Sunday, July 12, 2015

GUEST BLOG POST: Social Sciences And The Crisis Of Relevance In Nigeria — Dr Tunji Olaopa



Editor’s Note: Dr Tunji Olaopa is one of the inspirations behind the drive of NAIJAGRAPHITTI Blog to encourage Nigerians to seek to learn, gain new knowledge and expand their horizons and experiences in order to build a better nation. This man of diverse learning and many parts exudes the essence of the curious mind. However it is his thinking on the issue of the relevance of the social science subjects in national development that makes this post relevant. He reiterates the vitality of the STEM subjects and proposes its prospective expansion to STEAMHSS (science, technology, engineering, arts, mathematics, humanities and the social sciences) while carrying out a deep rethinking of the Nigerian educational curriculum philosophy.

By Tunji Olaopa
Dr Tunji Olaopa
I commenced this discourse with philosophy as a discipline; I then enlarged the argument to embrace the humanities. With my Town and Gown lecture at Covenant University’s Faculty of the Social Sciences in April, I applied the disciplinary relevance dominant argument to the social sciences (which dominant arguments are paraphrased in this piece) and, at the UI department of political science public lecture in honour of professor emeriti Adekanye and Ayoade, I took on my specific domain, political science, as a discipline. This has simply been a strictly intellectual reflection to address concerns that are indeed global, but more relevantly, germane to Nigeria’s specific policy concern to address graduate unemployment and the gradual emasculation of the HSS and the great danger it portends for a nation that needs to hurry to achieve real development with sense.

The social sciences constitute the third in the disciplinary tripod consisting of the natural sciences and the humanities. Its fluid theoretical boundary allows it to straddle the natural science in terms of methodology and the humanities in terms of substantive issues relating to the study of man and the society. The social sciences evolved from the attempt to reproduce the methodological successes in the natural science to the study of the human society, institutions and social behaviour. Yet, like the humanities that we have had about three occasions to x-ray so far, the social sciences are equally caught in the predicament of pedagogical relevance, especially in a situation, like Nigeria’s, where all that seems to matter is getting a certificate.

At a recent Town and Gown Seminar at Covenant University, Sango Ota, I had an occasion to initiate a critical appraisal of the stature of the social sciences as an academic field, and their perceived role and relevance in national development in Nigeria. At that auspicious occasion, I argued that the endemic questioning of the relevance of the social sciences derives from a justified albeit jaundiced perception of their prospect in the formulation of life-plans and future purposes: What will you do with Sociology / History / Psychology / Geography / Political Science? How, for instance, in common sense reflection, can the discipline of political theory or anthropology enable me to make sense of my life in a manner that Accountancy, Engineering or Human Resource Management or Medicine can if I am not an academic? And indeed, how many graduates of the HSS can the academia retain? What income level can political science as professional calling generate in Nigeria? This questioning is only a manifestation of a deeper dynamics. There are two broad factors that are responsible for how others perceive our disciplinary integrity. (And in this connection and as an aside, the 60:40 funding ratio in favour of STEM – an acronym for the sciences, technology, engineering and mathematics, in the dynamics of transition, makes some sense but is a point in our argument for emphasis.)

On the one hand, the field of the social sciences is incredibly and methodologically problematic. The first point of worry derives from the disciplinary desire for scientific methodology. As the philosophers would ask: How does one scientifically study, rather than interpret, human unpredictable behaviour? How is the analysis of social fact, for instance, modelled on the scientific study of natural fact? The second point of worry is the lack of methodological consensus on how the vast subjects and data of the social sciences ought to be studied. The diversity of methodologies ranges from Emile Durkheim to Max Weber to Vilfredo Pareto and then Karl Popper and Robert Dahl.

On the other hand, the social science disciplines, like the humanities, are confronted by a global curricular consensus which puts the social sciences into serious retreat. At the Covenant University Seminar, I alluded to the domineering influence of global capitalism on university management and pedagogical practices. Thus, the idea of management itself, rather than administration, has become the key to understanding the reason why only disciplines and programmes with cash values are recognized. This neo-liberal capitalist orientation has affected the way we perceive education and the role of universities, especially in national development. Consider, for instance, the rise and significance of the STEM fields. STEM is significant because it constitutes a kind of educational/curriculum philosophy motivated by laissez faire global competitiveness in terms of scientific and technological progress. Of course, the absence of the social sciences in the acronym speaks volume about the disciplinary invisibility of the social scientist.

In the face of all these challenges, we are confronted with a more troubling question: What is the unique stature of the social sciences in Nigeria? Claude Ake spoke about the social sciences as imperialism. This simply implies that Western social science disciplines—and anthropology readily comes to mind here—possess an ideological character which attempts to foist Western framework of scholarship on hapless third world countries like Nigeria. This immediately raises the issue of what social science discourses and researches in Nigeria ought to pursue—a theoretically sound, dynamic and pragmatic framework of ideas, processes and recommendations that could orient national policy trajectory in education, healthcare, security, infrastructural development, public services, mental health and social formations. If I am asked, I will say that the social sciences evolved as a theoretical and practical means by which we can imagine what is possible in terms of our social structures and our relationship with them. This objective is all the more urgent within the context of the Nigerian state and our plural existence along religious, ethnic, cultural and linguistic lines. Thus: How can the social sciences redefine our idea of what we are as Nigerians in manner that practically engages policy-makers?

Let me reiterate my earlier worry, especially with philosophers and other humanities scholars. No discipline within the postcolonial context of Nigeria is immune from the charge of relevance. The existence and significance of each discipline is bound up with how they are able and enabled to confront the Nigerian predicament and our collective resolve to reimagine the national project. This implies that, in spite of the fact that the Western social sciences wield enormous influence in terms of theories and ideas, the Nigerian social scientists must be wary of the imperial gaze of the West and the global dimensions. This should then translate into a concerted effort to locate all processes, methodologies, ideas and reflections of social research within the context of national rebirth and reconstruction. Theories are not enough; the social scientists in Nigeria must facilitate the transition from theories to practical and pragmatic policy considerations. This, it seems to me, is the essence of the town and gown interaction that people like Simeon Adebo were part of in the early years of the Nigerian state. The social scientists must become theoretically adept and policy oriented. In this regard, the late Profs. Claude Ake, Ojetunji Aboyade and Sam Aluko and Prof. Akin Mabogunje, Bolaji Akinyemi, were exemplary, with many after them, the likes of Ademola Oyejide, Charles Soludo, Attahiru Jega – to name just a few – are no less eminent. But how many of them are there now?

Unfortunately, the problem now is that social scientists either pontificate in conference halls and seminars where their beautiful ideas are usually mostly lost in rapturous applause or publications in obscure journals which are soon forgotten in dusty libraries. Whereas for Roberto Unger, the social sciences lack the capacity for ‘structural imagination’—this is a kind of insight into the nature of our present and existing social structures and institutions and how we can transcend them into something better given our present circumstances — I can tell that besides that point, it is the pervasive anti-intellectualism in the governance space that has become a disincentive to social scientists. Structural imagination requires the constant reinvention of the structures and social formations of our society. The essential question for Nigerian social scientists  in spite of their virtual consignment to research for research sake therefore is: What is the role of the social sciences in ‘difficult times’ (as a commentator puts it)? How does social science research in Nigeria rebrand and transform into a nuanced analysis of the Nigerian predicament and a resolution of it in manner that attracts clients? How, for instance, does a social scientist’s analysis of the phenomenon of climate change, mental health, social welfare, governance or labour relations impact the direction of government policy and national development and how can they connect to policy better through more engaging town and gown interdependence, et al? Like the humanities, there is no doubt that the social sciences contribute to our collective knowledge of the nature of man and the functioning of social institutions. But the society requires more. For instance, there is a distinct democratic imperative on social science research: What are the conditions for the possibility of a free and democratic society?

As I see it, what will orient structural imagination is the insinuation of the social sciences into the depth of social policy which is defined by its continuous reflection on the broad range of human needs and how social institutions can be created and recreated to meet these needs—welfare, public services, security, human rights and justice, law and order, income and wealth distribution, social accounting, housing, equitable allocation of resources, labour relations and employment, etc and serious rethinking of how policy makers could be better engaged. Social policy is too significant to be left to the policy makers and politicians alone; there is the urgent need to infuse a large dose of social scientific understanding and explorations.

Nigeria presently stands at a critical juncture. And one of the high point of the change mantra must result from a deep rethinking of our curriculum philosophy. In other words, we require a phased transition from STEM to STEAMHSS (science, technology, engineering, arts, mathematics, humanities and the social sciences). Change will not just happen to us as Nigerians, rather, we require a steady infusion of political, bureaucratic and intellectual energies to produce the steam that would drive Nigeria beyond its endemic crisis points.
Originally published in The Nation

Dr. Tunji Olaopa holds a doctorate degree in public administration, a culmination of two earlier degrees in political science and political theory from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. From this intellectual background and management consulting practice, Dr. Olaopa joined the civil service as a Chief Research Officer in the office of the president of Nigeria in 1988. His areas of expertise range from public sector reform and restructuring, policy analysis and research designs, sector diagnosis and strategic planning, HRM to governance and institutional analysis/development. 
Dr. Olaopa is the author of six titles including Theory and Practice of Public Administration and Civil Service Reforms in Nigeria (2008), Innovation and Best Practices in Public Sector Reforms: Ideas, Strategies and Conditions (2009), and Public Sector Reforms in Africa (2010). He has led and participated in many initiatives like the Nigerian Education Sector Strategy and the National Public Service Reform Strategies Development (in 2000, 2003 and 2007) as well as a number of continental programmes of the African Union's Conference of African Ministers of Public Service (CAMPS). 

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