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By Christian Aburime
Prof Chukwuma Charles Soludo, Anambra State Governor-elect, has passionately made an appeal on the need by politicians to jettison what he described as “rentier politics.”
The Governor-elect made this call at the graduation of the first set of graduates of the School of Politics, Policy and Governance (SPPG) in Abuja, Saturday, January 29, 2022
Delivery a keynote speech on “The Purpose and Price of Disruptive Change”, Prof Chukwuma Soludo said the continent of Africa needs a new “Liberation Movement”.
According to the erudite Professor of Economics, the first struggle was liberation from the colonial masters. The second, he said, will be the liberation from rentier politics and politicians.
“For me, there is almost a sense of nostalgia, recalling the mission and accomplishments of our founding fathers, especially as we contemplate the world without oil in Nigeria. Much of the existing social order is founded on competition for, and distribution of, rents. Oil and the easy money that came with it destroyed the social fabric and the elite created new institutions and political structures to maximize their gains”.
As the noose tightened globally on other rentier/criminal enterprises such as drug trafficking or internet scamming, many of the barons flocked into politics as the next easy alternative.
Politics has become big business. Appointment or election into public office is seen largely as an opportunity to “eat” rather than a call to selfless service. There is an army of rich (big men) who have never worked or done any productive work in their life and believe that it is their right to expect something for nothing.
The tiny less than one percent elite have a stranglehold on the public purse, sprinkling occasional crumbs to the citizens as ‘dividends of democracy’. The citizens themselves either out of helplessness or acquiescence join the party, expecting the politicians to dole out pittance out of public treasury as charity. The citizens actually clap for such phantom “charity”.
Politicians who refuse to do so are deemed as “stingy” or “wicked”, and the circus goes on. With a rentier system, a culture of freebies emerged, and most people don’t expect to pay for anything, including taxes, electricity, water, petrol, etc. A classic feature of the political environment is that corruption has become part of the “culture”, with little incentive for honesty. Honesty is scorned as wickedness, foolishness or mere pretense, and those who dare to be different have a steep price to pay.”
For the continent to make progress, Soludo therefore called on the need to disengage the culture of rentier politics across Africa through effective selfless leadership.
