By Audu Liberty
The Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) in its election project,Nigerian Political Parties Discussion Series (NPPDS) organized inter-party debates on topical socio-economic and political issues ahead of the 2015 general elections. The key objective is to promote issue-based politics, and provides political parties opportunity to present their programs, on sector basis, to Nigerians as a way of institutionalizing culture of issue-based politics and fostering democratic accountability in the country. Two major political parties, the People Democratic Party, PDP and All Progressives Congress, APC participated in the debates which were held six times staggered in months .
At the debate on the provision of infrastructures with particular focus on water, electricity, housing, health, education, and oil sector the People Democratic Party (PDP) believes privatization is the only alternative to addressing Nigeria’s infrastructure deficit. Although APC did not emphasize privatization, it did not also have a clear opposing view on what it believes in either liberal or socialist perspectives.
What the two major political parties do not know is, if Nigeria is to embrace total liberal perspective that comes with naked capitalist ideology where private individuals take over the economy, it is important we interrogate the liberal model and situate it within the context and prevailing circumstances of our society. The liberal agenda allows for the growing individualization of our society, and further gives rise to increase suffering among citizens owing to an absence of social contact. In our case, individuals who pose as business men represent the interests of elite, while the same people who created the problem are seen promising to solve the problem created by them. Our government puts more energy pushing for the legitimization of its privatization policies, however, the realities is that our privatization process is corrupt which the outcome would further put the country in bigger crisis than it is trying to solve.
In a country like Nigeria that has very weak institution and lacks political will, privatization is not going to be successful. Effective regulatory bodies that are the key driver of successful capitalist economy are missing in Nigeria privatization agenda thus making individual force to determine the market price rather than market forces as postulated by liberal perspective that breeds privatization. Power plants and other infrastructures cannot be built on the postulation of free market programs that cannot be translated into reality. The fact that no refineries have been built over 20 years licenses for refineries have been issued to private individuals further confirms the ineffectiveness of Nigeria privatization. The Power generating dams, thermal plants, national power grid, local distribution network we have in the power sector could never have been built on the basis of privatization. Concentrating state enterprise in the hands of powerful elites without capacity to deliver and who dictate for the state will not give room for successful privatization and its benefits. The priority before them is not to grow the sector but to embrace primitive capitalist accumulation by exploiting the weakness of the state to regulate their activities. In the process, they take over the state, and continually put in place those that will continue to protect their interest in all societal endeavors, this they do by ensuring they take over and control the political affairs of the state.
The truth is, the struggle for privatization and better living conditions depends purely on the political will of Nigerian state. Unfortunately, Nigeria political elites and the emerging political parties are committed to liberalization policy. They do not seem to have other alternatives to the World Bank and IMF agenda which has privatization at the heart of its agenda which continually put the poor at the receiving ends. Therefore our believe that we are likely to have political party and ruling class oligarchy that can truly change Nigeria and roll out programs that can transform the society is not likely to come soon. Our present crop of the political class do not know, liberalism and capitalist erode the social contract which is the foundation that is the core thrust of governance.
Corruption is the major obstacle to our development not privatization. When you study history of development, especially countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia and South Korea they all fought corruption which is a key missing link in Nigeria. How, then do we think privatization without political will to fight corruption will create room for successful economic transformation and well-being of the citizenry. Even as we push for privatization, investment decisions in Nigeria are often driven primarily by political considerations. Why sale of government enterprises, is often determined on the basis of political loyalty than competence.
For Nigeria to realize the potential of infrastructure privatization, adequate legal and regulatory frameworks must be put in place which is a key missing link in our privatization agenda. Mass retrenchment that follows privatization as we saw in NEPA shows apparently, liberal model is not human development; while few societal elite get rich at the expense of the vast majority of Nigerians in the name of privatization. It is also anti poor policy, it makes unemployment higher and further deepens poverty and inequality. Nigeria has at about 69% poverty rate with many citizens living below 1 dollar per a day. If we embrace pure privatization and entrench capitalism and the stat abdicates its responsibilities how will the citizens survive in the hands of exploitative capitalist. For us in Nigeria to enjoy the benefits of privatization poverty and employment must be addressed and citizens have dependable income for transactions.
If Nigerian state must embrace privatization as the engine growth for her economy, enabling environment for operation must be created and booty capitalism completed eroded. If infrastructures needed to boost production are still in the rudimentary state as they are, the private sector cannot perform any magic and turn the economy around since there is a limit to the facilities they can provide within their capacity.
Nigeria’s government abdicating its responsibilities of providing infrastructures and embracing privatization without creating institutions with political will to allow for successful privatization and economic transformation will only compound her problems in future.
