No Alternative to Democracy

Iyobosa Uwugiaren writes that despite the current deep socio-political and economic challenges, there is no alternative to democracy

With a current vast population of over 200 million and huge mineral resources, the hope of many Nigerians and other world leaders is that by now Nigeria would have been in a strategic position to lead Africa and the black race in global economic and political politics. But 63 years after the country gained its independence from the British colonialists, nothing seems to have significantly improved.

Prior to 1960, one of the nationalists who fought for the country’s independence, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, once said that ‘’Nigeria is not a nation; it is a mere geographical expression’’ – apparently making reference to the noticeable country’s weakness and largely lack of unity. But the then Prime Minister of Nigeria, Alhaji Tafawa Balewa, in his Independence Day speech happily told the world that Nigeria was dedicated to leveraging its independence to become an accountable country -then and in the future.

“This is a wonderful day, and it is all the more wonderful because we have awaited it with increasing impatience, compelled to watch one country after another overtaking us on the road when we had so nearly reached our goal.

“But now we have acquired our rightful status, and I feel sure that history will show that the building of our nation proceeded at the wisest pace: It has been thorough, and Nigeria now stands well- built upon firm foundations,” Balewa reportedly told a cheering crowd in Lagos on October 1, 1960.

Despte Balewa’s claim, poor governance, abject poverty, pitiable electricity infrastructure, needless deaths from bad roads and ill-equipped hospitals, as well as incessant and fear-provoking security challenges have continued to prevent the country from realising her full potential.

Across its zones, states, local government areas, villages and homes, citizens have grown fatigued and depressed because of how gravely the country is doing in key socioeconomic and political standards. A country of a multi-ethnic and culturally diverse federation of 36 autonomous states and the Federal Capital Territory, the security landscape for decades has been shaped by the war against Boko Haram and other terrorist groups in the North-east – in addition to incessant cases of banditry and kidnappings in the North-west, and parts of the southwest. The embattled people of the South-east have continued to witness unrest resulting from separatists’ agitations.

Giving an economic overview of Nigeria in its recent report, the World Bank said that the high oil prices since 2021 have not boosted the country’s economy as had been the case in the past. Rather, the global institution argued that macroeconomic stability had been weakened, amidst declining oil production, a costly petrol subsidy – which until it was removed recently, was consuming a large share of gross oil revenues; exchange rate distortions and racketeering, monetisation of the fiscal deficit, and high inflation.

Obviously complicated by the poor planning of the removal of fuel subsidy, the deteriorating economic environment has left millions of Nigerians in poverty. With Nigeria’s population growth continuing to outperform poverty reduction efforts, it has been projected that the number of Nigerians living below the national poverty line will rise by 25 million before 2025. While some analysts have argued that Nigeria had made some progress in socio-economic terms in recent years, its Human Capital Development ranked only 150 of 157 countries in the World Bank’s Human Capital Index. The country has continued to face immense development challenges – including the need to reduce the dependence on oil for exports and revenues; diversify its foreign exchange sources, close the infrastructure gap; build robust and active institutions, as well as address good governance issues.

For decades, many of the successive governments have refused or failed to realise that the crucial role of any responsible and responsive government, is to protect citizens from disorder, internal and external aggression, and to create and maintain laws, systems and structures that preserve people’s dignity and provide socio-economic stability.

The deadly activities of non-state actors, which have claimed thousands of innocent souls, are pointing to the fact that Nigeria is a failing state – Nigeria is already ranked the world’s 15th most fragile in the 2023 Fragile States Index. And the increasing reliance on private security contractors with offensive backgrounds to safeguard Nigerians and nationals, is a strong indicator that Nigeria is actually failing. These deep value challenges, may have supported the not-too-convincing argument by some depressed Nigerians, including former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who have continued to reveal their uneasiness about the current rout of democracy in the country.

Obasanjo, recently advocated for the relinquishment of a system that has only “nurtured unemployment and poverty’’ and failed to deliver “peace, security, stability, prosperity, wealth-creation, employment, and the wholesomeness of the society.”

In a way, the fretfulness and disenchantment with the nation’s democracy’s trajectory and its palpable letdown to deliver the dividends of democracy – for enhancement in the lives of ordinary people in the past few decades is not unwarranted.

Nigeria’s general election, including that of 2023, may have been seen as disastrous; the Judiciary may have failed to deliver justices, and the legislative arm of government may have failed woefully in its constitutional responsibility for decades, but it is an excuse for some Nigerians to continue to express solidarity with military coups in some African countries, as we have witnessed recently – with some slow-thinking person even arguing that “the next destination for the coup plotters is Nigeria.’’     

The argument is that the democratic governance in Nigeria may have failed to reflect the true features of democracy, but military intrusion in the affairs of the country is not an option. The long period of military rule in Nigeria, many political experts have argued, has had a huge negative impact on the political advancement of Nigeria. The military regimes in the past have been accused and rightly so, of destroying Nigeria’s institutions through some of the policies they promulgated and pursued, beginning in the retired General Yakubu Gowon’s era. Some of the policies, along with all the coups and counter coups, surely helped weaken, and in some cases, wrecked the sense of nation-building and made life and living wretched and excruciating.

Though the military junta was disengaged from power since 1999, the effects of their long reign have not left the country; indeed, the socio-economic effects of military rule were devastating. The traditional agricultural base of the nation economy was abandoned – that is when the country started depending on exports of oil for its survival, which later led to an unstable economy. The military regimes – for over three decades were characterised by gross incompetence, unrestrained, wasteful and mismanagement. It is on record that as a result of the poor military economic policy of the 1980s, 45% of Nigeria’s foreign-exchange earnings were going into debt servicing and there was very little growth. This led to a huge rise in poverty, crime, child abuse, disease, institutional decay and urban dislocation. And many attributed the instability and dissatisfaction caused by these policies to the major cause of the consistent pattern of coups.

The military regimes also affected the executive, the legislature, the judiciary and the civil society. The military values and norms imbibed by Nigerians for years currently manifest in the practice of democracy today. This expounded the use of force rather than dialogue in the suppression of dissent in Odi, and Zaki-biam during former President Obasanjo-led government in 1999, the disobedience of the court orders with impunity; closure of media houses and the arrest of journalists, we have witnessed since 1999.

As many right-thinking experts have consistently argued, the statutory responsibility of the military is to protect the territorial integrity of the nation against external attack. It is an institution that is without question committed to the management of violence and prosecution of war against external invasion and attacks. It is a specialized institution.

Therefore, the answer to ‘’less democracy is more democracy’’, and the worry by Nigerians about its future, is a reminder of the existence of a deep and dogged yearning for good governance: Fair, free and transparent elections, accountability, and the rule of law.

Nigerians must continue to stoke the fire on the need for the nation to get it right for there is no alternative to democracy.