Indiscretions That Hurt Democracy

By Alabi Williams 11 November 2024 | 3:02 am

From experience, liberal multi-party democracy as a form of government is beautiful, that’s if operators behave themselves and abide by the principles. The principles include inclusivity, transparency and justice. Older generations of Nigerians know the advantages of democracy over other types, for instance, military rule, having tasted the pros and cons. They also know when democracy goes off track and begins to lose essence, like it was in the first and second republics.

Therefore, operators are the ones who should be mindful of the anti-democratic things they do, which give democracy a bad name, instead of looking in vain for non-existent enemies. They are the ones who should stop instigating rebellion and luring younger citizens to imagine and romanticise military rule.

One major killers of democracy are the legislators, at all levels. The law-making arm is the symbol and authority of representation. It is the engine room of democracy, so powerful that it is the first to be proscribed when constitutional governance suffers harm. When a constitution is proscribed, the executive and the judiciary remain. Yet, those elected to make laws hardly comprehend the enormity of their calling as representatives of the people.

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The authority they flaunt does not belong to them, since they hold it in trust for their constituents. Unfortunately, representation here has become a ticket to luxury lifestyle, which is extorted from the people. They have mistaken their role as stabilisers of democracy to that of acting as supporter’s club to the executive, thus legalising autocracy.

If something unpleasant happens to democracy, hold the lawmakers accountable. They are the ones who have refused to separate the legislature from the Presidency. They are unconcerned when people in the executive arm misbehave or are unable to deliver good governance.

When Nigerian youths protested against bad governance and hunger in August, the lawmakers offered no hope. In an attempt to be seen as doing something, after hired traditional rulers and religious leaders could not derail the protests, the House of Representatives gathered certain youth groups to appeal to them to shelve the protests. Speaker Tajudeen Abbas assured the youths that the government of President Tinubu had already done enough for them.

This is what the Speaker told the youths on that occasion: “This government, under the leadership of President Bola Tinubu listens, understands and is committed to transforming Nigeria into a country that works for young people. The President demonstrated this commitment through significant interventions.” He went on to list the interest-free students’ loan scheme as well as “several agricultural initiatives” and investment in modern farming techniques as evidence that government listens.

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Nigerians wondered whether the Speaker had taken over the job of Presidency spokesmen or whether he never encountered Montesquieu’s illumination on why there’s need for separation of powers in a democracy.

When the Speaker’s campaign failed and the protests happened, Tajudeen Abbas then proposed the obnoxious Counter-Subversion Bill. Not even in the dreary years of military regimes was such repressive legislation contemplated. The intendment of the bill was to callously deny Nigerians the right to assemble and express dissent against bad governance.

The undemocratic content of that bill instigated a furore that forced the sponsor of the bill to put it to rest, at least for this season. That was not the first-time lawmakers plotted to stifle citizens’ ability to demand accountability, especially since the advent of ubiquitous social media. And that’s the mindset of the legislature, pretending not to have an understanding of what representative democracy means and abdicating their responsibility to protect citizens from executive highhandedness.

While the world was outraged over the heartless arraignment of hapless teenagers for treason charge in early November, supposedly distinguished lawmakers expressed no anguish. There was no special summons for the legislature to lament and denounce the ill-treatment of teenagers who participated in the anti-badgovernance/hunger protests of August 2024.

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In that poorly scripted and rowdy exercise up north, young protesters became unguarded. Some waved Russian flags without a deep knowledge of the act, more out of herd instinct. Some added criminality to what was supposed to be a constitutionally guaranteed civil protest. They looted and vandalised properties in their excitement to pay back government.

For that, they were charged with treason. Earlier, this column had recommended that the colour of the protest in the north amounted to a dislocation in representative governance. Simply put, democracy had failed these teenagers and they had nothing precious to hold on to.

They were apparently not in schools and they had no skills to parade in the labour market. Instead of punishing them according to the face-value of the offence, it was suggested that they be recruited for training in vanishing values of patriotism and nationalism. That did not happen because this government knows it all and does not request for anybody’s advice.

But after they got their fingers burnt in the backlash, when 76 suspects including 32 minors appeared before Justice Obiora Egwuatu at the Abuja division of the Federal High Court, the Attorney-General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi, feigned ignorance of the treason charge and smartly called for the file.

But the Presidency wouldn’t let the Attorney General calmly defuse tension and step down the political hot potato in a more professional pace. The Federal Government, in the bid to gain unearned capital, roughly deployed presidential pardon for suspects that had not yet been convicted, a mea culpa that could have been avoided, if only the police and the judiciary had acted more professionally.

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For the police, since the days of the Second Republic, the Police Force has failed to appreciate the delicate nature of democratic rule. They think democracy is all about the Presidency, the regime and how to secure their anti-democratic culture. They look the other way when elections are stolen and citizens are denied their right to vote for candidates of their choice. They see every attempt by citizens to demand good governance as a move to bring down government.

Every Inspector General of Police owes his appointment to the kind-heartedness of Mr. President and is obligated to respond in the manner of paying back a debt. That shouldn’t be. The IGP is a public servant and protector of the civic space, not a part of the Presidency’s domestic staff. A more inclusive recruitment process is recommended for better accountability to taxpayers.

The police was dead sure they had a good treason case against the teenage protesters. Without doing any DNA test, they profiled the 32 teenage suspects to be married adults. The police wouldn’t even allow legal experts to determine whether a more humane trial process would achieve judicial objective without hurting the government’s already poor image. Without blinking an eye, the police boasted they could even arraign seven-year-old suspects outside recommended best global standards.

The way the police have carried on, it’s as if they’re not accountable to anyone else apart from Mr. President. It’s in like manner the Presidency exercised scant regard for the Force when it hurried to save its image, threw both IGP Kayode Egbetokun and spokesperson, Muyiwa Adejobi under the bus and freed the so-called adult and married suspects.

The lesson is for the police to face their job and avoid playing to the gallery. Government will come and go but the police is always around with the noble task to protect the democratic space. The probe ordered by the Presidency to fish out those who mismanaged the arrests and unlawful detention of the teenagers for 90 grueling days is a welcome move. Nothing should be swept under the carpet.

The judiciary, unfortunately, acted without discretion when it refused to pay attention to background details of how the teenagers were arrested, warehoused and brought to court. Justice needn’t be blind to oppression and suffering of children. Justice needn’t be insensitive to and isolated from the pervading gloom in the country. There should be ways to mitigate the downward slope and get everybody acting civilised and responsible. That’s the intervention that must come from the judiciary.

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The job of running this democracy must not be left for politicians alone, they don’t always mean well. In the end, the judiciary, just like the police, got its procedures trammeled when the President took over the treason case and ended it by fiat. Much like teaching the judiciary their job. Sad.

For a while now, the media has struggled to play their part as a vital participant in the democratic process. The operational environment has become hostile and too costly to maintain. It gets tougher when government operatives seek to breath down the necks of news vendors, illustrated by arrest of journalists and subtle attempts to intimidate and teach the media how to do their job. Such dictatorial tactics never worked even in the repressive colonial and military days; and they’re not going to work now.

In 2019, The Punch Newspapers took a position to denounce the dictatorial tendencies being cooked by the Buhari government. The news organisation decided to address Buhari in his military rank of Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) The newspaper supported the position with an editorial it titled:” Buhari’s lawlessness: Our stand.”

The newspaper stated: “As a symbolic demonstration of our protest against autocracy and military-style repression, Punch newspapers will henceforth prefix Buhari’s name with his rank as a military dictator in the 80s, Major General, and refer to his administration as a regime, until they purge themselves of their insufferable contempt for the rule of law.” The heavens didn’t fall.

The newspaper was reacting to acts of lawlessness, including the attacks on homes of judges; the suspension of Chief Justice Walter Onnoghen; hounding of Omoyele Sowore and others. So far, compared to what has happened in Tinubu’s less than two years Presidency, Buhari’s errors now seem milder.

Yet today’s Presidency doesn’t want Nigerians to express their concerns and discontent. That cannot work. As Buhari’s era passed, this too shall pass and the media will remain stronger for democracy’s sake!

Note: This article was first published by The Guardian Newspaper.
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