I am not naive; I know politics all over the world is a game of information manipulation and outright deception. Still, I've always been intrigued by the degree to which politicians, political parties, and the mass media are able to convince millions of people to be emotional, unquestioning supporters of one or another politician or political faction.
The fundamental dishonesty of politics is not a problem for those countries whose citizens inherit the benefits and privileges their ancestors created for them via 500 years of unrelenting, globe-spanning violence that reshaped Planet Earth's political and economic functioning. Their countries consume an epically outsize share of the planet's resources regardless of who wins their elections.
But we in Africa, and in Nigeria specifically, need to have serious conversations about serious issues ... including issues that really should have been resolved back in the 1950s before the event officially referred to as "Independence". We are materially harmed by politics perennially free of anything that could be considered "substance", suffused with outright lies and factually insupportable assertions, with promises that are not intended to be delivered, and promises that are contextually undeliverable.
Speaking of undeliverable promises, why do our governments (all of them) like to set and pompously declare totally random "deadlines" for the accomplishment of things? It will be done by the end of the year, they insist, their faces determined and serious in the glare of the cameras. Meanwhile, a rational person can see the thing in question could only be accomplished over a 10-year period of consistent policy superintended by a succession of competent governments.
Sometimes the issue is something inherently unpredictable like the insurgency, yet our governments will set deadlines for "victory". According to Buhari, the deadline for victory was December of 2015 -- he was going to win the war within half a year of taking office.
Then there was that 3-year deadline (1999-2002) set for the unification of all non-CFA currencies in West Africa. This was back when Charles Soludo was Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria. The 2002 deadline got stretched to 2005, then 2009. As of today, the new deadline is 2020, some 21 years after the initial 3-year deadline was set in 1999. And at an ECOWAS conference held this year, some participants vocalized their rational expectation that the 2020 deadline will also be missed.
Our leaders think these "deadlines" make them sound competent and serious, but in reality they just end up sounding like they don't understand the topics they are talking about. In fact, they sound like they fought so hard to become the government (by "election" or coup) without ever having given a single thought to any of the problems they would have to resolve once they became the government.
I am starting to digress, as I tend to do.
This post was intended to briefly talk about a member of the National Assembly I watched launching a "constituency project" on Channels TV . He told the people gathered for the event that they should vote for (here he mentioned his political party and its definite presidential candidate) because that was the only way they would continue to get "constituency projects".
Legislators all over the world use their control over the government treasury money to buy popularity in their home constituencies. Even in legislatures where political rivalries are heated, the legislators are always able to set their differences aside long enough
to collectively renew their self-given right to use public money
as a reelection tool. In some places it is called "pork barrel" spending, and it doesn't make that much fiscal difference in countries that benefit from the way the planet has been designed to function over the last 500 years' violence.
I am not fond of fiscal waste. And it is democratically unfair for aspirant candidates to have to face incumbent politicians who are allowed to use government money as the de facto reelection campaign funds. I find it particularly crass the way Nigerian politicians behave as though they are using their personal money to give their constituents a personal gift out of their personal kindness. The schedule for these "launchings" always includes a moment where selected people are lined up to deliver, one after another, sychophantic remarks extolling the saviour-like magnificence of the politician.
Unbeknownst to these citizens, they will pay a heavy fiscal price in the near- to medium-term future. There is little thought to the fiscal or operational sustainability of these projects, or to whether it is or isn't the best possible way to permanently solve whatever the core problem is. When the federal and state debts start to bite, there will be fiscal cuts to many areas, including maintenance of the projects and salaries/pensions (which will not be cut per se, but just won't be paid).
But I am digressing again.
This legislator on Channels TV lied to his constituents, telling them there would be no "constituency projects" if they didn't vote for his party and its presidential candidate.
The truth is, regardless of who they vote for, and whichever party wins, the winner will join with his (or her) legislative colleagues to reauthorize spending on "constituency projects". There is little or no discussion in Fourth Republic politics about fiscal responsibility, and I am beginning to think we will remember the Fourth Republic as the most fiscally reckless period of our history. Every candidate in Nigeria with a realistic chance of "winning" a legislative election, is by definition a candidate who will not act to block wasteful, but reelection-enhancing, spending by legislators.
The legislators will not stop themselves from spending in this way, and they won't stop the executives either, especially the 36 state governors. Our state legislatures function as little more than expensively assembled rubber stamps.
