I really liked the presentation of Prof. Charles Soludo, a very successful man in every sense. I even loved more the quote he brought up by Plato. I would like that quote to be revisited and ruminated over.
Plato meant that it is the people who loved to know how everything worked, how all the branches of human knowledge interact with one-another; those with that curiosity and intellectual depth, that should be the principals guiding society aright and by no means should they be addressed as President or Governor only.
The best people to know what to do in a society to advance it are the people who have a natural interest in that and have spent a good deal of time finding out about those issues through biographies, history etc and following the news as a habit, not necessarily someone who has specialised in one field of knowledge and obtained all the degrees and certifications in that field and made a lot of money ("successful technocrats" if you may).
What this society needs are people who will educate the general masses, to change their horrible values and so many items of their culture and to bring them into at least the 20th century so that they understand their civic responsibilities and relationship with government. If that is not achieved, no one will just come and change society in this "democratic setting." Only a dictatorship can achieve that but as our previous dictatorships, save one, have proved, even they are victims and products of society's backwardness in understanding.
The fact that Gov. Fashola of Lagos was used as an example of a "very successful" governor is exactly to the point I am making. The fact that he was very successful in his profession and then came and presented himself for office was used as an example of what other professionals should do. The fact which goes against conventional thinking is that he has been a rather successful manager, but I wonder how he has been a great example of what a leader should be. He brought personal decency to the office and (hopefully) judiciously managed the resources of the state. But is that the only role of a leader, a governor in this case? What are those resources? Tax from residents and businesses in the state not previously meticulously collected, allocation from the Federal Government, and external loans worth massive billions. Can anyone truly say the people of the state have become more productive and developed a new capacity to generate wealth? The people see him as a special breed who is out of step with the "normal people" and they are just biding their time for him to finish his term so that they return to their "normalcy." This is by no means a criticism of the good governor who has done as good as he knows how. But that is the issue: the fact that you wish to do well can be limited by how much you know of what is right. That is the definition of value system we talk about. If he were making any headway in reorienting the people of the state and creating thousands of Fasholas all over the state then he would be leading people in a direction that they would continue on and ultimately arrive at progress whether he is there or not. But everything in Nigeria is made to depend on the "man", the "leader."
Please let me part by reiterating that you are not going to be magically successful in governing Nigeria aright just because you were the best graduating student in some PhD programme at Harvard and had some very important job in some big international organisation. That creates the elitist insular arrogant bubble some live in today that is a part of the problems with Nigeria today.
The people of Nigeria, together with their knowledge, customs and values do not yet belong to even the 20th century of human progress even though we are well into the 21st. It is the state of development of the people that will determine the face of the nation and its government.
@OIbhagui
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