Nigerian optimism .... could it be?

Journalists, academics, "intellectuals" and commentators in North America and Western Europe have often discussed the disparity in taxation and government-funded social benefits between the United States on the one hand, and Canada (to a lesser extent) and Western Europe (to a greater extent) on the other.

For the record, there is no free lunch and "government" per se doesn't fund anything. Citizens are on the hook to pay for all of it, through taxation and ever-increasing amounts of public debt.

But that is not what this blog is about.

One of the things the commentators mention frequently is what they perceive to be the optimism of the average American. The hypothesis is that poor and middle-class Americans oppose taxing the rich because they believe they may one day ascend the class ladder and become rich themselves, so they want to make sure they don't have to give away their future riches in the name of taxation.

I don't know whether the hypothesis is true or not. Even after living there for quite a few years, I quite frankly will never pretend to understand the people, the country, or their political culture. Then again, I could (and do) say the same for Western Europe and Canada.

The thing is, that hypothesis comes close to something I have always suspected is at play in Nigeria. Our economic, political and sociocultural systems are broken, yet there is no consensus for reform, restructuring and transformation.

I fear too many citizens aspire to join the elite who profitably milk the various deficiencies in our systems. And even those, particularly the poor, struggling majority, who have no chance of joining the milking crew, nevertheless hope that someone from their village, their clan, their local government area rises to join the ranks of those who treat our country as though it were their private dairy.

It is not that people don't want reform, it is that they want reform to wait until after they have got their share of the loot. I think a lot of people are actually scared that reform may happen before they get a chance to self-enrich at the expense of the greater good. No one wants to be the last soldier who dies just before the war ends; in Nigeria, no one wants to be the man who was just one step away from acquiring his own "share" when the deficiencies are fixed and it is no longer possible to become illicitly rich. Ironically, those people who are even further away from that final step are actually more adamant that nothing be reformed until they can get closer to the udders.

Is this a form of self-defeating Nigerian optimism? Do too many Nigerians harbour wholly unrealistic dreams of one day becoming masters of the lootocratic dairy?

The funny thing is we continue to live with the effects of our refusal to reform.

We lament our insecurity, but no one will ever reform the police, because if the police actually become good at investigating crimes, much of what passes for "government" and "business" in the country would either have to cease or our prisons would overflow with convicts.

The same is true of everything we lament about. There are people who make fortunes because of our electricity problems. Others who have become billionaires thanks to the comatose refineries and the fuel price subsidy. I could go on.

Alas, we the people seem to aspire to join them, rather than reform the system. Our optimism about the likelihood of it happening may just be the single most important impediment to reform, restructuring and transformation.