Appraising 25 years of return to democracy
Last Wednesday, May 29, 2024,
marked exactly the silver jubilee of Nigeria’s return to civil rule. However,
the celebration has been shifted to June 12 in commemoration of the 1993
presidential election won by the late Chief MKO Abiola which the military junta
of Gen. Ibrahim Babangida annulled. It was the immediate past President,
Muhammadu Buhari, who did that. In a tweet posted on his X handle on June 6,
2018, Buhari said inter alia “Dear Nigerians, I am delighted to announce that,
after due consultations, the Federal Government has decided that henceforth,
June 12 will be celebrated as Democracy Day. We have also decided to award
posthumously the highest honour in the land, GCFR, to Chief MKO Abiola. In the
view of Nigerians, as shared by this administration, June 12, 1993, was and is
far more symbolic of democracy in the Nigerian context than May 29, or even
October 1.”
Chief Abiola’s running mate,
Babagana Kingibe, was also awarded a GCON.
Furthermore, the late Chief Gani Fawehinmi (SAN), a tireless fighter for
human rights and democracy, and for the actualisation of the June 12, 1993
election was posthumously awarded a GCON. Buhari said further that, the June
12, 1993, election was the freest, fairest and most peaceful election since
Nigeria’s independence.
1999 to date has been described
by political historians as the Fourth Republic. Recall that the First Republic
was between October 1, 1960 and January 15, 1966. The Second Republic was
between October 1, 1979, and December 31, 1983, when the military struck. The
Third Republic was between 1990 and June 23, 1993, when IBB annulled the June
12 presidential election. Thus, the Third Republic was inchoate and
inconclusive as it was aborted without a president being sworn into office. Out
of Nigeria’s 64 years as a sovereign nation, 29 years were administered by
military junta.
How has Nigerian democracy fared
under civil rule in the last 25 years? Poorly. Leadership remains a bane of
Nigeria’s progress. Although there are 11,082 elective political offices in
Nigeria, the occupiers have been more concerned about personal aggrandisement
than selfless service. That is why our elections are heavily monetised and
prone to violence. Politicians, more often than not, adopt the Machiavellian
principle of ‘the end justifies the means.’ They do all they can to compromise
the electoral process and manipulate it to their advantage. For instance,
campaign finance laws are breached as they spend far above the legal spending
limits. Though there are copious laws against electoral violence with stringent
penalties, the masterminds and the arrowheads more often than not do not get
caught while their minions who get caught are bailed out of detention without
prosecution.
If the Independent National
Electoral Commission should publish the list of those successfully convicted
for electoral crimes in the last 25 years, most Nigerians will be surprised at
the infinitesimal number. This has sustained the culture of impunity in our
electoral process. Little wonder INEC has been in the forefront of asking for
the setting up of the Electoral Offences Commission and Tribunal. Will
Nigeria’s devious political class allow that law to be passed? That will be
political hara-kiri!
So, since many of Nigeria’s
political leaders ‘bought’ or procured their electoral victory, their loyalty
does not lie with the electorate but to themselves and their rapacious
political class. Because of the heavy spending on elections, the primary
objective of Nigeria’s political class is to recoup their investment with super
profit. Thus, there is a nexus between unbridled political spending and
corruption. The truth is that if all the political office holders were to live
and survive on their basic salaries, there would be so much left for
infrastructural development and good governance. However, while they are quick
to show us their pay slip, the humongous amount they receive as allowances,
estacodes and kickbacks are never mentioned.
Does it not occur to you that
nobody will spend billions of naira to contest for a political office only to
collect a sum of money that will not defray his or her political expenses? The
truth is that not all politicians are bad but the good ones are very few.
According to the former American President, Abraham Lincoln, “The true rule, in
determining to embrace, or reject anything, is not whether it has any evil in
it; but whether it has more evil than good. There are few things wholly evil or
wholly good.”
I watched a vox pop conducted by
a lady in the United Kingdom asking Nigerians in that country if they would
like to get £100,000 and move back to Nigeria. All the respondents said no to
the offer. She probed further why they didn’t want to come back home, and
unanimously they said it was because of our leadership problem. They all
fingered leadership as Nigeria’s number one challenge. The irrefutable fact is
that Nigeria is a crippled giant to borrow the words of renowned Professor of
Political Science, Eghosa Osaghae. Yes, while I admit that we are not where we
used to be, we are at the same time not where we ought to be. For many years,
Nigeria laid claim to being the biggest economy in Africa but today we are
number four after South Africa, Egypt and Algeria according to the
International Monetary Fund.
Twenty-five years into this
Fourth Republic, we have had seven general elections in 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011,
2015, 2019 and 2023. We have also had five presidents namely, Olusegun
Obasanjo, Umaru Yar’Adua, Goodluck Jonathan, Muhammadu Buhari and the
incumbent, Bola Tinubu. Two political parties have ruled at the centre; the
Peoples Democratic Party which governed from 1999 to 2015, while the All
Progressives Congress has taken over the leadership mantle at the centre from
2015 to date. Unfortunately, whether you’re talking of the APC or the PDP, or
the three tiers of government namely, federal, state and local; what is common
to all of them is poor governance. All the development indices that are
pointing south are a cumulative non-performance of all the former holders of
political offices and the incumbents. As we say, governance is a continuum.
I have said, time and again, that
no individual has the magic wand to turn things around for the better in this country.
The President, being the overall boss should work collaboratively with state
governors and local government chairpersons. However, the president must lead
by good example so he can serve as a moral compass to helmsmen and women at the
sub-national level. I’m not comfortable with the spending spree of our
political office holders who luxuriate in ostentatious lifestyles with their
families while the majority of my compatriots languish in poverty.
Nigeria’s political leaders
should imbibe the culture of prudence in the management of public finance. The
borrowing binge should also stop. Many in the executive arm holding political
offices are indulging in reckless borrowing under the guise of funding
developmental projects. At the end of the day, there is nothing much to show
for the huge public debts. It is important to block revenue leakages and stop
oil thefts. It is an act of selflessness, not selfishness, of our political
office holders that will lead the country out of its current economic doldrums.
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