Nigeria's Development Ethics
By Bellarmine Nneji Daily Champion (Lagos) | March 3, 2005 http://allafrica.com/stories/200503030821.html THE quest for development has been the priority of all leaders in the developing world. This has been a welcome idea to both the leaders and the citizens. But the process of development has been shrouded with nuances of perspectives by both the leaders and the masses. In many circumstances this misunderstanding had led the masses to accuse the leaders (the elites) of conspiracy against them and conversely the elites accuse the masses of ignorance. It is at this point that the Biblical query "where are the philosophers now?" have to be metaphorically attempted. Development is all about economic progress or growth. The achievement of economic growth is supposed to be meant only for humans and not for the sake of "growth" itself. This brings to the fore the pertinent question: Are we developing for the sake of growth itself or for the sake of humanity? It is at this point that philosophers of ethical specialization emerged with razor-like critiques of development in all their ramifications to give their various answers. As a point of departure, one thing is clear in their various critiques of development, and that is, "economic growth or progress without human value consideration is a serious aberration." According to Amartya Sen, the 1998 Nobel Laureate in Economics, development has gone from the growth of output per capita to the expansion of human values. He therefore sees development as a process of expanding the real freedoms that people enjoy, it requires the removal of major sources of unfreedom: poverty as well as tyranny, poor economic opportunities as well as systemic social deprivation, neglect of public facilities as well as intolerance or over activity of repressive states. Based on this humanitarian and holistic definition of development, one can easily assess Nigeria's development ethics using these variables raised in the definition of development by Amartya Sen. The question now is: Are Nigeria's development policies expanding the real freedoms of the masses? To answer this question, one has to recall another and the shortest definition of development which defines development as "the face of man." If development is regarded as the 'face of man'; what is on the face of Nigerians? Is it freedom or anxiety, prosperity or poverty, provision or deprivation, care or neglect, hope or despondency? No one needs a mental gymnastics to select the correct answers from these options. Since the exit of the military in 1999, this democratic regime has embarked on many economic development policies, with the oil sector receiving the most concentration. Nigeria wants to achieve economic development only through the oil sector which has been punctuated by the policy of deregulation, removal of subsidy, and painfully, the unbridled increase in prices of petroleum products. Development has always been a welcome idea to every society, but the grouse is the arbitrariness in the policies, which makes them moral issues. It is said that, that which is for the good of all must be approved by all; One cannot claim to be enacting policies geared towards the good of the citizens without incorporating the very people who constitute the subject of such policies. This makes certain policies highfalutin. When policies are being formulated by elites alone (those who claim they know) bearing in mind the 'Cost Benefit Analysis, the cost effects on the masses will be quite insignificant if not oblivious to these policy makers. This creates a wide knowledge gap between the policy makers and the masses whose good are intended. Knowledge gap can lead to many unintended consequences. This is one of the reasons why Denis Goulet pointed out that the "so-called development; owing to its costs in human suffering and loss of meaning, can amount to anti-development." To almost every Nigerian, the only development policy act that has received the blessing of the Nigerian masses is the communications policy that brought the GSM into existence. This could be seen as the only development policy that beamed smiles on the 'face of man.' If development is seen really as 'freedom' this really gave Nigerians the freedom to communicate. Studies have shown that many development policies meet serious challenges due to lack of popular participation which is the hallmark of democracy. Democracy is development and all development processes have to be democratic. Development is one of the ways of making the masses reap democratic dividends and not misery. This is why Amartya Sen once again warned that "even as we look for ways and means of enhancing the reach of democracy (as we must), we have to make sure that those ways and means do not undermine the fundamental reasons why democracy is valued, viz, respecting peoples voices and concerns." In the Nigerian setting, participation in policies of development are only necessitated by the outcries of the masses after the promulgation of such policies. Typical examples include the new bank recapitalization base of N25 billion and the age-long recurrent petroleum products prices increase. There has never been serious attempts to take note of public opinion in the making of development policies in Nigeria or draw the citizens into interactive discussions with the elites. This is often because either the government (elites) sees itself as solely omniscient or it has an ulterior motive which it fears public participation will inhibit and therefore resort to arbitrariness. How can an intellectual boast of drawing up poverty reduction policies without hearing the voices of the poor? A physician must hear the complaints of the patient before prescribing drugs. Ironically here in Nigeria, our development physicians prescribe drugs (policies) and force their patients (the poor masses) to portray pseudo-symptoms to match their prescriptions. Philosophers in the development ethics field maintain that development should be seen as beneficial change alleviating human misery. It is generally accepted that development is more plausibly judged by the reduction of deprivation than the further enrichment of the elites. If only Nigerian elites are involved in development policy-making, it means then that many crucial factors which "immizerate" the masses will remain unattended to. This is the reason why development ethics insists that any measures of progress, or of development, must emphasize the plight of the poor. For participation in development policies to be really worth the salt, truth must be the watchword. The date to be given to participants must be reliable and not meant to deceive them into erroneous judgment. Sensitivity to public opinion is another democratic virtue. Nigeria should not try to implement and achieve overnight, development policies and programmes that took exemplary nations decades to reach. We copy Indonesian, Malaysian, Western and American development success stories but remain ignorant of their evolutionary progression. Salus populi; suprema est lex - the good of the people is the supreme law on which all programmes and policies of development must be based. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Has someone you know been affected by illness or disease? 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