FEATURE ARTICLE

Otunba IlemobadeMonday, August 31, 2015
[email protected]


ANNOUNCE THIS ARTICLE
TO YOUR FRIENDS

ELITISM AN ANTITHESIS OF INCLUSIVE DEMOCRACY

advertisement

raditional Nigeria society is communialistic and egalitarian in morphology, simply put, nature of our society and the socialization dynamics are grounded on the philosophy of being our brothers keeper. Without sounding romantic and with the avoidance of committing the fallacy of over generalization, we are diverse ethnically and culturally speaking.

Please note that I use present tenses here because I belief "traditional" cannot be relegated to the past or archive.

I am not grandstanding, neither am I for a utopia Nigeria, because I accept the fact that social stratification exist in every primodiality and culturally diverse communes like ours. Nevertheless it is also factual acceptability that elitism is not a predominant socio-moral and political construct in traditional Nigeria.

Why, When, How do we become so elitist in nature I asked myself, as I read the news and peruse the social media commentaries on Ekiti state governor latest populism. Appointment of 72year old Capenter as the acting chairman of Moba local government, the commentaries I read was nothing but arrogantly condescending, I just cant fathom why the woe, or the wretchedness clinking commentaries that I read on social media, arguments like He is an illiterate, He is old ordinary Capenter, what a heart wrenching commentaries are these I exclaimed.

When have we become so condescending to a fellow human being, a fellow Nigerian; dont we all have equal rights and opportunities under the constitution of Nigeria, are illiterates not members of our society anymore, are they not participants in our democratic processes, is the change mantra an elitist manipulation?

Really I am overwhelmed and speechless : Why, When, How quickly we negate our reality that most electorates are the so called illiterates, and most of us are their offsprings yet we cast them aside as dirt when it comes to governance or appointments.

These are people with wisdom, life experiences and the right values that are missing today in governance in Nigeria, they are illiterates, yet they understand the value of education, moral uprightness, their life experiences collectively are more of useful application for the good of our society.

We need to move away from our addiction to paper qualifications as our recent history in democracy has shown that a PHD, Professorship, is not sufficient to achieve/attainment of good governance, those commentaries on social media are manifestation of the fact that we need to revisit the way we look at ourselves as humans and Nigerians.

Those brandishing paper qualification, as if it is a panacea for performance in public administration, must go for a masterclass, because in our recent history a PHD holder was at the helm of affairs and he failed woefully, even when he was proudly supported by the elite with the so called educational sagacity.

Governance I repeat is not about paper qualifications alone, neither is it about cosmopolitanism, life experiences as a Capenter and his knowledge of Moba LG might be enough to enhance public administration in the locality, supported by good administrative structures ofcourse.

advertisement

IMAGES IN THE NEWS