Tyrants: Why We Love Them

Out of a population of about 180 million, Nigeria has 360 members of the House of Representatives, 109 senators, 36 governors and one president. How is it possible that this group of around less than a thousand people manage to rule over and extract the vast majority of resources available in the country?

Written by Derin Adebayo

May 13, 2017

Illustration by Edel Rodriguez

The sixteenth-century French lawyer, Étienne de La Boétie, pondered a similar question in his treatise on tyranny, The Politics of Obedience: The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude. He asked how a single dictator with no innate physical or mental advantages over his individual subjects can rule over all of them. His conclusion was that dictators exist only with the support of the general public and if the public was simply to withdraw its support the dictator would fall.

Introducing The Politics of Obedience…, American economist and historian, Murray Rothbard, states, “This fundamental insight was that every tyranny must necessarily be grounded upon general popular acceptance. In short, the bulk of the people themselves, for whatever reason, acquiesce in their own subjection. The tyrant is but one person, and could scarcely command the obedience of another person, much less of an entire country, if most of the subjects did not grant their obedience by their own consent.”

Now, Nigeria may be a democracy but, since gaining Independence in 1960, the majority of the country’s leaders have been military dictators. Of the five most recent presidential terms, only in two terms was the president someone who was never in the military. Of which, one was the brother of a military man and the other was the first presidential candidate of the then-ruling People’s Democratic Party to get voted out (ironically, in favour of a former dictator).

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About the Author

Derin Adebayo

is a data analyst based in Lagos, Nigeria.

Websitelinkedin.com

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Tyrants: Why We Love Them