By
Yakubu Musa
Those of us who read Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson’s ‘Why Nations Fail’,have seen, in the best-selling book, some
convincing arguments on how countries of the world can seize the momentums of
critical junctures of their histories to achieve economic greatness. Likewise, we have seen,
in the same book, how elite’s phobia of Joseph Schumpeter’s “creative
destruction” can either stunt growth or completely truncate it.
Yet, while Why Nations Fail is
a book rooted in political economy – from capitalistic perspective – its
numerous analogies clearly abound everywhere, in terms of the realities of our
dear country, Nigeria.
Although, the parallels one seeks to draw in this piece are
much nuanced from what the book presents, it suffices to say that nowhere are
its numerous examples more vividly expressed than in the northern part of the
country. Since the moment the Union Jack gave way to the green-white-green
flag to herald the nation’s independence in 1960, the two major geographical
divides in the country have tried to rival each other. Paradoxically, however,
it is the north that appears to have been muddling along in this competition–
in spite of its comparative numerical strength.
In pre-independence times, there had been a glaring struggle
to convince the large portion of the society to embrace western education. The
North was, and still is, left to do a catching-up job as a result. The
disparity between the two regions in terms of the population of private
universities simply speaks volumes. Ditto commercial banks.
