There Is Too Much Ideology in Nigerian Politics

Suppose for a moment that you encounter a politician from a country somewhere in the world. Suppose this politician articulates a commitment to the virtues of private capital; the necessity for the state’s withdrawal from the market through privatization and deregulation; the virtues of entrepreneurship and individual effort; the importance of government cutting subsidies to create an enabling environment for business; a hostility toward unionism and other forms of collective popular effort. We’d have little difficulty locating this candidate ideologically. Economically ‘right wing’ or neoliberal might be terms used to qualify this worldview.

Now let’s suppose that the country in question is in Africa. Suddenly, the analytical vocabulary shifts. The given policies and commitments are reframed, no longer as ideologically laden choices but as rhetorical veneer, technocratic necessities, external imposition or clever posturing to court international good will. Analysts begin to see trickery, negotiation, constraint—but, certainly, not ideology.