Niccolo Machiavelli appears to have generated more controversy than any of his contemporaries. So much notoriety has gathered around his name that the charge of being a Machiavellian still remains a serious accusation in current political debate. Political thinkers from time immemorial had propounded one theory after another, all geared toward the betterment and upliftment of humanity. One salient feature of all these theories is that the propounders have the same objective mentally but their ideological and methodological approaches are what alienated one from the other.

In the case of Machiavelli, he posited a complex relationship between morality and politics, and associated the office of a ruler with the ability to know and act within the political world as it is and with the beastly abilities to dispense violence and practice deception. Besides, the hallmark of Machiavellianism lies in the fact that evil means can be used to achieve good end. Hence, when one has a good intention personal to him, what matters is not the process through which this goal is achieved but the emphasis lies on the fact of being able to attain the selfish interest. However, my concern is to x-ray philosophically the principle of Machiavelli and how its influences have held the contemporary Nigerian society to ransom.

The high level of moral decadence that has permeated every facet of Nigerian society has instigated me toward embarking on this topic. The dangers of Machiavellianism constitute one of the most problematic threats to the moral basis of political life of every nation in general and Nigeria in particular.

My primary purpose is to x-ray how Machiavellian principle has penetrated our political and other dimensions of life right from the moment Nigeria got her independence to this present time. Thus, by x-raying this principle, I intend to place it side by side with Nigerian situation and how it has permeated the political, economic and the religious scenario of our country. In addition, I shall critically appraise Machiavellian principle and how reliable it has been in solving human precarious political predicament and whether his ideology has any hope for Nigerian society.

The entire work is arranged into five chapters. It employs the following methods: expository, analytical, comparative, review, critical and evaluative methods. However, the method that appears to dominate the work is the critical method. Chapter one deals with the explanation and analysis of Machiavellianism, the political ideology and background to the political theory of Machiavelli. In chapter two, the views of some philosophers are discussed together with Machiavelli’s idea of morality. Chapter three exposes Nigerian situation and Machiavelli’s influence on her. Chapter four analyzes critically Machiavellianism and Nigerian government together with the effects of Machiavellianism in Nigeria. While chapter five, which is the last chapter, contains the evaluation and conclusion. 

CHAPTER ONE

1.0       MACHIAVELLIANISM: AN EXPOSITION

Machiavelli’s views have been frequently interpreted as meaning that wickedness is more effective than goodness. This distortion of his views has been regarded as the essence of Machiavelli’s teaching, as identical with what later centuries called Machiavellianism[1]. Historically, Machiavelli’s philosophy came to be identified with Machiavellianism (also spelt Machiavellism), the doctrine that the reason of the state recognizes no moral superior and that, in its pursuit, everything is permitted. Although, Machiavelli himself did not use the phrase “reason of State”[2], his principles have been and continue to be invoked in its defence.

In the mid 15th and early 16th centuries the Italian city was besieged with corruption of different kinds- bribery, nepotism, embezzlement, squander mania and so on. There seemed no end to the ever increasing travails that engulfed the whole Italian city. So systematically corrupt was the nation that nothing seemed to be working, hence there was stalemate everywhere both politically and otherwise. The economy was paralysed and the ruling party was ill prepared to ameliorate the situation. Even the elite class was egoistically inclined to the detriment of the country. In fact, suffice it to say that nobody was altruistic enough to salvage the situation. Thus Omoregbe clearly articulated this Italian condition when he noted that:

Italy was not only politically weak and divided country but a very corrupt society as well[3]

It was in such a decadent society that Niccolo Machiavelli was born.

1.1                                                                  THE LIFE HISTORY OF NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI

Nccolo Machiavelli was born in Florence in 1469 of an old citizen family. It was in that year that Lorenzo the magnificent came into power through subversion of the traditional civil liberty of Florence. The Machiavellis have for generations held public office, his father being a jurist and a minor official. Hence, through his family, Machiavelli was closer to most events occurring in Florence than most of his contemporaries. No wonder then that at the early age of twenty-five, he became secretary of the second chancery through which he became so popular that he came to be known among his contemporaries as the Florentine secretary.

By virtue of this position, Machiavelli was placed in charge of diplomatic correspondence of his bureau and served as a Florentine’s representative on nearly thirty foreign missions. Consequently, in his capacity as a diplomat, he dealt mostly with the various principalities into which Italy was divided which gave him an insight into the politics of Europe and of Italy in particular. This exposition no doubt precipitated and galvanized his political instinct through his meditations on them and therein derived inspiration for his future thought. Expressing this view in New Catholic Encyclopedia, F. Scaccia has it that:                                                    

He establishes his sciences… according to historico empirical observation of political phenomena… integrated scientifically by deriving useful practical application from it…[4]

This phenomenal observation had a tremendous influence in his two most significant books- The Discourses and The Prince.

These two works laid bare Machiavelli’s apparent inconsistency due to their opposing views regarding system of governance. Thus in The Discourses, he extolled free republic and maintained that in respect of prudence and constancy, the people have the advantage and are more steady and judge better as opposed to The Prince.Being modelled against the footprints of the Roman Republics, free republic according to Machiavelli is superior to the absolute monarchy of the prince. This is so because in the free republic there is freedom of expression devoid of oppression, conformity to law and order with conviction as opposed to coercion and people are equally represented in the government. Moreso, they have freedom to rule themselves and are less influenced by external forces of corrupt judgement with the common good duly respected as against the prince. Hence from all indications, Machiavelli desired free and democratic state. Omoregbe held the same view when he insisted that:

               …It is clear that Machiavelli is actually a democrat at heart

                who believes  that the best form of government under normal       

                circumstances is democracy [5]

Nevertheless in The Prince, Machiavelli completely deviated from the above thesis by embracing its antithesis and it is to this antithesis that this paper shall concentrate. Therein, he reiterated upon the need for an absolute monarch- the Prince. He holds that although in human history, men acknowledge and praise honest princes who keep their power by law, but that the successful princes are really the crafty ones who adopt force. Consequently, he recognized no higher laws as Aquinas had propounded but urged a thoroughly circular approach to politics and values acting in cunning rather than moral conviction. To further buttress this notion, he cited that:

The success of Alexander VI was because he was the greatest deceiver ever[6]

It is not surprising therefore to note that the evolution of the term “Machiavellianism” came as a result of the notoriety of Machiavelli’s political thought as succinctly expressed in The Prince. Thus, of the two books, it was The Prince that brought him into limelight and as a radical political thinker. In line with this Omoregbe vehemently noted that:

…The Prince…made Machiavelli famous (or rather notorious) because it was in this book that he boldly expressed his immoral views which have come to be known as Machiavellianism[7]

In a similar perspective, Copleston minced no words in affirming of Machiavelli that:

He is chiefly known of course for his amoral advice to the prince, for his Machiavellianism[8]

Machiavelli therefore strongly believed that men ought either to be well treated or crushed and because they can avenge themselves of lighter injuries, they cannot, of more serious injuries. Therefore, the injury that is to be done to a man should be of such a kind that one does not stand in fear of revenge. His political ideology culminated into a matrix which many politicians, especially contemporary ones are pragmatically pursuing with unrestrained alacrity.

1.2    HIS POLITICAL IDEOLOGY

Machiavelli, no doubt will be regarded politically as a maverick of his epoch because he absolutely deviated from the trends of political thought prevalent then. He thus became the first political theorist to portray the state as a complete political structure analyzable on its own merits. His concept of politics can be termed power politics and hence for him, the power of the supreme control of the people is the basic element in politics, every other aspect of needs must conform accordingly to this basis. Politics for him is something pragmatic and experimentative and therefore he can be referred to as a political empiricist since for him what matters is reality and not ideal. Towing his line of thought, Omoregbe vividly believes that Machiavelli:

… Is not interested in abstraction about what we ought to do or how we ought to act. He is interested in how men actually act and get things done, how great and successful men in history achieve their aims.[9]

He conveniently admired strength of character and power to achieve one’s end and the ability to win power and keep it. He considered the prince entitled to consolidate and preserve power at all cost. Through his empirical observation of political sequences in history, he concluded that human nature is fundamentally egoistic, fickle and wicked. Man is ruthless in seeking what he regards as useful to him but he is never satisfied and as such what matters in politics is success no matter the means. He held that such good qualities as being honest, faithful, religious and showing integrity are not necessary for the ruler to acquire them in actual fact but it is very necessary that he should appear to have them. He therefore stated in The Prince that:

A prince therefore who desires to maintain himself must learn not to be always good, but to be so or not as necessity may require… It is well that when the act accuses him, the result should excuse him; and when the result is good… it will always absolve him from blame…[10]

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