help of well-known thugs since 1999. It’s an open secret and a classic example of state capture within the state. He is hoping to replicate the phenomenon nationally. Where state capture is predominant like Nigeria’s political terrain, impunity becomes the norm, because accountability is suppressed at best and thrown out of the window at worst.
It’s important to note that religion is also an effective tool at pursuing and achieving state capture. Remember, Nigeria is one of the few notoriously religious societies on earth, where the position of faith is used to carve, mark, and sustain political territory rather than enhance personal relationships with the creator. The political class in Nigeria continue to use religion to promote their candidature and capture power. It’s quite fashionable for politicians to deemphasize their programmes or push the ideology of their parties when seeking the electorates votes. They can easily use the religion card to their advantage. Religion is used to further perpetuate suspicions and build on the fear of people. This situation easily absorbs them from political responsibility and accountability. Thus, the ultimate form of state capture.
The concept of state capture in pursuing political goals varies. While some politicians use it to retain their hold on a patch of territories, some have become very emboldened in recent years aiming to use it to change the future of the country, not necessarily positively. The use of political cover for state capture, compared to economic is more sinister and it portends to destroy democracy all together in the country.
So why is state capture in Nigeria’s political dispensation deeply ingrained? It might be quite convenient to say the disruption of the political process shortly after independence played a part, rather it’s the insincerity to nurture a political culture by participants with the connivance of vested interest groups who have perpetually seen themselves as above the state. The lack of basic investment, which is intentional, in the citizen over time to act as a counterweight to the excesses the vested interests seem to have for now sealed the fate the Nigerian state at the mercy of this siege of state capture.
What then are the solutions to state capture? In the absence of the political class which sees the interest of the citizen as paramount there may be no movement in the right direction for the country. Nigerians have never been shy to cry out and fight to change the narrative, but as it is, they are currently overwhelmed by deep socio-economic challenges. Meaningful solutions, however, would start to rise to the surface through introspection on the part of the of those that claim to lead, at all levels. A recognition of this starting point is important for a reset. Nigeria is faced with a stark reality, it can’t afford the luxury of sustaining its current state of state capture for another decade.
© Copyright, Olugbenga Adebanjo
Ojuriblog 