Embodying the Modern: Neoliberalism, NGOs, and the Culture of Human Rights Practices in Nigeria

Abstract

IntroductionThis article is my attempt to unravel the growing influence of NGOs (nongovernmental organizations) in Nigeria. There are two important elements in mapping NGOs in Nigeria today. First, the culture of NGO is emblematic of the ways in which neoliberal economic and political reforms in Africa, and particularly in Nigeria, change the face of the state, thereby creating a new space that prioritizes NGOs as a better alternative to the state. Second, by creating new spaces for NGOs to thrive, neoliberalism incorporates NGO leaders into the class of elitism. Politics is and continues to be considered the domain of elite politicians who have been in control of the political process in postcolonial Africa. NGO leaders have historically seen these politicians as standing in the way of economic and political development of Africa and Nigeria. Unfortunately, this disdain for political leaders has led NGO practitioners, who are now a part of the new elite class, to present themselves as non-political and non-partisan. This decision leaves political participation and contests for elections in the hands of the elite politicians NGO leaders oppose. Such decisions by NGO leaders ignore the possibility of using their new elite status as a mechanism for real change.The combination of these two elements has continually produced outcomes such as economic and political deprivation for many citizens in ways that have promoted NGOs and CSOs (civil society organizations) to the status of rescue organizations. One such outcome is that NGOs have become one of the fastest growing industries in Nigeria. They cater to the needs of thousands of unemployed youths by employing them in such as periodic election monitoring or regular reporting of human rights violations to the transnational networks of human rights organizations in the global north.Illustrative of these are the activities of CLEEN Foundation (formerly known as Center for Law Enforcement Education in Nigeria), and CISLAC (Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Center). Both CLEEN and CISLAC emerged in Nigeria as a result of promotion of neoliberal economic and political in the post-Cold War era by international financial institutions (e.g., the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the Paris and London Clubs). While these two organizations are not alone in promoting this particular set of practices, mapping the political trajectory of its leaders provides a clear understanding of how neoliberalism promotes apolitical CSOs in ways that create new sites of power.This article also examines the emergence of NGOs in Nigeria through the location of their proliferation within a transnational economy shaped by the dominant international capitalist system. This system privileges the idea that a free market economy is deductively inscribed in the freedom of citizens, but the citizens' ability to actively participate in the affairs of the nation-state is inhibited by state (such as the violation of human rights, illegal detention, and the denial of access to land, livelihood, and resources) that negate neoliberal practices. This idea further suggests that private ownership of capital should trump the public good. Central to this idea is the notion that the state-already seen as oppressive and a locus of rights violations-does not have the capacity to mold citizens. In contrast, CSOs and NGOs are considered to be important in the construction of a new society that embodies modern ideas about participation, respect for human rights, and the molding of good citizenship. I examine what I call the rearticulation of praxis and reordering of practices by looking at the changing meaning of CSOs and NGOs in most academic literature, and suggest that there is a need to focus on how the particularities of Nigeria dictate how CSOs and NGOs shape practices.Finally, I look at the work of CLEEN and CISLAC to show how they have reshaped national discourses about power and social inequalities in ways that feed into neoliberal discourses of power and social structures. …