Whither dictatorship?

[Jack Fulcher]

Hi.  A lot has happened here since I visited last week.  I?ve got to stop letting my work interfere with my participation in this forum!  I waited so long, they closed down another thread, so I have to open up another or join an existing one just to get my thoughts posted.  The old saying is ?you snooze, you lose,? and that applies to me here.

Thank you, Admin, for your statistics and facts concerning Kano and its problems of poverty and poor infrastructure.  I wonder why, in a country with such oil wealth, you cannot get water pipes in the ground and tanks built for running water.  The technologies for this, for sewage treatment, for electrical distribution systems, and for transportation systems are well known, and I see no reason why you cannot devote some of that wealth to the development of basic infrastructure.  Is modernity and progress considered an evil only found in the western countries?  According to the guy from Nigeria who works in my office, Lagos has much modern development, but he says that it has been difficult to convince people in the north and east to devote their efforts to such projects, partly because their leaders say that it?s a conspiracy by the West to exploit them and interfere with their traditions and religion.  He says the Imams tell people to reject efforts of the federal government to immunize their children against disease, because they say it?s a plot by outside doctors to commit genocide against their people.

Whatever the reasons, it?s unfortunate that the people cannot get the basic services they deserve in the 21st century.  If people have to spend their day getting water and food for their families, it?s hard for them to build up their economies.  But this just points out the necessity to work hard, plan your development, and embrace the lessons of science and technology to make access to the requirements of daily living easier.  This was one point made by Bernard Lewis? book ?What Went Wrong??, a book reviewed by Mr. Waziri on your home page.  (By the way, does the web master know that all the links in that section are broken, and have been for some time?)  (Where is Waziri, anyway?)  Lewis is some professor from Princeton (as I remember) who writes about the Middle East.  He says that the move to modernity has been rejected by the Arabs and Persians (Iranians), and they see no value in having their own children learn science and modern technologies.  What they do is simply buy those technologies and modern machinery from the West, using all that oil they find under their lands.  I think that is unfortunate for their people ? they do not develop a strong work ethic and what will happen to them when the oil runs out (maybe this century, maybe next)?  Already we see signs of this problem in stories carried by arabnews.com, a Saudi online newspaper.  Apparently foreign companies who come to Jeddeh to sell services to the Saudis have a hard time hiring Saudi college graduates to work for them.  These companies complain that these kids come to work late, take long lunch breaks, and leave early.  They just don?t see why they should work hard since their families will support them even if they quit their job.  So the companies hire kids from the Philippines or from India, because they work hard and appreciate having the job.  This is a bad sign for the Arabs.

But back to Kano.  You may be correct that poor countries tend to be less democratic, but that is no excuse for imposing dictatorships or to prevent the free exchange of ideas.  Democracies, as Dave has pointed out, cannot be imposed arbitrarily from outside, as we are seeing in Iraq.  They have to develop from within, using democratic institutions such as a free press, a free forum (hint, hint), and a general attitude that we are responsible for our own quality of life and we cannot just depend on some dictator to make our important decisions for us.  This is the way the world has progressed over the past 500 years, through the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, the rejection of feudalism and the embrace of a free market system for production and distribution of goods and services.  Even Marx liked the new market systems he saw developing in Europe in the 19th century because he saw them as an efficient way to get rid of feudalism.  But he thought communism would be the next step, but it doesn?t seem to work well because of all the centralized decisions required to get any production at all.  Now even the Chinese are becoming the world?s greatest capitalists.

So while you?re probably right that poor countries are not very democratic, I would argue that one of the causes of an improving economy is the political system.  The more you include everyone in the decision-making process, and the more you use their energy and ideas, the stronger you become.  This is one reason racism is so bad ? it excludes so many productive people from the economy.  The same is true for some traditions of Islam that excludes women from the work force.  If women cannot work, or even drive, in Saudi Arabia, and they cannot even leave the house without a male relative, they cannot contribute to the economy as strongly as they do in Europe or the U.S.  This is a serious waste of resources, and it puts the Arab and Persian countries at a disadvantage compared with the West.  This is not a Christian v. Muslim argument; it?s a culture clash argument.  

Boy, am I long-winded!  Please forgive me.  I need to respond to some of the other very thoughtful posts, but I also need to come to dinner, according to my lovely wife.  Have a nice and productive day, folks.  Jack

[mallamt]

Jack

I will try and restrict my comments on your posting to areas it concerns northern nigeria and nigeria.  Now the problem of nigeria starts with statements like that of your friend (or colleague) from lagos

According to the guy from Nigeria who works in my office, Lagos has much modern development, but he says that it has been difficult to convince people in the north and east to devote their efforts to such projects, partly because their leaders say that it?s a conspiracy by the West to exploit them and interfere with their traditions and religion. He says the Imams tell people to reject efforts of the federal government to immunize their children against disease, because they say it?s a plot by outside doctors to commit genocide against their people.

Now I tend to believe that the only reason you qouted this guy is because you believed him, so he has found in you a very gullible audience.

Firstly all that you have indicated as a problems of northern nigeria (lack of basic infrastructure) is a nigeria problem not a northern nigeria problem only, the reason the issue is restricted to the north here is because this is a kano web site (a state in northern nigeria).  It is almost impossible to understand nigerian political terrain and the role played by tribe and ethnicity if you have never visited or especially lived in nigeria for a considerablely long time and travelled the country.  No amount of books can really educate you about that country if you do not get  first hand feel, it a very complex country.  Obviously your friend has some very serious bias which you probably do not even know because according to you he is also accusing the east of not wanting development.  But I can tell you this there is no part of the country that has seen private individuals and enterprise uplifiting the lives of their people like the east.  Places like Lagos benifited from being a federal capital most of the infrastructure of the state was provided by the federal government.  All other states in the country did not enjoy the same level of involvement of the federal government in the provision of infrastructure like lagos state.  I wonder if your friend ever said anything to you about the infrastructure and the overall planning and organisation that their is in the new federal capital of nigeria (abuja) as compared to that of lagos and if you were also told that it is in the middle part of the country more in the north than lagos.

On the issue that people do not want these basic infrastructures because they are told it is some kind of conspiracy, well I am sure that kind not politics also exists in the US, it is completely false and unfair to try and suggest that all northern leaders are guilty of this type of behaviour - it is just politics, and just like you have been gullible to the kind of statements made by your nigerian friend also these people who forment trouble somehow find gullible people who believe them as well, and I am sure you will agree with me that it is only when a govt provides these amenities and practically makes peoples lives better with these amenities people will remain suspicious of govt intentions.  i am not sure if you are following the crisis of the niger delta in nigeria it is the same story promises, promises by govt yet the land of the indigeneous people after over 30 years of govt promises is an environmental nightmare, would you blame them if the are suspicious of a well meaning oil company or govt.? would you call them backwards if they prefare to live in their huts that are supported dangerously on stilts over creeks without any "western" basic infrastructure such as sanitary facilities and clean drinking water yet the sit on billion of barrells of black gold beneath them?  You must understand the politics first.

The most important issue lies in the critical question you posed which is why we can not get pipes in the ground and build water tanks and you rubbed it in when you said that the technology for the provision of these infrastructure are well known.  I completely agree with you on this, one will question where are the engineers that have been trained all these years why is religion being politicised rather than face our responsibilities?  This is just part of the problem, refusal to own up to our responsibility to do what has to be done honestly and ensure that we have a well provided for and catered society.  And unless we start seeing things in this perspective we will continue in this barbar mans chair syndrome that is going round in circles and getting nowhere

[alhaji_aminu]

My reply to this post is a simple one. What exactly is "whither"?

[Jack Fulcher]

That's an excellent question, alhaji aminu.  It's an old term meaning "to what place, or to what situation or degree," so in this case "whither dictatorship" means something like "to what degree will this dictatorship go," or "where will this dictatorship take us?"  So you can think of it as  simply a shortcut for saying "we'll discuss the dictatorship to which Admin refers and where it is likely to go or take us."

As for Mallamt's post, he has a lot there I'd like to talk about, but I need to do some more work before I go home, so I'll respond later.  Have a nice weekend, all.  Jack

[gogannaka]

Nice post by mallamt.

One very serious problem Nigerians face is pessimism.
The average Nigerian feel and believe that Nigeria will never develop in any sector and that whatever achievement the nation gains will someday fail.
The foreign media outfits have been used to induce such pessimism.
With this kind of pessimism it will be difficult for the average nigerian to see any development.

[HUSNAA]

Its difficult not to be pessimistic when nothing works- and thats despite being the happiest people in the world :?(?!)

[neozizo]

This is not a Christian v. Muslim argument; it?s a culture clash argument.

Why is it that whenever there is a 'culture clash' argument,even thge most objective westener takes it for granted that western culture is the ideal culture?
For example when we talk about democracy or governace,the american or rather western model is considersd the ideal,when women liberation is mentioned the american woman is the perfect model as opposed to the arab or african woman,also westerners cant just understand why any body would want to practice an economic system other than capitalism.

Granted that there are western cultures and ways of doing things that work but it should be noted that sometimes people are perfectly happy and prefer indiginous cultures and ideologies.