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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