When Was Nigeria

When Was Nigeria's Third Republic?

Prof. Mike Ikhariale

The universal counting order begins with the numeral “one”, then, “two”, “three”, “four”, etc. That is a logical process that does not admit of any political debate. Chroniclers of national history and other events of monumental value have religiously adhered to chronological accuracy as a way of giving credence to whatever they have recorded for posterity. This is largely because social processes must be consistent with logic and physical reality both in time and space for them to command credibility. There should be no argument, for example, if in fact Nigeria gained independence in 1960 or that she acquired a republican status in 1963 for these are facts that took place within a time frame from which no individual preferences is permitted to alter or deny the reality as there are witnesses and proofs to support them.

Strangely, however, the numbering of our republican experiences has not been as straightforward as it should be as there is a great deal of confusion as to which republic Nigeria is in right now: Is it the third, fourth or fifth? Officially, it is tagged the “fourth republic” but simple arithmetic and juristic realities on the ground point to a different figure. For reasons best known to our past military leaders, they found it convenient to jump the number “three” as they enumerated our republican experiences and landed us in the number four: The Fourth Republic! How can Nigeria be in the fourth republic when she has not had the third? Is that a part of military magic? Or is it a willful re-writing of our national history or simply a malevolent historicism?

I have followed the republican misfortunes of Nigeria all through these years, both as a student and as a researcher and from all rational perspectives there is no justification to introduce such a deliberate mischief into a process that is simply factual. It is really a national tragedy that we find it necessary today to open up this issue of a historical fraud that was willfully perpetrated by the military class that thought of itself as possessing the power to decree night into day and verse versa. Those who labeled this republic “fourth” probably intended to re-write the history of Nigeria and mangle the destiny of her more than a hundred million people all with a view to projecting falsehood, thereby sentencing the people to a future dangerously anchored on mutual distrust and insincerity. The military oligarchy which handed over power to Obasanjo in 1999 wanted to hide a big chunk of our national history: the debacle of June 12 and the conceptual illegitimacy of their rule. To give effect to the scheme, they have to event their peculiar numbering system that would skip the figure “three” and go to “four’ unilaterally.

Now let us take a count of our republics. First, it is proper we know what republicanism is all about. Simply, a republic is a system of government in which the people govern themselves by themselves without outside or an imposed ruler. For example, before 1963 Nigeria was not a republic because even though we had become a self-governing nation, the office of the President or Governor-General, as it then was, was still to be filled by a representative of the Queen of England. So, between 1960 and 1963, the titular head of Nigeria was still the British monarch. By declaring a republican status in 1963, the nation finally broke the umbilical cord that politically tied it to Britain and became a self-governing state in all its legal and political ramifications. In other words, whoever became the head of state of Nigeria must be the outcome of a popular election by the people from amongst themselves. Every Nigerian became a free citizen with equality of rights, as none was a “subject” or a “master” anymore. It is generally the belief in political and constitutional circles that republicanism is the highest form of democratic freedom that any society can enjoy. Every government that meets this quality is described as a republic. It is this reality of republicanism in Nigeria that has made the debates about the role of traditional rulers a constitutional anachronism as the idea of ascribed rights or undemocratic form of inherent political powers are mutually exclusive with the idea of republicanism. That is why France is a Republic and Britain is not. So, anyone claiming a special birth right in a true republic is either delusional or deliberately violative of a settled ideological principle.

The French for example, had a series of governments that met the status of a republic and these governments were occasionally punctuated by others that were not of republican quality. Anytime they experienced such a government they would give it a number and that was why they had several republics, fifth, sixth, etc. and in spite of the numerous republics, they did not lose count of them because they were conscious of their history and were respectful of facts. Unfortunately, our military juntas did not have such a sophisticated political morality as they lied and misinformed the people at will.

Up till January 31^st, 1966 , when the military seized power, Nigeria was a republic, both in fact and in law. But all that was radically altered when an unelected military government shot its way into power and that event bought about the death of the first republic. Even though the military dictatorship curiously kept shouting “long lives the Federal Republic of Nigeria”, every student of constitutional law knew that the statement was a big lie as there can be no republic when un-elected usurpers, by whatever means they evolved, are in power.

On 1^st of October, 1979 a second republic was instituted by the coming into being of another government that was completely as determined by the electorate and that government was headed by Alhaji Shehu Shagari. It is noteworthy that the process that brought about this second republic was ably supervised by the present head of state, Olusegun Obasanjo. Unfortunately, this republic was terminated by General Buhari on December 31, 1983 . And for the next several years, a vicious relay of military dictators was to rule Nigeria until May 29, 1999 when another republican government was inaugurated. For all intents and purposes, that would be the third time that a republican government was to be instituted in Nigeria but the military in their wisdom thought that it should be called the “fourth republic” and the Nigerian political class, desperate to assume power did not pause to reflect about the name their new republic bore.

Between 1984 and 1999, Nigeria suffered several regimes that were sustained by brute dictatorial logic and opportunistic military force. Buhari started it all but was soon pushed away by Babangida. For several years IBB toyed with the idea of handing over power to democratically elected government that would have the paraphernalia of a republican government. In the process several elections were held but they were deliberately scuttled midway and the result was the continuation of the military government nonstop. The nadir of all these shenanigans was the June 12 elections which were clearly won by the late Chief MKO Abiola. When it was obvious that a winner had emerged and that democratic governance was in the making, the military oligarchy shocked the whole world by annulling the elections. They then jailed the presumed winner of the election until he died in prison.

Because of the widespread discontent that followed the annulment, the then military chief helmsman, IBB, had to “step aside”. In its place was installed a contraption of a government figure-headed by yet unelected Chief Shonekan. In no time, Shonekan was shoved aside for General Sani Abacha in what appeared to be a well laid out arrangement within the military establishment. In the interim, while the protests against the June 12 annulment raged and dictatorship endured, the key personalities in the disputation, Abacha and Abiola, respectively, died within a month of each other. Then came General Abdusalami. Sensing that the engine of the military regime has collapsed, he promptly conceded to a transfer of power to the Nigerian people in a manner consistent with democratic governance and republicanism. By the 29^th of May, 1999 , power was transferred to a democratically elected government headed Olusegun Obasanjo. In logic and fact, that became the third time since 1963 that Nigeria would be experiencing a republican government.

Why then did the outgoing regime decide to misname the new segment in our republican sojourn, the “ Fourth Republic ”? In the absence of a rational justification, certain theories have been advanced. First, is that the military wanted to rest the ghost of June 12 by pretending that the “Abiola Republic” has come and gone; letting bygone to be bygone. The fact that the Obasanjo government that took over power from the military continue to downplay the political significant of June 12 in the nation’s political process tends to lend credence to this view. But such steps would not be consistent with the history of Nigeria . It is fraudulent, if not criminal, to want to sweep such a monumental national development under the carpet. It is irresponsible to count aborted pregnancies along with the successful ones during census because it is unheard of that a woman would be counting among her children all the pregnancies that she aborted!

The second theory is that the only way to preserve the false claims of those who have illegitimately ruled the nation since the collapse of the second republic was to erect a notional “third republic” that would accommodate them because, properly construed, they really do not fit into the nation’s scheme of governance. The logic is that without such a misnomer, the political aberrations of cases like that of Shonekan, a cloned “head of state”, and IBB, who called himself “president”, would be swept into the dustbin of history. But why would the interest of a few be elevated to that level that which would effectively eclipse our national history? There is yet the other theory which holds that the military had some superstitious aversion to the figure “three” and so they skipped it for four!

How do we correct this lingering anomaly? Well, there is the general belief that what we have now is an imperfect interim constitution. The hope is that if and when the real constitution is eventually written, all due corrections, including this misnomer, would have been effected. A more perceptive National Assembly would also have been able to correct it, even now. But this present rubber-stamp parliament cannot. True, Nigeria has had a first and a second republic. She is now in the third but clearly not yet in the fourth republic. NB: Your reaction to this piece is welcome because the nation needs to debate this anomaly.