ASHE Foundation backs Obasanjo call for Afro-democracy

Prince Justice Faloye, the President of ASHE Foundation think tank hails Chief Obasanjo call for Afro-democracy saying that a political system that excludes its own civilizational values will lack morality and will not be in the interest of the common man. What is required is a democracy based on meritocratic civilizationism.

Culture is the way we do things morally, politics is the way we organize to do things, while Economics is the means used to achieve things. Western democracy is guided by Judeo-Christian values, while the Chinese adopt communism with Chinese characteristics, unfortunately democracy in Africa based on muddled universalism is a moral abyss.

First and foremost, the de-constitutionalization of our traditional polities, the custodians of our cultural and moral values, results in short termist politicians not having the moral guidance of long term stakeholders. Politicians think and plan around election cycles, while traditional institutions and cultural custodians have to push for long term sustainability. For example, corruption apart, a politician will accept foreign manufacturers just to boost his figures while long term stakeholders will be concerned with the long term effects of cancerous electronic waste.

Most election campaigns start in palaces to exploit traditional communication channels, but the cultural custodians have no way of ensuring that electoral promises are fulfilled. To make our democracy truly independent and responsible, the Nigerian Traditional Council must be put in charge of the independent national electoral commission. Traditional institutions and cultural custodians must be responsible and be the guarantors of politicians from their area of influence.

Otherwise, we will continue to have money politics with no moral values as people of questionable pedigree will continue to fool the people. This gave birth to Prebendalist elites using their ethnic identity to acquire economic and political benefits for their friends and family and not their collectives. We had a higher moral input in our political system in the Sixties when HRM Oba Aderemi, the Ooni of Ife, the likes of Obasanjo Akran, were directly involved in our politics than now with Americana and other Diaspora politicians leading the system.

In addition to the current restructuring agitation for devolution of power from the center, our traditional institutions must be reconstitutionalized towards creating a polycentric system where every institution should have a level of responsibility and authority over the economic and political systems in their areas. The de-constitutionalization of our traditional institutions was a key step by colonists and their neocolonial guards to relieve ethnic nationalities of their authority and responsibility. This coloniality of power sources must be reversed.

Foreign civilizational imperialists and Neocolonial Modernists try to hide behind the diversity of our ethnicities to push for universalism without moral values, but in actual fact the over 500 ethnicities belong to one of the two civilizations in Nigeria and across Africa, namely the indigenous African civilization based on Ifa-Afa-Iha-Fa-Efa led by the Ooni of Ife and the Afro-Arabic civilization based on Islam and Arabism led by the Sultan of Sokoto.

The indigenous African civilization that covers South and Middlebelt, especially the Yorubas operated a polycentric system whereby Ooni of Ife was the head of the civilization, he didn’t have direct control over lower Obas and chiefs that were responsible over their citystates and spheres of influence. The system that evolved originally was gender balanced as men were under the Balogun while the women in charge of Economics were under Iyalode and Iyaloja. Combined, the Balogun and Iyalode could dethroned an erring a king. Currently our women are largely excluded from our adopted political system with less than 20 percent participation.

It is only when we have a civilizational political system that we can seriously focus on creating our own civilizational economics to economically empower the common man through meritocratic civilizationism.

Prince Justice Faloye
President ASHE Foundation think tank

Credit : Vanguard Nigeria