Nigeria’s President, Goodluck Jonathan, came into office in
2010 touting his dedication to rooting out corruption and promoting progress
(Economist). Although Jonathan has sacked the country’s anti-corruption chief and
emphasized much-needed electricity reform in last year’s election, Jonathan’s
promises have unfortunately fallen short (African Leadership Index 2012,
Economist).
 |
| Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan. Economist.com |
According to Nicolas van de Walle’s essay, “Decision making
in Post-Colonial Africa”, state controlled industries flourished throughout
Africa after decolonization due to inherent patron-client relationships,
dominant political ideologies, and low capacity. Indeed, nationalization of the energy
industry in Nigeria fits van de Walle’s theory.
Nigeria’s power sector has been plagued by corruption. Jonathan’s power
minister, Barth Nnaji recently resigned under intense pressure from
anti-privatization activists, seeking to block the government’s efforts to
unbundle and sell off the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (Economist).
Currently monopolizing the power industry in Nigeria, the
PHCN is prone to bloat, frequent power outages, and unidentified “ghost”
workers (Economist). While privatization could have promised relief from these
problems, investors still fear that the industry is too corrupt to be
profitable (Economist). Indeed, while lingering postcolonial nationalization
ideologies, corrupt clientelism, and low capacity still exist, privatization of
public industries such as Nigeria’s power sector remains a distant hope.
http://www.economist.com/node/21562246
I do not know much about Jonathan Goodluck, however; I wonder if it's necessary to be so hard on him. Yes he's made promises to win the election, like a majority of leaders around the world, and yes he's having trouble fulfilling those promises, again like a majority of leaders around the world. Why is it okay for President Obama to not fulfill his promises but Goodluck cannot? I know that Obama takes some heat for promises that he hasn't filled but it seems like analysts are much harder on African leaders than they are on leaders of developed nations. Could this be because of the authoritarian nature of rule in Africa?
ReplyDeleteA major issue of privatization is that the industry is sold to other African business leaders accrued there wealth through corrupt means (such as the state coffer) Could a possible solution to this be selling the industry to an outside Western company? FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) can be very beneficial for poorer countries, and has a snowball effect that once one company is willing to take the risk of investing in a country, others might as well
ReplyDeleteCharlotte-
ReplyDeleteYou do a good job of linking an argument developed to explain processes throughout the 1970s and 1980s to explaining events today. I would only ask why Goodluck Jonathan is so constrained in his decision-making.