From Chinua Achebe to Toyin Falola – 5 important books Nigeria’s new president ought to learn

Not many African political leaders are identified to have publicly declared their love of studying. US president Barack Obama popularised the concept of a advisable reading list and he nonetheless shares his annual alternative.

As a communications scholar and a e-book reviewer, I made a brief record of important reads for Nigeria’s new president. My number of books is predicated on what a brand new president must know when he takes the reins of a deeply divided and disillusioned country.

Nigeria has many issues. Disunity deepened underneath the Muhammadu Buhari authorities, and galloping inflation has led to a shortage of essential goods and companies. Insecurity stays a problem too.

The Hassle with Nigeria, by Chinua Achebe

Chinua Achebe, Nigeria’s preeminent novelist, took a break from fiction in 1983 to write down The Trouble with Nigeria. I like to recommend it first due to its slim dimension. Lots of our leaders have a widely known disdain for something mental or rigorous.

The incoming president ought to discover time to take a seat down and pore over the 68 pages of this e-book and see what Achebe has stated about our nation. The author says: “The difficulty with Nigeria is management.” Easy. The president ought to then ask himself how he could make a distinction. Maybe after studying this small however highly effective e-book, the incoming president would possibly see the place he matches into the “bother” with Nigeria and the best way to repair it.

From Third World to First: The Singapore Story: 1965-2000, by Lee Kuan Yew

I do know this can be a big book. However it earns my advice as a result of it’s written from expertise. Achebe was by no means a pacesetter of a rustic. Lee Kuan Yew was. As prime minister of Singapore, he led a nation that was poor, scorned and derided. However via stern dedication, he led it out of the dungeon. Nigeria wants a pacesetter like Lee, with out his dictatorial tendencies. Nigeria has lengthy been a topic of scorn, even amongst its personal residents who’ve determined to vote with their toes in the hunt for higher fortunes in different nations.

How did Lee rework his small, decrepit nation into an web financial system? There isn’t a have to reinvent the wheel for Nigeria; this has been performed in Singapore. All of the president must do is adapt it to native wants.

Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Energy, Prosperity, and Poverty, by Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson

I like to recommend this book as a result of it’s easy and easy with out financial or political jargon that may bore or scare the incoming president. Daron Acemoglu is an economist at MIT whereas James A. Robinson is an economist and political scientist at the University of Chicago.

The authors did an amazing job of synthesising the the reason why nations fail – it’s a simple learn. Many have argued that Nigeria is failing or has failed due to its tradition, geography, local weather or ethnic composition. These authors have punctured all that.

The brand new president will get a transparent image of the best way to transfer out of the bind Nigeria is in, 62 years after independence and 24 years after a return to democracy. To the authors, nations discover themselves the place they’re due to the alternatives made by their leaders in establishing financial and political establishments. They conclude it’s attainable to interrupt out of the poverty cycle. That is what Nigeria wants now to revive residents’ religion within the system. It’s political and financial establishments that underlie financial success.

Understanding Fashionable Nigeria: Ethnicity, Democracy, and Improvement, by Toyin Falola

Abiodun Alao, a professor of African Research at King’s Faculty London, writing a blurb for this book, stated: “Falola has introduced collectively, underneath one cowl, solutions to all of the questions anybody might wish to ask about Nigeria.”

Toyin Falola is a Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair within the Humanities and a distinguished instructing professor on the College of Texas at Austin within the US.

That is actually a magisterial e-book about Nigeria. In its 672 pages it covers every part in regards to the nation from colonialism to post-colonial and trendy occasions, non secular identities, fault traces, youth, widespread tradition and politics.

It’s arguably some of the detailed books about modern points within the nation. The brand new president can study quite a bit from it.

New York, My Village: A Novel, by Uwem Akpan

Not like the 4 different books, that is fiction. Why a novel? It earns its place as a result of fiction has a method of telling some house truths that non-fiction might gloss over. In this book about the Nigerian civil war (1967-70), Akpan has been in a position to give a voice to the minority.

Nigeria has been dogged by the difficulty of a majority accused of lording it over minority ethnic teams. Akpan’s quick tales and autobiographical items have appeared in varied magazines regionally and overseas. He at present teaches on the College of Florida.

On this novel, Akpan provides minorities a voice. The bulk need to hear as a substitute of ramming their concepts down the throats of others. The incoming president would acquire quite a bit from studying this e-book and understanding that we should at all times have the persistence to hearken to the minority.