Olaopa Urges Scholars to Make Political Science Relevant to Modern Realities

The Chairman, Federal Civil Service Commission, Prof. Tunji Olaopa, has urged political science scholars to make their discipline relevant to the realities and struggles of modern life.

Olaopa spoke on Wednesday as the chairman of the opening ceremony of the 35th Conference of the Nigerian Political Science Association (NPSA) held at the University of Ibadan . The conference continues tomorrow.

Eminent scholars who were present at the event included the Vice Chancellor, University of Ibadan, Prof. Kayode O.Adebowale, who declared the conference open; NPSA President, Prof. Hassan A. Saliu, who gave the state of the nation address;
Professor Emeriti John Ayoade and Bayo Adekanye; the Dean of the Faculty of the Social Sciences, Prof. Benjamin O. Ehigie; the Head of the Department of Political Science, Prof. D. A. Yagboyaju, who gave the welcome address; Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research (NISER) Director-General, Prof. Taiye Okoisi-Simbine; and Professors Bayo Okunade and Remi Aiyede .

According to Olaopa, there is the need to begin to urgently rebrand the discipline in ways that make its scholarship more public-facing, and therefore in a manner that makes it accessible for engagements with politicians, policymakers and other relevant stakeholders. He said that this must necessarily transcend the usual town-and-gown partnerships, to even deeper and critical connections that enable the co-production of political and policy knowledge.

“Such synergy enables the political science community to engage in collaborations with civil society organizations, grassroots movements, NGOs and other non-state actors in designing research frameworks and curricula contents for a shared understanding of the status and direction that give the discipline relevance and legitimacy”, he said .

Noting why the political science curriculum and pedagogical frameworks need to adapt to current and significant realities, like artificial intelligence (AI), Olaopa said: “AI today is increasingly challenging the way we conceive of research, pedagogy and the implications of research for praxis. There is also the further challenge of reflecting on how the curriculum and pedagogy enable political science students and graduates transit from theoretical instructions to work-integrated learning”

This, for him, demands that the current curriculum must embed applied and real-world skills and competences that equip graduates to transit, with as little difficulties as possible, into public service, NGOs, think tanks, political consulting and the private sector. For him, this will mean opening up pedagogies to innovation like internships, scenario-based teaching, model and multidisciplinary case studies, and service-level learning that provide students with direct hands-on learning, mentorship and exposure to workforce and workplace dynamics.

“These are the critical challenges that NPSA will have to mediate as a critical gatekeeper in the long drive towards making the discipline more relevant, more accessible for understanding and mediating the postcolonial predicaments of the Nigerian state.”, he said.

He said that since June 2015 when he had occasion to decry the parlous state of the discipline at the same venue as a guest speaker at the 60th anniversary of the department of political science at Ibadan, commendable progress had been made to reposition and strengthen the association with irreducible legacy initiatives to boot.

But he said that going forward, there was a need for the giants of the discipline who were gathered to address the issues of critical concern in a spirited attempt to rethink the profession, especially as they prepare it for the upcoming generations of political scientists.

He said that such a move would also strengthen the discipline’s frontiers and capability readiness to contribute expert guidance and solutions to the critical challenges confounding the postcolonial reality of the Nigerian state.

Stressing an urgent need to rescue political science from theoretical preoccupations and an increasing detachment from the realities of modern life as people struggle with poverty, insecurity and unemployment, Olaopa said: “Like many scholarly disciplines in the contemporary world today, the fear expressed by well-meaning critics that political science is mired in silo mentality and ivory tower isolation is real and incontestable. This is compounded by an increasing hyper-specialization that makes political science to be increasingly alienated from the idea of politics and the political as they affect millions of ordinary Nigerians who are struggling with insecurity, poverty, looming starvation, unemployment and myriads of existential challenges.”

Thus, to him, “These Nigerians do not understand or care for such evidence of the discipline’s growing sophistication and nuancing as retrospective voting, measurement error, game theory, computational political analysis, political polarization, ideal types and ideal points, motivated reasoning, policy diffusion, framing, prosocial behavior, protectionism, transitional justice, etc.”

He added : “As it turns out unfortunately, the more sophisticated political science methodology has become, especially in being data-driven and theoretically rigorous in deepening scholarly analyses for more nuanced micro- and macro-level understanding of complex political issues, the more it keeps widening the relevance and expectation gaps. These gaps affect not only the chance at transdisciplinarity for political science, but more significantly—as an implication—the capacity of the discipline to positively and critically contribute to practical governance and public policy issues that are required for mediating the town-gown distance; all as a means of integrating the discipline into real-world political, governance and policy situations. These missing elements call for an intentional disciplinary gatekeeping from the political science community of practice and its professional association.”

Also , while lauding the theme of the conference, “26 Years of Democracy in Nigeria: Reflections on Praxis and Challenges.” Olaopa said that the trajectory of democratic governance in Nigeria, from 1999 to date required continuous reflective engagements from all quarters, not least from the NPSA.

According to him, the theme was appropriate because NPSA is a very unique and significant stakeholder because it encompasses communities of practice and service dedicated to deep political reflection around the possibility of the Nigerian state.

On his contribution to this reflection around the practice of democracy in Nigeria since 1999 , Olaopa said : “What is the cogent foundation around which democratic governance can be consolidated in a plural state like Nigeria? I have raised this question because of my firm belief that we cannot even begin to understand the possibilities of democratic consolidation unless we have a clear path towards a national consciousness of the type of nation Nigeria can and should be.
And in charting that clear path, there is the need not only for the politicians but also the political scientists to constitute a community of thinkers with a sense of what a political community like Nigeria requires to make progress on its national ideals. The agenda to deliver this construct is for me extremely fundamental, and I like to frame it around a simple question: what ideological basis ought to form the foundation of the type of politics that Nigerian political class deploys for governance purposes? This is a very crucial question as the Nigerian polity begins heating for the 2027 general elections.”