The term: the tragedy of the commons was first espoused nearly two centuries ago by William Forster Lloyds, a British economist. Interestingly, he used the effects of unregulated grazing on common land to illustrate how a common could be tragedized. The concept was later brought into the limelight following a classical article written by Garett Hardin in1968 titled “The tragedy of the commons” where ‘a commons’ was conceptualized as a natural resource shared by many individuals and in which no one individual has a definite claim but to use a portion thereof. Today, the term is used to describe a situation where a shared resource is used and abused by some persons or group of persons for self-interest contrary to or in defiance of collective public interest. In a shared resource system, no individual or group of individuals holds others to ransom in terms of any direct or specific claim to the resource or part thereof. Any resource in which individuals have joint rights and are expected to have open and equal access is a common. So, in specific contexts, a common could be a football field, a refrigerator, roads, air, water and anything else shared by persons or group of persons without any encumbrances. Everyone who is expected to benefit from a shared resource is obligated to do so without depleting or spoiling it or crowding out others therefrom. A common is tragedized anytime it is abused and I describe the abuser(s) as a gang of roughs.
The evils associated with the concept of the tragedy of the commons ought to be understood by all reasonable human beings. But in Nigeria, the concept is a closed book. Why? There is a deliberate hoarding of the truth and unwillingness to make the complex problems in our society easy to understand. A number of cases in this regard include the odious salary and allowances of the lawmakers where the minimum wage cannot guarantee minimum welfare, unbridled stealing and the unexplained killings by anonymous herdsmen (Opeyemi Agbaje) of men, women, and children in most parts of Nigeria. These are evidences that most players in the Nigerian political and economic space have turned themselves into a gang of roughs. Members of the gang have never been positively far-seeing, intelligent and sensitive in loving the people and watching over their interests. This is an aberration. We promise as always to serve Nigeria with ‘love and strength and faith’ in order to preserve the labour of our heroes past. With typical aggression and empty rhetoric, the gang of roughs at all levels are deploying cruelty of every kind and engaging in all sorts of vain-glorious activities at the expense of the helpless masses. They have got together and drilling ‘holes’ in the national treasury by way of stealing, misappropriating, misapplying, hoarding of public funds and intimidating everyone emotionally. In fact, every of our commons face one tragedy or the other at varying intensity.
Any country that desires to be sustainable has no choice but to regulate the use of the commons. Under the circumstances in which we find ourselves in Nigeria, what choices do the people have? The people should either watch helplessly as the drilling and exploitation of the commons continue until the country is fully ‘privatized’, or obtain their own ‘tools’ and also drill some holes for personal benefits or stop the culprits and throw away their tools to forestall further drilling. Whereas stopping further drilling of holes in the commons is the appropriate step to take, but this has not been quite easy in the presence of the ruthless and cruel gang of roughs whose sordid activities have become the rule rather than the exception. The question has always been: who bells the cat?
It is important that the people begin to plan within the modest limits of law and order to pluck up the courage to arrest and dismiss the weight and burden of the gang of roughs that beset us and let us run the race of rebuilding Nigeria in righteousness. The problem cannot be solved by technical means that have nothing, either little or significant in the way of change of values and morality as the political and economic space is currently populated by people most of whom have low morals. They struggle and aspire to reach the highest positions and offices in the land without any commensurate sense of manhood. There is, therefore, the need to return to the old virtues of love, respect, hard work, the dignity of labour among others that we learned on our mothers’ kneels. This will create God-fearing, progressive and skillful politicians and rulers who will bear in their hearts a devotion to do that which is always in the public interest and consequently reverse the trend of gangsterism in the management of the commons.
The President of the country has to bell the cat and lead the way. It should not be forgotten that it was a thing of joy when his government came into office. Expectations were high as everyone felt comfortable with the benign smiles on his face suggesting the arrival of the Messiah. This was amply backed by the distinguished military career of the President. Though I have seen a critical mass of Nigerians shiver and look pale I believe the hope is still alive and the President only needs to double throttle the nation to the wish of every Nigerian who believes in him. Unless he does, it would just be four years of clouds without rain. But I trust he would do.
Francis Iyoha
Professor Iyoha is of the Department of Accounting, Covenant University and Research Fellow, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN). He wrote viafoiyoha@ican.org.ng
