Pitfalls Dotting The Path To Sustainable Democracy In Nigeria
The Oasis Reporters
October 22, 2018
It may appear like our democracy is jinxed because some issues have conflated to making it look so. The issues responsible for our stunted democracy are all before us to change so that we can join the league of decent nations. It is very tragic that some other nations not as endowed with both human and material capacity as Nigeria have forged ahead leaving us behind as a laughing stock.
Reading through Martin Meredith’s “The State of Africa ” , the scales responsible for the blurred vision of why African nations are where they are would have fallen from your eyes. Without a doubt, the colonial enterprise inflicted much pain on the colonies but nothing compared to the quantum of damage which African leaders have inflicted on the now independent countries. Meredith outlined a nation by nation analysis of the years since the colonial enterprise 50 years on. I had cause to try reading Walter Rodney’s ” How Europe Underdeveloped Africa” a second time just to compare my level of understanding the book now and when I read it the first time. I had to abandon the reading after Chapter 4, my reasons being that Rodney captured aptly the situation during the colonial enterprise.
Now, more than 50 years after independence for most African nations, to continue holding the former colonial masters responsible for the State of affairs in this country and indeed many others on the African continent will be most unfair. Given that the colonial enterprise was not limited to our continent only, it is very difficult to understand the disparity between other former colonial states in say Latin America or Asia. As a hypothesis it does appear that something is wrong with us as Africans. This is by way of a background.
Seemingly imperfect as it was, the British colonial masters did manage to organize a democratic handover of power to an independent Nigeria back in 1960 adopting after their own parliamentary system of government. The merits or demerits of that system of government is not a consideration in this post but it did work since it provided for strong regional governments and relatively not top strong central government. There was relative stability until when military adventurism in the political space found expression and it was no longer at ease since then until finally in 1999 when they recoiled into their barrack cocoons.
The military in their wisdom or the lack of it as some critics are saying imported a Presidential system of government to be operated under a plagiarized American Constitution which left those necessary underpinnings that make the American Constitution work.
Mention must be made of the footdraging which characterized Gen Babangida’s series of aborted transition programmes. This was so frustrating to genuine politicians at the time such that after being forced to ” Step Aside ” and eventually the Gen Abdulsalami Abubakar regime came up with yet another transition programme, the genuine politicians had doubts as to its genuineness and so they withheld their participation. Since nature abhors a vacuum political bounty hunters gambled their way to power and ever since, it has been an uneasy political experience for most Nigerians. Little or next to nothing has been done by this crop of politicians to grow the democracy since they are not also interested in growing strong institutions. This largely has been the bane of our democracy.
Let me attempt a diagnosis of the problems which in my humble view have constituted an albatross to our democracy. Had the architects of the 1999 Constitution not follow sheepishly the boundaries set by the military dictatorship and thought outside of the box, perhaps this nation could have had an indigenous constitution which could have factored in our diversities. Had there also been the will to undertake the required amendments over time, some level of accommodation would for long have been achieved. If not that this present constitution was forced down our throat without a referendum, I would have voted for a Parliamentary system of government which makes the processes of removing an inept government much easier. A recall process under the present constitution is just as simple as a camel racing through the eye of a needle.
The case of Sen Dino Melaye refers. In some cases there is no dividing line between full blown dictatorship and what passes as democracy. In Kaduna State for example, Malam Nasiru El Rufai has put the State Assembly under and therefore does whatever pleases him and demolishing the properties of those he perceives as opponents while the legal system looks on hopelessly.
Our democracy is stymied because there are no strong institutions to support it. The justice system which should be the last bus stop for everyone of us in the polity is struggling between lethargy and a complete stupor. Practitioners in this field are eating their cake and having it by unnecessarily delaying cases in court. They appear not to be cognizant of their own legal maxim which says that justice delayed is justice denied.
The justice system in this country appears to have been tailored to suit the requirement of the rich against the poor. For example if a poor man were to steal a chicken, gets caught and taken to a magistrate court, that same day, a conviction will be secured. On the other hand, consider the many high profile political cases in our courts being deliberately delayed to wear away time and by extension justice itself. To the extent that the judiciary is not completely independent this nation will continue to wobble in uncertainty. The political platforms we call political parties lack the dynamism to be so called as they are without an ideological base. They are simply rickety structures used by groups and individuals to canvas for power. After elections have been won or lost as the case may be those platforms completely disappear until another election is around the corner. If for 16 years the PDP held on to power yet could not build formidable structures able to survive even after it lost power in many States you can best appreciate the dilemma.of our political parties.
Perhaps the most noticeably PITFALL in our democracy is the twin evil of religion and ethnicity. Religion has played a prominent role in our politics particularly in the north of the country where most people would first enquire what faith a candidate professes before giving their support. Religion has so blinded many people that they do not bother about many other considerations like the content of a candidate’s character, experience and or capacity to provide leadership. The belief system in many quarters mostly in the north of this country is that because they are adherents of a particular faith, they will be voting for only candidates from that faith.
Ethnicity too, constitutes a major obstacle to growing democracy in Nigeria. That issues of ethnicity are still playing out in our politics shows clearly that previous governments have done very little to integrate our people. Integrating our diverse people will go a long way in growing democracy in Nigeria.
Monetization of the political space is such that only money bags as they are called can effectively play in the game. As things currently stand in the context of Nigerian politics there are candidates with proven records of performance but who are handicapped financially to prosecute their programmes. This way the nation ends up in the hands of mostly mediocre leaders who have the resources to prosecute their campaign programmes. The poverty level in the land has put many of our people at the mercy of the money bags. In the recently concluded primaries, cartels made up of political party chairmen, members of their Excos and stakeholders arranged their friends and cronies as delegates simply to collect monies from the contestants which they later share. In most cases these characters masqueraded as delegates voted for the candidates who paid the highest amount. It is anomalies as these which are driving the current debate against the delegate system as many prefer the direct primaries which empowers all registered individuals to partake in the choice of their leaders.
In many instances the political process has been characterized by violence. Ballot box snatching, intimidation of voters has become manifest. Precious lives have been lost both during the campaigning and on election days. Governments at all levels have a duty to turn things around if our democracy is to grow.
Written by (Col) Gora Dauda (rtd)
