Richard Tosanwumi
12 January 2009
opinion
THE geographical entity called Nigeria came into being through the Lugardian amalgamation of the Northern and Southern protectorates in 1914, under the watch of the British Colonial masters, and for the next 40 years, nothing of serious political significance took place in the country. The colonialists were contented with exploiting the raw materials found in the territory and shipping them to their home factories for the manufacture of finished goods.
All these changed in the 1950s when the colonialists imposed their parliamentary brand of democracy on our country. This act was a shock to the Nigerian people who, hitherto, had lived in their separate ethnic kingdoms under their traditional method of governance.
Since this monumental political transformation occurred, the Nigerian people have been confronted with numerous problems that have not only endangered the corporate existence of their country as one political entity, but also undermined their quest for improved quality of life as envisaged by the pioneer indigenous politicians who took over power from the colonialists. The million dollar question, therefore, is: Why has democracy failed in Nigeria?
It will be unrealistic to think that this view is popular among members of the elite class in our country who are the beneficiaries of the prevailing deformed democracy, but the fact of the matter remains that other countries in South East Asia, who started the democratic process at the same time with us, have left us far behind in the deliverance of democracy dividends and development of their country.
A careful study of the catalogue of political events in Nigeria, since 1954, will confirm the submission that the country is a catastrophic failure in how democracy works.
To the informed observer of the Nigeria democratic discourse, it was right for the British to have installed the federal system of government because of the multiple kingdoms that comprised the country, each one practising its own separate customs and traditions. Also, the tribes belonged to different religious persuasions. So there was no better way of putting the kingdoms together under one political leadership than what was done.
The initial difficulties in our democracy emanated from the strangeness of the system to the people who needed to literally adopt a new style of governance overnight. But urged on by the pioneer politicians who were eager to exercise political power, the democratic journey continued with imperfect modalities.
The civilization and literacy level of the people prevented them from understanding the basic tenets of democracy, posing many challenges to the individual citizens.
Between the political class and the ordinary citizens in a democratic dispensation, certain principles and practices must be agreed upon and adopted. One of them is the surrender of power by the people to the elected representatives, and the other is the acceptance of a free and fair electoral process as the only way of attaining electoral office. These ingredients seem to have been present in the early period of the First Republic (1960-1966).
Our democracy ran into stormy weather when the Northern Region based political party, the Northern Peoples Congress (NPC) developed the appetite to force itself on the Action Group controlled Western Region at the 1964 federal elections because its control of power at the centre. Like a dark cloud, this ambition soon blossomed into a heavy downpour that put the Western Region in severe crisis in which violence of massive proportions was visited on the people, and a state of emergency declared, and an administrator installed.
This political crisis, which occurred only after four years of self-rule, was used by Major Kaduna Nzeogwu and his fellow troopers as an excuse to bloodily terminate the First Republic. If one may ask; how did these young military chaps hope to rectify the murky waters the democratic process had run into? What did they know about democracy? Was their action not a wild goose chase?
Sadly, after their ill-thought out escapade, they could not hold on to power and, thus, began the gradual destruction of the Nigerian democracy. The next coup was born out of ethno-regional grievance. Ethnicity became the platform for political hegemony, and a huge gulf of mistrust developed between the military and political leaders from the three ethnic majority tribes of Hausa/Fulani, Yoruba and Igbo, exacerbated by religious differences. This eventually led to the Nigerian Civil War.
These primordial instincts were further strengthened by the two main political ideologies that characterized the political environment. The North was mainly conservative while the West was progressive. Rather than lead to the creation of enduring political foundations, these ideologies polarized the people on ethno-regional lines.
Whatever has happened politically in Nigeria since 1966 has borne vivid marks of ethnicity, religious persuasion and regionalism. Even the Fourth Republic under, President Obasanjo, had imprints of tribalism that President Yar'Adua inherited. The Nigerian politicians are a self-endangered species, working for self-aggrandizement without regard for the survival of the democratic process.
All these over-shadowed the fundamental requirement of sound democracy that places decision making in the hands of the individual person and the political leaders hijacked party activities, eclipsing intra-party democracy and imposing their will and candidates at election times.
As if the damages done to our democracy by the former military heads of state were not enough, our civilian politicians paradoxically took the abuse of the democratic process to higher heights. Having dispensed with ideological basics in the formation and conduct of political parties, these politicians indulged in the enthronement of charlatans as political leaders and desecration of the electoral process.
The 2003 and 2007 general elections were classic cases of electoral malpractices, and in spite of the numerous reversals of the declared results, INEC's boss, Prof. Maurice Iwu, comically told us that the USA needed to learn from him how to conduct elections after Senator Barack Obama was elected. The state electoral commissions have also performed like the INEC, putting our democracy in serious jeopardy.
It is unbelievable that local government council elections held in Jos, Plateau State, recently snowballed into a violent crisis that claimed over 200 lives. This speaks volume about the health of democracy in the country.
One evidence of the failure of Nigeria's democracy is the tendency to go back to ethnic, regional and religious routes at the slightest provocation. Nigerians do not yet see themselves as one people with a common destiny; the greatest perpetrators are the political leaders.
Strangely, President Yar'Adua has not thought it fit to hasten his electoral process and restive credibility to the voting process and those at the helm of affairs in the country seem contented with enjoying the gains of their position, instead of labouring to put on ground the basic structures for the practice of democracy.
What manner of democracy do we say we practice when the political parties lack ideological base? How do the people relate with political parties and make choices during elections?
Today, the PDP has no ideological colouration, just as the AC, ANPP and other parties. They are amorphous contraptions carrying on as hustlers in the land of 'anything goes'.
Democracy without free and fair elections is a misnomer, and the will of the people is not respected. The representatives are mere impostors who are not accountable to the electorate.
Perhaps, this is the time to sound a note of warning that if nothing urgent is done to bring sanity to the democratic process before the 2011 general elections, what happened recently in Kenya and Zimbabwe could also happen here in Nigeria. Even the Guinea experience may be clamped on us.
President Yar'Adua should understand the enormity of the tasks on his shoulders and work to make our democracy virile and sustainable. What is on the ground now is very fragile and prone to recurrent crisis.
Dr. Tosanwumi, analyst & commentator on public affiars, writes from Warri, Delta State.
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