INTERROGATING NIGERIA’S DEMOCRATIC PRACTICE, SO FAR…
As announced two weeks ago that Kano hosted several academic conferences recently, this week we are discussing the ‘coming of age’ of the current experiment of civil rule which, beginning in 1999, will be no longer be ‘a teenager’ (or ‘our fledgling democracy’ as is said) in a few years hence. Themed “The Dynamics of […]
As announced two weeks ago that Kano hosted several academic conferences recently, this week we are discussing the ‘coming of age’ of the current experiment of civil rule which, beginning in 1999, will be no longer be ‘a teenager’ (or ‘our fledgling democracy’ as is said) in a few years hence. Themed “The Dynamics of Democratic Practice in Nigeria, 1999-2015”, the Conference was organised by Mambayya House, Bayero University, Kano (BUK)’s Aminu Kano Centre for Democratic Research and Training (AKCDRT). Very ambitious in scope, the Conference had more than 40 scholarly papers – that probed major aspects of the theme, stood accepted notions on their heads and asked questions of who and why not – presented in a manner only dons in the academia dare and did. Conference Rapporteur Mustafa Ibrahim, a journalist colleague at BUK’s Directorate of Public Affairs, summarises the proceedings:
The aim of the Conference was to provide a forum where stakeholders would, among other things, share experiences and lessons learnt from the experiment of democratic governance by Nigeria, and chart a new path towards consolidating democracy in the country; examine and critically appraise the problems and challenges facing the democratisation process and the prospects of democratic consolidation in Nigeria; and to articulate and recommend practical and executable measures that can ensure the survival of democracy and prevent authoritarian reversals in Nigeria.
The keynote, presented by Professor Okechukwu Ibeanu of the Institute for Development Studies, University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus, was titled “Theorising Liberal Democracy in Nigeria: Appeal, Limits and Transcendence” pointed out that so far three cycles of democratic struggle had not met the aspirations of the African peoples: first, the anti-colonial struggle that ‘ended largely in the enthronement of Western liberal, multiparty electoral democracy’; second, ‘the second independence movements that were never actualised as a rash of military coups and authoritarian regimes stifled [it]’; and third, ‘the anti‑military, anti‑authoritarian struggles that heralded the current phase of democracy in Africa’.
The don advanced the four postulates of liberal democracy: equality of human beings with rights; rational ability to understand their interests; ability to come together in groups to pursue a common interest; and to evolve a government. These postulates find democratic expression in a constitution, a judiciary, free elections, political parties and interest groups and an accountable elected government…The people of Africa, he pointed out, are ‘not just looking for elections, they were also looking for improved economic conditions, welfare and dignity that is not blighted by poverty or power’ and that ‘material wellbeing and political freedom express an organic unity’, and are therefore inseparable.
He explained that in Nigeria and much of Africa, ‘what is left of the second independence and third democracy movements is essentially a petty bourgeois project in the form of liberal democracy’ in contrast to the western world where it is ‘the project of a national bourgeoisie’. For the ‘democratic aspirations of the vast majority of Nigeria’s peoples’ to be realised, Prof. Ibeanu pointed out four areas in which liberal democracy ‘is seriously deficient, and for all of which the quality must be raised: citizenship; institutions and rules; participation and representation; as well as accountability and redress.
The participants, in a communique they issued and signed by BUK Political Scientist Prof. Habu Mohammed, recommended that: to reduce the chances of electoral fraud, Nigeria should adopt full electronic voting and upgrade the current software version of the Smart Card Reader used in voter verification; a law should be enacted banning all politicians convicted of corruption from contesting elections forever; INEC should intensify voter education and training programs to continue to build the capacity of its staff; and Nigeria should continue to accept foreign support in conducting elections, but this must be done without compromising the sovereignty of the nation.
Other recommendations agreed by participants included that: the electorate needs to insist on serious discussions of economic policy during electioneering campaigns because their future well-being depends on it; there is need to encourage political discussion at the family level for greater political participation of all citizens; empowerment strategies, when rolled out, should be culture and context specific; there should be reorientation of attitude toward women participation in politics through public advocacy and media enlightenment campaign; and the media should ensure neutrality and professionalism in its general reportage, particularly of political discourse and issues.
A book, “Ethnic Conflict in Nigeria: Insight into the Tiv-Jukun Ethnic Crisis”, written by Dr. Moses T. Aluaigba, Senior Research Fellow at Mambayya House, was presented and it elicited much interest. The book reviewer, Prof. Kyari Mohammed, VC Modibbo Adama University of Technology, Yola, gave a summary of the complexity of the issues thrown up by the author such as settler/indigene, citizenship question and marginalisation. The author was praised ‘for his intellectual enterprise in producing a work which came at the right time when peace and harmonious co-existence elude areas that were hitherto known to be peaceful’.
Both the Chairman of the occasion, House Speaker Yakubu Dogara and Special Guest Sokoto Governor Aminu Tambuwal urged assembled scholars to diagnose whatever ails the polity and propose treatment or solutions, which the scholars apparently did in the communique. Tambuwal, particularly, frowned on turf fights between the executive, legislative and judicial arms of government, calling instead for a better way to complement each other with an over-riding objective of rendering service to the people and to the country.
The impression one took away from this conference was that, true, much has been achieved in the current democratic experiment, but a lot more can be, and needs to be done, to uplift the material condition of the majority of Nigerians more than 17 years after return to civil rule, although the inquiry under discussion stopped at 2015. The participation of practicing politicians, who gave their field experience, and the launch of the Tiv-Jukun book were the icing on the cake of the conference’s success.
STOP PRESS: It has happened. The N-Power List is out! And Abadam LGA Borno State is ‘LGA of Residence of Emeka’! Really? Interesting! On May 21 this year, in a column on this page titled “A LETTER TO MRS. MARYAM UWAIS” (when she was appointed), we had observed, under the heading EQUITABLE NOT EQUAL, that: “Even though poverty pervades the nation, we here in the North are first cousins of it. Most of it, it must be admitted, by our own hands. So be equitable, not equal, in this mass redistribution of solution. Remember the analogy of PTF roads – the cost of every one hundred kilometres of roads in the North can only pay for twenty in the South because of environmental factors. And then the North is over 70% of the nation’s landmass. Yet they [Southerners] ended up saying: ‘He [Buhari] built more roads in the North!’ They will say so. Let them say!”
Imagine the uproar were many Abubakars to appear in the Bayelsa List! The Police Service Commission (PSC) nearly did same in the 10,000 new police personnel recruitment – the National Assembly (NASS) called PSC’s bluff; now they are basing it on LGAs rather than States. But the Emekas may still appear in Babura or Maradun LGAs. The NASS and Northern Governors have some work here!
My suggested solution: We really need English and Science teachers in the North, and that’s the truth. So let there be a list of Southerners willing and wanting to work in the North as such, and let them be engaged on a separate arrangement, not on N-Power Emeka Abadam! And, ehm, they should come with their own wives.