‘There has been a deplorable erosion of core values that are supposed to infuse our organization with energy and fervor to support democracy and all those things that we want. And the lack of these institutional values, constitute the chaos that we have in the Country’. These are the summation of Prof Adigun Agbaje of the department of political science at the University of Ibadan. Professor Adigun Agbaje stated this at an event to review Olusegun Adeniyi’s book “Against the Run of Play” which was held at the Ibadan School of Government and Public Policy.
while underscoring the importance of Segun Adeniyi’s book as a contribution to the democratic narrative of the country’s Political Development, the former Deputy Vice Chancellor, University Of Ibadan, opines that, the book is one that helps to disconfirm the long held belief that a new generation is always worse than a preceding generation. Segun Adeniyi belongs to the crop of distinguished personalities who has proven that excellence is possible, and not bow to the pressure of inanities that Nigeria has come to be characterized by and by and large shows that the best is yet to come.
As a Journalist and writer, he, Adeniyi, has with the likes of Waziri Adio, Ebenezer Obadare, Festus Adedayo, and Wale Adebanwi etc contributed their own quota to the democratic evolution of the country.
In his analysis Prof. Agbaje pointed to the deplorable state of the Nigeria polity, both economically and politically. Nigeria, according to him, is not just in an economic recession which is very obvious to the ordinary man on the street, but also in a democratic recession. Rather than embodying the ideals of true democracy. “What we now have is a Democratism and Electoralism. Democratism, as the system whereby the appearance and language of democracy to subvert democracy, while Electoralism is using the system whereby the ideas and practice and institution of electoral democracy.
Perhaps more troubling is the institutional recession that Nigeria has over time been subjected to and has consistently found ourselves. ”We have not been able to transform our organization into an institution. Institutions are about values that can transform an organization from an arrangement of offices into an institution that is more or less permanent and are set to achieve appointed goals”. These ‘set of offices’ that are not bounded effectively together is responsible for the chaos that we have in Government. This in his opinion explains why people think the Buhari governmant is confused.
The absence of the required values for the development of our institutions has given rise to other ‘negative’ values which have become the sources of the problems we have in our society today.
He therefore emphasized on the need for us to continuously interrogate the realities of the Nigerian politics and governance as well as ‘interrogating the lies about our democracy and federalism and republicanism so as to fashion out a way to the truth and the realities that we deserve’ especially for the future generation.
By Victor Alagogooko for IbadanCityAnnouncer
