Peculiar invalidating features of Nigerian democracy

Exposure to established democracies reinforces the fact that Nigeria is far from imbibing the principles of democracy. Bridges spring up in the established world without the fanfare of ‘commissioning’. It’ll be scandalous for NGOs in Britain to call for the abdication of Her Majesty the Queen! The Canadian Union of Journalists would lose its public […]

Exposure to established democracies reinforces the fact that Nigeria is far from imbibing the principles of democracy. Bridges spring up in the established world without the fanfare of ‘commissioning’. It’ll be scandalous for NGOs in Britain to call for the abdication of Her Majesty the Queen! The Canadian Union of Journalists would lose its public respect if it were to organise ‘award ceremony’ for non-members. So where did we get the abnormal features that invalidate Nigeria’s democracy?

Madam Salome Abuh, was full of life and expectations whatever could have been the outcome of elections in Ochadamu, Kogi State last November except that regime thugs had worse plans. They surrounded her home, doused it with petrol and set it on fire. They claimed they were avenging an incident that had no connection to her. Eyewitnesses recall the murderous arsonists kept firing in the air to prevent her from escaping. They held the rest of her town hostage as they supervised her slow and painful death.

President Muhammadu Buhari described the outcome of that election in which his political godson, Yahaya Bello ‘won’ as ‘free and fair’ and congratulated the winner. The incineration of an opposition party secretariat was not even mentioned. This classical do or die phenomenon in Nigerian politics is alien to the democratic attributes of true nations. A system birthed in violence and bloodletting disqualifies itself from the characteristics of true democracy.

A society that enforced BVN and TIN has no excuse not to embrace e-voting nor could it justify closing its borders because of polls. Electronic voting would reduce under-aged voting, thuggery, arson and ballot snatching. Obviously, we’ve learnt nothing from Operation Wẹ tí ẹ of the early 60s. Tatatatata politics has entered into our polity and even peaceful protests guaranteed by our laws are now met with the thuggish repression of the unknown civilian.

Deification of political leadership is another alien part of Nigeria’s ‘democratic’ process. It cuts across parties and geopolitical regions. Nigeria’s elected and appointed officials consider themselves as constituted authority something they inherited from discredited monarchy. These people see themselves as demigods.

Criticising your government is the hallmark of democracies all over the world. France has its gilets jaunes and even Hong Kong has embraced it. Nigeria’s elected leaders want public office garnished with the absolutism of totalitarian regimes but they don’t embrace the capital punishment reserved for abuse of public office. Our endorsement of the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights count for nothing except when protests are in support of the regime in power.

The law enforcement agencies that fail to protect the nation from vandals are adept at arresting unarmed critics and laying ridiculous charges against them, including – insulting an ‘elected’ official. We have two obnoxious bills hurtling through the legislature to institute the monoculture of silence known only despotic regimes.

In the second republic, the phenomenon of ọmọ wa ni, ẹ jẹ ó ṣe, that bestows legitimacy of political office on the unqualified based on their origin or religion is now of national application. People’s allegiance is no longer to the country, the state or democratic value; they are dictated by ethno-religious affiliations.

Established democracies separated the religion from the state. In Nigeria, politics dominates religious intervention in state affairs. Recall a certain religious leader who threatened to open the gates of hell if his preferred candidate is not returned to power. Although the poor buy from the same market and are exposed to the same consequences of bad governance; some support their oppressors if they belong to the same creed or geographical leaning. This excuses nonperforming political actors from unaccountability. Democracy does not grow where despots get unquestioned ethno-religious allegiance; it reinforces their tendency towards authoritarianism. It supports the low expectations from elected and appointed officials.

When a government agency, funded from public taxes and rates provide statutory services, even its feedback is subject to tedious auditing by the people. In Nigeria, elected officials and appointees get accolades for doing their jobs as if they used their personal funds to execute the projects. They display the dubious plaques given by equally dubious associations for the public.

A creeping phenomenon where publicly funded projects are named after elected or appointed officials or sited in the communities is now rife here. Regime apologists justify this form of odious nepotism by saying their predecessors did worse! Daura now has a Transport University. Years ago when General Babangida attempted to put SUVs on rail tracks, it was called the IBB Revolution.

If our founding fathers had embraced this concept, Ahmadu Bello University would have gone to Rabah, Obafemi Awolowo University to to Ikenne and Nigeria would have been named after Nnamdi Azikiwe. It is theft of patrimony to arrogate to projects funded with common wealth to individuals because they are in government.

Our democracy suffers from the non-delineation of the official and the private. Our dagutu or demigods appropriate proceeds from official functions to massage their overloaded egos. People arrogate to their names institution established from public funds as if they funded it with their stash of cash. State governments have no scruples placing signposts on federal projects while the anomaly of legislative projects now consume a substantial chunk of our national budget.

Journalism groups, communities and NGOs delegitimize the democratic process with their fake honorific titles and awards, and they are inching further. An NGO in Kano allegedly sent a petition to Abdullahi Ganduje requesting him to depose the Emir of Kano! A governor recorded pocketing proceeds of crime gets an integrity award from one of these unconscionable groups before he could be indicted or tried.

People exposed to functional democracy find these aberrations totally odious and they are getting worse. If these qualify as democratic ideals, it sure is the the democracy of the jungle as depicted in survival videos of the Serengeti park.