May 29, 2013 marked another hilarious day in the nation’s quest to belong to known democratic countries of the world. Democratic, in the sense of being governed by elected members of the society as provided in the constitution of such a country, an embodiment of the dos and don’ts for a virile civil society.
Presently, it is becoming a challenge for every country in the world to embrace the democratic system of governance instead of the military, which is termed dictatorship and a deprivation of the freedom of the citizens of such a particular country to contribute their opinions on how the affairs of their state or nation should be administered.
To that extent, the leading civilised countries and world powers like America, Britain, Russia, Germany, etc are doing much to enhance enthronement of democratic governance at various countries of the world, especially among non-civilised and third world countries. They often place embargoes on countries where the military, through coup d’état, stage a comeback to power, just to make sure the military, for whatever reason for the intervention, returns back power to a democratically elected government in that particular country.
In Nigeria, the nation’s quest to be reckoned among the nation’s of the world with a democratic system of governance started in October 1960, at the inception of the nation’s independence. The late Right Hon Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe became president of the country, with late Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa as prime minister.
That was exactly when the journey started but a series of military intervention governance never allowed the democratic process in the country to be nurtured to maturity. The democratic process in the country suffered its first hitches in January 15, 1966, when President Nnamdi Azikiwe’s government was overthrown by a group of soldiers led by late Major Chukwuma Nzeogwu.
The nation further witnessed a mutiny within the military government as the late Aguiyi Ironsi-led government was later ,within the same year, overthrown by General Yakubu Gowon [rtd], who held on to power up till 1975. In between, the Gowon regime, from 1966 to 1975, the nation experienced a civil war from July 1967 to January 1970, when the late Ikemba Nnewi, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, with his position as military governor of Eastern Nigeria, fought for a secession of the eastern part of the country, over unjustified mass killing of the South-Easterners in other parts of the country, especially in Northern Nigeria.
Gowon, who preached a gospel of ‘No Victor, No Vanquished’ but once more a united Nigeria, could not return the nation back to a civilian administration for the nine years he ruled the country, and was eventually overthrown in a bloodless coup later in 1975. Brigadier Murtala Mohammed, who took over military regime in the country from General Gowon and promised to guide a democratic return of power to civilians, did not however implement this policy within his short regime, as he was assassinated through a violent coup in 1976. However, General Olusegun Obasanjo, who succeeded him, accomplished the task three years later in 1979, with the swearing-in of Alhaji Shehu Shagari as an elected civilian president of the country.
The era of Alhaji Shehu Shagari in 1979 marked the third republic of the nation’s civilian administration. Sadly, this era of democratic governance in the country was short-lived. It barely lasted for four years.
The military ceased power again, over allegations of electoral malpractices in the elections that ushered in the NPN -controlled federal republic under Alhaji Shehu Shagari. General Muhammadu Buhari, who became military head of state, was after two years overthrown by General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida (IBB).
IBB became head of a military junta who rigmarole into a military president. On several occasions, he reneged from his election time table to hand power back to a democratically elected civilian government. Eventually, when the elections which was adjudged as the most free and fair in the country so far was conducted, he still went ahead to annul it. But with pressures from both civil society groups and most Nigerians, he vacated the seat of government with a historic record of introduction of an ‘Interim National government’ headed by an elder statesman, Ernest Shonekan.
Shonekan entered the Guinness Book of Records as Nigeria’s two-month president. Late General Sani Abacha took over power in 1993 and died on the seat of power in 1998. General Abdulsalami Abubakar assumed the seat of military rule in 1998, after Abacha’s death and fulfilled his promise of handing power to a democratically elected government in just one year to Olusegun Obasanjo, now as a civilian president elected under the platform of PDP.
The second coming of Olusegun Obasanjo in 1999 as a civilian president marked the beginning of the nation’s 4th republic and democratic process. Evidently, the fourth republic politics of the country have lasted longer than the previous democratic attempts. This is based on the fact that President Obasanjo served out his eight-year tenure of four-year terms each [1999 -2003 and 2003-2007]. Thereafter, he successfully handed over to another democratically elected government led by late President Shehu Musa Yaradua.
Though Yaradua died after a protracted illness in 2010, but the same four-year elected democratically term was served out by his deputy, Goodluck Jonathan, who transformed to become president of the country, going by the constitution’s provision of doctrine of necessity.
President Jonathan sustained the pace of the nation’s democratic governance when he won the 2011 presidential election, consequent upon the 2011 general elections conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, led Professor Attahiru Jega.
Obviously, without military interruption in the nation’s polity and governance since 1998 to the present time, 2013, is the longest republic and democratic process the nation has ever witnessed since in independence in 1960 and posits to say that Nigeria has arrived in the cause of nurturing and sustaining it’s democratic process. Will the military ever remained confined to the barracks is just a million dollar question. Many Nigerians are eager to know the answer and a solution to effect it.
A lot of pundits who spoke to the Pilot on this issue expressed the view that military intervention in our polity have never provided solution or solved the nation’s socio political and economic problems but only provided a temporary relief. Therefore, the earlier, the military confines itself to the barracks and tied solely to the responsibility of quelling our internal and external security, the better for attempts of nurturing the nation’s democratic process to maturity.
But arguments abound whether the military should stage a comeback, if the height of insecurity challenges in the country surpasses what the civilian government can handle, especially with the insurgent and menace of Boko Haram ravaging the country. In a chat with the Pilot, a former minister of state for health, Hon Silas Iloh expressed the view that there is no quantum of problem that the civilian administration could not resolve, with committed dedication of the serving politicians and other stake holders to nation building.
He attributed to the present state of insecurity in the country to decades of negligence of various social factors that has presently encapsulated into a chaotic and catastrophic situation. He stressed that the tempo of joblessness among the youths in the country has reached an unassuming rate and spurred the crime of kidnapping in the South-East zone of the country, militancy in the Niger Delta, armed robbery and other forms of violent crimes in the Western part of the country and even the Boko Haram menace pervading some Northern parts of the country.
He argued that if those youths who are being deceived into bombing Churches, public buildings etc, to kill innocent people had been properly engaged with a job, they would not accept to be tools of destruction at the hands of evil plotters.
Hon Iloh posited that the present administration in the country, led by President Goodluck Jonathan, still has a lot to do so as to ensure sustenance of democratic culture in the country because there is no alternative to democracy.
An in depth look into the 14 years of consistent democratic rule, which started in 1999, which was celebrated nationwide on May 29,2013, as have being institutionalised by the civilian government, shows that the nation had practiced a presidential system of democracy, which we borrowed or emulated from the United states of America, USA.
Towards this direction, the institution of government in the country constitutes of three tiers, namely the federal, which is termed the first tier; the states referred to as the second tier and the local government councils, known as the third tier. The sole objective of the presidential system of democratic culture is to ensure that even the grassroots are involved in governance of the rural areas as well as democracy dividends, getting to all nooks and crannies of the country, to enhance even development.
The extent to which Nigeria’s serving politicians, political activists and other political stakeholders have lived up with the practical implementation of government policies and action plans of development is another million dollar question, whose answer will be very difficult to supply.
This is based on the fact that the presidential system as being practised in the country injects revenue from the federal purse to also service the other two tiers of government, that is the 36 states and 774 constitutionally recognised local governments through the federation.
Evidently, these allocations are shared monthly among the three tiers to enhance respective administration and delivery of infrastructural development in their respective states, local government councils and development centres, a creation which has become a creation of many state governors.
Sadly, arguments abound that the journey so far in the nation’s search and quest to become a developed country within the past fourteen years of consistent democratic rule has been in the retrospect, based on the fact of monumental corruption that has crippled into the political system.
The monthly allocations that mostly accrue from the oil sector amidst internally generated revenue from the states and local governments are not plunged directly into the system to enhance development of our economy. Records abound of self-seeking politicians who have found their way into the corridors of power within the past fourteen years of our democratic process of the fourth republic and have stashed the nation’s resources into their private bank accounts in foreign countries, while millions of Nigerians bear the brunt of such selfish desires for unquenchable and greedy accumulation of wealth by a few class of Nigerian politicians.
The immediate past civilian president of the country, General Olusegun Obasanjo [rtd] once raised alarm that the endemic corruption in the system is what is undermining the development of the country. As true as his confessional statements were, his administration still could not nip the canker worm on the bud. To an extent, an American researcher came up with his findings that over ninety percent of Nigeria’s corrupt practices and loot of public treasury are strategised and implemented at the corridors of the nation’s seat of power.
Endemic corruption in the still prevalent in our system of government is the negative cause of why Nigeria is being rated and truly has remained one of the poorest nations of the world. There are abundant economic and human resources, but these resources are within a few hands who are opportuned to grab the political power or get connected to those in power. The resultant effect is that over eighty percent of Nigerians live below United Nations gross domestic product GDP of five dollars per day. It is very unfortunate that massive youth unemployment has continued to be the order of the day in the past fourteen years of consistent democratic rule.
The joblessness among the hundreds of thousands of Nigerian youths that pass out from the nation’s higher institutions yearly to join the band wagon of millions of other Nigerian graduates in view of the fact that the labour market is already saturated, without any visible action plan by the government, is attributed to be the major reason why various forms of crime have reached an alarming rate in the country.
It is obvious that some of these jobless Nigerian youths, who still retain their integrity and discipline,e are clamouring every day to leave the shores of the country to seek fortune elsewhere in the labour market, and without any hope of a job in the country.
The past fourteen years of consistent democratic culture in the country has been a period of quest to acquire political power or have control over the practitioners. Most Nigerian elites are seen to be moving in this direction, in view of the crumbles of profit in most other sectors of our economy, obviously due to bad governance and corruption by those already in power. To that extent, there appeared an era of political godfatherism. The king makers, who due to their political charisma or with money, facilitated the coming to power of some other political figures. Thereafter, there’s always payback time, either in form of a contract or usurp of the state treasury. Pundits attribute this saga as one of the major reasons why the development has not been on the very high side in the past fourteen years of our democratic process, when compared with the quantum of resources that has been disbursed from the federation account to service the three tiers of government in the country continuously every month in the past fourteen years.
Hon Silas Iloh,a former minister of health in the country, in his brief chat with the Pilot on the nation’s journey so far with our democracy, argued that even the military government delivered democracy dividends, built lasting bridges and hospitals, good roads, etc. Therefore, it is left for the civilian administration to be accountable to Nigerians, justifying the billions of funds that have been accruing to the nation all these years, with thorough infrastructural development of the country. And by so doing, the quest and our journey to enthrone democracy in the country will become an everlasting legacy.