Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-p2v8j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-10T17:49:42.821Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Politics of Technocracy in Fourth Republic Nigeria

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 March 2018

Alexander Thurston
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

The technocrat, a supposedly apolitical figure who joins government on the basis of technical expertise, looms large in discussions of governance. The empowerment of technocrats has sometimes been taken as a barometer for Africa’s economic and democratic progress. Rejecting this conventional wisdom, this article argues that technocrats are inevitably trapped in a web of politics—politicians leverage the apolitical image of technocrats for political gain, and public debates implicate technocrats as targets of protest. This article pursues this argument through a case study of Nigeria, where technocrats were both politicized and politicizing figures during the rule of the People’s Democratic Party between 1999 and 2015.

Résumé:

Le technocrate, une figure soi-disant apolitique qui a rejoint le gouvernement de par son expertise technique, occupe une position importante dans les discussions sur la gouvernance. L’autonomisation des technocrates a parfois été considérée comme un baromètre des perspectives économiques et démocratiques de l’Afrique. Rejetant cette idée répandue, cet article soutient que les technocrates sont inévitablement pris au piège dans un réseau politique—que les politiciens tirent parti de l’image apolitique des technocrates pour le gain politique et les débats publics impliquent les technocrates comme des cibles de protestation. L’article poursuit cet argument à travers une étude de cas au Nigeria, où les technocrates ont été politisés et politiser pendant le règne du Parti démocratique populaire entre 1999 et 2015.

Keywords

NigeriaAfricatechnocratsneoliberalismOlusegun ObasanjoUmaru Yar’AduaGoodluck JonathanMuhammadu Buhari
Type
Articles
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 61 , Issue 1 , April 2018 , pp. 215 - 238
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abdullahi, Ibrahim. 2014. “How #BringBackOurGirls Got Started in Nigeria.” Wall Street Journal, May 8. http://blogs.wsj.com.Google Scholar
Adeniyi, Olusegun. 2011. Power, Politics and Death: A Front-Row Account of Nigeria under the Late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. Lagos: Prestige.Google Scholar
Aguiar, Marian. 2011. Tracking Modernity: India’s Railway and the Culture of Mobility. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Al Jazeera. 2015. “Head to Head: Nigeria’s Future—Failed State or African Superpower?” Al Jazeera, May 1.Google Scholar
Anwar, Kabiru. “Ribadu Loses to Bindow in Adamawa.” Daily Trust, April 13.Google Scholar
BBC. 2011. “What Can Technocrats Achieve That Politicians Can’t?” BBC News, November 14. www.bbc.com.Google Scholar
Bell, Daniel. 1999 [1973]. The Coming of Post-Industrial Society: A Venture in Social Forecasting. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Booth, David, and Cammack, Diana. 2013. Governance for Development in Africa: Solving Collective Action Problems. London: Zed Books.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bring Back Our Girls. 2015. “About.” BringBackOurGirls website. www.bringbackourgirls.org.Google Scholar
Channels Television. 2014a. “Jonathan Suspends CBN Governor Sanusi.” February 20. www.channelstv.com.Google Scholar
Channels Television. 2014b. “Sanusi Insists NNPC Has $20 Billion Unaccounted For.” February 4. www.channelstv.com.Google Scholar
Easterly, William. 2013. The Tyranny of Experts: Economists, Dictators and the Forgotten Rights of the Poor. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Ferguson, James. 1990. The Anti-Politics Machine: “Development,” Depoliticization, and Bureaucratic Power in Lesotho. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Harvey, David. 2005. A Brief History of Neoliberalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Iliffe, John. 2011. Obasanjo, Nigeria, and the World. Suffolk, U.K.: James Currey.Google Scholar
Independent National Electoral Commission (Nigeria). 2011. Official results for presidential election of 2011. http://www.inecnigeria.org.Google Scholar
Jega, Attahiru, ed. 2000. Identity Transformation and Identity Politics under Structural Adjustment in Nigeria. Uppsala, Sweden: Nordic Africa Institute.Google Scholar
Jonathan, Goodluck. 2014. “Full Text of President’s Declaration Speech.” Pulse, November 11. http://pulse.ng.Google Scholar
Joseph, Richard. 1987. Democracy and Prebendal Politics in Nigeria: The Rise and Fall of the Second Republic. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Juma, Calestous. 2012. “Africa’s Leadership Fails Billionaire Mo Ibrahim’s Test, But Technocrats Rise.” Forbes, October 15. www.forbes.com.Google Scholar
Konings, Piet. 2011. The Politics of Neoliberal Reforms in Africa: State and Civil Society in Cameroon. Leiden: African Studies Centre.Google Scholar
Kuisel, Richard. 1981. Capitalism and the State in Modern France: Renovation and Economic Management in the Twentieth Century. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lasswell, Harold. 1936. Politics: Who Gets What, When, How. New York: Whittlesey House.Google Scholar
LeVan, Carl. 2014. Dictators and Democracy in African Development: The Political Economy of Good Governance in Nigeria. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, Peter. 1996. “From Prebendalism to Predation: The Political Economy of Decline in Nigeria.” Journal of Modern African Studies 34 (1): 79–103.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, Peter. 2007. Growing Apart: Oil, Politics, and Economic Change in Indonesia and Nigeria. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McDonnell, Duncan, and Valbruzzi, Marco. 2014. “Defining and Classifying Technocrat-Led and Technocratic Governments.” European Journal of Political Research 53 (4): 654–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meynaud, Jean. 1964. La Technocratie: mythe ou realité?. Paris: Payot.Google Scholar
Mkandawire, Thandika. 2012. “Institutional Monocropping and Monotasking in Africa.” In Good Growth and Governance in Africa: Rethinking Development Strategies, edited by Noman, Akbar et al., 80–113. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Mkandawire, Thandika. 2015. “Neopatrimonialism and the Political Economy of Economic Performance in Africa: Critical Reflections.” World Politics 67 (3): 563–612.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mitchell, Timothy. 2002. Rule of Experts: Egypt, Technopolitics, Modernity. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Muhammad, Zayyad. “Why Nuhu Ribadu Lost Adamawa Governorship Election.” Premium Times, April 15. www.premiumtimes.ng.Google Scholar
Mundy, Jacob. 2015. Imaginative Geographies of Algerian Violence: Conflict Science, Conflict Management, Antipolitics. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Mwiti, Lee. 2015. “As Buhari Heads for Win, A Flashback: The Military Men Are Back—The Rise and Fall of the African Technocratic President.” Mail & Guardian, January 15. http://mgafrica.com.Google Scholar
National Council on Privatisation (Nigeria). 2001. Privatisation Handbook. 3rd edition. Abuja, Nigeria: National Council on Privatisation.Google Scholar
National Planning Commission (Nigeria). 2004. “Meeting Everyone’s Needs: National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy.” Abuja, Nigeria: National Planning Commission. http://siteresources.worldbank.org.Google Scholar
Nossiter, Adam. 2015. “Beleaguered, Nigerians Seek to Restore a General to Power,” New York Times, January 23. http://www.nytimes.com.Google Scholar
Odunsi, Wale. 2014. “Accusations that I Traded ACN, Ribadu in 2011 Is [sic] False— Tinubu.” Daily Post, December 16. http://dailypost.ng.Google Scholar
Okonjo-Iweala, Ngozi. 2012. Reforming the Unreformable: Lessons from Nigeria. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Okonjo-Iweala, Ngozi. 2015. “Soludo’s Self-Serving Article Deficit in Facts, Logic.” Vanguard, January 28. www.vanguardngr.com.Google Scholar
Owen, Olly, and Usman, Zainab. 2015. “Why Goodluck Jonathan Lost the Nigerian Presidential Election of 2015.” African Affairs 114 (456): 455–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
People’s Democratic Party (Nigeria). 1998. The Manifesto of the Peoples Democratic Party, August 19. Abuja, Nigeria.Google Scholar
PriceWaterhouseCoopers. 2015. Investigative Forensic Audit into the Allegations of Unremitted Funds into the Federation Accounts by the NNPC. Abuja, Nigeria: PriceWaterhouseCoopers.Google Scholar
Ribadu, Nuhu. 2010. My Story, My Vision. Abuja, Nigeria: Youth Media & Communication Initiative.Google Scholar
El-Rufai, Nasir. 2009a. “Nigeria: Political Dynamics and Prospects for Reform.” Presentation at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, June 10.Google Scholar
El-Rufai, Nasir. 2009b. “Umaru Yar’Adua: Great Expectations, Disappointing Outcome.”Sahara Reporters, May 30. http://saharareporters.com.Google Scholar
El-Rufai, Nasir. 2013. The Accidental Public Servant. Ibadan, Nigeria: Safari Books.Google Scholar
Sanusi, Sanusi. 2013. Letter to President Goodluck Jonathan. Premium Times, September 25. www.premiumtimesng.com.Google Scholar
Siollun, Max. 2013. Soldiers of Fortune: A History of Nigeria (1983–1993). Abuja, Nigeria: Cassava Republic Press.Google Scholar
Sissako, Abderrahmane, director. 2006. Bamako. Artificial Eye/New Yorker Films.Google Scholar
Smith, Daniel Jordan. 2005. A Culture of Corruption: Everyday Deception and Popular Discontent in Nigeria. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Smyth, William Henry. 1921. Technocracy: First, Second, and Third Series—Social Universals. Berkeley: The Gazette.Google Scholar
Soludo, Charles. 2015a. “Buhari vs Jonathan: Beyond the Election.” Vanguard, January 25. www.vanguardngr.com.Google Scholar
Soludo, Charles. 2015b. “Soludo Replies Okonjo-Iweala, Accuses Her of Forging National Economics Statistics.” Premium Times, February 1. www.premiumtimesng.com.Google Scholar
Sy, Amadou. 2015. “Are African Countries Rebasing GDP in 2014 Finding Evidence of Structural Transformation?” Brookings Africa in Focus blog, March 3. www.brookings.edu.Google Scholar
Tinubu, Bola. 2014. “Slump in Oil Prices: A Progressive Way Out.” Daily Post Nigeria, November 13. http://dailypost.ng.Google Scholar
Thomas, M. A. 2015. Govern Like Us: U.S. Expectations of Poor Countries. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
U.S. Embassy Abuja. 2001. “Nigeria: Motorola’s Bid for GSM Equipment Contrast: Ambassador Discusses Commercial Advocacy Cases with Vice President Abubakar.” Cable 01ABUJA1679, July 16. https://search.wikileaks.org.Google Scholar
Usman, Zainab. 2016. “The Successes and Failures of Economic Reform in Nigeria’s Post-Military Political Settlement.” University of Oxford Global Economic Governance Program Working Paper 115.Google Scholar
Zenawi, Meles. 2012. “States and Markets: Neoliberal Limitations and the Case for a Developmental State.” In Good Growth and Governance in Africa: Rethinking Development Strategies, edited by Noman, Akbar et al., 140–74. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Zuckerman, Ethan. 2012. “Occupy Nigeria–A Reactionary Occupy Movement?” My Heart’s in Accra, January 5. www.ethanzuckerman.com.Google Scholar