Nigeria needs urgent reforms that will prioritise people’s welfare above the interests of the elites for it to overcome its various challenges. A Professor of Political Economy, Governance, and Inquiry at the Federal University Lokoja, FUL, Abraham Musa Peters, made this known in Lokoja on Wednesday
Peters made the recommendation while delivering the 43rd Inaugural Lecture of the university. He considered the topic “Between the Ritual and the Ingredients: An Inquiry into the Political Economy of Governance in a Post-Colonial State.”
While listing elections, constitutions, institutions, and procedures as constituting rituals, and itemised justice, prosperity, accountability, human development as ingredients, the inaugural lecturer described a post-colonial state as “a state whose institutions, practices, and governing philosophies continue to bear the imprint of colonial domination.“
The don made a distinction between ‘procedural democracy,’ which he noted focuses on elite settlement and ‘substantive democracy,’ which focuses on people’s welfare.
Peters decried the paradox of poverty in the midst of abundant natural and human resources. He identified corruption and elite predation, weak institutions, dependency on oil, leadership crisis, and ethno-religious politics as factors that hold down the country’s economic growth.
However, it was not all lamentation as Peters provided a window to the future
“Nigeria’s future depends not merely on resource endowment but on the transformation of the state into a genuinely developmental institution capable of promoting social justice, national security, and human development.”
He said that until the state is restructured to serve public rather than private interests, democracy will remain fragile, development will remain elusive, and human security will remain threatened
He tasked leaders to reimagine the state as an instrument of collective well-being and that scholarship must illuminate pathways for transformation.
“Critical inquiry remains indispensable to social change. Scholarship must not merely interpret the world; it must illuminate pathways for its transformation..
“I remain convinced that through critical scholarship, institutional reforms, responsible leadership, and active citizenship, Nigeria can overcome its present challenges and realize its enormous potentials.”
Earlier, Vice Chancellor of the university, Prof. Solomon Gbenga Ibileye, in a welcome remark, underscored the importance of the topic to the practice of democracy and reiterated the commitment of his administration to the pursuit of research and academic excellence through regular Inaugural lectures.
