By Sani Sa’idu Baba
Recently, I came across a very interesting assertion by Roger Scruton in a dictionary of political thoughts thus: “…the concept of democracy is immensely complicated partly because of difficulties in understanding who the people are, and which acts of government are truly theirs rather than those of some dominant group or interest”. Let me reiterate at this point that I am neither a politician nor a political ally to anyone. Rather, I am a citizen with concern for the public and not bitter against any of our leaders or aspirants. However, as fascinating as the concept of egalitarianism is, there exists a wide gap between its theory and practice and indeed between the theory and practice of democracy itself. There is hardly anywhere in the world where democracy is a republic of equals because, as Kenneth Janda have asserted, ‘through occupation or wealth, some citizens are more able than others to influence political decisions’. Indeed, the elite theory is founded on the notion that politics is an affair of the coherent minority dominating the incoherent majority. Terms such as the people, the masses or the majority should even be used with caution as it is often difficult to identify what or who is meant by these terms in the specific case and even more difficult to gauge the attitudes and interests of these terms even when and where they are identified. I will briefly expand on this point subsequently.
Democracy term was first mentioned about 2500 years ago in Greece cities. Back then, it was the opposite to aristocracy form of government. The modern type of democracy developed in the 19th and 20th centuries. Being a democratic country is the latest trend ever since the 1970s. A lot of nations share the values carried by the term and Nigeria is not an exception. However, democracy in Nigeria stands to be unique due to some impediments to the institutionalisation of democracy in Nigeria after more than half a century of political independence. Some of these are the country’s colonial background interspersed by vagaries engendered by deep-rooted ethnicity; complacent and spendthrift leadership; incessant intervention of the military in the democratic process; electoral fraud; wide spread poverty and high illiteracy level. I am of the belief that the pivot around which most of the factors listed above revolve is corruption which has virtually become a way of life in Nigeria. Whether the present government of President Muhammadu Buhari on the fight against corruption which is the cardinal theme of his administration is a myth or reality is a different topic for another day.
Our country keeps developing and there are still so many things to improve. Changes are necessary for political, economic, and social development. The history of democracy in Nigeria is still not over because of its highly dynamic nature largely different from how it’s been practiced by its founding fathers. Although no country on earth is perfect, but lapses goes unnoticed by virtue of the fact that successful nations are not governed by scent but by performance as popularly mentioned by a great African writer and philanthropist, Chief Dr Dele Momodu. Nations are constantly learning how to tolerate, stay out of corruption, choose the right leaders and plan for the future. These tasks are not easy. Being a republic is never simple. Of course Nigeria has been a true republic by name, but been able to utilize democracy to install its leaders is a myth rather than reality. My reasons will be clearly discussed in a jiffy.
Over the years, Nigeria celebrates May 29th as the official public holiday to mark Democracy Day. Still, the democratic start point really began in 1960. It was on the 1st of October when Nigeria publicly announced its independence from Great Britain. There was a long history of different government forms in Nigeria ever since 1960 fluctuating between democracy and military rule. But there has never been uninterrupted democracy until 1999, though some rulers promised to return to democracy along the line, however, only General Abdulsalami Abubakar who took the power after the death of Sani Abacha in 1998 kept his word by handing over power to former head of state and military ruler, converted democrat in the person of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo after a keenly contested election between him and Chief Olufalaye reflecting a contest between two Southwesterners. The country’s modern Constitution became official in 1999.
The elections of 1999 were successful to the previous military ruler. The new President Olusegun Obasanjo maintained the legacy of eneral Abdussalami Abubakar by putting the end to the military regimes that kept switching one after the other for nearly 30 years. Nigeria’s democracy is celebrated yearly. Though it is undeniable that Nigeria still has many problems to overcome; Nigerians have dreams about a bright and prosperous future with better economy, improved standard of living and most importantly, security. Whether the failure to achieving those dreams might be attributed to the fact that democratically elected presidents of Nigeria are merely extension of the previous military regimes remains a controversial issue over the years. This is because, during this 22 years old democracy which is still considered a baby, about 16 years were governed by former military dictators and head of states, Olusegun Obasanjo and Muhammadu Buhari and even late Umaru Musa Yaradua though civilian but is believed to have emanated from a military background. It must be stressed however that military incursion into politics is not peculiar to Nigeria, it is a world-wide phenomenon though notoriously prevalent in Africa. While I may not venture into a detailed enquiry into the proximate causes of the prevalence of coups and coup attempts in Africa, suffice it to state that there are a number of causative factors. At the risk of over generalisation, one is that countries where poverty is prevalent and per capital GDP is low are places where successful coups often take place. Moreover, Diamond and Plattner have asserted that where civil society is weak and politicians are corrupt and divided, the military ‘will prevail in the moment of opportunity’. Despite Nigeria being in possession of these characteristics especially the highly prevalent poverty, both the military and civilians are to a large extent loyal to our democratically elected leaders. Hence the need for our leaders to at least pause and reason.
Democracy and Nigeria are like Siamese twins; though conjoined, they are uncomfortable and under intense pressure that could result in all forms of hurt, even death. Although, democracy may not be strange to an overwhelming percentage of Nigerians; what may be strange to them is the brand of democracy that invests, first and foremost, in human and material resources for the purposes of political stability, economic viability, scientific advancement, technological breakthrough, educational development and life-enhancing social services. Given the general optimism that Nigeria was going to be the bastion of democracy in Africa following her independence from Britain in 1960, one should normally expect that by now democracy should be deeply rooted and institutionalised in the country. Ironically and unfortunately, Nigeria, as far as the practice and delivery of dividends of liberal democracy is concerned, is yet a cripple that can barely stand let alone walk or run.
There are four (4) key features that reflects on the present dangers of Nigeria democracy. First, it is spendthrift. Nigerian democracy is a brand of democracy that spends so much to accomplish so little. Second, it invests in the comfort of officials rather than in human and material resources. In fact, the welfare of the common man occupies the bottom rung on the ladder of the priorities of the anchors of Nigerian democracy. A classic example here is the salary of a Nigerian senator in comparison to minimum wage of Nigeria civil servants. Needless to mention all the figures because they very much available as reported by various reliable media outlets, but the gap would certainly leave every reasonable human being thinking about the ruined future of the common man in Nigeria, a country that practice capitalism without capital. Third, Nigeria’s democracy is plagued by hydra-headed and pathological corruption that ensures that the impact of any seeming good policy is either extremely negligible or almost exactly nil. Fourth, this is based on my opinion, the most catastrophic, and that is the habit of installing our leaders based on tribe, region and religion irrespective of their competencies. My write up today will dwell largely on the fourth item because it’s arguably the root cause of all the problems.
I am only about 35 years old now but I could vividly remember seeing my father pasting the posters of late Chief MKO Abiola on the walls of our house, portraying his solidarity and support to Yoruba presidency against the Kano state born opponent, Alhaji Bashir Usman Tofa, during the later annulled June 12, 1993 presidential elections. Although he was not a politician, he had never ceased to be an advocate of good and competent leaders. Besides, modest people always prefer to distance themselves from this type of politics that is oft-cited as a dirty game in Nigeria. This attitude is perhaps the reason Nigeria was lucky to had better leaders in the last couple of years when compared to the type of leaders we have today, simply described as self-centered leaders.
It is not however, the same today. I strongly believe that if majority of Nigerians will understand the fact that our leaders are united at the centre devoid of differences, we will overcome the multifactorial hardships we are experiencing, largely attributed to the lackadaisical attitude of our leaders. Take for instance, recently about three governors in Nigeria cross-carpeted from the main opposition party PDP to the ruling party, the APC – two of them are from the South; Ebonyi and Cross River state. The most recent is the Zamfara state governor. This is enough to tell us that party politics is catastrophic and against the populace because these governors did not decamp in the interest of their people.
My appeal therefore, to Nigerians today is to vote in trusted and tested leaders irrespective of ethno-religious differences for this is one of the ways to mitigate against the deeply rooted divisions inherent in the body polity.
Baba writes from Kano, and can be reached via drssbaba@yahoo.com
