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Desubsidization: An Alternative Approach to Governmental Cost Containment and Income Redistribution Policy in Nigeria

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2014

Ladun Anise
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Extract

In The Age of Uncertainty, John Kenneth Galbraith, the noted Harvard economist, expressed some simple but profound thoughts on power, ideas, vested interests, and the politics of leadership. Galbraith's ideas have significant bearing on the concerns of this essay. First he argued (1977: 11) that “people have an enduring tendency to protect what they have, justify what they want to have. And their tendency is to see as right the ideas that serve such purpose. Ideas may be superior to vested interest. They are also very often the children of vested interest.” Second, he (ibid.: 13) observed that there is a unique relationship between power and income: Power flows unidirectionally from top down. Income (salary or wealth in Nigerian parlance) flows unidirectionally from bottom up. “As power flowed down, income extracted thereby flowed up. It's a rule worth having in mind. Income almost always flows along the same axis as power but in the opposite direction.” That is, power and influence are the means of making money, of securing favorable allocations of public resources to one's side, to one's group, and for protecting one's vested interests including socioeconomic class interests in any society.

Third, Galbraith (ibid.: 330) sees the essence of leadership as “the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time.” Since leadership inevitably involves the power and authority to decide for others, it becomes necessary for leaders to be “equipped with knowledge, self-confidence and self-esteem” (ibid.: 338), in order to make the right and equitably just decisions for the people, all the people. Thus, the problems of public policy, the problems of allocating resources, tax burdens, sacrifices during austere conditions, and in general, the problems of the authoritative allocation of values in an environment of scarcity always involve questions of power, self-interest, and leadership.

Type
Research Article
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 23 , Issue 2 , September 1980 , pp. 17 - 38
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1980

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References

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