Voices

Last week’s Daily Trust Annual Dialogue must have been some event, going by reports and the reverberations that followed it. I suppose, for a number of reasons, it was inevitable that it would provide a platform for voices that need to be heard under today’s circumstances. It had to capture rising tempers inviting attention to […]

Last week’s Daily Trust Annual Dialogue must have been some event, going by reports and the reverberations that followed it. I suppose, for a number of reasons, it was inevitable that it would provide a platform for voices that need to be heard under today’s circumstances. It had to capture rising tempers inviting attention to many of the nation’s bulging baggage, as well as sobering voices cautioning against damaging pessimism and unfair devaluation of the values and achievements of our democratic experiment spanning the last 20 years. It held in a week with profound symbolism in the nation’s history, a period that evokes deep emotions and fierce arguments over causes and events in a past which still haunt nation. By coincidence, the Dialogue was caught squarely in the centre of a very serious quarrel over what a region of the country can or cannot do. With a few months since national elections and by-elections behind it, and a few days before the Supreme Court decided victors of bitter elections, the dialogue could not avoid divisive arguments over the quality of our elections. It would appear that the Dialogue provided a rich setting for some restrained but powerful exchanges over what verdict to pass on our efforts to build a democratic system that works.

It will be uncharitable to say Malam Kabir Yusuf, Chairman, Board of Directors of Media Trust Limited baited the presenters, but he did ask some very direct questions they could not ignore, questions that are either generally murmured by Nigerians, or are only heard during those tiresome exchanges on social media platforms when young and/or poorly-informed Nigerians are venting frustrations. Can we, he asked, confidently say that our democratic system is well and truly entrenched, such that contemplation of options make no sense? President Babangida dismissed the notion of a military intervention as idiotic, while Professor Soyinka suggested that our democratic framework    today is as wobbly as it was in the 1960s.

Neither positions addresses the  question whether Nigerians will defend our democratic experiment with sticks and stones and civil disobedience against any adventurers who think we are on the wrong trajectory. Should we chalk up the last 20 years as real progress, or is the nation drowning in disputes over its meaning and character, its increasing failure to secure its citizens and uncertainty over its future? Can a leadership which cannot provide basic personal security to its elite and  humble citizens alike win bitter arguments over rights of regions to erect barriers around themselves and show up its impotence? Is Amotekun basically a political provocation, a ploy to exploit the weaknesses of the administration under the guise of improving regional security?

Apparently all speakers had come prepared to take up  some or all of the issues Malam Kabir raised. The intelligent former Governor of Borno State, now Senator Kashim Shettima had to say something positive about an arrangement that made him governor for eight years and liberalized the political space, but he painted a depressing picture of a democratic system that had no respect for the rule of law, excluded women almost entirely from all governance matters (except, of course as voters), and a nation that has no plans for its future in the manner it runs its affairs. Hon Lynda Ikpeazu said we are running a  democratic system without basic democratic values, strong institutions or party system driven by distinct ideologies. Governor of Ekiti State, Kayode Fayemi used up some of his time to make the case that Amotekun will improve security of the citizen in the region where it will operate, rather than compete with the federal police. This detour to defend a slippery cause drowned the most important point made that afternoon, which was that democratization needed to expand the economic opportunities of citizens, if it was to mean anything at all. In a nation with 70% of the population under 30, the economy must be the only guarantor that democracy, or even the nation, will survive.

In just a few minutes, former Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Chief John Odigie-Oyegun summed it all up: Nigerians are unhappy with their leaders, and have been increasingly unhappy for the entire 20 years since the elections of 1999. This is the most potent threat to our democracy, this feeling by the general population that leaders are not serving them. Something is fundamentally wrong, he said, something he cannot put his finger on, but people are losing faith in politicians and losing hope in the nation. Someone who attended the event said this elder could have been carried out of the hall on shoulders of  a cheering mob for his humbling observations. This is the man who led his party to Buhari’s first victory, yet is still in the trenches with politicians from his neck of the woods that will love to humiliate him over crumbs.

A democratic system without democrats. A constitution-based system that treats the rule of law largely as a subversive and disposable  irritant. Governance that grows poverty and inequality, isolating critical demographics from mainstream political and economic processes. Leaders that alienate support and breed widespread frustration and anger. Judiciary that has become central in deciding who leads, losing more respect from a citizenry which sees it in all its nakedness.  Collapsed security and public safety institutions that leave the citizen at the mercy of an alarming array of criminals and threats. Leadership with its back against the wall, fighting back  opposition and subversion by retreating under cliche and tired press releases. There are voices for each, and  voices for all of them. They used to be popular in social media and places where the administration has few friends. Not anymore. Leaders now paint frightening pictures of the state of our existence. From the adventures of Kanu’s IPOB, the intrusive  effrontery of IMN, the unceasing  belligerence of Boko Haram warlords, marauding killers of villagers and peasants, audacious kidnappers that have caged the nation’s mobile streak, we now have organized challenges from regional groupings and sundry opportunists daring the federal administration to do its worst.

Make no mistake about it: the Amotekun provocation has all it takes to confront the Buhari administration with its worst nightmare. It could walk into a trap that will pitch it against every Nigerian who feels the need to ask someone else for protection except President Buhari. If the administration sees this issue in purely legal terms, it could win the battle and lose the war very badly. If it yields to the blackmail without much resistance, it risks igniting a serious political war around 2023 that could destabilize the country long before the elections. Of all the battles President Buhari had fought, none is more challenging to win than successfully throwing the constitution at Ametokun and hoping that it will silence the rising voices demanding more than he has given. The loudest voice is one demanding that President Buhari moves from the routine to the extraordinary. There is little hope for the future if he fails to do this..

 

Abubakar can be reached at [email protected]