“The wealth of Africa is in its people”

Despite rampant corruption led by the country’s governing class, Arinze Nwokolo is still optimistic about the future of Nigeria.

Arinze Nwokolo is a 43-year-old Assistant Professor at the Lagos Business School in Nigeria. An economist by profession, he was in the UK for a conference at Oxford University’s Centre for the Study of African Economies (CSAE), of which he is a visiting fellow and which is where Adamah Media managed to catch up with him.

Professor Nwokolo, what do you see as the big challenges facing Nigerian society? What factors hinder its development?

I would see the biggest challenge as being governance, or in other words, leadership. This is particularly highlighted by the scandal of corrupt elections. The elite are driven to place their own associates in key positions as a strategy for rent-seeking. A limited group of individuals monopolizes state control, prompting them to secure their own allies in influential roles.

Professor Nwokolo. Source: Lagos Business School

And it’s not just a matter of tribalism which at least would suggest a higher motive than greed. This is actually cross-tribal. It’s ironic: in a continent where tribal bonds are so strong, here is a common cause which enables people to overcome those bonds. And yet the cause is simply to rob the nation.

This group consists of individuals united by shared interests in state capture, and they are prepared to resort to violence to further their agenda. The issue remains unresolved, as the government, law enforcement, and judicial system are all complicit in the situation.

But does Nigeria have free elections?

It doesn’t matter who you vote for, the elections are rigged. In the last elections there was a chance of putting things right and there was a massive turn-out. A system of electronic voting had been put in place and the electoral commission had things organised in such a way that the figures would go directly to the capital for oversight and accountability.

The ruling party recognized their impending defeat and successfully halted the electronic voting system, resorting to manual manipulation of the results. This allowed them to maintain their hold on power and diminished the likelihood of a legitimate electoral challenge. By appointing judges to the Supreme Court and other key federal courts, they ensured that any petitions contesting the election were dismissed. This situation left citizens with no recourse, fostering a sense of apathy towards politics, despite the tragic deaths of some protesters during the election.

So is there any hope of improvement?

Yes, a lot. I would say three things give hope. The first is that we are a young population: if we can get it right with those growing up, in 20-30 years things might start to change. 

And more than by academic education, we’ll get it right by education in character and by promoting family values.

By this latter, I mean that your family will be willing to take you to task if you do the wrong thing, whereas now the common perspective appears to support the notion that children should enter government to secure financial gain for their families through unethical means.

A big part of the problem is the poverty trap: families want this money because they’re poor. This leads to a situation where those who attain government roles, regardless of the level, may engage in corruption, thinking they will eventually change their ways. But they don’t; they’re trapped. So, a key challenge is to help families grow in moral values, and this goes back to education in character. If we can get it right at the family level, we can change the country.

The second cause for hope is that many Nigerians are leaving the country for other countries.

That sounds counter-intuitive. Surely losing large swaths of a country’s population is not a good thing?

It actually is. It gives hope because these people go to other places and see positive values, such as doing your work well and being competent. We’re preparing them so that when the moment is right, they will come back and help build the country. From this perspective, leaving the country is not something bad.

And the third cause for hope?

The third is that Nigeria is a very religious country. People still know there’s a God, whether they are Muslims or Christians. There are very few atheists in Nigeria, there’s an expectation to believe in God. And people bring up children to believe in him. It could seem contradictory that Nigeria is the most religious of countries and also one of the most corrupt. And yet religion does act as a moral check: people realise that this life is not all there is, there’s something else and you’ll also be judged by how you act.

Would you say there is still a lot of negative foreign interference in Nigeria? Can one still talk of cultural imperialism?

There is a lot, and it comes in different shapes and sizes. From attempted coercive population control to foreign aid expecting us to change our constitution to approve things which go completely against our country’s values like LGBT+ rights.

It’s almost as if deliberate measures are taken to try to stop us growing. These might include the above-mentioned population control measures. I ask myself: does the aging West feel envious of the youthfulness of our continent? But one also sees it in the area of national debt. Current and previous governments have taken a lot of loans, which of course they keep mostly for themselves. If foreign governments know this, why do they keep giving loans, knowing it won’t be paid back and that there are no checks and balances?

This happens in a variety of ways. For example, much of our future oil has already been sold, thereby making future generations debt-ridden. They have sold our future. Some foreign governments seem happy to keep us in debt. Nigeria is such a strategic country in Africa, if it grows it could change Africa.

Some governments, not just Western, also Arab, do not want a Nigeria that is strong. They want a country that is divided.

How do you see the situation between Christians and Muslims?

There has been conflicts for years, but it was not always the case, and it doesn’t have to be the case. Conflicts frequently stem from economic or political factors; however, they can quickly escalate into religious disputes, intensifying the situation further.

Take, for example, the conflict between the herdsmen and farmers. The herdsmen are Fulani Muslims, the farmers are Christians. The Fulani are nomads, they take their cattle through farmlands and destroy crops. In retaliation the farmers kill the cattle, which for Fulani is like killing their children or their livelihood. And so, an economic problem becomes a religious one and spirals out of control.

It is a problem which could be solved by dialogue if both parties were ready to compromise on certain things. The Fulani must realise that the world moves on: they can still be nomads but in a more civilised way. We could find ways to demarcate cattle grazing sites, so there’ll be fewer conflicts. But this needs willingness on both sides. If they say this is our way of life and they are not willing to change, then there is no discussion and no way forward.

The former president, who belonged to the Fulani ethnic group, attempted to leverage his political influence to allow Fulani herders unrestricted access to any state and grazing lands of their choice. In response, local Christian communities formed vigilante groups, prompting the president to retreat from his stance.

So, does there always have to be conflict between Christians and Muslims? Can they get along?

No, it doesn’t always have to be like this. And they can. When I was growing up, the Fulani used to pass through our states, and it was peaceful. Has climate change caused the change? Is it the lack of rain in the north which has forced the Fulani to come south? But we need more creative, innovative solutions. What can be done in the areas with drought? Might it be a case of implementing civil engineering projects to increase water sources or developing greenhouse plants so as to have more vegetation?

So Christians and Muslims can live together if we are ready to talk, address questions of basic justice and, instead of falling back into greedy group-interest, seek ways to improve the situation for all.

The elite seem to disregard this issue. A significant number of the Muslim elite are highly educated, with many having studied at renowned institutions like Harvard and MIT. Why aren’t they applying their education to effect meaningful change? This could be attributed to cultural influences.

In the Muslim North, there is a stronger expectation that the government should fulfil all responsibilities, a notion that is less prevalent in the Christian South. Furthermore, Muslims often perceive the government as their domain, believing they should be the ones in leadership roles. In the North, possessing just a primary school certificate can lead to a government job, resulting in an expanding bureaucracy filled with individuals who may not be adequately qualified.

Let’s go back to the question of education. You teach in a business school? Isn’t that elitist? How will this help the country develop?

A lot depends on the values and priorities of a business school. If the school exists merely to show businessmen how they can get richer, it will only add to the problem. It will just teach them to be greedy more effectively.

At Lagos Business School, we are committed to promoting integrity and professionalism, aiming to cultivate a business community that embodies these principles. If students are unwilling to put in the effort, we will encourage them to leave. They cannot rely on connections or unethical practices to succeed.

Lagos Business School. Source: Wikimedia

Many alumni have reached out to us with letters of appreciation, acknowledging how our commitment to ethical values has influenced them, even if they did not take it seriously during their time with us. We prioritize ethics significantly, and should we discover any alumni involved in unethical practices, we make it clear that they cannot remain part of our alumni network.

What is business ethics? Sometimes it seems merely telling businessmen what’s legal, what they can get away with or not?

You are correct: this is a possibility. In various business ethics programs, the curriculum often centres on legal ethics, which defines what actions are allowed by law. We highlight that legality does not always align with moral standards, as some countries may choose to legalize practices that are deemed immoral.

Our instruction is grounded in Christian values, and we make this clear. We are delighted to have a diverse group of Muslim students from the northern regions, who often find our ethical teachings appealing because of the numerous values we have in common.

You talked of Nigeria being a young nation. How is this and why does it matter?

According to the United Nations, by 2050 a quarter of the world’s population will be African and of the eight countries that will account for more than half of the global population growth between now and 2050, five of them are in Africa: the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Nigeria, and the United Republic of Tanzania.

Nigeria has a high percentage of youth: this is very positive and shows we are still growing.  We believe that Africa’s wealth is in its people. I was pleasantly surprised at a recent conference to hear the Nobel Prize economics winner, James Robinson, say this:

the wealth of Africa is in its people. We shouldn’t think of Africa as being underdeveloped. It is developed differently.

For an African your wealth is in your children. These will take care of you in your old age. Our youth bring happiness, energy, they bring hope. Young people make things happen.

And they can bring problems too.

Of course they can. Unemployment can be a big problem which can lead to engagement in crime, drugs and violence, and youngsters being at the mercy of gangs. So, there have to be options for employment and upskilling. Foreign countries and multinational firms can help with this and some of them do. I’d like to see more of this, but it needs to be more systematic. Not everyone has to go to university, but everyone must have a skill, so that people can survive. This was the case in the 1960s, in good measure due to the British. We seem to have lost this and so many people do shoddy jobs. We need to bring about a new sense of professionalism.

A final question: do you think you will live to see the changes you desire?

I recall the film inspired by Alex Haley’s book, Roots. The protagonist, Kunta Kinte, harboured a strong longing to return to Africa. Although he never fulfilled that wish himself, it was passed down through his descendants. One of his descendants eventually journeyed back to reconnect with their ancestry.

So, with people like me. Even if we do not see the country changed, those coming after us will make it happen. We have this great desire for our country to get better and even though we might not see this realised in our lives, we have the hope that those after us will see it and that our efforts now won’t have been in vain.

And for this reason, I’m a teacher, and this is the essence of teaching: the willingness to lay yourself down to bring about great things in the future, done by others and which you might never see.

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