24 March 2008
analysis
Lagos — Although, the United States of America (US) has practised democracy for over 200 years, Nigerians who know that their country's civil rule is patterned after that of US expect ample similarities between the two democracies. But reverse appears to be the case. Omololu Ogunmade reviews a recent experience in the US and its lessons for Nigerian politicians
Eliot Spitzer, the immediate past governor of New York in the United States, set another world record penultimate Thursday, when he honourably took his exit from office. Spitzer, a renowned lawyer and former attorney general of the United States, who specialized in investigating crimes, financial crimes as well as prostitution, threw in the towel in submission to the will of the people, having been allegedly caught arranging to meet a prostitute at a hotel in Washington D.C. This attitude, in the conception of Americans, implied that Spitzer lacked the moral fortitude to hold forth as their governor.
Spitzer's misdeamenour came to the citizens of the state as a rude shock because he was perceived to have himself fallen victim of societal ills, which he had spent a substantial part of his life to unravel.
The development has however secured the attention of a number of Nigerians who felt compelled to juxtapose Spitzer's experience with situations in Nigeria, notably among elected office holders. In the views of such concerned minds, the situation invokes nostalgic feelings, recalling that Nigerian politicians do not shift grounds even when apparently caught in gross misconduct and even corruption. Instead, they hold tightly on to power, rather than toe the path of honour by taking their exit when they have apparently failed. Certain observers, who analysed the trend, reasoned that if Spitzer were to be a Nigerian, he would have caused the polity to be heated up or had to be impeached before he could leave office.
Some of them compared Spitzer with the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Maurice Iwu, who despite conducting the election adjudged by some commentators as the worst so far in the history of Nigeria, has held on to office, despite several calls for his resignation. Similarly, former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mrs. Patricia Olubunmi Etteh heated the polity up to ten times than it had ever been, resulting in the death of her fellow colleague, Aminu Safana and was only extremely humiliated, before she could leave office. Those who call for Iwu's resignation anchor their calls on beliefs that the INEC boss lacks the nerves to retain his seat as the head of the national electoral body.
Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, who was sworn in as governor of Bayelsa State on 29 May 1999 ran into a major scandal when he was arrested and detained in London on charges of money laundering in September 2005 by London Metropolitan Police officers who allegedly found £1 million cash at one of his London homes. He jumped bail in December 2005 from the United Kingdom by allegedly disguising himself as a woman. He has however denied this allegation. Inspite of the scandal, he held on precariously to the governorship. He was eventually suspended from his party, the People's Democratic Party (PDP), one week earlier before being impeached by the Bayelsa State Assembly on December 9, 2005. Alamieyeseigha after his humiliation was replaced by his Deputy, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, the incumbent vice president.
Commentators have also reasoned that Spitzer's comment upon his resignation speaks volumes in relation to democratic norms which stipulate that people are the ultimate custodians of power. For them, Spitzer's submission to the demand of the people that he no longer commanded the dignity to hold sway as their governor depicts very clearly that ultimate power in a democratic setting does not reside with the elected officials, but rather with the electorate.
One of such notable Nigerians who hold this view is the gubernatorial candidate of the Democratic Peoples Alliance (DPA) in the last governorship election in Lagos State, Mr. Jimi Agbaje. Agbaje who admitted that Spitzer's attitude was not different from that of Nigerian politicians, however, noted that the major difference is that whereas, politicians occupy varying elective offices, the people are the ultimate rulers in the United States. He noted however, that the development is antithetical to what obtains in Nigeria, where peoples' will, demands and yearnings are mere expressions or perhaps conceptions that are neither delivered nor honoured by politicians.
This according to Agbaje becomes justifiable, recalling that Spitzer remarked while filing in his resignation notice that he had opted to quit in order to forestall his private woes overriding the wishes of the people who elected him into the office. "I cannot allow my private failings to disrupt the peoples work," Spitzer had said. Agbaje therefore, noted that Nigeria needs to invest so much in public enlightenment and public education with a view to getting the masses acquainted with notions that they are the rulers while elected politicians only act on their behalf.
Said Agbaje: "That's a practical case of power residing with the people, because the case you are talking about, if you remember, the first day the governor came out, the issue of resignation did not even arise in his speech. And if I remember well, he stated clearly that he didn't believe that his private life should be an issue in public governance, but then the people felt otherwise.
"I believe the lesson we should learn as Nigerians is that power really resides with us and when we insist on a direction, that direction should be. I think that was what happened in the States. He didn't want to leave. And it is not different in Nigeria. Politicians don't want to leave. People in power generally don't want to leave. It is the people; it is the system that forces them out. We must continue to build on an enlightenment, on education of the general public so that we can get to that level," he insisted.
Echoing Agbaje is a senatorial candidate of the Action Congress (AC) in Ogun East senatorial district at the last National Assembly election, Barrister Bisi Adegbuyi. He restated that a leader can only accept responsibility for his failures as Spitzer did, when he understands that leaders are made by the people and are responsible to the people.
According to him, Spitzer had to resign because he understood the power of the people as the basis for his emergence and hence left without option to quit, having fallen short of peoples' expectation. Adegbuyi however, regretted that in Nigeria, such development is unthinkable because those who preside over the affairs of the government are not leaders, but are rather rulers, who in his perception, impose their own will on the people and proceed further to trample on popular wishes.
Further, he said it is the alleged contempt of Nigerian "rulers" to the interest of the people that culminates in their desperations to hang on to power, rather than honourably bowing out when they have apparently failed. He argued that to expect "rulers" in Nigeria to toe the path of Spitzer, will almost equal ascending to heaven to import spirits that will carry out operations in the country. He ruled out the possibility of such experience happening in Nigeria as constituted today.
Adegbuyi is therefore of the belief that a situation where peoples' votes don't count and the ruling party's internal democracy is characterized with alleged decadence, expecting products of such a party to perform creditably will only amount to living in the clover.
"I think the lesson lies in the fact that democracy is about the people. Peoples' interest is paramount. The governor that resigned said he would not allow his personal interest to override that of the people. He said his personal feelings should not be allowed to stand in the way of the peoples' interest. The implication is that he owed his office to the people who voted for him and of course, he would stop at nothing in ensuring that all the campaign promises, when seeking peoples' votes were fulfilled. He found himself in a situation where his personal feelings contradicted peoples' interest, having been caught patronizing prostitutes and as an attorney general before he became governor, he was extremely successful. He was waging war against prostitution. It was ironic that the same person, because of personal failings, allowed himself to be consumed.
"The essence is, do not subjugate people's interest. Reverse is the case here, because peoples' interest doesn't matter. As a matter of fact, our rulers - because we don't have leaders here; if we have, there are very few of them. Our rulers have contempt for the people. Peoples' interest doesn't matter. That is why somebody who has failed, to all intent and purposes, in carrying out his duties of providing for the needs of the people, will continue to stay in office in the face of mounting criticisms, incontrovertible evidence that he is capable of leading the people.
"Don't let us be in a hurry. Let our votes count here first before we begin to look into the personal failings or failures of our leaders. So, if we have to look at American templates to judge Nigerian politicians, we'll have to go to the moon to look for saints to come and govern Nigeria. Democracy has endured in America for so many years. They keep improving. Unfortunately, we have not started here because there is no democracy in Nigeria. Make no mistakes about it Where votes don't count, where there's scant respect for rule of law, then we 'll continue to have pseudo democracy. Democracy is about the interest of the people. Let the peoples' votes count. Let their will prevail. Anywhere that one is not happening, we should stop saying that we are running a democracy. This is the tragedy of the Nigerian situation.
"One would have expected the PDP, to perform excellently to be able to retain its officers in office. You point to the achievements of PDP in the last eight years that it has been in power. It has been woes upon woes. And worst still, the party has again demonstrated its morbid for ballot box in their recent convention, where a predetermined result had been perfected. If the party that controls the levers of government does not believe in internal democracy, how come we should expect such a party to superintend the conduct of a free and fair election?" Adegbuyi queried.
Adegbuyi who expressed pessimistic views that Nigeria can witness a revolutionary change over night, reasoned that such a dream is like day dreaming because in his view, as long as the political scene continues to parade the same set of people, who lack a sense of innovation and patriotism, change will continue to elude Nigeria.
"Have you seen anything to convince me that a change is about to be put in place? You don't do things the same way and expect to get different results. 48 years of independence, it has always been one agitation or the other. I will not stop reading Chief Obafemi Awolowo's books. What we are today yearning for, the problems that today confront Nigeria had been identified by that great leader. Even in his days, he had always been championing the supremacy of the will of the people, the need to fight corruption and how many years now after his death? We are still grappling with the same problem Awolowo was confronted with.
"It simply shows that no progress is being made. You may have some infrastructural facilities being put in place because of petro-dollars. Sustainable growth and progress have eluded Nigeria for so long. The same set of people who have been at the corridors of power for so long are still controlling the levers of government today, either directly or indirectly. Their stooges are still there. And worse still, we still retain the same set of structures of government that have failed abysmally to lift the soul of Nigeria. And without being immodest, for as long as we retain the structures, for as much as we recycle leaders; for as long as people of uncommon talents are excluded from political process for so long, Nigeria will remain a sleeping giant," Adegbuyi submitted.
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