Should Nigeria be our role model?

A vendor sells meat an open-air market in Lagos. Kenya and Nigeria have many similarities. [File, Standard]

We seem to have borrowed from the country when making our 2010 Constitution.

Nigeria rebased her gross domestic product (GDP) and is now Africa’s biggest economy ahead of South Africa. The big population and oil to some extent have propelled Nigeria to number one. Curiously, no one seems sure of Nigeria’s total population.

Nigerian economic leadership seems to have motivated her to exert influence beyond her borders. We must however add that the country has always been influential, long before taking the current burden of economic leadership. Unlike the influence of United States of America, which is transmitted through media and movies, Nigeria’s has largely been physical with its citizens travelling to other countries. But with afrosinema, Nigeria is now projecting her influence more like the US.

You find Nigerians everywhere in the world. One of the most annoying questions I encountered in my six year sojourn in America was “Are you from Nigeria? “ It is one of Africa’s best known countries.

Some think because of oil, but it’s because of their early encounter with the west. It is believed that the first Nigerian to get a degree in UK got it in 1819. Some add that corruption has made Nigeria famous for all the bad reasons. Did slavery also connect the country to the West?

Nigerians are incidentally very confident, they are boisterous and like taking charge wherever they go. I have noted this trait with Kenyans who schooled in Nigeria: that trait often takes them far.

While Kenyans in the USA are working in hospitals as nursing aides, Nigerians are the medical doctors. Nigerians are usually very competitive; maybe they are used to competition at home because of the large population. This is comparable with Indians who immigrate to other countries.

For all their economic aggressiveness, Nigerians have a bad name, seen as dishonest. But I am told most ordinary Nigerians are humble people, the few bad ones give the country a bad name. Nigerians are well known in Kenya for a number of reasons. One is movies. We all know of Afrisonema and its characters. One local TV station has been airing these movies for a long time. They are very popular with the general population; their themes like witchcraft are very familiar to us.

Lately, Nigerians are known for marrying our famous girls like music stars. It is not clear why our girls find Nigerian men irresistible; it may be their flamboyance and willingness to spend money. It is rumoured that marriage to local girls is a convenient route to residency or citizenship. Most countries have made marriage an easy route to citizenship. They however add a caveat; you must have been married for a number of years to keep off speculators.

Nigerians are also very spiritual, with several churches having roots in the home country before spreading out. You have seen their preachers on TV. Their churches, unlike the indigenous Kenyan ones, seem to target the elite.

To be fair to Nigerians, other economic powers like USA and UK have their churches which are still influential. Even Koreans have churches in Kenya. Nigerians are following a well-beaten path. Contrast that with Chinese or Japanese who seem to have no spiritual agenda as they expand their businesses abroad.

Lately Nigerians have made a name in entrepreneurship. They are behind Jumia, a budding e-commerce site. They are behind Guaranty Bank. Helios, a private equity fund has Nigerian connection. The fund once had a substantial stake in Equity Bank with a board seat before offloading the shares and buying 60 per cent of Telkom Kenya. What of Cellulant?

For most of us, the first encounter with Nigeria was through their writing. The political upheavals soon after their independence spawned lots of creative writing chronicling the troubled country. Most Kenyans can remember Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe, Cyprian Ekwenzi and many other writers. Writing is one area Nigerians have remained leaders. New writers like Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie are doing quite well, even at global level.

The fact that new creative works have not emerged from our political intrigues in Kenya means we are not that badly off. The Nigerian literary flowering closely mirrors the Irish. Both borrowed from their rich traditions. Remember WB Yeats and James Joyce? Yet few of our children today can tell folklore. Why are we allowing ours to die? They could be the basis of future Nobel prizes in literature.

Nigeria’s economic size, spiritual and literary prowess has made it a tempting role model. Should she be Kenya’s role model?

We have over the years copied the Nigerian socio-political model -some say including making corruption a way of life. Though we never had coups like in Nigeria, our politics have borrowed a lot from this West African giant.  We copied from their constitution. We got counties, which are states in Nigeria and have powerful governors. We overdid with 47 counties while Nigeria has 36 states. We are not a federal government, but at times behave like one.

Paradoxically, we copied what had been copied; Nigerians copied the American constitution. That model does not seem to have worked well. The American constitution itself was a reaction to British monarchy and the realities of 200 years ago. Why do we think it would fit the realities of today? It seems that despite the advances in science and technology, governance has remained the same, still inspired by Greek idea of democracy 2000 years ago. What one innovation in governance can we talk of?

Does that explain why we find it hard to fully implement the 2010 constitution? American states are large and own resources, our counties are small and need to be subsidised. Now we want to further copy Nigerians by having regional governments between national and counties.

That will add another layer of bureaucracy. My hunch tells me the new dispensation will get lots of support; it’s a source of “jobs”. One lesson we learnt from Nigeria is how to make the government not work. Political power is so distributed that no one has enough power to make a difference.

We shifted to the extreme; from too much power in one person to too little power leading to decision paralysis. It is for this reason that the few ministers who try to go beyond the call of duty like Fred Matiang’i and John Michuki are so popular. While writing this piece, Prof George Magoha and his Nigerian connection joined the Cabinet.

The several centres of power are supposed to check each other, but they seem to spend more time bargaining than implementing policies or projects. Now we want a third one, regions to make governance even harder.

Much like in Kenya, ethnicity is a big issue in Nigeria. The civil war in Nigeria from 1967-1970 was the worst part of ethnic flare up fuelled by oil in the delta region and marginalisation. Tribal clashes in Kenya in 2007/08 showed our soft underbelly. Both countries used devolution to partially sort out historical grudges.

We seem to have borrowed the ethnic balancing in public institutions from Nigeria. They call it the federal character. Reading through the constitution of Nigeria, there is preoccupation with controls, very much like ours. No wonder the two constitutions are so long.

Let me give you some homework. Compare the number of pages for Nigerian, Kenyan, American and Chinese constitutions. They are available online.

Could our clamour for a prime minister position in the proposed referendum be an open admission that we followed the wrong role model? Just like in Nigeria, a new political dispensation espoused by a new constitution or its amendments will not solve our economic problems. Our traditions and behaviours have to change. Remember Americans’ Protestant work ethic? What is the Kenyan or Nigerian equivalent?

Curiously, protestant work ethic (PWE) is not taught in religious syllabus in high school where it could make a big difference. PWE also emphasises hard work, discipline and frugality. Protestant work ethic says work is godly, we think it’s satanic and to be avoided. No wonder corruption thrive.

Interestingly, our oil export model is very Nigerian; we want to export crude oil then import refined products. What happened to value addition? Luckily, Tesla and other innovations have made the oil curse unlikely.

Looking at Nigeria after her independence, is she the best role model for us? Which country would be an alternative? Some have opined that Nigeria is slowly and surely coming of age and will soon take her place as a global economic power, the epicentre of African century. They cite regular elections despite insurgency in the east.

If Nigeria’s economic potential was fully exploited, the country would be far ahead. Her journey to the top has been long and torturous. What can we learn from it?  

- The writer teaches at the University of Nairobi