These Little Lights That Shine

BY ISABELLA OKAGBUE

Twenty-five years after the restoration of democracy in Nigeria the 2023 Freedom in the World Report rates Nigeria as ‘partly free’ with a score of 43/100 broken down into 20/40 for political rights and 23/60 for civil liberties. It’s not news to anybody following events in the country that Nigeria suffers from a ‘democracy deficit’. What we practice is a democracy that does not live up to the dreams of those political and human rights crusaders that fought for the end of military rule all those many years ago.

I do not intend to linger on the long litany of our many woes but would rather focus on the central underlying theme of normative collapse which we are fast approaching and the implications this might have for a functioning democracy. Every society has a system of norms, values and standards that guide, control or regulate human behaviour. Many of these may be embodied in laws – thou shalt not kill – while others may simply be expectations about proper and acceptable behaviour – curtsey when you greet your elders – for example. Normative collapse is a situation that occurs when there is no longer an authoritative standard that governs human behaviour. When the rules governing conduct are ignored and breached with impunity and dysfunction becomes the norm.

I will focus on one troubling example of dysfunction. The judiciary has been under the spotlight recently. Bizarre judicial pronouncements abound, conflicting decisions are rife, clear precedents set by the superior courts are ignored, law enforcement agencies are restrained from carrying out their statutory functions and electoral tribunals pronounce judgements that strain credulity. The very institution that is designed to protect and enforce the normative order appears itself to be mired in a sea of at worst corruption and at best incompetence that threatens the foundation of democracy – the rule of law.

While recognising the fact of many hardworking and honest judges on the bench a worrying trend has developed of nepotism in the appointment of judges. Professor Chidi Odinkalu in a recent newspaper article opined that there appears to be ‘a conspiracy by those responsible to subvert the rules governing judicial appointments in order to prefer members of their own families or intimate networks’. The Chief Justice of Nigeria for example is alleged to have ensured the appointment of his son, daughter-in-law and nephew as judges and of his own brother as auditor of the National Judicial Council (NJC) an institution which he heads.

It is difficult to fathom how the National Judicial Commission (NJC) appears not to understand the importance of transparency and ethical standards in the appointment of judges and the damage that is done to public confidence in the fair and impartial adjudication of their matters when this is not the case. That the apex authority for the enforcement of legal norms appears to have so badly lost its way is symptomatic of how deep and widespread the malaise is in the wider society. The likes of Justices Kayode Eso, Chukwudifu Oputa and Mohammed Bello (to mention but a few) who were among the leading lights of the judiciary under military rule must be turning in their graves!

The imminent collapse of the normative order invariably negatively impacts democracy.  Institutions are hollowed out and weakened, justice for perceived wrongs cannot be achieved, economic development is stymied, the citizenry become disaffected and at the end of a long downward spiral, chaos and state collapse lie in wait. But is this what lies ahead? Nigeria has been described as a country of paradoxes. In the midst of grinding poverty, we have several people on the Forbes list of billionaires. While Nigerians are consistently among the most educated immigrant groups in foreign countries, here at home a staggering 20 million children are out of school, the highest number of out-of-school children in the world.  And in the midst of the most rampant and egregious corruption and social dysfunction pockets of excellence exist.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Commissioner who in the last elections refused to be bribed into changing the results of a gubernatorial election. The Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) that competently led Nigeria’s response during the Covid-19 pandemic and arguably saved millions of lives. The Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) which has supported numerous projects in road infrastructure, health care, housing, agriculture, youth and education all while earning a substantial return on investment and with no whiff of scandal. The Duty Solicitor Network (DSN) that organises young volunteer lawyers to visit police stations around the country to ensure that the rights of detained persons are protected. The EndSARS Movement which mobilised young people to vigorously protest police brutality. The Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) campaign spearheaded by women to tirelessly keep the kidnapped Chibok girls at the forefront of national discourse. The stories of this cleaner here or that taxi driver there who returned lost sums of money which they had found with no expectation of reward. A list which is by no means exhaustive. These institutions and individuals are the little lights that shine that give us cause to hope that we can find a way forward.

What can be done to rebuild the norms and values in our society that are foundational to a successful democracy? The eradication of corruption which permeates every level of Nigerian society would be a good starting point. To achieve this the importance of leadership cannot be overstated. The iconic Singaporean statesman Lee Kuan Yew successfully implemented his vision of a corrupt free Singapore by implementing a top-down approach. His guiding philosophy was simple – a leader should not protect crooked subordinates. A position of zero tolerance for corruption coupled with impartial enforcement targeting both high ranking officials and ordinary citizens equally, carried the day.

In our Presidential system of governance, the body language that emanates from the top sets the tone for everyone else and the top does not just consist of the President but his entire team. The appointment of competent persons of proven integrity into key government positions and agencies is therefore one of the foundational building blocks of a successful anti-corruption regime. The vigorous enforcement of anti-corruption legislation regardless of whose ox is gored is another.  The impartial imposition of consequences for wrongful conduct is vital.  When bad actors escape punishment or punishment only attaches to persons in the opposition party, bad actors throughout the system take their cue from that signal and impunity reigns.

One must also point out that poverty, illiteracy, unemployment and the existential despair from lack of hope for a better future, if unaddressed, also lead to social anomie and the wide scale breakdown of the normative order. A top-down approach of combatting corruption must therefore also be accompanied by a bottom-up approach of addressing the education and welfare of Nigerian citizens.

We can only hope that 25 years from now we will be celebrating 50 unbroken years of democracy in Nigeria and that the little lights that shine today here and there will have become wildfires that burn brightly throughout the land.

ISABELLA OKAGBUE  A Professor of law with many publications, Okagbue is a recipient of several honours and awards, including the 1992/93 Fulbright African Senior Research Scholar Award at the Harvard Law School as a Fulbright Fellow, a Butterworths Fellowship from the London Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, and Best Student Prize Faculty of Law University of Nigeria (1977). She is an Honorary Fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies.