Dilemma of a weak leviathan by... Segun Ayobolu

The idea of a weak Leviathanis obviously an oxymoron. I like the way the biblical book of Job describes the monstrous sea monster known as Leviathan. As Eugene Peterson’s The Message Bible graphically describes Leviathan, “His belly is armor-plated, inexorable – unstoppable as a barge. He roils deep ocean the way you’d boil water, he whips the sea the way you’d whip an egg into batter…There’s nothing on this earth quite like him, not an ounce of fear in that creature!”. It is thus understandable that Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), the great English political thinker, borrowed the idea of Leviathan to depict the absolute, limitless powers of the sovereign state to maintain order and prevent the degeneration of society to anarchy.

Hobbes, one of the major social contract theorists, posited that man is by nature selfish and self-centered, led by ‘a perpetual and restless desire of power after power’ resulting in a war of everyman against everyman. Thus, in the state of nature, human existence is ‘solitary, nasty, brutish and short’. To escape this unbearable condition, men enter into a social contract to cede their liberties to a sovereign authority, the state or Leviathan, which has absolute powers to enforce law and maintain order. Ironically, the negative traits of human nature identified by Hobbes make the kind of absolute and unaccountable power he advocates dangerous and injurious to human society.

As Lord Acton memorably put it, ‘Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely’. The impunity engendered by unaccountable and absolute power invariably leads society right back to the undesirable conditions of the state of nature, which Hobbes seeks man’s escape from. Nowhere has this been better demonstrated than Africa. Mobutu’s Zaire, Idi-Amin’s Uganda, Samuel Doe’s Liberia, Mengistu’s Ethiopia or Nguema’s Central African Republic are only the worst examples of polities that regressed to sheer barbaric anarchy where life is characterized by the shortness, brutishness, solitariness and nastiness of Hobbes’ state of nature as a result of absolute, untrammeled power.

Some political scientists have characterized the African State as a ‘weak Leviathan’ because, in most instances, states on the continent have become victims of their bloated and unrestricted powers, which encourage rampant avarice and reckless lawlessness. Despite its appearance of intimidating and invincible power, for example, the Nigerian Leviathan is considerably weak as regards its capacity to secure its territory, provide basic social services and promote development.

While the Buhari administration has largely succeeded in substantially downgrading the offensive capabilities of Boko Haram in the North East, there has been a resurgence of militancy in the Niger Delta with a vengeance that has dealt devastating and crippling blows on the economy while separatist Biafra agitations are gathering momentum disturbingly in the South East.Meanwhile, the entire country has become a vast wasteland of rampant criminality including kidnapping, armed robbery, cultism, rampaging killer herdsmen, communal violence and oil pipeline vandalism among others. All this suggests a considerable shrinking of state capacity with a growing number of assorted groups challenging with increasing effectiveness the state’s monopoly of control over the legitimate means of coercion within its territorial jurisdiction.

Thus, theNiger Delta Avengers, speaking fromwhat they obviously perceive as a position of strength are giving the most ridiculous terms for dialogue with a government seemingly desperate for negotiations at all costs. The problem is that such signs of state weakness can only encourage the multiplication of criminal gangs all bent on blackmailing and extracting their pound of flesh from a state that appears to be expiring on the most frivolous grounds.

Despite the democratic transition of 1999, the Nigerian state remains essentially as centralist and absolutist as it was under military rule. This is why there has been no meaningful enhancement of state capacity and efficacy in the last 16 years of democratic rule. The federal government controls disproportionate power and resources relative to the states and local governments, which are federating units only in a nominal sense.

Unfortunately, the decentralization of the polity with a view to devolving greater powers, resources and responsibilities to the lower levels of government, which are closer to and have greater impact on the lives of millions of Nigerians, does not appear to be part of the change agenda of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

While President Buhari’s moral integrity and preoccupation with fighting corruption is commendable, he appears to have a centrist and essentially anti-federalist mindset that can only ultimately sabotage his government’s efforts at revitalizing the economy, stabilizing the polity and sanitizing the country’s moral universe. This goes beyond populist and ill-defined calls for restructuring or a return to some nebulous ‘true federalism’.

As Geoff Mulgan notes in his book, ‘Good and Bad Power’, while ‘ The most radical way of embedding decentralization is federalism’, the practice of devolving powers from  central to lower levels of government now transcends formally federal systems because “The democratic tradition that we trace back to Athens presumes that government works best when it is closest to the people”.

Thus, even non federal states like France in 1982, Sweden in the late 1970s,China in the early 1990s as well as Bolivia and Chile have taken measures to decentralize and ‘slice back the power of the centre’s agents’. For now, Nigeria’s weak Leviathan may have no choice but to dialogue with the most irrational rogue elements in order to safeguard its oil-dependent economy and guarantee the country’s fragile territorial integrity. To strengthen its hand in the long run, however, and significantly reduce its vulnerability to pressure from such outlaw groups, it must take far reaching measures to become leaner, cleaner, smarter and more efficient.

Towards this end, it is incumbent on the APC government to urgently take a number of steps. Firstly, there should be substantial devolution of more powers, responsibilities and resources to the states and local governments beginning with the long overdue review of the extant and retrogressive revenue allocation formula, which is overly skewed in favor of the centre.

Secondly, the redesigning and decentralization of the state’s internal security architecture is long overdue. We can only continue to delay the introduction of state police at our collective peril. The military cannot continue to be burdened with and distracted by internal policing duties as is presently the case when the country faces ever increasing threats to her territorial integrity.

Thirdly, there should be urgent constitutional amendments to enable the states control and exploit mineral resources within their territories. This will aid diversification of the economy and promote holistic and broad based development across the country thus making the whole less vulnerable to blackmail from the parts on which it is unnecessarily wholly dependent for economic sustenance.

In a discussion during the week, ace columnist, Sam Omatseye, observed perceptively that Leviathan exposes itself to danger when it leaves the deep seas to wallow in shallow waters where its maneuverability is restricted and it is at the mercy of a multitude of smaller fish. The Nigerian Leviathan, which is the central government, must urgently shed needless weight in order to find its way back to the deep seas of efficiency and effectiveness in piloting the ship of the polity.