So you think Nigeria should jettison the system of democracy since we can’t get it right?
Let me wax a little philosophical; when it came to typologies of government, Plato and Aristotle, including the Greek philosophers that originated democracy, agreed that it is the worst form of good governance. It is just a potpourri, so there have been various forms of democracy as we speak. The Russians have what they call sovereign democracy; the Chinese have their form of democracy, which they call people process democracy. So, when Plato said that the best people to rule are the aristocrats, he didn’t mean bad; what he meant was that they are the government of the few, but for the benefit of many. Because they are wise, they are philosophers, but in Nigeria, what we witness is the oligarchs which is the government of the few and for themselves, not the people, and that is the da, ger, and what we are calling democracy in Nigeria is Oligarchy. Some have defined it as plutocracy, government by the rich and thieves, and what have you and what we are witnessing is the system of appointment, not the true process of elections and who appoints the delegates. Is it not the governors? But democracy is still the form of government that the United Nations Charter recommended since 1945, stating that every state shall enable equal participation. Also, the 1996 instrument of the International Covenant on Political and Civil Rights still recognizes democracy and the basic rights of citizens to participate. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), said that the target is to have more people involved in governance and in holding public offices, and how do we achieve that? It is through democracy.
This goal is a plan for the year 2030 to have as its target more people, including men, women, and youths, participate in governance and hold political positions; how do we achieve that? It is through democracy. But the question is, have we achieved that? The only way is political education, and mass political literacy because the people are still politically blind, and that is what the elites pray for. Do you know that Zimbabwe, they have the highest number of literate ones in Africa? During their elections, they vote and make sure their votes count by waiting into the night. They know about a candidate, and they can predict what such a candidate can do in the future based on the antecedent. But in Nigeria, during elections, we rely on rice and noodles, with N2,000 naira for the remaining four years to choose a candidate irrespective of his past. Like I said what we need is strong political education. Section 2 of the Electoral Act mandated INEC to undertake voter and civic education and went further to mandate it to inculcate measures that will promote sound knowledge of democratic processes. Now tell me how INEC can achieve that. It is sound civil society participation. INEC can have one or two focused on giving the people voter education. But we are aware that some CSOs are neither here nor there.
The reason is that those who led civil society voices in the past suddenly withdrew their participation and they are no longer talking even when the condition has become so bad. Recall that in 2012, during a subsidy protest led by Bola Tinubu and Muhammadu Buhari, and others, people came out to join the train for mass action. But the situation today became worse than it was then and they are all keeping quiet. That is civic deception because they are not honest.
What does this portend for the youths and the future of this country?
We need honest leaders because the youths are seeing a bleak future. The women and challenged people in society are further marginalized by the elite. Let me go back to the Uwais Report’s recommendation and propose a representation for them that 30 per cent of the electoral seats must be reserved for women and 2.5 per cent for physically challenged persons. And this government and the ones before them took over the representation and that is the immorality of the administration that I am talking about. If we don’t involve the youths in shaping the future there may not be peace, we should not take them to the point where they spit on our graves because we have failed to protect them and what is happening is that the elites are more concerned about protecting their immediate families and generations unborn which they don’t know whether will ever exist. And that wrong perception of development and studies have shown that those who are amassing wealth may not have that wealth reach those generations. It is happening in our own time, so the youths, apart from acquiring skills, need political education. Power flows from the people but that power is predicated upon the knowledge of the processes. Many of them do not know, many have not even voted. Do not forget that corruption begins with the choice of monitors in the classrooms. What I saw in 2012 shocked me when I was delegated to organize the election of the National Children’s Parliament by the Ministry of Youth. Before my eyes, parents were bribing officials for their children to become the National President of the Children’s Parliament. I recommend that parents should stop inculcating poor leadership qualities in their children because it brings a nation down. The future of this country is in the hands of the youths and the efforts we make today manifest in our tomorrow.
