Democracy: What Does this Actually Mean in Nigeria?

  By Femi Senu | @Femi_Senu | Monday 30 May 2016 | 23:40 GMT

NIGERIA – Enduring democracy does not mean democratic values are applied or maintained and it does not mean that everyone enjoys democratic values. But the term ‘enduring’ can suggest only a few people or a section of society enjoy the benefits of democracy and its values. Today, Nigeria has been marking its 17th year of democracy day (although officially commemorated on 29 May) and several news agencies have been asking what Nigerian politicians have to say to Nigerian citizens around the world. We have collected varying comments and think Nigerians can learn a lot from this.

According to the Senate President Bukola Saraki:

“Democracy is not only an accepted system of government, but also the best solution for the problems of a multicultural, multilingual and multi-religious society like Nigeria. Nigeria’s democracy has become more mature in 17 unbroken years, as was demonstrated by the peaceful change of power from one party to another. Yet, there is a need to strengthen electoral rules in the nation.”

According to Garba Shehu, the Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity:

“Strong institutions are required. Strong institutions have been destroyed by strong people, and it takes strong people to rebuild them. Recognising that corruption is a serious issue within this part of the world, the current administration intends to not mingle with prosecutors by asking them to drop a case against someone even if they are a member of the ruling party. The good news is that funds recovered from corrupt practices are everywhere from the ICPC, EFCC and the Central Bank of Nigeria and the information will be released on Wednesday.”

According to Professor Umar Pate, Faculty of Communication, Bayero University Kano:

“Economic issues must be addressed. Nigerians are desperate, and this is where the president’s credibility will be tested.”

On the question of what Nigeria should embrace on democracy day, Senator Ahmed Abdulkadir, former Chairman of Alliance for Democracy said:

“We should ask what the meaning of democracy is and make sure what we call democracy is reflected in our day to day activities, in our lifestyles, in how we relate with the rich and the poor, giving each and every Nigerian a sense of belonging and to make sure that each and every one of us thinks like democrat.”

When asked to offer advice to Nigeria’s politicians, this is what the former chairman said:

“Advising a politician is difficult because we all belong to that club and each one of us thinks in a different way. But the most important thing is that all of us as politicians should cherish one thing: the unity that democracy has brought into the country. If anything comes to divide us, then in the name of democracy we will come together to make sure we fight so that democracy succeeds.”

And to Nigerians:

“Nigerians should be patient with politicians because generally in political terms, we speak not from only the two sides of our mouth, but we always try to exaggerate issues. However, the most important thing is that at the end of the day we make sure that the party agenda, constitution or manifesto of the party is implemented for the generality of Nigerians. That is one thing we should always try to be guided by, that is the manifesto of the party, to make sure that at least and no less than 75% of the manifesto is being implemented so that Nigerians can have confidence in our democracy.”

And when asked what politicians should put into consideration on democracy day, this is what Ahmed Abdulkadir said:

“The questions should be: how far has the journey been, where are we coming from, where are we going to, what have been our achievements, what have been our shortfalls and have the generality of Nigerians had confidence in us? We need to ask ourselves all of these questions so that at the end of the day, after analysing ourselves by ourselves, we can think of the best way forward so that the next time we are celebrating the 18th year of democracy day, we can do so jubilantly. The aim is for there to be at least some change in the way Nigerians look at our politicians generally.

In an interview with TVC news, Anthony Adefuye, a former Nigerian Lawmaker, describes the present situation in Nigeria with regard to democracy and gives his opinions as to what he makes of the past 17 years:

“So far, so good! We have come a long way and the fact that we are able to have continuous democracy for 17 years I think is something to celebrate. The fact that we are now able to get a president who is feeling for the common people is the greatest achievement we have so far. I know people are saying he is slow, he is this and that, don’t mind them, they are people who want to steal. They are always hungry to grab and grab.”

The former lawmaker was then asked whether he was fair in his assessment of Buhari, with the interviewer suggesting that 3 million jobs were promised to Nigerians and it was reasonable for Nigerians to expect more:

“The president did not expect to meet an empty safe; they emptied everything. And that is the result of what we observe today. Even those who were in security, defence – they stole everything away”.

To which the response was to Mr Adefuye that there was no need to promise so much, when he did not know what to expect. This was his retort:

“That is not true. You have to promise when it comes to politics. You need to have your own plan and you must have your own ideas. Ours is that when we get there, we are going to devote our entire life to the people and that is exactly what we are going to do and that is what we are doing. But before we can do that, we need money and we need to recover this money from those who have stolen it. There are two reasons why we must do that: (1) to teach those coming to support Buhari that they should not steal and if you steal, there is nowhere to go because we will catch you, and (2) we need money to do all these things. The price of oil came down, we did not expect that. The price came down from 140 naira to almost 18 Naira. Now we have militants blowing up oil installations, we have reduced oil production to 1.1 million barrels a day from 2.8 million barrels a day. As soon as this government came to power, people from Biafra began agitating and now there are militants, who blew up overnight, calling themselves the avengers and blowing up all the pipes. If this is democracy, we have to be careful.”

As the commentary suggests, 17 years on as a democracy, Nigeria has made a lot of progress. But to accelerate this progress, more needs to be done at local level. Anti-democratic practices begin at low level and are then magnified in the bureaucratic arrangement, which is demonstrated by how much corruption is experienced in Nigeria. Yet, the job of politicians is to ensure the values of democracy are enjoyed at all levels.

Every politician has a family, community and state where they come from. For democracy to be enjoyed by all, it needs to be effectively implemented in the family, community and state and always in that order. Addressing this issue in stages can see a gradual change in the way politicians are seen, but also in improving the image of Nigerian democracy.

While enduring democracy does not mean that every section of society applies democratic values, it would not be a huge request to work towards this possibility as a goal. Many of the world’s advanced democracies embrace the values of liberty, equality and brotherhood. For Nigeria to stand as a glowing example in Africa, it is time to see this change.