BY EMEKA NWABUEZE
For NICO to engage in this innovative project means that its administration really understands the importance of taking inventory of our affairs. It is a clear evidence of the fact that the Institute understands that the culture sector can help, in no small measure, in massaging our ailing democratic process.

This lecture will make intellectual postulations and analytical expose of the matter and manner of the Nigerian state. The viewpoint is that of an academic, a teacher, a scholar, a Theatrician anxious to contribute his quota to the development of our beloved nation. So, do not expect from this lecturer the jingoism of the politician or the postulations of a seer.

The aim of the lecture is to scratch the surface and set the storm so that by the end of this short but candid lecture, the main issues relating to the topic will become transparent. In our effort to build an enviable state, in our march to excellence, we shall strive to tell each other the truth. I, therefore, crave your indulgence not to see the stark realities that may be analyzed in this lecture in a negative light.

As brothers and sisters, it is necessary for us to search ourselves appropriately in order to reveal the interiority of our minds so as to prognosticate our problems effectively. We shall attempt to ask ourselves pointedly and in clea
r unequivocal terms whether indeed we have a culture, and if so how far we have utilized that culture for the advancement of our democracy in the enlarged society.

Definition of Concepts

First, it is necessary to define the key words in the title of this lecture. The word, culture, has been used so much in our everyday life, yet it is necessary to review its definition in a lecture of this nature. However, it is necessary to cling to some definitions and dialectics if only to lend authenticity to our discussion.

Culture

It is obvious that our lives in this world started with adherence to strict order and coded behaviour. We are tagged with names, usually according to gender. We are fed the kinds of food which our society thinks are best for us. We are toilet trained, introduced to eating schedules, and taught the proper way to eat, how to be polite, whom to love, and what to fear.

Thus, we are born into, and made to adapt to a social and orderly world. Our world is ordered by the beliefs, norms and values of the group into which we are born. Every society has rules governing their attitude to life; hence the shortest definition of culture is “the way people do their things”.

Implied in the idea of culture is the notion that human beings are systematically taught how to behave, think and feel. This process of learning to become a good member of society is life-long. This learning process is called socialization.

It is obvious from this brief discussion that society exerts pressure on its members to grow up and be good citizens and useful members of society. Society also exerts pressure on all its members, no matter their age, to continue to conform to the norms, values, and laws of the society.

But unfortunately, every society has people who are different – people who reject the solemnity of the values, and break the rules. These law breakers are considered deviants. The fewer the existence of such group in a society, the more the possibility of their annihilation. But when deviants constitute a larger percentage of the society, the tendency is for them to annihilate the conformists and create a predominantly deviant society.

Culture, therefore, is everything a society thinks, believes, does, and possesses as members of that society. It is our social inheritance that gives structure to our lives. It is normative, learned and transmitted. The normative aspect of culture involves goals we should pursue and how we should pursue them, the values we should espouse, systems of morality, including what is sinful, shameful, and embarrassing.

Culture is learned when we are socialized into the values, beliefs, and rules of our society. Cultural transmission is symbolic. A symbol is something that represents something else, even an abstraction. Here, too, it should be stressed that culture is transmitted primarily through the symbolism of language.

Culture appears in both material, cognitive, and normative dimensions. Material culture comprises objects and physical things human beings make use of; the cognitive dimension constitutes beliefs and knowledge, while the normative dimension consists of norms and values, the moral order of society, and the rules governing appropriate behaviour in that particular society.

Now you are beginning to wonder whether Nigerians really understand the meaning of their cultural tenets, and if so, whether they recognize the tendency or need to bleach the society to adapt to cultural values, especially in the effort to nurture our democratic process. Evidently, there is a tendency for Nigerians to be ethnocentric, judging other cultures in terms of their own. But that does not create a conflict between our ethnic culture and our national culture because it is ethnic cultures that are utilized for ultimate transmission into national culture.

Conflict theorists believe that culture is constantly in a state of flux. Structural functionalists see shared norms and values as the glue that holds society together, especially multi-ethnic societies like Nigeria. Symbolic integrationists theorize that individual action can change culture, while Value theorists prescribe norms, which are standards of conduct, constituting folkways, mores, and laws, that are guaranteed to lead to acceptable behaviour.

To be cultural is to be authentic, to proclaim and develop a unique identity, and to be consistent with that identity. It requires members of that society to take a periodic inventory of their values in order to acquire the required authenticity.

Democracy

Democracy, on the other hand, is the utilization of free and equal representation of people in the decision-making of their society. It ensures that members of that society have equal rights to participate in the system of government through representatives chosen by the majority. A democratic system, therefore, is a system of government where the operation of government is based entirely on the decisions agreed upon by the majority.

When we talk about a democratic nation, we are referring to a society where government functionaries are elected freely and fairly by the entire members of the citizenry. Democracy, therefore, implies equal participation in the process of decision-making and the execution of such decisions by the different arms of government.

Platonic and Aristotelian concepts

Two of the world’s greatest scholars, Plato and Aristotle, do not have much faith in democracy; hence they describe it as irrational mob rule. These two Classical philosophers argue that many people are devoid of rationality to make decisions even for themselves; hence it will be outrageous to allow such people to make decisions for others. The majority, they argue, should not be trusted to act with moral integrity in all important situations.

Rulers are necessary, but they should be made to understand that their main duty as rulers is to employ their intellect and wisdom to achieve happiness for the people they have been elected to lead. This is possible only when the individual is endowed with wisdom, morality, and intellect. When a ruler or government functionary is devoid of these qualities, he becomes useless to the society, and essentially only useful to himself. Such an individual corrupts the system, and helps to keep it in a constant state of inertia. The question then is: what constitutes happiness?

The answer to this question will be apparent shortly.

The question that now comes to mind is: Is Nigeria inflicted with the daemon of democratic deficit? To answer this question, a brief incursion into the meaning of democratic deficit is paramount. By democratic deficit is meant the inability of the democratic process in a society to conform to acknowledged and accepted standards of democracy.

It describes a situation where the political structures of a particular society, as well as its organization and enlarged decision-making processes, are devoid of legitimacy, by not complying with recognized traditions, standards, and authoritative principles set for the guidance of behaviour or action.

A deficit is a shortfall which implies that the system is lacking in both quantity and quality, as exemplified by the Nigerian situation where the democratic system is deformed by reckless individuality, corruption, insensitivity to the needs of democracy, and abject anti-intellectualism.

Culture and Democracy

For the purpose of this lecture, let us bring in the concept of cultural democracy. Cultural democracy gives us the democratic vision, the fulfilment of the human potential. This requires positive action leading to universally acceptable behaviour. Hence, as the popular Greek aphorism states, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act but a habit.” Repetition of an action, whether positive or negative, confers regularity to that action, causing strangers to erroneously see such action as a part of society’s collective behaviour. And here, we have to remember our pedestrian definition of culture as “the way people do their things.”

Democratic culture affords members of the society the opportunity to have a deep concern for the present, without necessarily ignoring the past, which led us to the present. It generates awareness of the self, interaction with ideas, especially cultural ideas, using them as a means of examining the self, receptiveness to change, and the identification of appropriate preferences that would help one to articulate how to be contributory to society.

It encourages the use of cultural values to effect the development of the human mind, and foster a positive change in society. It stresses the universal perspective, the ability to see the connection and inter-relationship between one culture and another.

It encourages opposition to parochialism, and sees appropriate connection among people from all ethnic groups. It shuns parochialism which makes members of the society to identify with their immediate neighbourhood and show interest only in its peculiar problems. It encourages critical thinking, and the propensity of
people to respect the product of visible work and shun the product of invisible thoughts.

*This abridged paper was presented by Professor Emeka Nwabueze of the Department of Theatre and Film Studies , University of Nigeria, Nsukka at the recent National Institute for Cultural Orientation, NICO’s inaugural public lecture.