Are Nigerians prepared to accept a strong autocrat like Napoleon Bonaparte as a price worth paying for accelerated socio-economic development?

By Ayo Akinfe

(1) Today is September 28. On this day in 1785 Napoleon Bonaparte graduated from the military academy in Paris. He was only 42nd in a class of 51 and no one paid any particular notice to him. However, history had other ideas

(2) On September 28 1781 the almighty Britain was defeated in the US as 9,000 American and 7,000 French troops began the siege of Yorktown, leading to a surrender that marked the beginning of the USA. In the 20th century, the US has taken humanity to unbelievable heights since the end of World War Two. Talking of the US and World War Two, do you also know that on September 28, 1944 Theodore Roosevelt Jr, the son of President Theodore Roosevelt, was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for directing troops at Utah Beach during the D-Day landings. He died leading the assault in Normandy

(3) A right wing and reactionary general brought in to crush the French Revolution, Napoleon Bonaparte ended up leaving an unbelievable legacy in France. He was the world’s first military coupist and even took the title emperor. It is from him that many African dictators took a cue

(4) Despite his heinous crimes, however, Bonaparte took France from an agrarian to an industrial economy within 10 years. It was also he who built Paris into what it is today. Upon assuming office as “First Consul” he said: “A new government must dazzle and astonish.” Make no mistake about it, he did just that

(5) Bonaparte was emperor from 1804 until 1814 and again briefly in 1815 during the Hundred Days. He dominated European and global affairs for more than a decade while leading France against a series of coalitions in the Napoleonic Wars. He won most of these wars and the vast majority of his battles, building a large empire that ruled over much of continental Europe before its final collapse in 1815

(6) Bonaparte is considered one of the greatest military commanders in history and his wars and campaigns are studied at military schools worldwide. Were he Nigeria’s president today, he would match his troops across Africa, annexing all the countries between Gabon and Mauritania

(7) For all his sins, Napoleon instituted various reforms, such as higher education, a tax code, road and sewer systems, and established the Banque de France, the first central bank in French history. Napoleon also implemented a wide array of liberal reforms in France and across continental Europe, especially in Italy and Germany, as summarised by British historian Andrew Roberts: “The ideas that underpin our modern world - meritocracy, equality before the law, property rights, religious toleration, modern secular education, sound finances, and so on—were championed, consolidated, codified and geographically extended by Napoleon. To them he added a rational and efficient local administration, an end to rural banditry, the encouragement of science and the arts, the abolition of feudalism and the greatest codification of laws since the fall of the Roman Empire.”

(8) Also, Napoleon directly overthrew remnants of feudalism in much of Western Europe. He liberalised property laws, ended seigneurial dues, abolished the guild of merchants and craftsmen to facilitate entrepreneurship, legalised divorce, closed the Jewish ghettos and made Jews equal to everyone else. Under his watch, the Spanish Inquisition ended as did the Holy Roman Empire, while the power of church courts and religious authority was sharply reduced and equality under the law was proclaimed for all men

(9) Napoleon's educational reforms laid the foundation of a modern system of education in France and throughout much of Europe. All students were taught the sciences along with modern and classical languages. Unlike the system during the Ancien Régime, religious topics did not dominate the curriculum, although they were present with the teachers from the clergy

(10) Nigerians are always quick to blame their socio-economic woes on poor leadership but the reality is that such visionary leadership carries with it an autocratic temperament as was the case with Napoleon Bonaparte. In Malaysia, Mohammed Mahathir was no different, likewise Mao Tse-Tung in China, Winston Churchill in Britain and Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union. We have to ask ourselves if we are prepared to pay that price for development

 

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