Elites role, purpose and national development

The way a society, a community or  a country is, is ultimately a function of the choices of its elites who holds power (social and economic)  to influence the direction of that society. Development Economist , Alisa DiCaprio defines elites as ‘distinct group of people within society which enjoys privileged status and exercises decisive control over the organization of  society’. They do not necessarily have to be politicians or even hold official titles, or necessary wealthy, as long as they have power and influence over the organization of society. The Economist 2011, defines elites as people who shape the world without anyone noticing.  Elites are broad. They include political, business, religious, judicial, labour, cultural, bureaucratic (civil service), military, academic/ intelligentsia elites, as long as they collectively represent people of power and influence. Elite power and influence manifest on society as an aggregate of their individual and collective actions and inactions. They exercise a disproportionate influence on society despite their being minorities. They shape national discourse even in democracies, determine agenda, influence economic and political outcomes far disproportionately given their numbers. DiCaprio concluded that it is the control of elites over the productive assets and institutions of society that allows them to influence allocation of resources and authority,  hence their disproportionate influence. We can conclude then that what Nigeria has become today is largely a function of elite choices. From our economic growth, the pervasiveness of poverty in society with 133 million multidimensional poor people, a fragile society evidenced by banditry, crime, kidnapping and terrorism,  poor social cohesion and increasing fragility of the Nigerian state,  Nigeria has moved backwards. The youths of today do not have the opportunities of good inclusive education and social mobility that many of us had, where our parents need not be wealthy for us to access good education. The words of late Pa Alfred Rewane spoken in 1994 that…”yesterday , we yearned for a better tomorrow. But today, we mourn the loss of a glorious yesterday” , those words were true then, they are even more true today as the glorious past seem to be fading farther into memory. We should look around us to see the result of our historical, collective elite choices.

There is a phenomenon of institutional path dependence, according to Economist Robinson and Acemoglu,  that should give us serious concern. That social institutions , when they are weak as result of history and previous elite choices tend to perpetrate itself and its kind of elites in a path dependence, with the potential to create a continuous reinforcing negative trajectory in society. It is important to reflect and ponder how this applies to Nigeria. When a society takes a negative turn with accelerated momentum , it will require a major collective action of discerning elites to pull it back on a good course.  According to James Robinson of the Harvard University “ those in power today chose political institutions in the future and they naturally tend to choose those which reproduce their dejure power. Second those, with power today determine economic institution which tend to distribute resources in their favour thus reproducing their defacto power. So, once an elites (or group of elites)  have the power to determine the choice of institutions, this will tend to persist over time”.  A classic example of this kind of potential challenge or path dependence decay, and may it not happen to Nigeria is Argentina and the historical choices of its elites. Argentina in the late 19th century was one of the five wealthiest countries in the world, richer than all European countries . In the 1930s, Argentina was as wealthy as the United States. Today, Argentina has more than 30 % of its people in poverty with income per person now estimated to be just 40% of the Western European Countries in a story of wealth to poverty now described as the Argentina paradox. How could a country with so much potential to be wealthy fall to a basket case economic/ currency crises and perennial debt defaults.  Argentina moved backwards while United States moved forward as a result of contrasting elite choices in the two countries.

There are two contrasting types of elites according to Acemoglu and Robinson, the author of the classic book “Why Nations Fail” and Cassa et al. of the University of St Galen  in their 2020 study of elite quality across the word. The two kind of elites are Value creating and value extracting elites. Value creating elites , in their business and politics, add more value to society than what they take. Value creating elites grow the slice of the social wealth pie far bigger than the slice of their own pie. Value extracting elites in contrast, in their business and politics take far more from social wealth than the value they create. Value extracting elites increase their share or slice of social wealth without necessarily growing social wealth, even when social wealth is stagnant or declining. Value extracting elites increase their wealth far disproportionately than the social wealth they create. Progressive, inclusive and increasing prosperous societies have value adding elites on the aggregate . While they,  value creating elites become increasingly wealthy, more people in society are also lifted up. Value extracting elites in contrast however create increasing and more extreme social inequalities, increasing social exclusion rather than inclusion, more pervasive poverty even as they get wealthy. We should soberly classify ourselves collectively on the aggregate, what type of elites we have been in Nigeria.

However, it did not use to be like this. Our fathers and mothers, the Nigeria elites of 1950s to the 1970s were truly value creating elites. The old Afenifere  values , which means “common good  and beyond self “ which drove the politics and elite choices of the South Western region was about the elites adding far more value to society than they took from it. And this was replicated in other regions. We are the evidences, products of huge social investments in public education and the sustained,  inclusive prosperity it created over several generations. The philosophy of “common good and beyond self” in Yorubaland did not start in the 1950s. Our forefathers and traditional privileged elites also expressed this in the saying “Enikan i je ki ile o fe” which means ‘’ No one should eat and his or her meal should cover the entire ground”. Essentially, good elite purpose extrapolating from the wisdom of our fathers is about elites and the privileged thinking and acting beyond self, inclusively for common good. Our fathers from their proverb, knew that if one person eats, and his meal fills the entire ground, that sooner or later, there would not be peace in the land, even for him to enjoy his meal, that is if he survives. It remains applicable today in Nigeria as social exclusion gets to a level we have never seen with 133 million people, 63% of our population in multidimensional poverty. While it may seem rational that individual elites would act in their own narrow interest, free ride and exploit society, real enlightened interest of elites is actually that they are better off when society collectively is better off, and when elites act responsibly  as such. An inclusive society where prosperity is more widely shared means bigger markets for business, higher returns on investment , bigger businesses and more jobs in a social compact of mutually reinforcing loop of prosperity between elites and the people.

If there was any city that exemplified the inclusiveness and common good at its foundation for its citizens and freeborn, it was the old city of Ibadan. The traditional military elites, the War Generals, the Balogun Ibikunles, Are Latoosa, Bashorun Ogunmolas, migrant soldiers, who were the pioneers of this city created a republican society where anyone could become the Olubadan if he proved himself on the military or civil line . You could migrate from anywhere in Yorubaland, a commoner, join one of the armies under the command of the Generals and rise through the rank to become a General yourself or command your own army in the Ibadan war economy of the early 19th century. As the war economy declined after the Kiriji war for commerce and trade, the city of Ibadan continued to be a land of promise for diverse migrants in Yorubaland with the emergence of traditional civil and commercial elites who governed this city in the same republican spirit, in balance with the military elites. The city of Ibadan was like the United States, a land of opportunities with high social mobility where every citizen, every migrant and their descendants could fulfil their GOD given potential. That land of promise produced great wealthy elite merchants like Adebisi Idikan, whose parents were itinerant Aso-oke clothe weavers and Salami Agbaje who started from humble beginning as an artisan tailor moved into logging to benefit from the new rail road economy of his time and became an elite, a very successful merchant.

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There was something like “The Promise of Ibadan” at the foundation of this city that drew the generations of our fathers and mothers here, that here in this land of opportunities, they and their descendants would fulfill their GOD – given potentials. The promise of Ibadan has been fulfilled in us, members of elite sociocultural and professional clubs  with origins in this city. The big question that should now confront us is how do we fulfill that  promise of Ibadan in the present generation of young people, youths and children of today?

In order to fulfill the promise of Ibadan in the current generation, I will like to make five broad recommendations.

1. Fix public education especially at primary and secondary level while encouraging private commercial education for those who can afford. Government is commended for its progress in this area with initiative to tackle children out of school and many more. How can we work with the public and private sector to accelerate even more progress to improve the quality of public education which is the foundation of inclusive social mobility? . In Osun Development Association for example, our private research on the state of primary education suggests that the collapse of the old functional Inspectorate Division in public schools that set and enforced standards, is a major reason for the decline of quality in public schools. What specific intervention in policy, advocacy with education stakeholders- government-parents-teachers-proprietors, teacher capacity building , research, monitoring and evaluation of standards could accelerate progress in the quality of public education delivery and make access to good quality education more inclusive?
2. Public and Private Sector Partnership for Investments in Vocational and Entrepreneurial Education to ensure that the youths of Ibadan are not only educated but have skills to be employable or could create their own jobs. These include investments in technical colleges where youths of Ibadan would formally learn employable skills in construction, practical auto and electronics, hotel, chef and restaurant, fashion business and many more. We must ensure we give formal vocational education and certification the prestige it deserves so that it becomes a more attractive path for more youths rather than what they discover after unemployment with university education.
3. Digital technology education for the modern economy linked to a formal digital ecosystem and geographic clusters of tech entrepreneurs. Ibadan is rarely mentioned in discussions on tech start-ups yet huge talents abound here in this city. The future growth economy of the world, and it is already here is digital. Ibadan must not be left out. If there was an Ayeye-Ogunpa-Agbeni valley  that produced the Salami Agbajes and Adebisi Idikans from the rail road and commodity produce-buying economy of their time, how would this generation create the new digital equivalent of the old Ayeye -Ogunpa- Agbeni valley to produce the new Salami Agbajes and Adebisi Idiakans of the new digital economy in this same city of promise? Through deliberate private and public partnership, a digital technology hub evolved around Yaba in Lagos, deliberately close to the University of Lagos who provides coding students feeders to the hubs and startups. Can we create a deliberate technology start- up hub around Agbowo in public and private partnership with deliberate linkage to the University of Ibadan, modeling the Yaba digital tech cluster example?
4. Scale and deepen private sector investments in Microcredit to improve access. Access to a loan of N50,000 to N100,000 over a staggered period or cycle might be what most people need to lift them out of poverty. There are significant numbers of elites in Ibadan with good conscience who do philanthropy and give out such amounts to fund social causes in their philanthropy foundations. The social impact of these philanthropies would be more sustained and bigger if these funds are put in social impact businesses like  microfinance. Microfinance empowers people to access their future income today as a microloan, pass on the loan empowerment to others as they pay back, creating a multiplier and sustained effect in social impact.
5. Security: Bring up all necessary ideas to work with government to fix security issues so that agriculture can thrive maximally and fulfill its traditional potentials in Ibadan and environs. This should also include using our elite influence to help forge a broad national elite consensus for a truly decentralized federal security architecture that is so critical in fixing our civil security challenges. You cannot solve the social problem of Ibadan in isolation of the larger problem of Nigeria.

No one can exempt himself from a generational, collective elite performance. We are collectively responsible for our actions  and inactions or apathy. Our inaction or apathy is in itself an action. Hence , no elite, even at individual level as long as they have some power or influence, can exonerate himself or herself from the responsibility for social decay and the imperative of social reforms. But we must coordinate with others. Lack of coordination for broad collective action for reform is a fundamental reason while some narrow elite sections continue to free ride on society, capture state institutions for their self interest and foster huge negative externalities in social cost on society.

The elites of old of this ancient city bequeathed unto this generation of elites ‘the promise of Ibadan”. We have an historic duty to ensure that the ‘promise’ does not die with our generation. Let history count us that we kept the promise of Ibadan aglow and passed on the torch brighter onto the next generation to also fulfill their GOD -given potential and by extrapolation do same for Nigeria. It is a task and a sacred duty that we must not fail.

• Olu Akanmu gave this Keynote Address at the Celebration of Excellence Event of the Jericho Business Club, Ibadan on the 10th of December, 2022