CHAPTER 2
The being of man is extremely
complex in human
society and indeterminate .Man by
nature is evil parochial unconcilliatory conciliatory and can be good by nature
only if he so wills Evidence of history
abound to prove this indisputable
fact .In philosophy self preservation is the very first law of human nature.
This might have encouraged the parochialism in man which is in turn the very
first law of self preservation .This
propensity is prevalent in capitalist
world of Adam Smith which preaches preservation of self interest and
competition acting against each other to regulate free market Ninety years
after Wealth of Nations. Karl Marx was
to make the most rebellious and portentous declaration of how
capitalism slowly proceeded but
reluctantly and ineluctably into
doomsday . The existentialist philosophers such
as Kierkegaard , Sartre ,
Heidegger , Kant by modern teaching believed that man is alone in a
meaningless world that he is completely
free to choose his action and that his
actions determine his nature .
Man as Marx claimed is not natural a being but’ human natural being’ whose being is for
himself [Carver,1983], human[constructive] and [deconstructive/destructive ]
inhuman parochialism is at work here .He described man as biological
[aggressive jealous and territorially protective ], sociological and
psychological [autonomous self reflective and creative using constructive
parochialism[ altruism] in the society ] .Man ’s dual nature and
manicheanistic bias was
captured by this admiration and also
sees man as capable of limitless thinking conceptual problem solving and
autonomous in innovative activity and
can harmonize social and community
relations .On the other hand man
is capable of substituting oppressive power for creative power while
safeguarding his heteronomous nature . Or might set up barriers rather than
build bridges to other communities
[Bottomore ,1991] ,[Iyanda,2001] .
The constraints imposed by life challenges
tends to influence this nature in man .Long before Marx ancient political philosophers have ascribed similar
attributes to man ‘s nature .From Plato and Aristotle down to Hegel Marx and Engel and Lenin by the nature of
their philosophies and writings certain basic common underlying principles unite them ; Such as
the culture structure and origin of the state and most importantly the nature of man .Plato believes that ordinary
men are both selfish and rational and all men are potential tyrants .Commenting
in this light Aristotle affirmed that
human beings are inherently wicked .
In the Leviathan Hobbes concluded that men love liberty and the
ability to dominate their fellow men although Locke holds that man’s
nature is inherently good
.In the Citizen Locke also observed that man should be restrained from
fear of coercive power or else every man will distrust each other .Contrary to
this dissenting opinions Marx and Engel believe that the prevailing pattern and
nature of production and distribution of
wealth determines the nature of man
.They were quick to point out in the anatomy of class struggle that economic
mode of production in every era determines the political and intellectual
antecedence of that era .
It is true that an average humanity
is capable of this dualistic expression and potentially he by nature is an
indeterminate human superior and capable of unleashing pain and pleasure good
or horror and evil on the society should
his right be denied him. We make bold to
affirm that inequalities of wealth in every society of the world is unusually
very high and about 80 percent of world population do not have economic right.
The human institution is highly impugned , insensitive government abound
everywhere and infinite potential unusually abhorred . Managing human resource therefore
constitutes the most difficult task of all life cultural endeavors.
This is naturally expedient thing to
observe because in the Marxian theory of
surplus value man is the only producer of
surplus value which relates to
man’s unlimited capability on the ground that all other factors of production
parade material finiteness. That he is a limitless thinker justified this axiom
. According to Marx , human labor
contributed this value that is appropriated into wealth by capitalists . Human
capital is the most productive capital . For instance , in the Jakarta
Plan while the country ’s
physical capital accounts for
16percent of its wealth formation
and natural wealth about 20 percent , human capital gulps 64percent close to
twice the above .[Iyanda, 2001] .
Where economic right is heavily abhorred or where circumstances
benefited some to the repugnance of the wishes of the majority and those powerful likely to be affected by change may
thwart effort to protect the statusquo.Eileen Wolf described this suffering
class as victims who are threatened by
change Wolf victims of insensitive
change are the majority poor in
the society . Victims of mass deprivation may find no alternative than to revisit the same offence
back to the society or to insensitive government which has contributed to the ordeal as consequences . For a larger part of human history it has been the major cause of social instability and intermittent
crisis and global wars .This is common
in the territory that failed to invest in its people .
It can be contended for instance that
for close to 50 years since independence the underlying thesis is that Nigeria as a country measured development in terms of physical structures or the number of construction cranes operating at a time contrary to Jakarta plan .It has largely ignored the most crucial
element of development. Physical infrastructure though good is not the basis of
development but only the outcome of development. Unfortunately Nigeria
today has more two thousand state owned companies with no adequate skills to
man them. The end result is phenomenal deindustrialization shrinking formal
market and passive oil wealth .Of course poor capacity ordinarily leads to poor
nation building and gross under development
truncating potential density of development.
Other statistics are scary as they
cut across every sector of the economy .Using the nation as a case study which
constitutes one-sixth of African population it is the same story across the
continent where 70-80% of SSA region population lived below poverty line .The
panacea as observed in building capacity for sustainable development is to
harness the informal sector not through
public noise by policy makers and
industry regulators which has persisted for decades in the developing
territories defying every attempted resolve .
MEETING
DEVELOPMENT PLANNING CHALLENGES
IN NIGERIA
Learning to climb the Ladders
of development and value chain is a
fundamental resource and a demanding
choice of man , communities and nations worldwide .
We remember Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy
of needs
.It ’s easy to get stuck in a
psychological trap when consideration is given to basic physiological needs such
as houses foods capital clothes cars and various facilities that guaranteed
comfortable living .As these needs mature or are attained they cease to be
motivators of performance as man’s preference and precedence move up the value
chain craving for further satisfaction
and sustainability in the everyday complicated challenges ..Nations and
economies share the same burden like Man facing emotional challenges that is
particularly more important in a sensible society that values national precedence beyond mere frivolous
parochial or alternative competing needs .
Since development is a
binding factor of humanity an attempt to define this subject is as long as
humanity can remember but by 1960 became specifically important and more
prominent in various academic literature and scholarly references .This era
witnessed the universal declaration of global development decade . According to
UN . development means people and welfare remains its essence goals and
objectives when measured in real terms [ quality of life index ] .Contextually
, Todaro [1997: 70] and Igun [2004] in
general terms break them down emphasized
the craft of development into the following :
n
Increase in
availability of basic means of life such as food shelter healthcare and
protection with sustainable enhanced distribution ;
n
Increase in
standard of living such as higher income higher education better jobs together
with increase in human self esteem and
cultural net worth ;
n
Increase in
citizenry freedom, economically independent nation freedom from alien people
from ignorance misery and servitude .
Whitehead
[1982] also emphasizes the need for 6 basic
means of life namely : Healthcare/Medicare ; housing ; land ; clothing ; foods ; and
Water.
HDI –Human development index is a
combination of these indicators necessary to ensure adequate
standard of living .The UNDP/ HDI
approach at measuring development stresses the need for human welfare
and denotes human welfare as the ultimate essence of any development planning
basinal process be it social and economic imperatives .To measure
prosperity it also stresses economic efficiency over all units in the society.
In
the 1990 report UNDP specifically emphasizes the need for growth and
development process should involve social and economic equity where conducive
environment is created both collectively or socially and individually . But there are no
philosophy supporting this greatest vision and provision in the history of man
.This eventually find a voice in neomarxism . The provision enables the underprivileged in the society to
harness their full potential for the purpose of leading a fulfilled productive and creative life [UNDP1990:5]
.Similarly , the rise of sustainable
human development concept was borne out of desire to sustain credible antecedence
of HDI or any development attained in the field .Brundtland commission 1987
quoted in UNDP report on Human development 200/01 defines it thus as ‘meeting
the needs of the present generation
without jeopardizing ‘the needs of’ the future generation ’.This rhymes
with Fiona Harvey definition of sustainable development in 2007 .
According
to UNDP certain key elements form the concept of sustainable human development
.This includes :
n
Development of
the people ; Development for the people ; and Development by the people . The
first notion entails human capabilities
and health enhancement so that they can
motivate people to participate fully in life .While the least emphasizes the
need to provide opportunity to every
citizen to participate fully in the
development process ; the 2nd notion entertains belief in creating
and providing equal priviledge for all people to have a fair share of benefits
that flow from economic growth .This can be regarded as equalitarian or
universal development that neomarxism preaches .
n
The UNDP human
development report [1993] say :This can
be not be possible especially development by the people without a spread of political social and
economic power to all .With such type of
dispersal the social political and economical framework and functioning of the
society can easily be influenced by the people giving them a sense of belonging
in their nation .According to the report
it is a core element of human development .But the fact is clear
:without a radical transformation of macroeconomic ideology and a review of the
study of economics that constrains equilibrium in the sharing of wealth , it
can never be possible
n
Human development
is indeed a sacrosanct core element of the concept and nature of development . The report graphically
maintained that :
n
This view of
human development implies that people by right should have access to a variety
of avenues for exercising power .Its logic suggests that participation is
both a
means and an end and that the decentralisation of government is desirable for its sake .The mechanism through which people may
exert influences can vary widely ; as individuals they can cast a vote or
engage in entrepreneurial activities ,as groups they can form community
organizations of different types or
belong to trade unions or ethnic associations . High levels of participation
give natural expression to human capabilities -……………………………[UNDP,1998 : 4] / [
rephrased and requoted by Igun[2004] .
n
It also noted
gross inequities and highly disadvantaged people are increasingly marginalized
from this power market which are usually the poor from women , children and pious segment of the population and ethnic
minorities .
THE
CONCEPT AND NATURE OF DEVELOPMENT
Despite
lofty provision for development and the maturity of development concept in some
countries of the world and the giant strides made in the economy of development
, mass development and infact the nature
of development on its own is
persistently under siege even in the
advanced countries irrespective of landslide being recorded in science
and technologies , the world today is
still yet to have a universal
development ideology or a macro philosophy that unify the entire fabric of humankind.
.
Sectarian , racial and quintessential national interest besides usually this economy is in crisis beginning from the
dawn of human civilization . The Law of development which is in most cases the
law of culture says that: a nation must
first have a developmental philosophy ;
and secondly should also observe the
great charters of liberty [GCL] as the constitution of mass development ; and
then thirdly maintain and sustain its leverage, density and tradition through robust bibliocracy when
cultivated with the most appropriate and most affordable cultural system a
society can find. In the succeeding chapters we explore the abuse of the Law using Africa as the case
study, Nigeria and America to some extent and the world at large and certain syndromes and infections inherent
in the abuse befalling the nature of the
society to unleash the rise and fall of great history and great civilization
respectively .We also chart a new era for the continent in its ability to
regain development density . A new chapter is opened in world history with the rise of neomarxist era to achieve the
goals and provisions of UNDP oriented to CREATE EGALITARIAN WORLD as noted in above analysis .No society
developed and sustained development without this law and no civilization had
been sustainable fully indicated
how depraved they were perennially against this ethos
. This remorseless abuse usually led to the fall of great civilizations
that persisted till this day 
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