Nigeria’s democratisation is slow —Dahiru Musdapher

What is the legal implication of the gale of defections by political actors from one party to the other especially considering the provisions of Section 68 (g) of the 1999 Constitution?There are a lot of opinions out there. But I believe this is a matter before the courts of law at the moment, so I […]

What is the legal implication of the gale of defections by political actors from one party to the other especially considering the provisions of Section 68 (g) of the 1999 Constitution?
There are a lot of opinions out there. But I believe this is a matter before the courts of law at the moment, so I think it is better not to pre-empt the outcome of the court.
But the one involving Ondo State governor is not before the court?
I think the general issue affects those who are holding legislative positions as opposed to those who are holding executive positions. I think there is a distinction between the two. The arguments for the legislative positions is that it means in effect that the party that has the clear majority in the House could effectively lose that clear majority by members who are elected on the platform of one party moving to the other which would change the legislative platform.  I think the argument in the legislative position is much stronger because in the past, there have been several governors  who have moved from one party to the other and it has not even been subject of litigation. The issues for argument which are before many courts have to do with legislative seats and the implication for majority and minority parties.
Many people have argued that the mass failure in this year’s Law School examination is as a result of falling standard of the law programme. What is your take?
I think the matrix to use in determining whether standards have fallen or not cannot simply  be  on the number of students who passed the exam. There could be peculiar circumstances which have led to that. But generally, we all know that the quality of university education in Nigeria has not been as good as it used to be. Now, the facilities in the universities are overstrained; all the universities are underfunded, the quality of the teaching staff and the motivational package does not allow for better professionalism. To some extent it is the same kind of problems that even affect the students, because they are worrying about so many things that are happening in the country that they are not able to concentrate on what they are doing. So there are a lot of direct and indirect issues that could affect that situation.
You must have observed the rise in violence, terrorism and all that. What is the way out?
I think in a previous interview I had about two years ago, I made a postulation at that point that military alone cannot solve the problem of insurgency in the country. It has to be a multi-pronged approach. These things emanate from the weakness of our social systems, the continued neglect of youth issues, and education. For instance if you look at the Maitasine crisis of 1980 in Kano, afterwards there was  commission of inquiry report on the crisis, a white paper was written, some recommendations were proffered when they looked at the causative elements. When you sit down and look at it, you will see that none of those recommendations were implemented over the intervening years. The weak social systems are what gave rise to the problems which have taken a completely different dimension. The capacity of the security agencies to tackle the problem is seriously under question.
Perhaps part of the problem is the way we play our politics and sentiments that have become very high. You find all kinds of conspiracy theories being thrown around as reason behind these things. So there is no concentration of public scrutiny on where the issues ought to be. Because to a large extent I think the government is failing to provide adequate information of what they are actually doing and where the problems are.
I think there is need for increased transparency about government action so that the public will be more assured that government is doing everything it can under the situation so that the people can clearly understand that these are where the challenges are. And this is the reason why it is taking so long for government to arrest the situation.
 But provided there is no information and there appears to be lack of transparency in government actions, the public will allow all kinds of conspiracy theories to thrive. And these theories in themselves are further dividing the country.
These insurgency issues are heavily politicised and it is becoming very difficult to say who is responsible and who is not. But the bottom line is that irrespective of what the efforts of the government of the day is, it is the primary responsibility of any government to provide security for its citizens.
 And very clearly, I would say that the position as it is now indicates that there is a failure on the part of the security agencies to meet up with the challenge. As I said earlier, this is also a joint responsibility which must involve the members of the civil society, traditional and religious leaders, elder statesmen and every relevant stakeholder in the society must play a part in ensuring that this insurgency is finally put to rest.
As a politician, how do you assess Nigeria’s preparation for the 2015 general elections?
I have heard somewhere that there has never been a successful revolutionary social change in human history. Human beings accept social change as a process of evolution. If you look at our history, we had the African cultural system with respect for constituted authorities. And it is the leadership that makes decisions for the people. This was what the colonial people came to meet. Real democracy is supposed to be the other way round.
 The voice of the people is ultimately what matters. For that change to real democracy to happen, it is not going to be overnight. I would have expected that after about 15 years, this is  only going to be the fourth election circle since the return to civil rule.
 But you can see that the democratisation process is very slow because of a lot of issues we have as a country. It is still a deeply divided country; we have still not been able to deal with our diversity in a way that we are constantly marching forward. The same questions that have bedeviled the development of the country in the 60s to a large extent are still with us. The differences are still deep; sentiments are still high; there is hardly any objectivity in national discourse.  Ethno-religious sentiments appear to be the underlining sentiment that determines what the politics is supposed to be.
What is the solution to these challenges?
There should be a huge question mark on the various mechanisms that we have put in place in the past to deal with our so-called diversity and differences. For instance if you take issues like federal character, quota system, rotational political offices, you will find that these are all unique systems that were put in place to deal with diversity in the country, so that every group will have a sense of belonging, so that nobody will feel left out.
I think the time has come for us to check the efficacy of these mechanisms, assess them on a proper scale and be honest about whether these things effectively have been able to bring us closer together or maybe have succeeded to create more problems than the ones they are solving. And I think it is shameful that after all these years the primary concern of the electorate about the candidate especially, for the office of the president in Nigeria, starts with the person’s ethnicity, religion or tribe or group rather than on the issue of capacity to govern the country.
It is rather unfortunate that at this stage, the nationalists or people who have the belief in one true Nigeria have not been able to foster such vision for Nigeria. So the masses and the electorate are easy to manipulate by whipping up such kinds of sentiments. The national debate as we approach the election should be on issues, and there are more than enough, but sentiments will once again be in the front burner.