By Alabi Williams | 10 February 2025
That two-day conference held in Abuja, tagged: “Strengthening Nigeria’s Democracy: Pathway to Good Governance and Political Integrity,” presented an opportunity to reflect on 25 years of democracy in the country. Though it was more a gathering of politicians outside government bemoaning their fate, the lamentations resonated with citizens’ unparalleled abject conditions.
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The conference was thus an eye-opener for citizens to weigh the options, in the hope to reversing the repeated misrule and hardship foisted by a greedy political class that replaced the military in 1999. To that extent, the conversations were forthright, insightful with a mix of comics.
On ground at the conference was a coalition of politicians from the ruling and opposition parties, including former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, Peter Obi, Rotimi Amaechi, Aminu Tambuwal, Nasir el Rufai, Kayode Fayemi, Lyel Imoke, Emeka Ihedioha, among other politicians of note. Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, Special Adviser on Political Issues in the Presidency, represented Vice President, Kashim Shettima.
For democracy to thrive in Nigeria, the guest speaker at the conference, former vice president of Ghana, Mahamudu Bawumia, admonished his audience that their individual ambitions should not supersede that of the country. He cautioned that democracy in Africa is fragile, noting that between 2020 and 2023, Africa experienced eight coups that truncated democracy in those countries. He stressed the importance of trusted institutions, such as the electoral commission, the judiciary as well as law enforcement agencies, whose independence and non-partisan stature are necessary for democracy to grow.
Bawumia said: “When institutions are undermined for partisan or sectional interests, they lose their ability to function effectively, paving the way for autocracy and misgovernance.”
The former Ghana’s vice president linked the survival of democracy to socio-economic justice and development, insisting that the society cannot rest as long as poverty and injustice are allowed, emphasising the role of active citizenship in strengthening democracy.
“Democracy thrives when citizens understand their role in holding leaders accountable and participating in governance processes,” he said. The conference recommended strengthening political parties to safeguard the integrity of democracy; stricter penalties for electoral fraud and enforcement of rules on elected politicians who defect from their original parties.
To sustain this democracy, there must be an atmosphere that allows for free and fair elections to take place. It begins with the willingness by politicians to be truthful to themselves; that they may win or lose, depending on the choice of voters.
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That point was well made in the choice of the guest speaker, Bawumia, who himself conceded the December 7, 2024, presidential election in Ghana, before the official declaration of the winner. He had no reason to dispute the outcome of the election because he trusted the system.
Sadly, elections in Nigeria are always disputed because operators of the system find ways to fraudulently intervene. There was however the remarkable experience of 2015, when former President Goodluck Jonathan, had to let go despite having the capacity to create controversy and disrupt the system. The ability to concede is a boost for democracy.
That is not to argue that rigged electoral processes should not be challenged in the judiciary. Going to court is different from resorting to deadly self-help, the type that was unleashed in parts of the country after Muhammadu Buhari lost the 2011 presidential election.
Bawumia canvassed the need to strengthen institutions of democracy. The judiciary is the foremost institution vested with constitutional capacity to stabilise democracy. The judiciary cannot pretend not to know that democracy in Nigeria is endangered and may collapse any time. But the courts can do a lot to rein in destroyers of civil rule. All they have to do is interpret the laws without fear or favour.
For instance, when legislators abandon the parties whose tickets they exploited to win elections, for no justifiable cause, the judiciary is expected to act with fiat and apply the constitutional remedies. But a certain complicity has gone on for too long and it has become the norm. Citizens fear the judiciary may have been captured as well.
For close to two years now, there is disorder in the Rivers State House of Assembly because the judiciary is seen to have taken sides with political gladiators. There are allegations that certain courts give favourable judgments to different camps of politicians. That has created a web of legal stalemate, which the Supreme Court has the responsibility to disentangle by a correct and precise interpretation of relevant portions of the 1999 Constitution.
The biggest worry for this democracy is the alleged corruption in the judiciary. The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), in collaboration with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), recently published a survey report that indicated the judiciary is corrupt. The report said N721 billion in cash bribes were transacted in 2023 and the judiciary topped the list of recipients.
Despite pushbacks, Nigerians are concerned and they want the judiciary to extricate itself from the charm laced on it by filthy rich politicians. That process could start with legal bigwigs and authorities speaking out without fear when constitutional infractions are committed under guise of executive benevolence. For instance, when the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, confiscated the land belonging to an allottee, irrespective of the circumstances, to build houses for judges, that could constitute a perception issue for the judiciary.
Moreover, the judiciary is supposed to have financial independence and be protected from executive meddlesomeness. Resources could be made available to the judiciary for capital projects in the Appropriation Act, not through belittling handouts.
Elections give democracies legitimacy. The point has been well canvassed, that appointments into election management bodies should be democratised. Allowing one man to select the team of national electoral commissioners and resident electoral officers in states, is the foremost electoral fraud.
It weakens the contest because those appointed into sensitive offices, assuming they are not closet card-carrying members of political parties, must feel obligated to act in the selfish interest of their benefactor.
There are sufficient recommendations on how to make appointments more democratic and independent of a sitting president. Except that those in government who promised change are unable to deliver change. They benefit from the rot.
The reason democracy in Africa has remained fragile, yielding eight coups in less than three years, as noted by Bawumia, is because the democratic trust has been trashed. That was why the military drove out civilian rulers in Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso. To avoid more coups, those who love democracy must act in national interest, instead of pursuing individual and family agenda.
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For citizens of Nigeria and elsewhere across Africa, their experiences under democratic governance have turned out not significantly better than the years under military rule. Years under democratic rule have become very agonising for the people. More people have become poor in recent years. In 2023, the poverty rate in Nigeria was 46 per cent, affecting 104 million people.
Confronted by the staggering numbers, governments have resorted to borrowing from the World Bank to administer palliatives; food items are reportedly shared to citizens but the impact is close to zero. Purported cash transfers have refused to make sense because the recipients are only known to politicians. It is a paddy paddy government.
There is no social justice anywhere for poor people. In Nigeria, despite the constitutional provision that the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government, safety of citizens has become a matter of luck and chance.
The promise that the State shall harness the resources of the nation to prosper citizens on the basis of social justice and equality of status and opportunity is an empty one, only on paper. The political class make themselves comfortable at the expense of the people.
An Oxfam report on extreme inequality in numbers showed that the combined wealth of Nigeria’s five richest men could banish extreme poverty at the national level. Since 1999, politically Exposed Persons (PEPs) and their families have taken more than their fair share from the resources of the country, leaving millions to struggle with extreme deprivation. The #EndHunger/Badgovernance protest of 2024 attested to this. It is a warning to politicians.
The state of political parties is pathetic, even for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). The party has surrendered to one-man rule. The party’s Board of Trustees (BoT) and National Executive Council (NEC), are of little consequence. The president owns the party and any member who is not comfortable with that can leave. No room for internal politics or opposition. Democracy cannot thrive like that.
That is why Amaechi, Fayemi and el Rufai are wailing. They helped to enthrone the political party they can no longer recognise. Their combined capacities could have reshaped 2023, but they were individually ambitious. Some wanted to be president. El Rufai was dead sure he would be prime minister equivalent. They wasted an opportunity to relieve Nigerians of the distressing Buhari years. Now the suffering continues. But they must be commended for speaking out now.
For the PDP, they too could have turned the tide in 2023, but they were also consumed by individual ambitions over that of the country. They haven’t changed. In the days of Ibrahim Babangida, they would have been thrown away, to be replaced by a new breed. There’s no new breed anywhere, politicians are the same.
To make this democracy thrive, those who would make the difference are the everyday Nigerians. There is urgent need for a mass of critical thinkers across board, to expose the fraud in this democracy and decide its best form. That ought to be the conversation.
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Kudos to the organisers of the January 27 conference, the African Centre for Leadership, Strategy and Development (ACLSD), the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD), Peering Advocacy and Advancement Centre in Africa (PAACA) and the National Peace Committee (NPC), for enabling the conversation
Note: This article was first published by The Guardian Newspaper.
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