Research and lived experiences of nations have long established the centrality of institutions in building a prosperous and sustainable society. In fact, recent research has identified inclusive institutions (including rule of law, enforcement of property rights & respect for valid contracts) as “the fundamental cause of economic growth and development” of nations. This is because inclusive institutions reduce uncertainty by providing a structure to human interaction and everyday life in a stable and often, efficient way. Conversely, extractive institutions (often build around personalities and under which the rule of law and property rights are absent for large majorities of the population) leave the society worse off.
One fatal mistake made by most African countries at independence was to jettison, circumvent or even destroy inherited colonial inclusive institutions as un-African and not particularly suited for societies in a hurry to develop and catch up with the West, as the language of the 1960s goes. Egged on by African academics who, unfortunately have no real theoretical or empirical knowledge in nation building, early independent leaders became impatient with the workings of the institutions bequeathed to them and began to sideline or altogether destroyed these institutions and personalise power.
Over fifty years down the line and despite the continent been littered with relics of authoritarian and dictatorial regimes, none of these countries has developed. Rather, they have been turned to virtual wastelands, ravaged, as it were, by tyranny, bad governance, impunity, mindless orgies of crime and death, poverty, hunger and diseases. Yes, these countries now have the worst socio-economic indices in the entire world!
What these leaders – and unfortunately, even succeeding ones – specialised in doing is what Ricardo Hausmann terms ‘isomorphic mimicry’ – the creation of institutions that act in ways to make themselves “look like institutions in other places that are perceived as legitimate,” but which in reality are not.
So, for instance, countries will have Central Banks that are supposedly independent, but in reality are mere puppets of the regime in power and whenever the regime is facing revenue shortfalls, rather than doing the hard work of undertaking reforms to better manage the economy, it takes the short-cut by directing the Central Bank to keep printing it more money. The end result will be the case of Zimbabwe, for instance, where inflation rose millions of percentages and rendered the country’s currency absolutely worthless leading to its abolition. Sadly, even Nigeria is on this trajectory. As at the last count, the central bank of Nigeria has printed over N7 trillion for the Nigerian government between 2014 and September 2019. Is it any wonder therefore that confidence in the Naira is at an all-time-low and even politicians and those in government prefer to have their savings in US dollars?
This is not even talking about African leaders’ penchant for disobeying disregarding the rule of law, disobeying court orders and even undermining or in worse case, destroying the judiciary, disrespecting the sanctity of contracts etc. The template for most African leaders – regardless of whether they are democracies or not – is that they must exercise absolute authority and their powers cannot be constrained or checked by whatever institution.
One lesson these African countries and leaders ought to have learnt by now is that strong inclusive institutions are the best guarantees for sustainable growth and development and not strongmen. Strong institutions are enduring and guarantee societal progress no matter the people inhabiting them. Having a regime of strong institutions though, has a particular drawback: No one person no matter how important, can exercise absolute powers. It comes with constraints, checks and balances on the powers of all office holders, including that of the president. It is built on the premise that absolute power corrupts absolutely and that personal rule is subject to the whims and caprices of rulers and tends to fizzle out when the ruler departs.
Sadly, president Buhari and his minders don’t seem to have learnt any lesson. They prefer to play by the old book. The government’s penchant for subtly or even openly interfering with independent state institutions to produce favourable political outcomes is worrying and is setting the country back by decades.
This need not be so. And that is why the plan by the presidency to have a rubber-stamp 9th National Assembly must be resisted by lawmakers who want to see Nigeria progress. Haven already subverted the judiciary, the only check on the powers of the executive remains the legislature. If that arm of government too is taken over by the executive by imposing its leadership, then there will be no checks on the powers of the president – and the result will be disastrous for Nigeria.
