*Social Thinking or Thinking Socially is Perspective Thinking or Consideration for Others. *Economic Thinking or Thinking Economically is Opportunity Cost Thinking or Providing Choices *Political Thinking or Thinking Politically is about Power-sharing in Decision-and-Action. *A Unified or Systems Thinking involves Unity of purpose and consideration for others in making decisions and taking actions.

1. BAZE UNIVERSITY ABUJA
Post Graduate School
SLS 817 22A - AFRICAN GOVERMENT AND POLITICS
Department of International Relations and Diplomacy
Lecturer: Dr. Tanko Mahmood Ahmed, fwc
Wednesday 23 March 2022
THINKING SKILLS FOR AFRICAN GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS

2. Background
•Thinking skills include theorising, predicting,
evaluating, memory recall and thought organisation.
•They are something that everyone has, but not everyone
knows how to use effectively.
•Thinking skills are what we use when we solve
problems, make decisions, organize events or process
information.
•Thinking skills are required for Government and
Politics.
https://www.twinkl.com.ng/

3. Thinking for Government and Politics
• The complex nature of government and politics gives rise to
special fields of inquiry and problem-solving approaches.
• The individual and collective realms of social, economic and
political affairs of modern socities attempt at addressing social
relations, economic activities, and political processes.
• These approaches gave rise to specialised fields like Social
Development, political economy, and public administration to
provide specific thinking skills and styles in addressing the
challenges and prospects of government and politics.

4. Approaches to the African Government and
Politics
• The African Government and Politics is not only unique in
nature, but also multifaceted, diversed, experimental, unstable
and uncertain.
• The search for strong, virile and effective thinking skills for
the African Government and Politics require deliberate
approaches.
• This might have influenced the emergence of, not only
special fields but also, the establishment of specialised
courses in higher learning, institutions - like think tanks, and
the use of ‘special advisers’ in governance and politics.

5. Special Thinking Realms for the Government
and Politics
• The faculty of social sciences continues to expand vertically
and horizotally to accommodate a rapidly changing world.
• The core political science has its ever-expanding estuaries of
security, strategic, leadership, policy, management,
organisational, and hosts of other fields of study.
• The uncertainties in the fieldwork of African government and
politics require a clear understanding and useful deployment
of social, economic and political thinking skills for both
scholars and practitioners.

6. The Social Thinking Approach
• Social thinking or thinking socially makes sense of social
relations involving the thoughts, feelings and intentions of
others in social situations.
• It is methodology expressed in terms of social competence.
• It is domiciled on shared ideals, self-regulation, executive
functioning, central coherence, and perspective-taking.
• It is the thinking for self and others at individual and
collective roles and responsibilities in society.

7. The Economic Thinking Approach
• Economic thinking or thinking economically analyses the
way the world works by matching ‘actions’ costs and
‘benefits’ generated insolving scarcity problem.
• It addresses the balance between unlimited wants and needs
with limited resources, that is, all actions incur oppotunity
costs or foregone alternatives (i.e other choices).
• Economic thinking identifies the cost of action, no matter
how hidden or subtle it may be.

8. The Political Thinking Approach
•Political thinking or thinking politically seeks to
understand that all dimensions of human society
are subject to inputs and outcomes.
•It deploys individual, group, and institutional
sharing of responsibilities and resources for goal
setting and attainment.
•Political thinking creates and settles disputes and
consensus in the political energy circuit.

9. Unified or Systems Thinking
• Social Thinking or Thinking Socially
Perspective Thinking or Consideration for Others
• Economic Thinking or Thinking Economically
Opportunity Cost Thinking or Providing Choices
• Political Thinking or Thinking Politically
Power sharing in Decision-and-Action
• Unified or Systems Thinking
Unity of purpose and consideration for others in making decisions and
taking actions
‘African Intellectuals in Public Policy’ - Tanko Ahmed (2014)

10. A Unified Thinking Realm for the African
Government and Politics
• In the age of the human-centred activities the need for new ways of
thinking and acting has become urgent.
• Patterns of obstacles are apparent in any action, be they corporate
interests, lobbyists, or outdated political and government systems.
• Failure in governance is at the heart of the collective incapacity to
tackle the challenges.
• Incorporating systems thinking into governance at every level would
enable us to break free of historical shackles.
The Hidden Power of Systems Thinking: Governance in a Climate Emergency - Ray
Ison and Ed Straw - (n.d)

11. Reading Materials
• New Thinking in Governance and Politics - Samedth Rao,
GSDRC, 2014 - (Attached)
• The Term Politics Considered in the Light of Recent
Theoretical Development - Valeri Modebadz, IBSU Scientific
Journal, 2010, 1(4), 39-44 - (Attached)
• African Intellectuals in Public Policy’ - Tanko Ahmed (2014)
- (Attached)
• The Hidden Power of Systems Thinking: Governance in a
Climate Emergency - Ray Ison and Ed Straw - (Suggested)