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Tag: Democracy

  • When democracies fumble and tumble – By Pat Utomi

    When democracies fumble and tumble – By Pat Utomi

    By Pat Utomi

    Dakuku Peterside’s piece: “How Democracy Crumbles – the Nigerian case,” is a very valuable piece of column writing. It strives to capture and root in Nigerian context a growing tradition of scholarship and Public Commentary given seminal attention by two books of similar titles : “How Democracy Ends,” by Cambridge university Professor David Runciman, and “How Democracies Die” by Harvard Professors Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt. They showcase the need for vigilance in a world in which democracy was largely embraced after the demise of Hitler, with glitches here and there, like in Portugal, Greece and Argentina, before the spate of coups in Africa in the season of Afropessimism.

    Dakuku shows how electoral fraud in the 2023 elections and the capture of INEC officials and possibly the Judiciary by politicians, is castrating democracy in Nigeria and pushing it to the edge of the cliff.

    The article managed to shake me off reluctance to put pen to paper on the biggest challenge confronting Nigeria, the foretold death of its ailing democracy.

    I have responded to interviewers questions on the matter but had held back on contributing to the Thought Leadership I have called for because I did not want it to get mixed up in partisan barbs, mindless incivility, and propaganda terrorism that would have shocked Jacques Elul who wrote the Book on Propaganda. The Joseph Goebbels wannabes thrown up by the last elections, early warning signs of advancing fascism, have been waxing stronger in the scramble for counter narratives.

    With Dr Dakuku Peterside, who is an active partisan politician, elevating the subject and discussing as an intellectual I found it compelling to bring to the market place of ideas, on this matter of existential crisis proportions, some insights that could lift the public sphere to a place of rational public conversation. That place, in which Juergen Habermas sees the intersection of Democracy and Modernity, is domain in which the fight to save Nigeria’s democracy needs to be fought with the great urgency of now.

    As Peterside points out, the trouble with Democracy is a growing cancer around the world but in Africa it is grave, and much worse, in Nigeria. Peterside points to a few of the trouble spots in the world from Turkey to Hungary and Venezuela. But even the United Stattes has struggled with its conservative excess and Europe with ultra nationalists and populists, in recent times.

    As the horror of a Sudan being consumed by nihilist rage stares down at us the time to show evidence to Nigerian politicians who will grab power and run, with little thought for the consequences , lives of innocents, is now. This mess can consume us all just for not standing up to a few who do not share our values as evidence from their antecedents show.

    This now – now imperative cannot be sacrificed at the altar of skirting around truth for fear that it stirs the hornet’s nest and may trigger the army of uninformed media attack dogs adding more poison to the already toxic state of the public sphere.

    Wisdom suggests though that not seeking truth may push the polity further towards the anarchy which Robert Kaplan predicted in the book “The Coming Anarchy” about the time our new democracy’s birth certificate was being issued 24 years ago.

    So I seek light for truth here knowing , as George Orwell wrote many years ago, that ‘in a world of universal deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary art’.

    A revolution is desperately needed to salvage Nigeria from the grave present danger of the demise of its democracy and a downward spiral into anarchy.

    But how come the big men of politics who create these dangers by their actions and pronouncements cannot see eschatological forebodings of what they are doing.
    Is it because they lack patriotism. Perhaps not. Sometimes the prisms through which they see the world, tinted by ambition and perceived benefits of state capture blinds them to truth. This is compounded by weak institutions that fail to punish those who erred yesterday elevating impunity to the status of a chieftaincy title.

    As the British theologian James Lesslie Newbigin suggests ‘ a person who wields power cannot see truth; that is the privilege of the powerless’. But those worthy of the power they search for would, in my view, prepare themselves to see through these blinders and find meaning in this critic of extant crises of being, for the Nigerian state.

    I should actually worry less that those I called the complicit middle in my last book: “Why Not – Citizenship, State Capture, Creeping Fascism and the Criminal Hijack of politics in Nigeria,” who urge moving on, at every wrong turn in the polity, will express exasperation and ask we just manage things’.

    Most times this is because of their fear of truth and hypocrisy of purpose. Still this established culture has often failed to halt the truth which Arthur Schopenhauer suggests passes through three phases. In the first stage it is ridiculed, in the second it is violently opposed and in the third it is accepted as being self evident.

    I often shudder when I ask people to go back and read my columns and watch my television commentaries from many years ago, where they will find that I predicted where Nigeria is today and it’s biggest problems a good decade or more before they added to our misery index measure. That came simply by reading trends that policy and good leadership could have caused us to eradicate or circumnavigate. But leadership which sets the tone of culture has been in poor supply in Nigeria.

    So where is the truth in the crises that threaten Nigeria today. Some may be driven by attitude to who were pronounced winners.

    Involved as I have been that has not much affected my bearing. For me it was essentially about public confidence in INEC and their living up to promise so that the process would confer legitimacy on the elected.
    Had something as simple as the BVAS working seamlessly and uploading to the IREV and Sunshine being abundant being the case, would have quickly congratulated the winner but the Mahmoud Yakubu INEC snatched defeat from the jaws of triumph . So when reality veered from promise and no explanations came forth quickly to allay fears, motives were quickly ascribed to the stoic arrogance of the INEC Chairman which bothered on contempt perceived as the bold face of the compromised. A cloud rapidly descended.

    Where two months after nothing is forthcoming on what happened the process is fully disrobed of integrity and it’s legitimacy conferring attribute is shriveled. The election malfeasance path to the deathbed of Nigeria’s democracy which Dakuku analyzes so pungently is sadly one cultivated by drip irrigation which has borne poor fruit for so long.

    The routine with which serious minded people tell you Atiku defeated Buhari in 2019 and security agencies engaged in capricious thwarting of will of the people rigged it ; President Umaru Yar’adua accepted that the election that brought him to office was flawed, etc, shows how little faith there is in INEC and why the Afrobarometer has longitudinal data showing declining effect for democracy in the country.
    When Michael Bratton and partners established the research network to provide Africa critical data there was much excitement as Nigerians responded from their being weary of military rule, affirming hunger for democracy. In more recent times the failing of the political class to provide the dividends of democracy, the inability of the political parties to recruit and socialize a service oriented leadership group bound by shared values around the Common Good has compounded the failure of INEC to give confidence to the vote. Add to this the disconnect of state from society and the people from the politicians in power and you have sketched the ugly moment we confront.

    When INEC proselytized a fail proof system the people suspended their contempt , the youth rose to the occasion, challenging for a new order and the Diaspora gave impetus to hope. Suddenly the old guard felt really threatened.

    On February 25th they violated the rules of justice, the rule of law and human dignity, journeying so fast to the gates of Hotel Rwanda in violent vote suppression marauding that affected some diplomats who observed the elections so much they arranged psychotherapy counseling for their Nigerian staff.

    Vice- President Yemi Osinbajo in his sobering speech at NIPPS, Kuru gave the example of the blogger of Yoruba ethnicity who took to twitter to lament that she and her husband were prevented from voting because they did not look Yoruba enough. And somehow some apparently reasonable people called the election the freest and fairest election and expect a normal court to allow its outcome to stand.
    Surely this calls for an effort to pursue truth.

    The Mastheads to two great newspapers supply, with their mottos, a pointer to truth on this matter. They are the Washington Post in the US and The Guardian in Nigeria. That of the Washington Post is ‘ Democracy Dies in Darkness’ while The Guardian draws from the wisdom of the founders of the Caliphate to remind that ‘Conscience is an open wound. Only truth can heal it.’
    How those mottos relate to the crisis of emotion and reason following INECs failed stewardship highlights the conundrum into which we are thrust and the possible resolution of the dilemmas that confront us.

    When March 18 happened and people I respected dismissed it as fitting for these uppity outsiders and people endorsed it, or said nothing, my consciousness was seized by historical parallels and the fact that grabbing power by bullying others is a habit forming phenomenon. Next time people do not ‘dobalè’ when you enter a room it could be ordered that they spend time in Jail. One day someone will come up with a final solution to this market dominant people, send them to the Gas Chambers. This was how it started from Weimar Germany and ended in the Third Reich.
    Ordinarily decent Germans who watched and kept quiet found they were engulfed by the unwholesomeness of on rushing fascism. Some would later become victims themselves.. Quite a few Octogenarians and older who experienced this are actually still alive. Some still hear the ring of Reverend Martin Niemoller: ‘First they came for the Socialists and I did not speak up because I was not a socialist, then they came for the Jews and I did not speak up because I was not a Jew, then they came for trade Unionists and I did not speak up because I was not a trade Unionist; then they came for Catholics and I did not speak up because I was not a Catholic. When they finally came for me there was no one left to speak up.’

    I jumped to the fore of those speaking up when the elections of June 12 1993 were annulled. I survived two assasination attempts from my role, even though I could have kept quiet.
    More importantly it alarmed me to the need for supranational institutions to intervene where state institutions are weak to hold those whose values crush the humanity of others in impunity accountable, an International Criminal Court.
    Two years after editors of a famous Boston Newspaper thought my January 1977 views too idealistic and that an ICC was unlikely to make it through the world of realpolitik, the Rome Treaty passed and an ICC sits today at The Hague.

    Beyond justice for victims of fascism my greater concern is for how you prevent people who turn with ease to exploit social cleavages like ethnic diversity and religion from increasing in influence to make chasms of the gap between us and them.

    Lagos violent vote suppression may not have been as obvious a break down of Law and order as operation wetie following the elections in 1964 in the Western Region but its effect was more troubling as it is a manifestation of what Yale Professor Amy Chua referred to as stoking ethnic hatred against market dominant minorities in her book “World on fire.” The world of quite a few went on fire that day. Many just saw the broad strokes of people angry at being denied their human right to vote but missed the anguish of individuals whose sense of self was pulverized. No wonder C Wright Mills insists history is better understood with the sociological imagination at the intersection of the grand sweeps of history and the personal troubles of individuals.

    To meet the egregious assault on our humanity with appeasement was clearly the moral equivalence of Neville Chamberlain’s attempt at appeasement with Hitler. The current narrative with embers of the sprouting of fascism in Nigeria is being met with appeasement by foreign powers and the complicit middle at home. We know where that took the world in 1939.

    This is why I have been much interested in work at the Centre for Moral Cognition at Harvard where they are bringing together Neuroscience, Psychology around Emotional Intelligence and Philosophy to understand how we make decisions that are divisive. I have given out the book “Moral Tribes – Emotion, Reason and the Gap Between us and them” written by Joshua Greene who is director of the Centre to see if it will help grooming. I do think though the key is in the redesign of Political Parties and their processes for recruiting and socializing people who enter public life so culture can make taboo of the exploitation of such cleavages for political gain.

    And the truth on this matter has to begin with INEC flashing light into what happened to the 2023 elections as the Washington Post seeks for democracy so the open wounds that are the consciences of the Nigerian people can begin to heal. It is not enough to consign this humongous social burden to a few Lawyers who got appointed to the Bench and are picked, as Judges, to serve on election tribunals, for as the Motto of the University of Pennsylvania reminds : ‘Laws without Morals are useless. Leges Sine Moribus Vanae.’

     

    Patrick Okedinachi Utomi is a Professor of Political Economy and Founder of the Centre for Values in Leadership.

  • How democracy crumbles: The Nigerian case – By Dakuku Peterside

    How democracy crumbles: The Nigerian case – By Dakuku Peterside

    Democracy, by its design, nature, and practice, is not a light toggle switch that is turned on and off. It is not a wall that crumbles in one fell swoop. Democracy is always a process, both in its growth and demise. History is replete with how democracies collapsed in other climes. Disregarding the rule of law is the root of all the cases. The most consequential disregard for the rule of law is the one that affects the entire population, and that is when they lose faith in the electoral process. It often led citizens to conclude that there is no difference between democracy, authoritarian rule, and other forms of government. Using electoral fraud to decimate democracy is far easier than any other means. Every attempt to compromise the electoral process makes it harder for the people to believe in democracy.

    In almost all nations where democracy crumbles, they followed the same playbook – whether in Peru under Alberto Fujimori( 1990-1992), Hungary under Viktor Orban, Venezuela under Hugo Chavez or Chile under Salvador Allende/ Augusto Pinochet( 1979). Destroy or compromise the institutions of the state, the police, judiciary, military, security apparatus, parliament, and most importantly -the institution and mechanism of the electoral process and democracy begins to crumble.

    The 2023 general election is a watershed in our electoral history, and all see the reverberation of its impact. Never in Nigerian history has the people been highly committed to an election with hope, optimism and great expectations. The final verdict of the outcome of the electoral process is yet out because the process has not concluded, but some came out disappointed in the structures and procedures of the election. Most of the political actors became Machiavellian and threw caution to the winds in their pursuit of electoral victory. Some politicians bought the electoral victories with pain and blood. The strategy was to win at all costs and care less about the consequences on our democracy. Little wonder there is a mixed feeling of progress with our democracy yet high despondency and frustration among many Nigerian post-elections.

    Nigerian political class seems unmindful of the consequences of some of its actions and inactions. The politicians who ought to guard democracy are inadvertently investing in destroying the guard rails of democracy. Politicians compromise judges, corrupt electoral officials, buy up security personnel and buy votes. This is after investing in the mass impoverishment of the populace and weaponising poverty.

    Our democracy seems to be unravelling in front of us. The gradual dismantling of our democracy is in seemingly random events, sometimes isolated and unrelated, but when pulled together, it shows our descent into anarchy or autocracy. The last general election witnessed three stages of dismantling Nigerian democracy by politicians, political parties, and their sympathisers.

    The first stage is known as capturing the referees. If you wanted to rig a football, one of the first things you would do is ‘capture’ the referees and get them to rule in your favour. In the last election, evidence suggests that politicians and their cronies captured INEC officials, and in time we will know whether they captured the judges in the many court cases that are still ongoing.

    The second stage is side-lining the opposition players. Their opponents entirely stifled the political opposition in some parts of the country. And not given a level playing field to compete in the elections. They were denied opportunities to campaign in some states and were molested, beaten, and arrested for no just cause. Some politicians told opposition members not to come out and vote unless they wanted to die. Opposition politicians and their supporters were subjected to various inhuman treatment, often in the open and where you have security operatives. They were blackmailed, and their supporters were ethnically profiled and denied their franchises. Unfortunately, society did nothing about it, and the perpetrators have gone without punishment or consequences. They are emboldened by their victory to keep brutally raping our democracy and dismantling it bit by bit.

    The third stage of dismantling democracy is disregarding rules—actions and reactions fuel losing faith in democratic institutions. The interpretation and actions of INEC on the position of the Electoral Act on the use of technology, specially Bimodal Voter Accreditation( BVAS) and INEC Results Viewing Portal( IRev) is the core of diminished trust the people have in INEC. It is also the plausible reason we have too many disputes about the declared results. INEC is generally believed not to respect constitutional provisions and its regulations.

    The dismantling of our democracy implies that Nigerian voters may have no reason to act rationally but will rely on primordial and survivalist sentiments to deal with future elections. If Nigerians believe their votes do not count, what is the point of elections? If we allow the prevailing feeling of disenfranchisement to continue, our democracy will become a mere nomenclature and not reality. In that case, there is virtually no reason to think our votes will change anything. There is also no reason to behave rationally. We will act emotionally and vote only based on ethnicity, religion, and other base sentiments.

    We will disconnect voting and elections from governance since voting does not decide who leads. Therefore, there is no reason to change our beliefs regarding electoral politics. As a result, people will continue to vote for whatever politician or party is closest to their emotionally determined beliefs. In other words, there’s no reason for people to vote rationally; instead, sticking to their biases or emotions is much more comfortable. Understanding this reality is essential since our democratic system assumes that rational voters are in the majority. And this is a danger to our democracy! At the extreme, if we don’t find ways to sanitise the electoral process further and, by extension, democracy, we would incentivise popular revolt to redefine democracy in the image of the people’s wishes.

    Suddenly, our democracy is tainted with politicians who reject the rules of democracy. They often are suspicious of elections and their results and sometimes rail against the laws and constitutions of Nigeria for their selfish reasons. They discredited their political opposition and sometimes tagged them as enemies of the state. They tolerate and encourage violence in elections and brag about their link to the mafia, militant groups men of the underworld. They quickly desire to reduce the civil rights of people, institutions, and protesters and actively silence the media.

    We have seen too many cases where results were declared under gunpoint, and the opposing parties and INEC appeared helpless. This gave rise to the insertion of Section 65 of the Electoral Act 2022, which stated that: “The Commission shall have the power, within seven days, to review the declaration and return where it determines that the said declaration and return was not made voluntarily or made contrary to the provisions of the law, regulations and guidelines, and manual for the election.” Going by what transpired in the March 18 and supplementary elections, this challenge is still very much around.

    Two strings of incidents in recent times have raised the red flag on the efficacy of the electoral process. The latest wave of electoral malfeasance is the Adamawa case. Too many inconsistent stories and conjectures are flying around. INEC owes us the obligation of full disclosure of what happened. A situation where the INEC REC, flanked by the commissioner of police in the state, unilaterally declared the APC gubernatorial candidate as the winner, but INEC changed course in a few days to announce the PDP candidate as the winner, leaves a sour taste to most Nigerians. It killed our democracy a little. Interestingly, both INEC and President Buhari have authorised the REC’s suspension from office, his investigation and possible prosecution by the police, but to give confidence to the citizens, it will be imperative to make the findings public.

    Another embarrassing interference in the electoral process is what happened in Rivers State during and after the elections. How INEC conducted the governorship and state assembly elections in that state can earn her a spot in the Guinness Book of Records of electoral heist. The orchestrated mob action and drama that followed the attempt by APC to inspect and collect from INEC RVS certified true copies of electoral materials is a big dent in the electoral process. The fact that all the drama happened in the presence of security agencies and INEC officials makes it difficult to dispute the conspiracy theory that followed.

    Even the lawyers preparing to fill election appeals were molested, arrested, and manhandled. The supposed guardians of democracy raised no voice to condemn what happened in Rivers State. Although “the protesters” trying to stop opposition parties in Rivers State from inspecting and collecting true certified copies of INEC materials used for the elections were at the INEC office for days, no single arrest was made, nor was anybody invited for questioning. Our democracy is the victim of these shenanigans; we are all casualties. No doubt these anti-democratic forces are emboldened.

    These trends are laying the foundation for the complete demise of our democracy. All lovers of democracy must not allow these anomalies to continue unchecked. We must protect our democracy and bequeath it to posterity. We should not take things for granted simply because our democracy has survived the shenanigans so far. Democracy remains the only system of government that will lead our multi-ethnic, multi-religious, multi-language and heavily diverse country into meaningful growth and prosperity. Let us defend it!

  • 2023 elections: Not democracy, nor politicians, but Nigerian judiciary on trial – By Godwin Etakibuebu

    2023 elections: Not democracy, nor politicians, but Nigerian judiciary on trial – By Godwin Etakibuebu

    The first Chief Justice of Nigeria, so named, was Stafford Foster Sutton; obviously a British, who was in charge from 1956 to 1958. However, and effectively, the first indigenous Nigerian to ascend to the office of Chief Justice of Nigeria [CJN] was Justice Adetokumbo Ademola – he presided in that capacity from 1958 to 1972. 

    There was another “first” for the famous jurist – Sir Adetokumbo Ademola, in another clime of life. He was named the First Oluwo-Apena of the Reformed Ogboni Fraternity [R.O.F] worldwide, from 1953 to 1993, though the ROF was founded on December 18, 1914, by a cleric gentleman from Ilesha; T.A.J Ogunbiyi, as an alternative of the Aborigine Ogboni Fraternity for practitioners of Christianity.

    Back to the continuation of the exercise at hand, over the real culprit now standing trial in the courts, I would like to remember another Chief Justice of Nigeria; the 13th – Justice Dahiru Musdapher. He would ever be remembered as one of the few CJN that came to office with a fully prepared mind of revolutionizing the Nigerian judiciary for good.

    It was him that once admitted that the process of plea bargaining has been so much abused by Nigerian courts that the respected jurist banished the process. Vanguard Newspaper of November 16, 2011, reported him as saying:

    “CHIEF Justice of Nigeria, CJN, Justice Dahiru Musdapher, yesterday, abolished the plea bargain procedure hitherto employed by the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, in settling high profile cases of corruption out of court”.

    The CJN who described the plea-bargain system as “a novel concept of dubious origin,” insisted that “it was invented to provide soft landing to high profile criminals who loot the treasury entrusted to them.”

    Speaking at the opening ceremony of the fifth annual general conference of the section on legal practice of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, the CJN whose speech was read by Justice Nwali Sylvester Ngwuta of the Supreme Court, said the system “has no place in our law- substantive or procedural. It is an obstacle to our fight against corruption, it should never again be mentioned in our jurisprudence.”

    Acting Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, Dahiru Musdapher said: “The guilty are afraid and when a man who has abused the public trust reposed in him feels the heat of the approaching long arm of the law he rushes to a judge with flexible conscience who makes him untouchable to the law enforcement agents. It is another obstacle to the struggle to uproot corruption in this country.

    Where are we in today’s Nigerian judiciary with the issue of Plea Bargain, is it not been daily introduced by government lawyers, mostly under the caprices of the Attorney General of the Federation, in flagrant disrespect of the CJN’s regulated declaration?  

    But permit me to go deeper into another statement credited to this jurist, that his name had been goldenly engrossed on stones of history. He was quoted at a time, while addressing his colleagues, as saying: “as we sit over trials, we should not forget the fact that we are standing in trial at such times”. 

    It is on the above quotation that I would want to address the topic of this exercise strictly today. And l hope many Nigerians will find a smooth sailing with my thought, because the destiny of our dearly beloved country is at stake.

    First, we need to play the issues that are most likely to tear the very tender fabrics of Nigeria into pieces up for identification. Let us flow please.

    There had ever been elections in Nigeria, since the day that a country was forcefully negotiated for us by foreigners – greedy foreigners that were driven by interest of their business gains, on that fateful calamitous day of October in Calabar. 

    The first malodours sign of “greater evil that was coming” was the fact that in the gathering of 28 people that met to amalgamate both South and North Protectorates – including the Lagos Protectorate, only 6 of them were Nigerians.

    The 6 Nigerians present at the amalgamation were: HRH Maiturare Sarkin Musulumi and Sultan of Sokoto, Usuman Dan Maje who later became Emir of Kano, Sir Kitoyi Ajasa a lawyer, HRH Oladugbolu Alaafin of Oyo, HRH R. Henshaw (Obong of Calabar), Abubakar Shehu of Borno”. 

    None of the 6 above appended pen to paper. They were merely gathered there, by the British, as observers. But above all, in the chain of calamity that have ruled a bedevilled Nigeria since then, is the fact – the real demonic-foul-odour-fact, is that none of the 6 Nigerians that sat at the ceremony saw the contract agreement of the amalgamation before it was signed by the British-rogues-invaders. And not one of the 6 was given a copy, even after signing it.

    Back to the topic under discuss, every election conducted in Nigeria since then have thrown up issues. But none have brought more challenge than the 2023 general elections. 

    It became one general election that questioned and reminded us more of tribe, ethnicity, and religion. For the first time, since those notoriously challenging elements that prelude the Nigerian Civil-War, we are today closest to a more harrowing holocaust. How I wished l can secure a lesser frightening word than holocaust to define our current situation.

    Yet we have a judiciary that have come a full circle, so it seemed. Yet, we have a fraudulent packaged Constitution that started its own narration fraudulently by saying: “we people of Nigeria . . .” when we know that Nigeria’s people were never gathered at any time, and at any place, to decide on the acceptability of that fake document.

    Yet, we have a very good articulated Electoral law, which introduced a Game-Changer, by the BVAS, and other good provisions, so introduced ab initio, by deceitful Dishonourable and Extinguishable, loaded in one Discreditable Assembly.   

    Now, and above all, that the 2023 general elections are come and gone, with conflicting claims of interests in some arears, while in other areas, there are obvious manifestation of malfeasances, where should we be heading to, logically?

    It should not be anywhere else but the courts. But if the Nigerian courts are the most appropriate place we should be going – I believed fully that it is the only optionable route we should be heading, will justice “without technicality” be waiting for us there?

    Given the revelations of travesty of justice coming from the Nigerian Temple of Justice, are we sure of having justice there? And what shall the cost of Justice torpedoed [at that temple] be to a people that are in honest and sincere search for Justice?

    Put it this way, probably for obvious clarity. The Nigerian Umpire of election – the Independent National Electoral Commission [INEC] is bereft of integrity; as attested to by every and all International and National Election Observers that observed the just concluded Elections, and the Nigerian  Courts we must be going, is lacking in integrity, as events at the Nigerian Supreme Court have shown, will it not be safer to define who should be standing trial before the courts?

    In your opinion please, and juxtaposing your opinion against the quote of the former Chief Justice of Nigeria; Justice Dahiru Musdapher, which is: as we sit over trials, we should not forget the fact that we are standing in trial at such times, who is going on trial in this issue of the 2023 general elections therefore?

    Is it the Nigerian politicians, Democracy or the Judiciary? Let the answer remains your open conscience, please.

    The Guru’s Court adjourns – C.O.U.R.T

     

    Godwin Etakibuebu; a veteran Journalist, wrote from Lagos.

    Contact:

    Website: www.godwintheguru.com

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    Phone: +234-906-887-0014 – short messages only. 

    You can also listen to this author [Godwin Etakibuebu] every Monday; 9:30 – 11am on Lagos Talk 91.3 FM live, in a weekly review of topical issues, presented by The News Guru [TNG].

  • OPINION: Nigeria’s burgeoning (Not Hollow) democracy – By Festus Keyamo, SAN

    OPINION: Nigeria’s burgeoning (Not Hollow) democracy – By Festus Keyamo, SAN

    In global diplomacy and international relations, Presidents of countries make decisions and take actions about other countries’ affairs (albeit within the limits of sovereignty of States in International Law) based on reports from official and diplomatic sources likely to have been conveyed through well-established channels of communications.

    Long epistles written in flowery or purple prose by bitter supporters of sore losers, posing as ‘concerned citizens’ (but in reality actuated by ethnic politics) do not fall within these official or diplomatic sources.

    It is befuddling that someone often celebrated for using a God-given talent to promote our African values, will so tragically degrade that same ethos by penning a letter that is so petty, so grovelling in its tone in urging a single foreign power to withhold a mere congratulatory message to our President-elect as if that is what actually validates our own democratic identity.

    It reflects a pathetic colonial mentality. It is even more ironic to realise that the same foreign power to which the obsequious appeal is directed is still grappling with the credibility of its own internal democratic process that produced its present leadership.

    More tragic is that some rabid supporters here are falling over themselves in deluded ecstasy for such a worthless letter that may not even be considered worthy enough, in a diplomatic sense, for the attention of even a stenographer to an Under Secretary in the US. Such only paints the picture of a band of drowning supporters clutching at any straw to stay afloat. As for the empirical fallacies contained in the letter, I will not bother myself here with a lengthy response as enough have been said in the last few weeks in respect of those specific issues and all the issues are before our Justices awaiting adjudication.

    But I have bad news for them: the stenographer will probably toss the letter into a trash bin with the conclusion that it is no more than the tantrums of a Trump reincarnate in Nigeria – those who refuse to accept obvious defeat! Yes, the US has the likes of that writer in their midst too!

    #

  • Democracy and Dividends of Diversity – By Dakuku Peterside

    Democracy and Dividends of Diversity – By Dakuku Peterside

    Multiculturalism in England, Ireland and Scotland has produced new leaders of Asian origins. This ideal is celebrated worldwide as progress and a symbol of a more fantastic future where the emphasis will be placed more on unity in diversity than discrimination of the old era. The power of this new development is not lost on people. Rishi Sunak, a Hindu whose parents are of South Asian background but migrated to the UK from Africa, became the first British Prime Minister of a minority ethnic background; Sadiq Khan, a Muslim and son of a Pakistani immigrant, is the Mayor of London; Humza Yousaf, also of South Asian heritage is the First Minister of Scotland. These three are the most powerful and influential leaders in Britain. In Ireland, Leo Varadkar, the current Taoiseach and leader of the Irish government in Dublin, has Indian heritage. The dominance of Asians in the British and Irish political establishment is very evident and a signpost of the importance of an ethnic-blind approach to politics that recognises and rewards capacity, character, and competence over racial identity.

    It is a significant advancement that they elected these leaders in a way that suggests racial and ethnic impediments were insignificant.

    This new political ideal has seen the rise of South Asia as the world’s leading incubator of human capital, especially in great western power blocs in Europe and the USA (Vice President Kamala Harrisis of South Asian heritage). What does this new wave of rise in the presence of people of Asia background in the highest corridors of power in Britain and the USA mean for Nigeria? Apart from just celebrating these successes, what lessons can Nigeria draw from these events?

    These events underscore the importance of human capital development in the struggle for power in a modern democracy that is defined by not just numbers alone  but merit.All these leaders are products of excellent education. Current leaders are like CEOs of great companies, and increasingly, the electorate  demand that their leaders have the requisite skills, abilities, and competence to lead them. A significant prerequisite is excellent education and professional experience. These leaders are highly educated and have proven competence.

    Many Nigerians are relocating abroad in search of greener pastures. Nigerians quickly gain a strong reputation in their quest for knowledge and doggedness in working to achieve their dreams in the various countries they travel to. Universities and colleges in western countries have many Nigerians open to pursuing higher education to better their lots in their host communities. Today millions of Nigerians live abroad; the most prominent communities are the United Kingdom (500,000–3,000,000) and the United States (600,000–1,000,000). Other countries that followed closely were South Africa, Gambia, and Canada.

    Nigerians in the diaspora must put great emphasis on the education of their children. Education is still the most excellent tool for social and political upliftment. We are seeing great rewards abroad, where most Nigerian diasporans dominate the medical and financial management sectors. These gains will soon translate to political advantage, especially in countries where children of these first-generation migrants, born citizens of these countries, may go into politics and compete favourably with locals. One day, we may get a leader of a western democracy with a Nigerian heritage.

    It is a new world. Societies are becoming more diverse, and developed countries are consciously courting diversity through immigration liberalisation.  Canada, for example, is working to welcome 1.5m immigrants by 2025 to strengthen its economy.  The USA has a long history of welcoming immigrants from all parts of the world . Germany will  have received  13 million immigrants by 2023. Australia and Switzerland  have very liberal immigration policies to attract the best talents from all over the world.

    Diversity and plurality have their advantages in a democracy and development . Nigeria is one of the most internally  diverse and plural states in Africa. With over 200 million people from over 300 ethnic groups and languages, Nigeria has a rich socio-cultural heritage to benefit from. This is an advantage, although we focus on the negatives. A diverse democracy explores the benefits of all groups and taps into the best. It is a game of numbers but centres on a merit-based system that rewards hard work and productivity above other considerations. Our plurality allows us to search for and get the best among us to lead our society . This creates an egalitarian society with equality in diversity, where we deploy all talents and skills for the good of all.

    A diverse democracy like ours explores the benefits of all groups and taps into the best. The dividends of democracy are evident when we harvest the best from our diversity, and the benefits accrue to everybody. At least, this is the hope of our founding fathers, who accepted democracy as the best form of government for a diverse Nigerian state. This hope is still flickering, and often we see its light shine brighter when Nigerians come together as one in international sports and other engagements, irrespective of the various ethnic nationalities that make it up.

    However, recently, some of the progress we have made as a nation regarding ethnic harmony has eroded. Ironically, we now negate our natural internal diversity by resurrecting ethnic divisions. We are all willing to celebrate Scotland,  Ireland and England’s  successes, but we are going the opposite path in our country and expect an egalitarian society. The last election unnecessarily  brought untold division, crass nepotism and ethnicity to the fore. Instead of focusing on the merits of voting competent, knowledgeable, and skilful leaders, ethnic bigotry became commonplace.

    Fortunately, in white-dominated western democracies, people of minority ethnic origins are becoming leaders based on their competence and leadership abilities, but in Nigeria, we are still hung up on the issue of the ethnicity of the leaders. We are allowing primordial ethnic sentiments and rivalries to becloud our judgement. It does not matter the ethnicity of a leader as much as that leader has what it takes to bring positive societal development. Even if a leader comes from an ethnic group with a minor population in the country, it does not matter, especially if the leader is visionary and transformational. That is what Nigeria needs. When will we get to a merit-based society where anyone can succeed in Nigeria through hard work, determination, and the power of ideas?

    The ethnic tensions as a fallout of the last election are not necessary, and it beggars belief that at this point in the Nigerian experiment, we are still bugged down with crass nepotism when the world, as seen in the western democracies, has moved on, and are actively encouraging and celebrating diversity and the gains it brings. Instead of focusing on utilising our diversity to our more significant advantage, we are busy preaching the gospel of ethnic superiority . This is a recipe for disaster. Nigeria will never achieve its potential if we continue this way.

    We must learn from Britain, Ireland, the USA, and other western democracies that have found ways of gaining from their diversity. These countries court the best, attract them, and harness their incredible talents for development. We must create an enabling environment that rewards meritocracy, not mediocrity  – mainly based on ethnicism. We must eschew all forms of divisions and celebrate everything that brings us together as one big Nigerian family. The marginalisation of any group based on ethnic  or religious sentiments is a cankerworm that will destroy the fabric of our society.

    Diversity management for optimum national benefit has emerged as a critical urgent task for the new government. President- elect  Bola Ahmed Tinubu and   VP-elect Kashim Shettima have shown that they understand diversity management at different times. In their previous roles as governors, they led inclusive governments that harnessed the potential of all within their states to develop them. They have enviable records of identifying talents and people with capacity, irrespective of which part of the country they come from, which ethnicity they are or their religious sentiments, to work with them to improve the lives of Nigerians living in their states. In their personal lives, they have shown that they are not ethnic bigots but champions of egalitarianism in Nigeria.

    Their winning sent a clear message that your ethnicity, religion, and faith are not barriers to leading the country we call home. I implore the incoming new administration to pay attention to reinforcing our multiculturalism and pluralism. Although enshrined in our constitution, our diversity is under constant threat, and various non-state actors ply multiple strategies and tactics to divide us. The new government must tackle this anomaly and restore hope in our society. Nigerians must be free to live, work, vote and be voted for in any part of Nigeria. Every Nigerian who is qualified to vote must be entitled to his/ her choice.  This administration must enthrone merit, high-quality standards, and good leadership to kick-start our growth as a nation. It must invest heavily in human capital development as the bedrock and foundation on which we anchor the development of Nigeria.

  • Election bureaucracies, Office of the Citizens and the future of democracy in Nigeria – By Samuel Orovwuje

    Election bureaucracies, Office of the Citizens and the future of democracy in Nigeria – By Samuel Orovwuje

    By Samuel Akpobome Orovwuje

    “Never be disappointed and never lose your hope and fortitude when all that you see around is only shadows. Because if there are shadows, there must also be sources of light nearby. Find them, take them with you to illuminate your trail and make shadows disappear!” – John Baldwin

    For the first time in two decades, young Nigerians came out in droves to elect a new government. They were at the forefront of a critical mass rising up against treacherous politicians and their collaborators.

    The conduct of the 2023 general elections in Nigeria suffers from a continuing general crisis of election bureaucracies. The announcement of the results was a signal for political violence to be unleashed across the country. It is beyond doubt that the process was marred by irregularities and below global best practices.

    Generally, when there is chaos around state institutions, leaders should reflect on how that affects the citizens. Does it bring out the leadership skills and desire to organise, communicate and respect the aspirations of citizens? It is crucial for public leaders in a chaotic situation to pause and rethink their process failures and challenges in the interest of the common good. The sad reality of bureaucracies is that they are characterised by a partisan-political staff and, to a large extent, the politicisation of appointments to the extent that the public servants have become shamelessly partisan.

    Bureaucracies in Nigeria lack the focus on credibility, rigour and the important social obligation of conducting elections. INEC as a public institution has a responsibility to promote transparency, credibility and self-censorship. Therefore, conflict of interest, confusion and mistrust have damaged the system in the eye of the public. The lack of all these key building blocks is suspect and it needs public scrutiny and interrogation beyond the election tribunals and, ultimately, the Supreme Court.

    Specific key subject areas in innovation — with a focus on new technology (BIVAS) and data analytics — supply chain, inventory planning and materials management remain tailbacks in public policy and administration in Nigeria. Another big challenge that we need to note is how elections are delivered, with the unwholesome practices by treacherous politicians and bureaucratic appointees in the election governance value-chain. The key questions to ask are: How has geopolitics become more important in this election? How should it not be incorporated into the building blocks? How has geopolitics affected leadership recruitment at the national and state levels?

    In the light of election uncertainty, along with a mix of claims and counter- claims, how do we prepare citizens for a future of managing episodic election disruption by compromised institutional bureaucracies of policing, state security and the armed forces? How do we maintain integrity from institutional corruption?

    Interestingly, the changing demography of millennial and Gen Z is fast becoming the new determinant in shaping the future of a new republic. The implication is naturally a major change in voting behaviour and patterns. If we acknowledge how very different the millennial are from the compromised political elite and power mongers, then election bureaucracies are increasingly in trouble. For instance, the millennial are less loyal to the older generation and a lot more technology-driven compared with their Gen Y counterparts. Millennial are also known to hold very dearly the values of diversity, equity and inclusion — and these often reflect in their choices.

    Therefore, if politicians and their corrupt bureaucratic surrogates do not pay attention to operational details and align with the changing technology correctness, political geography and the evolving standard of youthful and empowered citizens in driving credible leadership selection, then the treacherous politicians will be shown their way out in a manner that might threaten public peace. It should be noted that the youths are showing some signs of rebellion against the current political status quo and social conditions.

    At this moment, the youth are not consistently able to avoid falling prey to political and ethnic war propaganda. The number of youths that are not interested in politics and public leadership has diminished quickly over the last two decades. There is an emergence of a sophisticated section of voters with very distinct electoral behaviour and values. They are digital first in their voting preferences and technologically savvy, detail-oriented and clear-minded on whom they want to lead them. They are unbending and unapologetic about their expectations of a new Nigeria.

    Going forward, it is also in the interest of judicial bureaucracies to re-imagine their judicial pronouncements devoid of jurisprudential technicality. The legal fireworks of the presidential and governorship elections will be stiffer this year and only a judicial pronouncement with measured readiness for transparency, fairness and justice will be a sweet-savour and validate the supremacy of institutions to dispense justice without fear or favour.

    The political elite that have been hypocritically dependent on illicit wealth, bribery and capture of state institutions are doomed. Candidates without legitimacy and sincerity of purpose to muster trust and credibility will struggle in this election cycle and beyond. A country built on the power of money, where the common man begs and a handful of the elite are parasitising, cannot thrive, and democracy without legitimacy and accountability cannot stand.

    Citizens need to rise up to the challenges of corrupt bureaucracies and political jobbers and advocate for the right leaders who have the mindset and capabilities to change Nigeria for good. It is not enough to have the right mindset and capabilities. We need leaders that can build systems, structures and interventions that deliver hope and progress. We must tell political opportunists in high places that the cheap talk about democracy and the rule of law without action is sheer hypocrisy.

    Lastly, Nigeria is currently on the verge of a new era that will deal a severe blow to corrupt episodic elections and leadership recruitment. The country has been under the burden of various internal contradictions, historical injustices and socio-economic unviability. Without a better leadership alternative, the country will go downhill into even greater chaos. The youths have revived hope that something other than this socio-political pain in the neck is possible.

     

    Orovwuje is Founder, Humanitarian Care for Displaced Persons, Lagos. Orovwuje50@gmail.com, 08034745325

  • Dodgy elections, democracy and divorce – By Dakuku Peterside

    Dodgy elections, democracy and divorce – By Dakuku Peterside

    Nigerian elections and Nigerian marriages have a lot in common. Both should be sacrosanct. They are conducted with pomp and fanfare, and promises are made but kept in breach. Professions of loyalty and honesty are like a singsong. Like a marriage cements the relationship between two consenting adults supposedly in love, elections cement and clarify the relationship between the candidates and the electorate in defining power structures, agencies, and processes in a democracy. Divorce becomes inevitable when the glue that holds a marriage together weakens and breaks down over time. Likewise, when elections become dodgy, crude, and violent, they become meaningless, ineffectual, and unfit for purpose. Credible elections are the glue that holds the candidate and the electorate together, and anything that erodes people’s trust and confidence in the electoral system simultaneously creates a divorce between the candidates and the electorate.

    Nigeria’s last state governorship and House of Assembly elections have left a sour taste in our collective mouth. Well-meaning Nigerians and members of the international community on monitoring visits were appalled and mortified by the conduct of the elections in many states in Nigeria. Voter intimidation by thugs, the ballot box and result sheet snatching, result manipulation and violence were prevalent in most states. This anomaly has eroded the trust capital of our elections and created a deficit that may take a generation to recover. This election has raped our democracy and put in motion actions and inactions capable of producing a democratic divorce – a situation where elections are considered anathema in choosing democratic leaders . This is an open invitation to anarchy, lawlessness, and disregard for the rule of law.

    Like marriage, in a democracy, there is an agreement for people to live and work together for a shared purpose. There are rules, covenants, a code of conduct and principles. In both cases, there are stakeholders. There are expectations, promises and vows. Successful marriages require a lot of work, commitment, nurturing and observance of rules. Marriages that fail and lead to divorce start inadvertently.

    An election is critical to measuring whether democracy is succeeding or headed for divorce and is part of the stress test for democracy. The presidential election of 25th February was a sign of bad marriage, but the governorship and state house of assembly elections show that if we do not care, we are heading for divorce from democracy. All the features of a marriage headed for divorce were displayed during the last elections. Like a marriage under siege, violence, a flawed electoral process, result manipulation and “thuggery” were the rules of this election instead of the exception. This problem has led to moral panic and has brought to the fore the need for rethinking our democracy and the struggle for power within it.

    It is evident from the account of many observer missions that elections were shambolic in some flashpoint states with high competition among the top contenders. At no point in Nigeria’s history have political actors blatantly, openly, and shamelessly disrupted the election process, rigged the elections, and intimidated and abused voters verbally and physically as they did in this election. In some states, the scene on election day is reminiscent of a mob war and activities of Mafioso in banana republics. One observer mission compared what happened to the 2015 leaders State election, considered the most violent election in Nigeria’s history.

    All the reports point to the fact that Rivers State had no elections in the strict sense of elections. The state is now notorious for shambolic elections. On this occasion , INEC, her agents, and desperate political actors did not follow electoral rules, and worse still, the compromise of the security agencies was evident. Some reports accused some Lagos actors of elevating the electoral contest to a “thuggery contest”. Votes and violence, according to the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), were inseparable in most places. The political actors with greater might and control of instruments of violence had their way, and those with popular support without the “might of violence” lost out. These assaults on democracy stem from the dominant political philosophy in Nigeria among political gladiators, favouring winning at all costs at first polling and dealing with the aftermath with pretentious reconciliatory speeches. Recourse to due process and reliance on the rule of law were assigned to the dustbin of history.

    The ramification of this dominant ideology is mindboggling. One can only imagine the chaos and mayhem that will descend on the state in subsequent elections if all political candidates resort to militancy and thuggery in the polls. It is dangerous to assume that candidates will consider violence and rigging as the only option for securing the people’s mandate in a future election. This flies in the face of democracy, where the power belongs to the people and only through credible elections do people select whom to entrust their power over to wield it for the common good.

    This outcome-centric ideology defeats the purpose of elections in a democracy. A mandate obtained through violence and disregard for the due process does not represent the people’s will. The power wielded based on that mandate is illegitimate and illegal. Public commentators and political analysts like Ms Idayat Hassan of the CDD and Ms Oge Onubogu of the Wilson Centre argued that a fair and functional Nigerian election experience mattered more than the outcome. Onubogu opines that “Nigerians needed to be able to see that the process worked.” Hassan comments, “More and more citizens are losing trust in democracy because of these dysfunctions.” The process is fundamental in elections.

    Dambisa Moyo, a global economist, wrote on ten signs that democracy is under siege. There are elements of these ten signs in the last state elections in Nigeria. I will focus on the four most relevant signs vis-a-vis the previous state election. First, voter participation is on the decline. Mainly, after the adverse events most voters witnessed during the presidential and National Assembly elections ,some chose not to participate in the state elections. In the last presidential and National Assembly elections, only about 28 per cent of all eligible voters in Nigeria participated, and the state elections witnessed even lesser voter turnout. This percentage turnout is indicative and is one of the poorest turnouts in Nigerian elections. The import is that one-third of registered voters determined the will of the people.

    The second sign is that money buys political influence. Money played a pivotal role in defining the last elections. There are accusations of vote buying, financial inducement of political actors, financing of violence and thuggery, and compromising securityagents and INEC officials. They sometimes acted in unison to truncate the people’s will.

    The third sign that democracy is under threat is that the right or freedom to choose is declining. The political actors at the polling booths disenfranchised some voters, and other potential voters did not participate due to the hostile electoral environment characterised by extreme violence on voting day. Even some who voted lost the power to choose when their votes did not count because of ballot and result sheet snatching immediately after accreditation, before entering the results. In some instances, the outright destruction of voting materials by thugs was witnessed by voters.

    The fourth indicator is that the younger generations are turning away from democracy as they are losing faith in the sanctity of the process. Youths are the most affected in this last election. Most felt it was time to engage politically and change the system. However, they are disappointed and disillusioned. A cursory look at social media reveals an avalanche of comments and content showing youths’ utter dismay about the flawed process and outcome of the elections. Some feel that political thieves robbed their mandate and are still organising to push for the change of the orthodoxy they are clamouring for now.

    In some states, the gubernatorial and House of Assembly election processes and outcomes do not make common sense. Electoral fraud is a real threat to democracy. Nigerians in most states have been moot, protesting like in Nasarawa, or accepted the fraud with unspoken revulsion. Those who perpetuated and aided the fraud say it is not about morals but the outcome. However, they need to see the danger that lies ahead. Nigerians are fast losing faith in democracy. We need to do something urgently before we get to the terminal stage of divorce. This is an opportunity for the Judiciary to emphasise the importance of process and the rule of law in our elections. The only way to stop this electoral impunity is for the Judiciary to send a clear message through its judgements that deviation from the laws, rules and regulations governing elections by any candidate or party will be met with severe punishment and will never be rewarded. If political actors perpetrating electoral fraud can benefit from the crime, we are obviously on the road to perdition.

    The real and present challenge for our incoming political leaders and the international community is how to tackle these challenges before the sun of democracy set on Nigeria.

  • “2023 election proof Nigeria is an autocratic state, not democratic” -Ex-NERC boss

    “2023 election proof Nigeria is an autocratic state, not democratic” -Ex-NERC boss

    A former chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, and current director of the Abuja School of Social and Political Thoughts, Dr. Sam Amadi, said the just concluded general elections, are proof that the country is no longer a democratic state, but rather an autocratic one.

    Amadi said this at the 2nd Ariyo Dare-Atoye Memorial Election Management and Governance Dialogue series, themed: “Is Nigeria a democracy? Reflection on the 2023 general election”, held in Abuja.

    In a statement made available to our correspondent, Amadi on Sunday stated that the outcome of the 2023 general elections was not entirely a reflection of the people’s choice, and also averred that the conduct of the elections would further hew down public trust and participation of Nigerians in subsequent elections.

    Describing the election as a ‘total desecration’, Amadi, however, wondered why politicians could not allow for a seamless, peaceful, and keenly contested electoral process, but resorted to violence.

    Particularly referring to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, refusal to transmit results on the IREV, among other anomalies that greeted the 2023 general election, Amadi said that they were lucid indicators that the elections were overtly flawed, adding that the fundamental principles of democracy were omitted during the elections.

    “Nigeria is not yet a democracy because the fundamental features of democracy, the three of them coming to these elections, fair institutions that should provide equality for everybody, and guarantee basic freedoms have been denied largely in this election,” he said.

    Nigeria is not yet a democracy because the fundamental features of democracy, the three of them coming to these elections, fair institutions that should provide equality for everybody, and guarantee basic freedoms have been denied largely in this election

    “We’ve seen the innovation; the most recent innovation which is the electronic transmission of results was truncated by INEC in a very reckless and lamentable manner. We’ve also seen that in many countries and in many parts of the states, even with different parties, PDP APC, or whatever they are, we’ve seen governance incumbents use security to distort elections, drive away voters and rewrite results.

    “We’ve also seen the high point of it for us is what happened in Lagos where Nigeria citizens of a particular ethnic group were disenfranchised on a large scale; structurally, institutionally, with leaders saying that the reason for that is that they are going to interfere with the electoral act. Now, interference is when they make their preference.

    To give an example, look at Nasarawa. Women came out naked. What will make a woman, these are not porn stars, we are talking about mothers of any help of 70, or 80 years, coming stalr naked, and crying to God, that their mandates have been stolen

    “So, we are saying that if you look at the rating from rating agencies, the rate of democracy by the University of Guttenberg says Nigeria is an electoral autocracy. It means that we have to focus not much on INEC but we should be focused on how we ensure that the state institutions are neutral because as long as they’re not neutral, politicized, as long as they are within the control of politicians and incumbent, you can’t have fair and free elections.

    “So, the fact that Nigeria holds elections every year, doesn’t mean we’re a democracy. Russia holds this kind of election where the outcomes are predictable. How can you form a government based on clear suppression?

    “To give an example, look at Nasarawa. Women came out naked. What will make a woman, these are not porn stars, we are talking about mothers of any help of 70, or 80 years, coming stalr naked, and crying to God, that their mandates have been stolen.

    “Why do we have to have those kinds of sins? This suggests even something more autocratic than the colonial rule when colonial masters forcefully hijacked your land and hijacked your state and brutalized you. What the Abuja school is saying is that we are drifting now to real autocracy. We are no longer a democracy. We are not saying that alone, international rating agencies are saying that Nigeria first is a hybrid democracy; meaning that we are functional or formally democratic but the logic of why democrats is authoritarian”.

    Also speaking at the event, a legal practitioner, Victor Opatola, pointed out that Nigeria is divided among several lines, adding that the country must thrive if only the rule of law prevails.

    He established that thorough consideration of the balance of power, and party system, among other factors, are basic ingredients for a working democracy.

    He stated that power dominance by certain individuals is a major bane affecting the growth of the country.

  • Casualties of Democracy as Warfare – By Chidi Amuta

    Casualties of Democracy as Warfare – By Chidi Amuta

    The ballot elections are over now. The next stage of Nigeria’s democracy warfare will soon shift to courtrooms at various levels of the judiciary. The morning after, we are in a nation that looks and feels more like the scene of a recent battle. After the bitter fights, now the head count of casualties. The season of campaigns and elections which ought to have climaxed in a ritual of political self -renewal was converted into a series of pitched battles between political hounds.

    What just took place was a bewitched national frenzy of fraud and disruptive violence. It left no section of the country out. In every sense, we all are now, as the poet said, ‘all casualties of a war’ of democracy that was unintended and uncalled for. It was a war of everybody against everybody in which a blighted system democratized pain and disappointment instead of the promise of goodness.

    Politicians as literal war commanders deployed their foot soldiers and all their lethal arsenal to unleash near anarchy and blood. A war in which every combatant wants to win is bound to produce a landscape of carnage, ruin and lingering bitterness. That is why the mood of the nation after this election is one of sourness and bitterness.

    In some places, neighbours and friends have suddenly become unspoken adversaries. People ordinarily bound together by decades of peaceful coexistence have suddenly discovered that they are divided by differences of primordial nativity. Suddenly, tribe and tongue now differs after many decades and vast resources spent in efforts to unify the nation and manage a diversity that should have been our major strength.

    In the process, numerous casualties are now on open display. First, individual citizens have died. Many have been wounded or maimed for life and are now languishing in hospitals. Some persons are missing, unaccounted for by both family or police. All these trauma and tragedy for no other reason other than that they went out to vote their conscience or participate in an electoral process as a civic obligation.

    The electoral process as the ultimate test of the integrity of a democracy has been trivialized and shredded. Ballot boxes were snatched by force and carted to unknown destinations. Election materials were snatched and vandalized and in some cases set ablaze in full view of those who came out to vote. In some places, hoodlums invaded the polling units with prepared result sheets to replace the authentic ones.

    As we speak, no one is certain as to what version of the election results INEC uploaded onto its tainted IREV platform. There is no certainty as to what version of the controversial results INEC used to declare key outcomes especially at the presidential level. An estimated close to 10% of the results of the presidential election that took place since 25th of February have not yet been uploaded onto the INEC platform! Attention has since shifted to an equally contentious gubernatorial election. As an indication of public disdain and disappointment, the voter turnout in the governorship election was abysmally low.

    It is curious and even tragic that politicians deployed hate and ethnic bigotry to undermine the sense of unity and community in the nation. Politicians and political interests deliberately deployed divisive hate speech and the resurrection of primitive tribalism of the most shameful variety to advanced their goals. In Lagos, a primitive type of ethnic stereotyping and profiling pitched the Igbos against the Yorubas in a city that has been the melting pot of Nigerian cultures and ethnic groups for decades. All manner of decadent myths of ethnic origins have been popularized by otherwise educated and supposedly enlightened citizens just to win one governorship election kin a state that has been producing elected state governors since 1979.

    An atmosphere of lingering bitterness and increasing bigotry in all directions has been created and is festering in the social media and private conversations. Lagos was literally at the brink of a xenophobic meltdown because of the March 18th governorship election. But the politicians who planted and weaponized the virus have since withdrawn to celebrate their victory or protest their defeat, leaving a bitterly divided citizenry to wallow in lingering hate.

    In the desperation to manipulate the elections, INEC’s recourse to technology as a source of solutions that defy our human frailties has also fallen casualty of this recent war. A political class has allegedly collaborated with some deviant election officials to sabotage the BVAS system. A new system that worked flawlessly in recent governorship elections inEdo, Anambra, Osun and Ekiti was deliberately allowed to fail in the presidential election of 25th February. In the absence of a functioning BVAS regime, the system in some places reverted to the discredited manual compilation of results or the uploading of badly altered result sheets to the INEC platform. The result was a collapse of the credibility of both the electoral process and INEC itself.

    In the clear and present danger of a breakdown of law and order following the widespread endangerment of the safety of innocent citizens, the apparatus of law enforcement and public security failed the citizens once again. The police and security apparatus of state was either overwhelmed or became a shamefully partisan and compromised. In Rivers state and a few other places, police vehicles were used to truck away snatched ballot boxes in full view of international observers and a televised public audience. In some cases, persons in doubtful military and police uniforms were deployed to facilitate a widespread election rigging enterprise.

    Among the casualties of this undeclared war, the biggest and most consequential is perhaps democracy itself. Nigerian politicians and their facilitators defamed and abused democracy both as a leadership selection mechanism and as a system of values and cultural index. All the basic elements of democracy were either destroyed or called to question. Freedom of choice was rubbished by goons and ethnic war lords who insisted that some voters should vote for particular candidates rather than others. The plurality of democratic choice in a plural society was reduced to an either or ethnic equation as processing centres sprang up in voting vicinities to filter voters on grounds of ethnicity and partisanship criteria. Now the abiding question is whether Nigeria is indeed ready to be counted among democratic countries.

    The flagrant abuse of process and system was so widespread that many international observers who had come to observe the presidential elections left in disappointment and anger. Those who have insisted on reducing the incidents of bad behavior in the elections to a statistical minority do not get the point about the essence of democracy. A system is either a democracy or it is a primitive autocracy with demagogues as contestants. The question as to whether Nigeria would eventually graduate into the league of democratic countries is now open to speculative debate.

    The most fundamental requirement and end of democracy is freedom. An atmosphere in which citizens are afraid to go out and discharge a basic obligation such as voting for candidates of their choice is at variance with a democratic order.

    The search for explanations for this warlike version of democracy is deeply ingrained in what has emerged as the defining character of the Nigerian state and its political architecture. It must take into consideration Nigeria’s emerging national character and long standing reputation as a crime scene state merely pretending to use the veneer of democracy to earn respectability among nations. Joining the club of democratic nations is different from cultivating a culture of credible democracy.

    As this reporter recently opined in this column a few weeks back, “Nigeria’s institutions of nationhood are essentially administered more like criminal cartels than as tools of collective sovereignty in any enlightened sense. At best, Nigeria under Mr. Buhari has degenerated into a sovereign crime scene. A crime scene with flag, anthem and the insignia and paraphernalia of sovereign nationhood is itself a dangerous proposition. It is made even more dangerous when it is a nation state presided over by a revolving conclave of gangster collectives. It exports crude oil but insists on importing refined petroleum products to line the pockets of a handful of oligarchs. It runs on multiple exchange rates so that patronage can feed unfettered on the commonwealth. It arms a security force to supervise the routine stealing of half of its crude oil production. It buys arms and ammunition to fight an insurgency funded and created by known political figures so that a “security industry” of corrupt officers can thrive. Who needs a more elaborate crime scene than this?

    In such a crime scene state, it is foolish to judge the actions of any state institution by rational moral parameters. Politics is ordinarily said to be amoral. Worse still, the politics of a sovereign crime scene cannot but reflect the essential morality of a jungle ruled by the ethics of gangsters. In such a place, the quest for political preeminence can only be a battle among captains of a pirate ship, a stampede among treasure raiders. The rules of engagement in that battle can at best only be a code of dishonour drawn up by thieves in a jungle retreat.”

    Yet the possibility of collective retrieval is not beyond us. We have survived worse times. At those moments when the world fears that the Nigerian house is about to fall, our Tower of Pisa has endured. Our exceptionalism as a nation resides in the fact that we have become the come back nation. It is precisely that quality of resilience and resurgent renaissance that we now need to remake our democracy and heal our nation. The burden of that resurgence lies most heavily on the shoulders of the youth who trooped out at this election to answer a different call,

    It is a long route and a treacherous path. But we must begin again now to build a new national order founded on unity and the abiding principles of credible democracy. Here then is the well defined agenda of the next set of ‘elected’ leaders of our land.

  • The moment to rescue ABIA state – By Chidi Amuta

    The governorship election on Saturday 18th is more decisive for Abia state than many others. It is an opportunity to end the tragedy of a long night of disastrous governance that has plagued the state in the last twenty four years. It is a unique opportunity to etch a difference between darkness and light and between government for a selfish cartel and democracy as government of the people for their own good by one of their own kind.

    This election is coming at a time when Abia state has accumulated so many negative records among states of the nation. To citizens of the state, a tradition of irresponsible and insensitive governance may have become all too familiar and normal. The records speak for themselves. From the administration of Mr. Orji Kalu to that of Theodore Orji and the outgoing Okezie Ikpeazu, the story of Abia has been one long night of deceit, unbridled corruption and epic incompetence. Even as the people prepare to troop out once again to vote for yet another governor, the question on the lips of most honest Abia citizens is whether democracy will bring them hope and some goodness or continue with a life of perpetual despair, poverty and hopelessness.

    The picture of the state on this eve of a governorship election is sad and almost tragic. As we speak, Abia is easily the most indebted state in the federation with a debt portfolio of over N189.9 billion. The present government that ratcheted up most to this debts inherited a debt of about N35 billion from its predecessor. It is the state with the longest period of default in the payment of the salaries of staff in the public sector especially education and health. Doctors in the state’s service are owed upwards of 30 months in salary arrears. No one knows when they are on duty or on strike. Teachers in government primary, secondary and tertiary institutions are in the same boat or slightly worse.

    The state university runs consistently on upwards of an average of six months in arrears of salaries and allowances of staff. The state polytechnic at Aba is in default of salaries and allowances to the tune of over 30 months and still counting. The institution has virtually lost its accreditation while its academic and administrative staff now supplement their livelihood as keke and Okada riders or petty traders in inconsequential merchandise.

    Doctors in government health institutions have gone without salaries for upwards of 30 months. Most state pensioners have since forgotten when last they received their pensions let alone gratuities. The sick no longer bother to go to any of the state’s general hospitals or health centres knowing well that they are likely to come out feet first because doctors and nurses are either perennially on strike or have no motivation or facilities to provide care or cure. Drug prescriptions are worthless since most pharmacies in state hospitals have a permanent sign on display: “OUT OF STOCK” to announce a perennial absence of essential and basic drugs and medicaments.

    The city of Aba has been in decline and abandonment for the last 24 years. Drainage is absent. Sewage system is unheard of. Open drains filled to the brim with unprintable effluents empty onto the surface of the few ill maintained roads available.

    Aba is literally an inhabited refuse dump. Mounds of refuse greet the eyes at nearly every inch of the city which has a permanent stench of something dead. Most roads in the town are in desperate disrepair. Some people have forgotten when some of these were roads as many have become deep gullies and waterways that are hardly impassable when it rains. Adjoining the many dilapidated roads is one or two uncompleted flyovers that the state government has been building and commissioning in bits for the better part of the last seven and half years.

    The sorry state of Abia state is inscribed boldly on the faces of every citizen except the few who are responsible for this scandalous absence of responsibility in government. People are hungry, poor, unkempt and viciously frustrated.

    This is the effective backdrop to the elections that will take place in the next three or four days to elect a new governor. The choice before the people is therefore a clear one. The crisis of governance in the state has defined the type of governor that Abia people should be looking forward to having from May 29th 2023. The ideal next governor of Abia state must therefore come to the table with a mix of qualities that have openly been deficient in the last 24 years. These are competence, capacity, track record of performance, knowledge and character with conscience and empathy.

    Abia needs a governor who can read a balance sheet. We need somebody who understands the essence of governance. It must be somebody who understands the complimentary relationship, the social contract between government and people. The new governor must understand that in government, as in business, there is a clear distinction between revenue and expenditure and between recurrent expenditure and capital costs.

    Above all, the new governor of Abia state must have empathy for the people he governs. Governance without compassion becomes a machine of insensitivity and evil. The new governor must know that a government thrives when the minimum expectations of the people are met. Salaries and wages must be paid as and when due. When workers receive their salaries and allowances regularly, demand is stimulated and supply of goods and services is ignited. Contentment and prosperity are generated.

    Abia is easily the most industrially and commercially viable state in Nigeria. But the spirit of enterprise and industry among the people has been stifled and crushed by a succession of bad and irresponsible governments. If brought back to life, the city of Aba alone can give the state an internally generated revenue base of at least N5 billion a month as against the little over N1 billion collected at present. Even the present level of IGR is an understatement as a plethora of criminal networks are known to cream off most of the internally generated revenue in the name of task forces, consultants and other cartels of corruption. The state’s dormant revenue pool must now be activated in order to deliver to the Abia people the prosperity they deserve but have waited endlessly for.

    I have seen most of the political propaganda material being brandished around the Abia governorship campaign. The noisiest faction is the one claiming that the governor must come from a particular geo political zone. That argument is moribund, redundant and prehistoric. Abia does not need a Bende or Ngwa or Umuahia governor. I agree that ewuity and identity are part of politics but we must distinguish between what is strategically important and what is politically expedient.

    Therefore, what Abia needs now is a good governor, in fact a better governor than the parade of locusts that have so far reduced the state to its present sorry state. If you ask me, I would confidently say that on the contrary, it is now the turn of Abia state to rise to the promise of its founding fathers through the election of a capable, enlightened and committed governor. Parochial sentiments and little primordial micro nationality qualms should not obscure this larger goal.

    I have heard the loud voices of the Ukwa/Ngwa faction of the Abia political elite. For the avoidance of doubt, I was born in Abia state. My birth chord lies buried there beneath a kola nut tree. The bones of my parents and grand parents lie buried in the soil of Abia. I n addition, I can confidently assert, factually, that there is no citizen of the state, living or dead, that contributed more than my humble self in getting then president General Ibrahim Babangida to sign off on the creation of Abia state. But I have never directly or indirectly staked a proprietary entitlement to the political leadership of the state. I am also solidly from Ngwaland. None of the people shouting about the entitlement of the Ngwas to use their demographics to dominate the leadership of the state is more Ngwa than myself. I have probably contributed more to the development of Ngwaland and the Ngwa identity in Nigeria than the majority of these campaigners. But, I have never, however, insisted that the choice of a fit and proper governor for the state should be restricted to my village, clan or sub ethnicity. What Abia, or indeed any and every state or Nigeria for that matter needs is a capable and competent leader to deliver to the majority the dividends of democracy. That is the message of the moment’s political reality as we have seen it.

    By a historical coincidence, the crop of candidates vying for the governorship of Abia state are in general qualitatively better than their predecessors but the political party configuration of the moment is vastly in favour of the candidate and agenda of the Labour Party. The attributes that earned Mr. Peter Obi the shattering success in the last presidential election are now at the disposal of Abia state in the person of the Labour Party candidate, Mr.Alex Otti.

    After a careful scrutiny of the antecedents and qualities of the contenders, I am convinced that only Mr. Alex Otti, of the present crop of candidates, possesses the attributes of the kind of governor that can rescue Abia state from the doldrums in which it has been plunged by the present and past administrations of locust governors.

    Mr. Peter Obi had outlined character, capacity and competence as core qualities for the highest political offices in today’s Nigeria. As it was valid and attractive for Nigeria, it is even more imperative for Abia state.

    At a personal level, I have known Mr. Alex Otti for the past many years and can boldly assert that he possesses the requisite attributes and proven qualities to lead a rescue mission to dig Abia state out of the deep ditch into which the present and past governors have dumped the state.

    I knew him as a young boy growing up at Umu-uru, next door to my Umuguru village. Later, as one of my students at the University of Port Harcourt, I remain proud of Alex who justified the confidence of we his teachers with a brilliant First Class Honours degree in economics and the social sciences. In his banking career, first at First Bank and, later, as Managing Director of Diamond Bank, Mr. Otti distinguished himself by being in the forefront of outstanding management turnarounds in both organizations. In the contest for the present tenure of the position of Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria under president Jonathan, Alex Otti was a front line candidate and stood a very good chance of being the current Governor of the Central Bank but for reasons of political considerations. I

    n his private business, Alex has recorded undoubted success. As a manager, Alex Otti is competent, informed, enlightened and has the requisite private sector linkages to expand the economic horizon of Abia state and thus lift it from the present centre of poverty to its deserved status as a place of prosperity and economic influence.

    For the avoidance of doubt, I make this bold endorsement of Mr. Otti in full cognizance of the respectability that Abia state deserves but cannot get under the lack lustre and embarrassing canopy of the present leadership in the state and the ones that preceded it.

    Abia is no ordinary state. Many fellow Nigerians have expressed consternation that a state that boasts of some of the most distinguished and illustrious citizens of our nation both living and dead can degenerate into such a laughing stock. This is the state of Michael Okpara, Ebitu Ukiwe, Kalu Idika Kalu, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, late Ndubuisi Kanu, Anya O Anya, Darlington Uzu, Onyema Ugochukwu, the late Stanley Macebuh and many more others.

    This plea for a fit and proper person as the next governor of Abia state is entered on behalf of these illustrious citizens as well as the millions of long suffering people of the state who have simply suffered too much. Our people cannot remain in bondage for much longer than this moment.