Power properly understood is nothing but the ability to achieve a purpose. It is the strength required to bring about social, economic, political, cultural and religious changes.
What is needed is a realization that power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demand of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.
From these words of Martin Luther King Jr. it may not be a wrong assertion to conclude that there is nothing wrong with power; that power could be used both constructively and destructively; that for man to function well in any given position of authority, he/she must identify that power is not a complete end but looks up to something further; it cannot itself be the ultimate goal; that power is valuable according to the use to which it may be put.
And most importantly, power in the estimation of the Marxists is but the ability to protect one’s interest. Chief among such examples of the destructive exercise of power is Pol Pot. While in power in Cambodia between 1975 and 1978, he used his position to cause the death of more than two million people in the small country in Southeast Asia bordered by Vietnam and Thailand. This is a verifiable fact.
The story is not different here in Africa. Late Robert Mugabe in his quest to hold on to power massacred over 20,000 of his people, destroyed the nation’s economy and watched with disinterest while his wife looted millions of dollars. Fresh in our memories are the Liberia episode in the early 1990s, Gnassingbe Eyadema of Togo and Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire. In Africa, there are even more accounts of gradual and naked abuse of power by those in positions of authority. Conversely, talking about constructive use of power, the thought of Lee Kuan Yew, former Prime Minister of Singapore, naturally comes to mind. It is on record that Lee grew 15 times, independent Singapore with a GDP of $3billion in 1965 to $46billion in 1997 and its economy became the 8th highest per capital GNP in the world in 1997 according to the World Bank. Back home is a similar account. Shortly after independence, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, then Premier of the Western region, constructively used his position to better the life of his people – infrastructurally and socio-economically. Through quality and affordable education, he set the region on a hyper-modern pathway of development.
This feat or a combination of other people-purposed achievements, without doubt, explains why decades after his reign, he is daily remembered and used in virtually all the primary schools (both public and private), as an example of a great leader. Indeed, they defined power in the image of their actions.
But today, the narrative has changed. National development is in trouble. Education, power, health and infrastructure are the worst victims of present ineffectual administrations.
In many ways, the present administration may have a sincere desire to move the nation forward, but there are three major militating factors. First, there is no clear definition of our problem as a nation, the goals to be achieved, or the means chosen to address the problems and to achieve the goals. Secondly, the system has virtually no consideration for connecting the poor with good means of livelihood- food, job and security. Thirdly, though they constitutionally possess the political powers to improve the life chances of the governed, governments at all levels daily manifest non-possession of political will to perform their constitutional responsibilities. This is the only possible explanation for this situation.
Take the education sector, for instance. It is a well considered belief that with sound and good educational institutions, a country is as good as made -as the institutions will turn out all rounded manpower to continue with the development of the society – driven by well-thought out ideas, policies, programmes, and projects. In an age where information has more economic value than ever before, it’s obvious that education should have a higher national priority. It is also clear that democracies are more likely to succeed when there is widespread access to high-quality education. But despite these virtues and attributes, the sector remains in the ‘valleys of the shadow of death’ occasioned by perennial underfunding. Standing as proof to this claim is the budgetary provision for education in 2019 which got N620.5bn (7.05 per cent), an amount that is far below the United Nations Educational Scientific, and Cultural Organization’s [UNESCO] recommendation.
This failure speaks volume and points at FG’s unwillingness to engineer national development and signposts an administration that is not interested in using power properly. What about the state of the nation’s infrastructure -roads in particular? Definitely, it elicits but similar response. Some years ago, it was reported that Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola, instead of talking about the efforts being made to fix the federal roads, told bewildered Nigerians that the roads in the country are not as bad as many thought. It is responses such as this that made to characterize our democracy as ‘democracy turned upside down’.
• Jerome-Mario Utomi, Programme Coordinator, Social and Economic Justice Advocacy (SEJA), Lagos
