In every country, the importance of intellectuals are many and varied. In The Intellectuals and Socialism, Friedrich Hayek warns that it is dangerous to ignore or underestimate the importance and influence this class. He describes intellectuals as “professional second-hand dealers in ideas”. According to him, the position of this class of people affords them familiarity with new ideas which they promote through their writings and speeches.
As rightly observed by him, “it is the intellectuals who decide what views and opinions are to reach us, which facts are important enough to be told us, and in what form and from what angle they are to be presented”. He advised that the building of a free society should once more be made an intellectual adventure.
Majority of people today have lost faith in government. A lot has been written on the failure of government. A lot is still being written on the same issue. Promises made by government are taken with a pinch of salt. Protests are being organized to draw attention to the inadequacies of government.
Much justification exists for the loss of faith in government. The continent is blessed with immense mineral wealth. Yet, it happens to be the least developed region of the world. The wealth has never been deployed for the benefit of the people. The wealth is in the grip of those who control the levers of government, and these people employ it to achieve selfish ends. Take Nigeria for instance, only one percent of the population enjoys the revenue from oil and gas which accounts for more than 80% of the revenue.
The Africa’s stupendous wealth has not prevented her people from wallowing in the odious pool of abject poverty. Millions of the people are undeservedly dying of hunger and starvation. Graduate unemployment keeps soaring and millions are dying of killer diseases such as Malaria, and AIDS.
Despite the loss of faith in government, a sizeable number of intellectuals still advocate more government as the answer to a lot of socio-economic challenges. This class still has their thinking ruled by socialists’ ideas. Governments in Africa used to resist reform. They detested policies that would transfer power and control of resources from them. But since the 80s, the negative attitude to reform has changed. Most African countries have opted for policies that transfer control of the economies to the market. It must be said that it was not easy to get them to adopt this new attitude. It can be seen that policies of privatization, deregulation and liberalization have been introduced in most African countries, though we may fault their implementation.
African intellectuals are now the obstacles to genuine development. They detest the market and hold it responsible for the impoverishment of the continent. They always argue it is not a good path to economic growth. As George Ayittey posits, this class oppose economic liberalization on the basis of ideological hatred for capitalism and free markets. He traced this hatred to the colonial days when capitalism and colonialism was viewed the same thing.
Any policies that seek to introduce market solutions to socio-economic problems are seen as unfriendly. This class is in the habit of opposing every step taken to role back government frontiers. Privatization is vehemently opposed because it is seen as a policy that will impoverish the people more. In Nigeria, protests have scuttled several attempts at transferring ownership of some strategic state-owned enterprises to the private hands.
Largely unappreciated in Africa is the truth that political freedom of democracy must be complemented by the economic freedom of the market. It must be also realized that democracy only provides the enabling environment for mass contribution to debates on how to solve these problems. Democracy is merely a step towards solving them. Champions of political freedom don’t see anything good in fighting for economic freedom.
Economic freedom must be appreciated. Only this can save the continent from under-development. More government participation in the economy is like a tumor in the head that must be removed. It is painful removing a tumor. This pain of government removal must be tolerated by all for the sake of the development.
*Oyewamide is with Institute of Public Policy Analysis in Lagos