It's our independence day and I'm sure that most Nigerians are not happy with the current state of the country. One can easily say the reason for this is bad leadership. So many political commentators and scholars have attempted to explain this phenomenon from a social science perspective, which is laudable, but I intend to approach this from a neuroscientific perspective.
Let me start with the agreed consensus that our problems started with the colonialist. You may say they exploited us. So what did they think about our cognitive functioning for them to so? Because of their inability to diagnose mental illness in Africans due to communication barriers, colonial neuroscientists concluded that the brain of an African adult was no more developed than that of a child, that Africans lacked the ability to plan for the future and that the African mind is dependent on excitement and external stimuli. In simple term, our mentality was primitive!
Years later, African neuroscientists debunked these claims by showing that Africans are as normal as they are since we (Africans) have a tendency to be abnormal as they are. Even the outcome of the Human Genome Project has shown that 98% of humans possess the same genetic qualities. So if we are normal as they are, why are our leaders not abnormal as they are?
Neuroscience has shown that Antisocial Personality Disorder can handicap one from being a good leader. Neuroimaging studies have implied an impairment in the part of the brain responsible for executive (higher order) functioning as a feature of this disorder. This disorder is characterised by a range of social aberrations. These include; callous exploitation, lack of empathy for the sufferings of others, deficits in social emotions e.g. shame and guilt, and untruthfulness. You don't need to a psychiatrist to observe these aforementioned symptoms to be common among most of our leaders. Unfortunately, this disorder cannot be easily detected by tests but we can rely on the reports of others who have had close contacts with them.
What can we do to move our nation forward? How can we avoid persons with this disorder from occupying public offices? How can we sanitise our political system? It's simple. Don't vote persons exhibiting traits of APD into public offices.
Assess yourself too to be sure you're APD free.
Happy Independence day.
Gerald.
Acknowledgement: I thank Prof. Oye Gureje for his interesting lecture titled "Hubris, Humility and the Humongous Lessons of the Brain" delivered at the University of Ibadan. You inspired this piece.
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