June 12: In Democracy We Trust…

By Adama Gaye

The fate of Nigeria’s decaying democracy is staring at us. 

Nobody can escape the numerous holes disfiguring it while all kinds of anxious questions are also at our feet. Because history is back with a vengeance. Asking: what have you done so far since the Nigerian nation teetered on the brink of its demise when it fell flat on her face 30 years ago?

On this day, on a fateful June 12, in 1993, while all Nigerians, across all geographies and her Diaspora, were bracing for the advent of a great, sunny day, on our long-battered land, heralding the maturing of a new, strong, democratic culture, a brutal curtain, an iron curtain, fell on us with the annulment of the very transparent presidential election held that year.

We had thought, naively, that “militics”, the military version of civilian rule that long was in charge of the destiny of the leading African country would deliver on its promise -a peaceful transition to power from them to a new, civilian, leadership brought about by what was one of the most competitive polls in recent history!

Observers from around the world, voters, the media, academics and the ordinary citizenry had come to the conclusion that Moshood Abiola, the media and industrial magnate turned politician, had roundly defeated his rival, Bashir Tofa, in a two-horse race hailed throughout the nation as fair and just.

When the military regime of General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida declared null and void the election, the whole country was literally in turmoil. Its image dented. The world is looking down at Nigeria as the sick nation of an Africa that was already going south. And no wonder that Babangida was welcomed to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Summit, held a few days later in Cotonou, Benin Republic, was humiliating for the most populous and wealthy of all member states making-up the 15 nations community…I witnessed it all in my then capacity as ECOWAS’ Communication Director.

The blow was terrible. Since then, Nigeria has been fighting to restore its lost democratic credentials. To be true, progresses have been recorded, as testified by the end of formal Khaki, military, rule even though, dressed in Agbadas, two of its leading representatives, namely Generals Olusegun Obasanjo and Muhammadu Buhari, occupied the highest seat of the land as presidents during the past 30 years along other civilian rulers.

The road has been rocked with all sorts of hurdles, but being the ever-resilient nation, one must observe that Nigeria has come a long way from the brink. And despite its still lingering democratic shortcomings, it is justified to salute Nigeria’s recovery -at least in words and papers- in its embrace of democracy, rule of law, freedom of expression and opinion, media pluralism and trade unions voices.

That more and more citizens are feeling the need to get involved and speak up, provide further comfort, regardless of the many travails it is still facing, including with the lack of acknowledgement thus far that nothing can be achieved to entrench democracy therein as long as the citizen is not at the centre of its deployment, the fact is that we no longer live in a time of vertical, authoritarian, leadership.

Let us be blunt: Nigeria could, and must, have fared better, especially on the economic and social fronts in light of the fact that democracy without justice and shared-prosperity is an empty shell. 

What missed further, and has been strikingly highlighted, is the failure of its institutions to meet their promise to roll-out a credible supervision of the democratic proposition for such a great country. 

Witness only the utter treason by the Independent Electoral National Commission (INEC), including the various blunders it covered, considering that the elections it organised in March, this year, were, to cast them mildly, catastrophic, without electronic transmission of the results nor an uncontested overall outcome, the courts being up till now reviewing the complaints of key political, aggrieved, figures of the process.

June 12 being celebrated as democracy day reminds us that much is yet to be done to take us to the Holy Grail. One of the key deliverables that must be met, as soon as possible, is the emergence of a powerful, ethical, with character, competence and capacity, credibility, class of new leaders poised to transforming politics as we know it until now as a dirty and fraudulent, corrupt, project to the great loss of Nigeria and other African nations.

In the midst of this darkness still clogging its societal prospects, let us not be pessimistic. Lighting up a candle is the urgent action to maintain hope in the spirit of what mobilized the Nigerian people following the June 12 disaster when all Nigerians coalesced with a motto: Never again!

Out of that chaos started off the current, soul-searching and pragmatic, evidence-based, attempts at democracy consolidation. We have a long way to go, but, like a Chinese proverb posits, “the longest journey begins with a first step”. That is where one should heed the calls following an in-depth academic and empirical research by Dr Obiageli Ezekwesili, the former Nigerian Minister of Education and World Bank Africa Vice-President, the new FixPolitics Movement, started off in Nigeria, now reaching my own Senegal, before being deployed on a Pan African level, comes in not just as a response to Nigeria’s democratic deficits but to the whole of Africa’s…

The future is not of doom and gloom despite the hard times we are in. It is bright. For, in democracy, we trust, and yes, while the whole continent of Africa is watching, Nigeria has no other option, but to put its democratic ambitions on track. We can do that!

•Gaye, a Senegalese Author and media practitioner, former Director of Communication of ECOWAS, coined the concept Nigeria, Democracy Day, in many international newspapers, on May 29, 1999, as he acted as the Media Adviser for the Transition to Civilian Rule in Nigeria. He is the Convener of FixPolitics Senegal.