Postcolonialism and the Two Publics in Nigeria: Rethinking the Idea of the Sceptical Public

Abstract

The concept of the public occupies a unique place in the understanding of democratic governance in Africa. However,
its uniqueness is mediated by the fact that it is a transconceptual notion with theoretical ties to many other
concepts—nationalism, globalisation, popular culture, modernity, civil society, the political, democracy and so on. This trans-conceptual character is further interjected by the fact of the colonial intrusion in the conceptual history of African societies. The implication is therefore that any attempt at understanding the manifestation of this concept in its African context must be ready to follow it through its often convoluted path. Ekeh’s (1975) and Mbembe’s (2001) analyses constitute a firm grasp of the historical legacy of the notion of the public in Africa. However, Lawuyi’s (2012) recent attempt to ground an understanding of the public as the core of a “proposal to a new understanding of our [Nigerian] society” actually undermines that proposal rather than contribute to it. And it does this basically because it flouts the essential conceptual necessity underlying any application of that term.