The Legitimacy of Political Science as a Discipline in Nigeria

science activities and visibility in Nigeria. As it is, the association is almost comatose. Its regularly conferences where ideas can be disseminated is far between. Its flagship journal, Studies in Politics and Society, is dead, to all intents and purposes. The starting point of any attempt at moving political science beyond its present circumstance must commence with several ideas about NPSA, in conjunction with its executives and other stakeholders. The NPSA can be the custodian of the curricula requirements to train future political scientists, grants and fellowship for further studies, conferences, research modalities and other disciplinary collaborations.

There is the urgent need to reconnect political science back to the context of social policy. This will afford the practitioners the opportunity to always perceive the policy dimensions of their theories and methodologies. One good way to do this is to reinstate the town & gown tradition of a deep symbiotic relationship between the university and the state. The essence of the university, and of each discipline, goes beyond the crunching of ideas for its own sake. Every idea has policy implications. It should be one of the responsibilities of the political scientists to tease out these implications.

A corollary to the town & gown synergy is the idea of think tanks or research institute that could serve as the focal point for policy recommendations and advocacy. Such a think tank will become a regular forum for political scientists and policy analysts and policy makers to brainstorm on the intersection between theories and practice. I will be glad, for instance, to see the Nigerian Civil Service as the focus of rigorous attention at the level of theories and advocacy.

I have earlier posed the question: Why would the Centre for Democratic Studies (CDS); National Council for Inter-Governmental Relations (NCIR) – dedicated to research into our peculiar brand of federalism etc, - not have resurrected sixteen years into democratic governance, if indeed they died through suffocation in the heat of militarism? I think it would be great investments into the future of our democratic unfolding if, while government winds up agencies that have either outlived their usefulness or are superfluous in the dynamics of the inevitable rationalisation of public sector institutions, it could consider reviving these two critical agencies with redefined and strengthened mandates. These and any other think tanks will provide intellectual space for political nay social scientists to keep research and debates on issues at the heart of our national question under sustained interrogation thus fostering sustained alignment between their theoretical, best practices and practical manifestations on a day-to-day basis.

Above all, there is also the constant need to facilitate pedagogical creativity in adapting the curriculum to issues and ideas that critical and relevant to the national context. This will involve, first, that our curriculum review procedures in the university must be made flexible; and, second, that the curriculum must be updated with regards to national and global happenings. The political science curriculum must thus be oriented to active learning that will enable the students to experience Nigeria and the world in the various methodologies and theories that we teach.

The vision I propose here is the reorientation of political science as a discipline that has a deep stake in the present predicament and future possibility of Nigeria. As far as I am concerned, Nigeria is an ongoing challenge to our political theorising and methodological understanding. I sincerely hope that our collective concern here today will go a long way towards ensuring a rethinking of the discipline we all need.

I do hope that while we celebrate these two giants who have done quite a lot to mould the discipline, and who themselves would be concerned about our legitimacy, we will also have time to reflect on the disciplinary debt we owe the Nigerian state—at least the debt of putting our methodological tools to generating theories and policies that could enable the nation progress beyond her present troubles and circumstances.

Once again, I want to deeply appreciate the immense contribution our professor emeriti have inputted into the department and the study of politics in Nigeria. I am just one of the hundreds they have produced and influenced over their many years of meritorious service to humanity. And so, they fully deserve this honour and many more.

(Being an address delivered by Dr. Tunji Olaopa, Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Communication Technology, as guest speaker at the Department of Political Science, University of Ibadan’s public lecture and post-lecture luncheon in honour of Professor Emiriti ‘Bayo Adekanye and John Ayoade held at the University last week)