Nigeria's Future Isn't Just About Its Constitution

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It is not my style to comment on someone else's work, especially when a professor I respect wrote the foreword. But I am worried about how some writers blame Nigeria's problems on its structure or the Constitution alone.

In my recent articles, I said that one major issue in Nigeria's governance is the failure to connect three key things: authority, incentives, and capabilities. I think this disconnect stops Nigeria from moving forward as a developing country and as a nation where different parts should work well together.

I will not mention the book or its author here. I don't mean to downplay the effort that went into it. I just want to share an idea that could add to the discussion the writer has worked hard on.

I agree with many points made in the book, as seen in a recent interview about it. But I disagree with the view that Nigeria was purposely set up to fail. This view brings us back to the Constitution and the structure left by British colonial rule. I don’t believe there is a perfect constitution, just like there can never be perfect engineering, no matter how far we have come with technology. There is only one perfect being, God.

If that's true, then every human creation, whether political or engineering, is always a work in progress. Its weaknesses do not automatically mean failure. With a flexible governance system, applied fairly and based on authority, incentives, and capabilities, these weaknesses can turn into chances for growth and improvement.

To say Nigeria's current failures are just because of its original setup risks making structural issues an excuse. It is like saying, “the devil made me do it” when someone is caught doing wrong. History matters, but it cannot explain everything that has happened since then. It also cannot be an excuse for what Nigerians have done with what they inherited.

Nigeria has often failed to turn its institutions into effective governance because we ignored the basics of authority, incentives, and capabilities. We create institutions and give them tasks, but we often forget to give them the authority to act, the incentives to behave well, or the capabilities to fulfill their roles. An institution might look good in law but still be weak or ineffective in real life.

In that way, Nigeria is like dry bones needing someone to believe they can live again. But in Nigeria's case, that person cannot be just one individual. It needs to be every Nigerian, whether at home or abroad. National renewal cannot always depend on finding another great president, governor, or political hero.

To start, we could focus on something simple: following traffic rules and making our roads safer with clear signs, proper markings, working traffic lights, and dedicated road marshals. This is one area that shows Nigeria's failures are not just about constitutional design or colonial structures.

Traffic management needs the same three things. Authority must be clear: there have to be rules and institutions that can enforce them. Incentives should make sure that following the rules leads to safety, while breaking them has real consequences. Capability must also be there: roads need to be marked, traffic lights must function, signs should be clear, enforcement officers need training, and institutions must have the resources to do their jobs.

None of these requires a constitutional conference.

If we cannot even get a simple road intersection to work, where authority is clear, incentives are easy to see, and the necessary capabilities are cheap, it is hard to say that Nigeria's core problem is only about the Constitution or the structures set up by the British.

My conclusion is simple: we are often our own biggest enemy. We need to stop blaming others and face our realities. Neither endless praise nor constant self-criticism will build the country. We have to decide together if we want to build a nation or just keep creating individual political, economic, and social empires within it.

Real national change needs more than a strong leader. Leadership matters, just like institutions do, but lasting development needs a strong foundation: a national vision shared by everyone, so that collective action doesn’t always depend on force, political favors, personal rewards, or loyalty to certain individuals.

This might be where Nigeria's deeper issues lie. We have slowly turned many tools meant to make democracy work, representation, elections, federalism, political parties, and public institutions, into ways to build and protect personal political empires. This trend raises real concerns about state police: not necessarily about decentralized policing itself, but the risk that giving more power without the right incentives and safeguards could just become another tool for those personal political empires.

Sadly, a small group has thrived within this strange situation, while most people end up praising them, only to complain about the country when things get too tough.

The British might have set up a system for their own needs. But in the end, it is Nigerians who decide if that system remains just a legacy, becomes a permanent excuse, or is changed and improved through governance into a real nation.

A constitution does not build a nation by itself. Institutions do not govern just by existing. Authority must be used wisely, incentives must encourage good behavior, and capabilities must enable performance. Until these three work together and Nigerians take responsibility for making them function, we will keep blaming the structure while ignoring what we have chosen to build within it.