NEXT TURN: Nigeria in Plato’s mind

“The greatest principle of all is that nobody, whether male or female, should be without a leader.” - Republic, Plato of Athens c. 350 BC

Reading Plato’s Republic again and again, I never cease to wonder why the Athenian philosopher was so scornful of the hoi polloi and productive sector of the society. When I attempt to re-read him in the light of the Nigerian society, it is the artisan that comes to mind.

The artisan, by this token, is a miserable fellow, who is often scorned, when it comes to matters of governance, except when he is exploitable. Owing to his low level education and his distance from the circle of the elite, he is everyday quarantined in his lair of labour. The Nigerian artisan is also a scavenger who lives by the day, depending on the misfortune of others to make a living. Though unenlightened and seemingly insecure, he is a necessity in this society where genuine technical expertise is a scarce commodity. And it is in this large social space of technical need that he shows the true colour of his soul.

Have you ever had a problem with your car, and patronised the group of Nigerian artisans called mechanics? Witness the nonchalance with which they wantonly destroy parts and use crude instruments to pull out from the engine contraptions that have required of manufacturers painstaking precision and utmost care to put together.

Kamal, a colleague and friend, used to thrill us by the way he organised his own version of ethics classes with them before giving them jobs to do. He has since given up on them, because whether it is a carpenter, or a plumber, a bricklayer, or panel beater, or painter, the Nigerian artisan is impervious to correction and good counsel.

Little surprise the Athenian ancient philosopher, Plato, places artisans at the lowest rung of both the stratification of society and in the hierarchy of the psyche. Unlike the philosopher-rulers whose wisdom provides them with the natural ability for rulership, and unlike the auxiliaries whose spirited nature imbues them with the courage to be military guardians of society, the artisans are the vast majority whose only natural ability is to provide the economic needs of the society. For this reason artisans must be under the eternal control of the philosopher-rulers and guardians.

The recent charade, which has become part of our political history, tells us that the so-called elite and enlightened middle classers paraded by our present democratic dispensation are like Plato’s artisans, or more appropriately, are typical Nigerian artisans. Given the circus they have created in the last few months, the government artisans in Abuja have upturned this ‘natural’ Platonic order to the level of their simplistic adaptation. Since the absence of a leader, they have demonstrated that they are figure-heads in a system devoid of any hub of governance. By their cold-hearted penchant for the absurd, they are orientated to living by the day, and motivated by the promptings of the stomach - the metaphor employed by Plato to describe their psychic structuring.

In blind defiance of the counsel of conscience and reason, these elements have become cut-and-paste managers, justifying and rationalising, with inherent contradictions, obnoxious policies for a rapacious cabal. Forget the Ivy League suffixes their names carry, like the typical Nigerian artisan, they do not appreciate the dignity of their fellow men, for they see people as commodities, and expendable matter.

They are those whose survival antennae drift toward the whiff of lucre and wealth. Left to their whims these usurpers of the people’s mandate will turn a paradise into hell, and make every reasonable intention seem foolish.

This is the set up the ancient philosopher conjured as a socio-political calamity; a set up that makes artisans and the hoi polloi promote one of their ilk to the helm of governance. He calls it democracy; democracy so rudimentary and archaic that a modern day genuine representative version would seem unfitting for Plato’s comprehension. This, he says, is the “... worst of all lawful governments, and the best of all lawless ones”.

In penning this characterisation of democracy, Plato surely must have had Nigeria in mind.

The presence of these kinds of people in the chambers of power demands forceful confrontation and engagement from well meaning Nigerians. Artisans don’t know they are wrong until they are forced from their illegally occupied space. Often times doing this requires that we condescend to their level, if you know what I mean.