Akin Osuntokun: Between Stella Oduah and Peter Ekeh

by Akin Osuntokun

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And it is with this reluctance that I presume to judge the stewardship of Miss Oduah as Minister of Aviation; and even at that, I’m enlisting her not in her own right but as a variable whose misconduct conspicuously lends itself to the applicability of one of the most original and insightful theory of African politics.

I  often write in fear of not being accessible and widely understood and it is with the hangover of this apprehension that I approach today’s subject matter. It has to do with the daunting task of mediating between a distinguished political science professor, Peter Ekeh, and the Nigeria public. Ekeh is a towering intellectual but he is little known outside the environment of the ivory tower although I’m told that he has of late rediscovered his roots and has gone so far as becoming the President of the Urhobo Peoples Union.

Almost 40 years ago, he wrote a paper titled “Colonialism and the two publics of Africa-A theoretical statement”. It was a masterpiece and was published in the journal of Comparative Studies in Society and History. I encourage those who have the leisure and inclination to search for it and I would be ever so willing to lend a helping hand. Ordinarily it is a work meant for the hallowed precincts of the academia but its applicability to the ongoing crisis swirling around the Minister of Aviation, Miss Stella Oduah, is so compelling that I have decided to err on the side of drawing the attention of the Nigeria public to it.

This choice will require of me a higher degree of labour in carrying my audience along; moving from theory to praxis. By the way, praxis means adaptation of theory to reality. I will similarly crave the indulgence of Professor Ekeh for any error of omission or commission in the course of introducing and adapting his theory for the appreciation of the general reader.
By nature, I do not like to offend the sensibilities of people and aggregation of peoples especially those that I’m acquainted with; but I’m also a curious person who speculates a lot and follows his reasoning and reflection wherever it leads. Besides I have this dilemma of being a member of the political elite — the very class of people who substantially invites the scrutiny and criticism of public intellectuals. And by reason of this affiliation I have many of them as personal friends and associates. I also don’t like piling on offenders and therefore abstain as much as possible from kicking functionaries who has or is receiving bashing from all and sundry.

In anguish I sought the perspective of my editor on how to handle this troubling conflict of interest. She enjoined me to learn to live with this reality if I ever want to continue with my vocation of writing. And it is with this reluctance that I presume to judge the stewardship of Miss Oduah as Minister of Aviation; and even at that, I’m enlisting her not in her own right but as a variable whose misconduct conspicuously lends itself to the applicability of one of the most original and insightful theory of African politics.
I feel highly embarrassed at the grossness of her behaviour not the least on account of impacting so negatively on her principal — who honestly deserves a break from relentless savage critique in the media and interpersonal assemblies. May God save us from friends and the company we keep; I will now quote in-extenso the characterisation of corruption in Africa by Professor Ekeh.

‘There are two forms of corruption that are associated with the two publics-the civic (read the government and the state) and the primordial (read ethnic affiliation). The first is what is regarded as embezzlement of funds from the civic public, from the government, to be more specific. The second is the solicitation and acceptance of bribes from individuals seeking services provided by the civic public (the government), by those who administer these services. Both carry little moral sanction and may well receive great moral approbation from members of one’s primordial public (read ethnic affiliation). But contrariwise, these forms of corruption are completely absent in the primordial public. Strange is the Nigerian who engages in embezzlement in the performance of his duties to his primordial public-town union. To put your fingers in the till of the government will not unduly burden your conscience and people may well think you are a smart fellow and envy you your opportunities.  To steal the funds of the (ethnic) union would offend the public conscience and ostracise you from society’.

Ekeh writes with so much clarity and lucidity that I really do not think he needs an interlocutor but I shall offer one here — as it applies to Ms Oduah. I will do this by typifying what he means by the two publics. The civic public here is represented by the Ministry of Aviation and the primordial public is identified as the Igbo ethnic nationality. The attitude of the Igbo in general and specific terms is not to condemn the behaviour of the minister but to defend and rationalise her misconduct. The extreme manifestatiom of this attitude was to threaten that the Igbo will not vote for President Goodluck Jonathan in the next general election, if he dares sanction Oduah.

Otherwise profound writers have laboured to disguise the severity of her offence by dressing it in the garb of generalisation, by advancing the argument that there are legion of precedents which were not reproved and sanctioned. Biblically minded observers will call this a case of following the multitude to commit evil. Soon after the scandal became the staple of public outrage, Dangiwa Umar pointed my attention to the folly of a writer ‘See the backpage of the Daily Trust. See how irrational even a Phd holder appears when he attempts to defend the indefensible.  Clearly a case of ethnic solidarity, how can we create a nation out of this geographical expression — as Pa Awo would call it’.

The theory of the two publics is validated by its general applicability to those societies which constitute the independent variable severally and collectively. The Igbos are right in their summative argument — that the offence of the minister in question is the rule rather than the exception; and that any sanction against her would amount to unique victimisation, the exception and not the rule. To buttress the truism of this rationalisation I will mention other typical instances.

The late Chief Sunday Afolabi, may his soul rest in peace, in his capacity then as Minister of Internal Affairs, admonished another deceased fellow minister, Chief Bola Ige (of illustrious memory) not to rock the boat of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) government to which he was called from the Alliance for Democracy (AD), to ‘come and eat’. One of the more creative recent turn of phrase reduced the phenomenon to the christening of ‘Turn by Turn Nigeria Limited’.  Ahmadu Kurfi was more direct and matter of factly in his depiction ‘this arrangement provides opportunity for various groups in the exercise of real power in the governance of the country, unlike the present dispensation whereby the vice-president/deputy governor has little or no power: and act as a “spare tire” for his boss and can hardly dish out patronage for the people he represents in government’.

The twilight of the first republic was replete with stories of competition for the largese accruable from alliance with the party in control at the centre. The culture of quota and federal character became institutionalised in the mid-70s but it has deep roots in the crass nepotism that defined the latter days of the  first republic.  The less than meritorous appointments of vice-chancellors to the federal government-owned universities was cited as a unique manifestation of this culture.

The Premiership of Chief S L Akintola became the avenging angel for the Western Region when he reoriented the region from opposition politics to a happy union with the Tafawa Balewa-led federal government. This pratice was echoed in the appointment of General Shehu Yar’Adua who was skyrocketed in rank over his seniors to become the deputy to General Olusegun Obasanjo in his capacity as Military Head of State in 1975. The lucky towns and villages of high ranking government officials usually attract lopsided development infrastructural facilities and were conferred with the status of destination of choice for the location of institutions especially tertiary institutions.

The citation of certain offices as ‘lucrative and juicy’ has gradually become accepted as the idiom of appointments to choice offices and posts — often inciting fierce struggles among contending ethnic groups. To be found in this charmed circle are the minitries of works and the FCT; comptroller-general of the Department of Customs and Excise, the chief executives of Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), and the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF); and the Central Bank of Nigeria — to mention a few.

We equally hear of a number of offices, ministries and government agencies warehoused as the exclusive preserve of sections of Nigeria. There is a Yoruba adage that rationalises abuse of office for personal gain as ‘when you are given a hoe to till the ground, hoeing to yourself takes precedence over any other direction’. The theory espoused by Ekeh cannot by any stretch of the imagination, be interpreted as tolerance for the penchant of personalities like Ms Oduah, it only seeks to explain the typicality of her impunity and imprudence.

Her extenuation inheres in the generalised syndrome of corruption and abuse of office in African societies. In the manifestation of this syndrome what is criminal behaviour in public offices regularly gets rewarded at the primordial level. And the larger the capacity of individudals to misappropriate pubic offices and resources for personal benefit and the benefit of her kith and kin, the more prestigious the honour and chieftancy titles reserved for the perpetrator of the act of felony.

It is apt that to bring this exposition to an end by giving the honour to whom it is due. Professor Ekeh concludes as follows; ‘if we are to capture the spirit of African politics, we must seek what is unique to them. Our problems are maybe understood, hopefully solved, by the realisation that the civic public and the primordial public are rivals; that in fact the civic public is starved of badly needed morality. Any politics without morality is destructive. And the destructive results of African politics owes something to the amorality of the civic public’ — the state.

 

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Read this article in the Thisday Newspapers

Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija

 

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