Ten Years of Democracy: Is Nigeria Making Headway?

Democracy is a form of government in which state-power is held by the majority of citizens within a country or a state. It is derived from the Greek word (dçmokratía, “popular government”, which was coined from (dêmos), “people” and (krátos), “rule, strength” in the middle of the fifth-fourth century BC to denote the political systems then existing in some Greek city-states, notably Athens following a popular uprising in 508 BC.

In political theory, democracy describes a small number of related forms of government and also a political philosophy. Even though there is no universally accepted definition of ‘democracy’, there are two principles that any definition of democracy include. The first principle is that all members of the society (citizens) have equal access to power and the second that all members (citizens) enjoy universally recognized freedoms and liberties.

There are several varieties of democracy, some of which provide better representation and more freedom for their citizens than others.  However, if any democracy is not carefully legislated to avoid an uneven distribution of political power with balances, such as the separation of powers, then a branch of the system of rule could accumulate power and become harmful to the democracy itself. The “majority rule” is often described as a characteristic feature of democracy, but without responsible government it is possible for the rights of a minority to be abused by the “tyranny of the majority”. An essential process in representative democracies are competitive elections, that are fair both substantively and procedurally. Furthermore, freedom of political expression, freedom of speech and freedom of the press are essential so that citizens are informed and able to vote in their personal interests.

Most of the developed countries in the world today have embraced democratic rule, in which the freedom of their citizens is guaranteed, the basic social amenities are provided and witness an obvious progress in terms of basic infrastructure, vibrant economic and a sustainable growth that transformed into economic development, employment generation, housing for all, healthcare delivery, security of life and property is guaranteed, well equipped army, qualitative education, vibrant civil service, proper plan for retirees and good reward for those who serve the state in areas such as sports. And special recognition is given to entrepreneurs, while inventors are given incentive to create or bring into existence what had not existed before.

All these are the features of democracy in most countries of the world, and these make democratic rule the desire of all nations. Countries like America, Britain, France, South Africa, Ghana etc practices democracy and everybody admires these countries because of the respect for human life, and prompt attention to the needs of their people. These countries recognize freedom of individual. So, their press are free, the individual is not denied the freedom of speech or association so long his speech or association is not detrimental to the security of the land and other citizens of the country.

In democracy the voice of the people matters, because in democracy the majority choose their leaders and determine the polity of their country through the parliament. So equity and fairness is a symbol of a good democracy, as programmes and policies will be put in place that are people-oriented. Programmes that are geared towards satisfying the pressing needs of the society such as water supply, electricity, provision of good roads and ensuring food security and affordable housing, qualitative education and lots more. Since democracy is the rule by the majority, the leader must be the choice of the people, for instance in South Africa we can see people like Dr. Nelson Mandela, Jacob Zuma, in Ghana the likes of John Kufour, Attah Mills, in United States of America we have people like Bill Clinton, Ronald Regan and Barack Obama and their likes. These people are popular among their people because of their programmes and plan for their respective countries. So, people give them their mandate, this is one thing democracy provide, people have the power to put the right person in office, perhaps because of his policies and programmes are people oriented and what people really wanted.      

All these and more make the African people to yearn for democratic rule, as against the military junta that have taken over power from the early 60s in the continent, and since then the people of African have not tested freedom, equity and fairness is far from their reach. Little wonder therefore that Africa is classified among the under-developed or third world countries, the region has witnessed low growth and poor development while the basic facilities  such as water, electricity, telecommunication, good road network are lacking and with few employment opportunities,  youth restiveness is in the increase and the continent has recorded more civil and tribal wars. In fact the continent of African despite abundant deposits of natural and human resources, the people are still classified as the poorest people in the world.

Several attempts to go back to democratic rule in most African countries have suffered a lot of setbacks, which usually led to destruction of lives and properties, simply because the rule of the game was not followed and, uncivilized politicking was the order of the day. People always wanting to impose themselves on the citizen, so they employ difference means other than the normal rules of the game to get to office. And these has continued to cause a lot of damages and make African people to be poverty ridden despite abundant of natural and human resources in the continent.

On October 1, 1960, Nigeria the giant of Africa gained its independence from the United Kingdom. The new republic incorporated a number of people with aspirations of their own sovereign nations. Newly independent Nigeria’s government was a coalition of conservative parties: the Nigerian People’s Congress (NPC), a party dominated by Northerners and those of the Islamic faith, and the Igbo and Christian dominated National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC) led by Nnamdi Azikiwe, who became Nigeria’s maiden Governor-General in 1960. Forming the opposition was the comparatively liberal Action Group (AG), which was largely dominated by Yoruba people and led by Obafemi Awolowo.

An imbalance was created in the polity as a result of the 1961 plebiscite. Southern Cameroon opted to join the Republic of Cameroon while northern Cameroon chose to remain in Nigeria. The northern part of the country was now far larger than the southern part. The nation parted with its British legacy in 1963 by declaring itself a Federal Republic, with Azikiwe as the first president. When elections came about in 1965, the AG was outmanoeuvered in the struggle for the control of Nigeria’s western region by the Nigerian National Democratic Party, an amalgamation of conservative Yoruba elements backed heavily by the federal government in dubious electoral circumstances.

The democratic rule was truncated by the soldiers in 1965 as a result of the political war in Western region between the leader of Action Group Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Michael Akintola, which led to the declaration of state of emergency in the region. This led to the coup  of 1965 led by Major Chukwuma Nzegu-Kaduna, in which most of the political leaders were killed among whom are Sir Ahmadu Bello (Sardauna of Sokoto) and his wife, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa the then Prime Minister, Sir Michael Akintola and many more. The military continued to rule till 1979 when General Olusegun Obasanjo the then military Head of state decided to return the baton of leadership to civilian, as a result of which Alhaji Shehu Shagari emerged as the Executive president and rule till 1983 he was toppled by General Buhari/Idiagbon. This resulted in a prolonged military rule, which many believes militated against the progress of the country Nigeria.   

Nigeria re-achieved democracy in 1999 when it elected Olusegun Obasanjo, former military head of state, as the new President ending almost thirty three-years of military rule (from 1966 until 1999) excluding the short-lived second republic (between 1979-1983) by military dictators who seized power in coups d’état and counter-coups during the Nigerian military juntas of 1966-1979 and 1983-1998.

Although the elections which brought Obasanjo to power in 1999 and again in 2003 were condemned as unfree and unfair, Nigeria has shown marked improvements in attempts to tackle corruption and to hasten development. While Obasanjo showed willingness to fight corruption, he was accused by others of indulging in it.

Umaru Yar’Adua, of the People’s Democratic Party, came power in the general election of 2007 - an election that was witnessed and condemned by the international community as being massively flawed.

 Nigeria is classified as an emerging market, and is rapidly approaching middle income status  with its abundant supply of resources, well-developed financial, legal, communications, transport sectors and stock exchange (the Nigerian Stock Exchange), which is the second largest in Africa. Nigeria is ranked 37th in the world in terms of GDP (PPP) as of 2007. Nigeria is the United States’ largest trading partner in sub-Saharan Africa and supplies a fifth of its oil (11% of oil imports). It has the seventh-largest trade surplus with the U.S. Also Nigeria is currently the 50th-largest export market for U.S. goods and the 14th-largest exporter of goods to the U.S. The United States is the country’s largest foreign investor.

Previously, economic development had been hindered by years of military rule, corruption, and mismanagement. But the restoration of democracy and subsequent economic reforms have successfully put Nigeria back on track towards achieving its full economic potential as one of the major economies in Africa. According to the Economist Intelligence Unit and the World Bank, Nigerian GDP at purchasing power parity has nearly doubled from $170.7 billion in 2005 to 292.6 billion in 2007. The GDP per head has jumped from $692 per person in 2006 to $1,754 per person in 2007.

During the oil boom of the 1970s, Nigeria accumulated a significant foreign debt to finance major infrastructural investments. With the fall of oil prices during the oil glut the 1980s, Nigeria struggled to keep up with its loan payments and eventually defaulted on its principal debt repayments, limiting repayment to the interest portion of the loans. Arrears and penalty interest accumulated on the unpaid principal which increased the size of the debt. However, after negotiations by the Nigerian authorities, in October 2005 Nigeria and its Paris Club creditors reached an agreement in which Nigeria repurchased its debt at a discount of approximately 60%. Nigeria used part of its oil profits to pay the residual 40%, freeing up at least $1.15 billion annually for poverty reduction programmes. Nigeria made history in April 2006 by becoming the first African Country to completely pay off its debt (estimated $30 billion) owed to the Paris Club.

Despite the above benefits that the democratic rule has brought to Nigeria, it is obvious that the much expected dividends of democracy that the Nigeria people are yearning for are not forthcoming. The political class is not delivering rather it is destroying the system. As stated earlier Nigeria returned to democracy on May 29 1999 when President Obasanjo was sworn-in by the then military head of state General Abdulsalami Abubakar. So, by May 29, 2009 Nigeria will be celebrating ten years of democracy, which many Nigerians say is not worth celebrating, because the true democratic rules is not being practised, our political and electioneering process is marred by so many anomalies ranging from ballot box snatching, stuffing of ballot boxes, political killings, using thugs and hooligans to harass political opponents, porous electoral acts and lot more. It is very glaring that the insincerity of those in the authority to provide a level playing ground for people to actively participate in politics, those in government are using the police and other law enforcement agencies to threaten opponents, forgery of educational qualifications, and other diabolical means are being employed in the name of looking for power. The drama in Anambra by Chris Ngige and Peter Obi, the Ladoja and Alao-Akala brouhaha in Oyo state are good examples. We have witness a lot of governorship election results being overtuned by the law court, and fresh elections were conducted in states like Kogi, Cross River, Sokoto, and Ekiti.  The Ekiti re-run raised many question as to whether INEC can hold a credible election come 2011.

INEC under Professor Maurice Iwu has come under strong criticism for not being a fair umpire, Iwu is accused of been an umpire who take side in the game of electioneering, and as such all the election held under Iwu lacks credibility. The show of shame in Ekiti by the Iwu led INEC and supervised by Mama Ayoka   Adebayo. The election which could have served as the right premise for the Nigeria government who is singing the chorus of re-brand to utilize to send a positive message to the international community that the nation is determined to reform her electoral system was however marred by intimidation of voters, fire raising, thuggery, harassment of journalists and snatching of ballot boxes among others.

The outcome of the election which returned Governor Segun Oni of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) as duly elected governor is still being disputed. Oni polled a grand total of 110,049 votes, to beat his closest rival, Dr. Kayode Fayemi of the Action Congress (AC) who scored 106,359.

 However, Fayemi the AC candidate has rejected the results and make his intention known to the public to go back to court.

During the build up to the elections the polity was over heated through reckless propaganda and major stakeholders in and outside Ekiti state are carrying information that are not true about the election deliberately to cause confusion.

If sentiment are left out of this and the report of local and international observers could be relied on without prejudice to the interests of the petitioner or respondent, what happened in Ekiti State on April 25 and May 5 could not be passed as an election but an electoral war between the ruling PDP and AC

Huge resources and Warriors were heavily mobilized by both parties from outside Ekiti to impose their candidates on the people at all cost. The number of thugs imported to Ekiti during the re run out numbered the voters; they were used by politicians to unleash violence on the hapless citizens of Ekiti State.

Guns and charms were freely used by the politicians to achieve their selfish interest.

The disaster in Ekiti served as a signal to what the nation should expect in 2011 general election unless urgent steps are taken to reform the electoral system. The desperation of politicians to seek elective office must be discouraged through legislation that will disqualify jobless and ill-educated people from seeking elective posts; this will go a long way to attract genuine people whose intentions are to render services to the people.

Beside a code of conduct must be enforced among politicians and candidates of political parties during campaigns, elections and even after the elections to checkmate thuggery and other misconducts.

Some analysts have in the last few days argued that the Ekiti re-run has conclusively exposed the contribution of political players to the many election woes in the country. The thugs that were hired to torch the INEC office in Ido-Osi, instigate violence in Oye-Ekiti, hijack ballot boxes in polling booths and harass and maim voters were agents of politicians. They worked for them and forced the exercise to end in controversies.

Another test await INEC in Anambra come next year to prove their readiness to conduct a fraud-free election so that Nigerians will be assured of a free and fair election come 2011, INEC under Iwu should try as much as possible to be an unbiased umpire in the Anambra election that is coming up 2010, which will serves as a acid test for the nation’s democracy.  

The Nigerian government must be ready to put in place law that will provide stiff punishment for those who conspire and commit electoral fraud in order to send a warning signal to those unscrupulous politicians who are out there to subvert the will of the people in subsequent elections.

At the present the nation’s electoral laws are porous and this provided the culprits to get away with their criminal activities. The Act was silent on politicians’ behaviour.  Politicians the major contributors to the electoral woes in the country. 

This is the democracy the Nigeria people find themselves in, the desires and aspirations of Nigerians cannot be met with this kind of spongy system, until we shun tribal and religious sentiments we cannot get there, the PDP-led government must be ready to play the politics of give and take, the politics of win at all cost has cause us so much, lives have been lost, properties worth billion of dollars destroyed. Instead of progress we are retrogressing. Our institutions have been destroyed.  Nigerians we need to have a rethink, the political class need to provide the right leadership and direction that will take us there, though the followers also must show readiness to move from the pseudo-democracy and be ready to embrace the democracy that is being practice world over.

SENATOR SULEIMAN NASIRU is a 400 level (HND II) student of Business Administration and Management Studies, Federal Polytechnic Idah, Kogi State, is also a member of the legislative arm of the Students Union Government (SUG) of 2008/2009 academic session,  Federal Polytechnic Idah, Kogi state Nigeria Phone: 07030476699 E-mail: sirkknas@gmail.com