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Nigeria: Ten Years Of “Democracy” By Leonard Karshima Shilgba, Ph.D.
On 29th day of May 2009, the Nigerian House of Representatives celebrated 10 years of uninterrupted democracy. On Saturday June 6th, I was invited to talk about the topic on Adamawa Television, Yola. The time was too short for me to say all that had to be said. In this article, I shall open my heart fully on the issue and propose to Nigerians what we the people must do as the nation races towards the year 2011, when another general “election” shall be held.
We can only measure the progress Nigeria has made under a democratic arrangement by:
The guide to measuring the performance of Nigerian public officials (especially her elected officials) is the second Chapter of the Nigerian Constitution, entitled Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy. In this Chapter, specifically section 14 (2), we have the following:
It is hereby, accordingly, declared that-
(a) sovereignty belongs to the people of Nigeria from whom government through this Constitution derives all its power and authority; (b) the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government; and (c) the participation by the people in their government shall be ensured in accordance with the provisions of this Constitution.
The constitutional declaration above captures the domains of freedom, power, and security, by which we shall attempt to measure the performance of Nigeria in the past 10 years of uninterrupted “democracy”. I consciously put the word, Democracy in quotes because it is not democracy which does not reflect all the points in the declaration above. To the extent of the failure shall we question democracy in Nigeria. I am persuaded that already I have many Nigerians who agree with me that the declaration remains substantially ignored. Those who hold a contrary opinion, I shall attempt to convince shortly.
FREEDOM
Freedom to choose:
How free are Nigerians to choose whom they will to serve them? The question is certainly not, How free are Nigerians to vote? Nigerians are free to vote, and they have demonstrated time and again how eager they are to choose who would serve them, defer to them, and respect public opinion. Freedom to vote equals freedom to choose if and only if the vote counts. A clear evidence that votes don’t count and elections in Nigeria are a mere act to make appearances before the citizens of the world is this audacious neglect of the people by “elected” officials, who know that they have nothing to fear on the supposed day of judgment (Election day), since the votes that really count are those of the godfathers, who they make sure during their terms of office that they keep truly satisfied and gratified in order to ensure an easy “victory” at the polls.
It is evident that when elected officials in Nigeria talk of Nigerians, being “impatient”, and reasoning that 10 years is too short a period to complain, it is because they know Nigerians have no say about their victory during elections. On Tuesday June 9th, I watched as the governor of my state-Benue, Mr. Gabriel Suswam, say on AIT that Nigerians should be “patient”. He was asked to talk about the progress Nigeria had made in “10 years of uninterrupted democracy”. Nigerians must be too “impatient” as they only complain without action. Nigerians are too “impatient” to be complaining of lack of transparency in our elections; Nigerians are too “impatient” to be complaining of worsening energy crisis when indeed their president has a well-crafted “seven-point agenda” (The sing song these days, which my governor also harped upon during the AIT interview). I watched my governor and listened with intent, more so when the host asked him to talk directly to the people of Benue state. What an opportunity for a governor to look directly into the camera and talk with clarity and conviction to his people! And what did he say to us, the people of Benue? NOTHING!
The governor was incoherent when asked to talk about how he could raise IGR (Internally Generated Revenue) in his state. He rambled on about how states such as Rivers, Kano, and Lagos, with “real commercial activities” could easily raise IGR. When asked about taxation, he said how by nature, human beings are averse to paying taxes, alleging that he could not impose taxes in Benue due to prevailing poverty. But he did not point out a single way he was raising revenue in Benue state other than the statutory allocation from the federation account. This, certainly is the story of many states in Nigeria. When leaders lack vision, the people are in greater trouble if they lack the power to vote them out. Speaking about elections, I received an audio clip this week (as I write) from a friend, which contained some comments Governor Suswam made at an event at Lessel, the Headquarters of my local government of Ushongo. Although people laughed, meaning the governor was making a “joke”, those comments reveal the thinking of some of our public officials.
The governor said that some Benue citizens went to Abuja and told the current Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Michael Aondoakaa (who hails from Ushongo local government ) that “The office of Governor of Benue State was more befitting for him”. Governor Suswam then responded that, the Minister was “not cut for elections”, claiming that, “When he contested for the office of local government chairman, you did not elect him”. Governor Suswam concluded by saying, “If he (Aondoakaa) eventually seeks the office of Governor of Benue State (supposedly by 2011) I will so trouble him that you won’t believe it.” What a “joke”! The audience laughed and maybe missed the message; but I did not. Recently, I got some information that a political godfather in Benue state (name withheld ) declared that if anyone from his Senatorial District (to which Governor Suswam belongs) runs against Governor Suswam for the office of Governor of Benue State in 2011, that person would lose his manhood-become impotent (Of course, he failed to say what would happen should the person be a woman). Where is the freedom of a Nigerian to choose (for instance, who occupies an elective office)? Where is the freedom to run for an elective office when such intimidation is rife? Is this then democracy in Nigeria after 10 years? “Well, the governor and his godfather were simply joking. Shilgba takes things too seriously; Nigerians need a good laugh”, you may say. Well, we shall know about that in 2011.
Nigeria shall not know true democracy and good governance until votes of the electorate are made to count and the people regain their ballot power. Nigeria shall not know real democracy until public opinion intimidates the elected; yet, this cannot happen if the electorate do not regain ballot power. If by 2011, the PDP “wins” elections by a “landslide”, it will not be because of Yar’Adua’s oft advertised seven-point agenda. It will be because the Nigerian people remain too fearful to rise up like the Iranians appear to be doing in this month’s presidential elections. I watched the young and old in Iran rise up to demonstrate that people-power matters. In Lebanon, the people spoke that they were tired of Hezbollah-the old order; they voted for a change.
Nigerians, Nigerians, wake up! For some of us, death means absolutely nothing, and will never come until our task is completed! Yes, Dele Giwa, Ken Saro Wiwa, Bola Ige, Funsho Williams, Moshood Abiola, Harry Marshall, and many other compatriots lost their life at the hands of our oppressors when by their deeds and words, they lent force to the phrase, “It is enough”. Nigerian students have suddenly lost steam. Did you watch your colleagues in Iran? Were you envious? You need not be; you can do it. But if the leadership of the Nigerian students has allowed the corrupt leadership in Nigeria to corrupt them, I weep. Some of us were fortunate to graduate before the devaluation of degrees issued by Nigerian Universities. Some of us went and earned higher degrees in the developed world. We are crying, not because we are personally poor or lack personal opportunities. Nigerian youths, we are crying because you have no schools. We are crying because you have no future. We are crying because you shall become servants of your colleagues from countries which invest substantially in the education of their youths. We are crying because, even in your country, your degrees, issued by Nigerian Universities count for nothing. We are crying because when you graduate from Nigerian Universities, there are no jobs because there is low production capacity and failed institutions. We are crying because there is segregation right within our nation, when children of the oppressor attend good private Universities in Nigeria and abroad, which many of you cannot afford, and where there are no incessant strikes by Lecturers, thus disrupting academic activities. I can see danger! And you dare keep quiet? We need you all to stand up in a sustained agitation for change. Throw in with us. We can do nothing until the Nigerian youths step in. Nigerian students, organize yourselves and invite us. Your public schools make you more ignorant. Your teachers are demoralized. Your schools don’t have the resources for twenty-first century education. You cannot compete. This plague is a plague of choice. Your government can change all this if it wishes. But they will not until you force them to.
Make no mistake about this. PDP is not the only problem. What we need is not a Mega party with the same folks who have destroyed our dignity, plundered our commonwealth, and killed our heroes. When they lost out in the big party, they deceive us with new party names. But can the leopard change its spots? Those clamoring for a Mega party have no vision, no compassion, no principles, and no truth and conviction in them. Their singular passion is how to defeat the PDP at the center. And then do what? Nigerian youths, that is not what you want. Nigerian patriots, that is not what we want. Both the PDP and all groups clamoring for a Mega party constitute the old order. They must all be flushed out before, by 2011, and after. The work begins now.
Old order does not refer to biological age, but the lack of intellectual and ideological soundness. The old order fails to appreciate the evolving new world and the challenges that must be confronted now. Many of the Mega party apostles and in the PDP have seen their best days. They lack both the moral authority and staying power to foster the type of changes Nigeria requires [Please, read the articles: Nigeria in Peril: Raising Redemption Leaders for Nigeria; Abolish the Senate and put the House of Representatives on a per Diem Schedule and many others on www.nigeriarally.org . Direct fellow Nigerians to this website; print out the articles and distribute, and check out the site from time to time for information and instructions. You can help put those messages on Bill Boards etc)]
We shall cross every state border; throw wide every gate. Joining our hands across the nation, we proclaim, our time is now.
Freedom of speech:
We do not have a democracy in Nigeria when government shuts down news media houses and sends State Security Service officials and the police to harass Nigerians. We do not have a democracy when compatriots have their traveling documents seized at airports because they have published views offensive to the government. We do not have a democracy when journalists are being intimidated in insidious ways. We do not have a democracy when we cannot talk at the polls.
But we cannot and must not keep quiet. We shall have challenges, but we will keep moving on. We must despise both fear and mockery. We must conquer distractions and betrayals; we must overcome blackmail and offenses with patient love and enduring fortitude. Our walls cannot be thrown down by foxes, no matter how many. Before they know it, the walls are completed! At the beginning was the word-the message, sustained and consistent. At the beginning of Nigeria’s re-birth is the word, which we must spread. At the beginning of our renaissance is the word-which we must broadcast. Journalists with a bleeding heart for the nation; activists who seek no appointments and gratification from government; legislators in the assemblies, who having not tainted themselves, are talking for the people, and yet whose voices are being drowned by the overwhelming cacophony of their compromised colleagues’; the hurt and frustrated in society, let us all team up together in order to rescue a hijacked nation. At this point, negotiations have failed!
POWER:
The Nigerian people are not being empowered. How can they celebrate democracy when they lack the basic infrastructure that will empower them? They have suffered economic exclusion. They pay for electricity they don’t consume. Nigerians are being ripped off by telecommunication companies and destroyed by oil companies (contrary to section 17 (2) (d)). Their government stands by keeping watch over the garments of those who stone them. Nigerians groan daily under the weight of their government, which pins them down for foreigners to rape in turns. Nigerians are being weakened and not empowered when government refuses to invest in quality education. They die of preventable diseases while their president brings in special equipment just for his personal treatment, and their rulers fly out for medical treatment at public expense. But we are too impatient if we complain. Let us stop complaining now and do something about this. They challenge us to dare. Maybe we cannot dare, and maybe we can. “Nigerians are too fearful and selfish”, they say. We must surprise them. We must break off the yoke. Now our strength rises. Our rulers have weakened us by allowing importation of all sorts of products, to the killing of local industries, thus driving many Nigerians into the unemployment market. But let us give one more kick of a man being hanged; just one more kick. Maybe that kick will snap the noose around our necks.
SECURITY:
How can Nigeria be secure when our government votes hundreds of billions to secure the Niger Delta while it does not invest half the amount to give back to the people their livelihood? How can Nigerians be secure when their government chooses a military solution to the Niger Delta problem? I see troubling times ahead. We might have been urged on by America (which needs un-disrupted supply of oil from Nigeria). I warned against this in my article, Struggling Hope from the womb of despair, which was published on February 23, 2007 on: www.nigeriaworld.com/feature/publication/shilgba/022307.html
Crimes increase in our nation because there is no deterrence. Killers are hardly found and prosecuted. Nigeria awaits deliverance.
Permit me to state what I consider as given:
As I conclude, I must be very clear about certain things:
Relationships are built and sustained by perceived common denominators. When those perceptions are stronger than death it becomes very difficult to break away into newer zones of confraternity. Layers upon layers are constructed upon different classes of relationships. The most elementary are nuclear, based on close biological family ties. A process of socialization or education extends the borders to include a much broader territory of inclusion. Denominators such as ethnicity and religion are very obvious even to the untrained mind; untrained in terms of world view. When conflicts of loyalty force us to take a stand on one of two sides of apparently equally strong territories of social definitions, we face an identity crisis or a crisis of trust. For instance, when called upon to make a choice between ethnicity and religion at historical periods of ethno-religious conflicts, men are usually strained beyond common expectations.
The coherence and formation of a nation begins with a superstructure whose substructure is made of a sterner stuff than ethno-religious fraternity. The promise of a nation delays in its delivery as long as those twins remain either the talking issues in national discourses or the defining niggle in national consciousness. As society advances, it must slough off those rudimentary bases of relationships, without under-rating neither their strength nor relevance, and take up a new beacon by which it identifies its members. Usually an awakening is required to foist on its members a higher awareness, a broader awareness, and refreshing understanding of who our neighbor is. When the majority of its citizens can answer with unpretentious clarity, the question, "Who is my neighbor?" then the journey towards greatness becomes less tedious. Religion becomes a personal individual choice of relationship to a higher power. It is not used to bludgeon men into submission or as a weapon of oppression and division. Its rightful uses are explored for a more humane society. Since we can choose religion without having the same right with regard to ethnicity, it is certainly a testimony of ignorance to permit bigotry on this basis.
In order to divert attention from their ineptitude in governance, oppressive rulers encourage actions that accentuate those differences. Such rulers do not actively pursue knowledge for their subjects. They fail to consciously ingrain in their people the virtue of possessing a nobler global view of our common humanity, which makes us more accepting of people who are different than us racially, in religion, language, accent, and even socially. Through the practice of divide and rule, those rulers have perfected the art of keeping their society in the belts of ignorance and thereby within their manipulative fields of calculating influence. Although this serves their end for a while, it delays social progress. As a red herring, they excuse their inability to deliver the fruits of good governance on intruding externalities upon their society. They exploit differences and refuse to serve as agents of global conviviality. Even within their inner groups they must shine the light on those things that set apart.
Societies that have developed, in the sense of dominance of their environment, have always found a way of overcoming internal draw backs whose centers of gravity are dividing differences among its members. They have found and emphasized those commonalities that are more inclusive. The measure of true civilization is its attractiveness to the complements who seek inclusiveness. A national spirit is born and endures, which is the life, not of austere religion-which defines in a narrow sense, nor of race-which is superficial in definition, but rather of a movement based on ideals which many can understand and adopt through an enlightening process. The borders of such inclusiveness are not inelastic and its fabric is neither coarse nor brittle.
A society which erroneously hopes to achieve cohesion through a rotation formula of representation, rather than through a seamless representative formula, only succeeds in creating chasms in its network of synergy. The rotation formula may seem to serve a purpose at infancy, but it chokes excellence with time. With time, it frustrates aspirations and dreams. Taking turns only excludes a whole lot. Competition is the purveyor of excellence; and no nation grows which holds a scant view of it.
For an excellent nation to be born, it needs a defining vision which prepares it to give an answer for the hope it holds and the reason for the belief it shares. A rotation representation distracts from a viable vision as it replaces nobler expectations. The eyes are no more set on turning the corner on the common quest of nationhood but on when it is their turn. For a society to develop, it must reduce those distractions that oft keep it at war against itself. Contentions on resource sharing or allocation distract from the meat of the word-socialization of society. Such distractions should be handled with care by leaders of society. For instance, the people must be permitted to choose for themselves and among themselves people of honest report and ability who will represent them in the material distribution. In order words, a transparent and non-obstructive process of election or selection must be agreed upon and sustained. Whenever people lose their right to choose or those rights have been corrupted in matters affecting them, they lose faith and confidence in the output of a supposed election process. And without the confidence of the people, a modern society cannot be built. Corruption and misgovernance, which thrive when power to choose has been seized from the people and kept in custody by the godfathers, exacerbate this crisis of confidence.
Through the process of socialization, the embers of rudimentary identifiers (such as religion and race) are dimmed, although not completely extinguished. New classes-social distinguishing classes-stand out in sharp relief. Workers and the aristocrats; civil servants and the bourgeoisie; the employer and the employee, etc. Stratification of society by material wealth or standard of education tends to create some new tensions. It is true what Karl Marx said; the history of mankind is riddled with class struggles. One class dominates and considers it a treasonable offense the effort by the oppressed to overthrow it. The Americans drove away the English with the slogan Taxation with representation. A new order was born. America went to war against herself to free blacks, resulting in the Emancipation Declaration of 1863. Many nations fought to gain political independence from foreign sovereigns. People such as Nelson Mandela, who got draped in the garb of “terrorism”, emerged to become revered citizens of the world. How time re-defines us! When injury to one is seen, not as injury to an ethnic group within a society to which they belong, but as injury to the whole of society, that society is advancing towards the sunny side of things.
After the annulment of the election of Mr. Moshood Abiola on June 12, 1993 as Nigeria's president, much pain and anger were felt by the people of Nigeria. As sudden as the anger which visited the annulment so sudden was the reduction of a noble national concern to a feeling of ethnic persecution. The whole meaning and implication of the annulment were lost. Abiola died in detention in 1998 without being sworn in as Nigeria's president. In 1999, in order to appease the Yorubas-Abiola's ethnic group, only presidential candidates of Yoruba extraction were sponsored to run for the office of President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. This convolution excluded certain groups who had equally paid dearly in the struggle and during the oppressive rule that followed the annulment. When occupying a political office is seen as a worthy compensation for perceived injustice, the major issues at stake have lost attention. But then, how about ethnic groups which produced slain heroes such as Dele Giwa and Ken Saro Wiwa?
How can Nigeria outgrow those primordial impulses of religion and ethnicity in order to forge a more perfect union for national growth and development? One fact that must not miss the prying eye is that the leadership of every nation determines how the people look at themselves. In Nigeria, the political leadership, having discovered the ignoble asset of religious and ethnic exploitation, have tended to exacerbate those sentiments to the detriment of national integration. They infuse those in national discourses and debates so often that standard bearers of national development are de-emphasized. Because many of Nigeria's political office holders are products of religious and ethnic contraptions they lack the courage to steer the nation away from those divides. For Nigeria to free herself from the yoke and drag of ethno-religious sentiments there is need for a leadership renewal. This renewal may take different forms; one form which it must take at this time in the history of Nigeria is a cleansing. Nothing short of a fundamental cleansing would suffice. The leadership may choose to do it without further persuading or it must be pinioned for this to happen. The nation beckons on courageous heroes who must hold both the basin and towel.
Leonard Karshima Shilgba is the President of the Nigeria Rally Movement and Assistant Professor of Mathematics at the American University of Nigeria. TEL:+234 (0) 8055024356 Email: leonardshilgba@nigeriarally.org |