I had to dust up my certificates last night to be sure all my certificates are still very much intact. With all the hullaballoo over certificates in Nigeria these days it is safer to doubly check and confirm the authenticity of all certificates before submitting them to agencies that could make them available for public scrutiny. I shall go to the courts later today to make certified true copies of the originals as back up. My only worry is that I couldn’t lay my hands on photographs taken during my NYSC. Please if there is anyone out there who was in platoon 13B (platoon for big boys and girls) at Ipaja, Lagos in March 1990, you might be in possession of a valued photograph. ‘Biko! Holla me quick-quick let us discuss market’.

Away from the digression of  Oluwole and Toronto certificates  to a more serious issue. Lets discuss ‘Game Theory’. I am talking the Game Theory that was introduced to mathematics by John Von Neumann in 1928, and definitely not another one. For those of you who are gurus in mathematics, Game Theory is like the application of Pareto Optimal to understanding competition. For psychologists it is similar to the theory of social situations, and for people like me who understand numbers only when written in words, Game theory, is a model for understanding strategic interactions between two or more rational decision makers in a game with set rules and outcomes. In layman words, it is a means of understanding how two or more people competing in the same environment for the same set of outcomes take strategic decisions and how the decisions taken by one player affects the other players. Okay guys let me break it down further. Lets assume that our game is ‘ayo olopon’ that traditional desk game made popular by former president Obasanjo. In the game, each player makes a move based on the moves or expected play of the other player all in a bid to win. If ‘ayo olopon’ sounds too pedestrian, please feel free to replace it with a touché game like chess. All I require of you is to imagine how the actions of one player affect the other.

What are the main characteristics of game theory?

1. That rational players in a game with set rules and outcomes can either cooperate in the play or choose not to cooperate.
2. That when they choose not to cooperate, each player attempts to outwit the other. Consequently the gain by one player would result in a loss to the other
3. That in non cooperative games, competition between the players could either result to a win for one player or a mutually assured destruction of all players
4. That if the market is to grow above the divisive tendencies of a fierce contest between players, equilibrium can be reached to ensure that all players control a portion of the market.

I think our purpose can be served here by comparing the rules of play in the two games mentioned earlier – Ayo olopon and Chess. Both games are played with different rules and outcomes. Whereas ayo olopon is a cooperative game, chess is non cooperative. Ayo olopon is played on an understanding that the fun is in all parties winning substantial stakes. So the maxim is ‘je kinje layo fin ndun’, which literally translates to ‘you win and I win is the fun of the game’. Game theorists would describe the rules of engagement in ayo olopon as the ‘Nash Equilibrium’. The chess game is a different proposition played with the purpose of annihilating the opposition. One of the most popular moves in chess, called the fools gambit is used to end a chess game in four moves, which could leave the opposing player feeling like a fool. The chess game holds no prisoners and requires that the king must be boxed to a corner with no room for escape, to earn victory. In the parlance of Game theory, chess is like the ‘Zero sum game’. It is all for the winner or nothing.

I want to assume that most of us now understand the gist of Game theory, so let us like Mungo Park, sail down river to the object of this mission. Preparations for the 2018 general elections is in top gear and as usual members of the Nigerian political class are in the market to win market shares and like chess players, all sides are playing to annihilate one another. The war drums are once more very loud. Isn’t it obvious to all of us that our politicians are leading us on a path towards mutual destruction? Is it not obvious to all of us that the ‘do or die approach’ to politics is a zero sum game that would lead us nowhere?

If we take a closer look at the two games described above, we’ll discern which one best describes what is obtainable in the Nigerian political scene today. Chess with all its sophistication and touché does not serve the same purpose as ayo olopon and we must be thankful to the inventor of ayo for translating the African spirit of brotherhood into a game. At this moment in our national life, the political class could borrow from the ingenuity of the inventor of the ayo olopon game by adopting cooperative competition to save the market rather than a destructive competition. But then Nigerian politicians are Nigerian politicians and they will never be able to move out of the ‘Prisoners Dilemma’.  They know the ideal outcome but will be too selfish to pursue the right course of action.

Anyways, in social media parlance, I have said my own and can safely return to my search for photographs to prove the genuineness of my NYSC certificate. In line with the whistle blowers policy of the Federal Ministry of Finance, I call on anybody that knows anyone who was a member of the pioneer corps members at Ipaja NYSC camp in 1990 or the Wednesday CD group at Glover road, Ikoyi (1990/1991) should please blow the whistle for a handsome reward! Nna or Nne, no be joke o.