TEXT OF SPEECH AT
THE OTTAWA TOWN HALL MEETING
ON THURSDAY THE 2ND OF MAY, 2013
Protocols:
It was Abraham Lincoln that gave the world the simplest and the most
concise definition of democracy: “government of the people, by the
people and for the people.” It is a definition with a thesis that packs
quite a bundle.
And yes, the wittiness of its language has another
advantage: it makes it very easy to memorize. If you are a leader, one
duly elected by the process of democracy, this definition is very easy
to remember. It says everything without saying a lot. The recurrent
phrase, “the people” should serve as a mnemonic for the elected
official; a consistent reminder of why he occupies the office entrusted
to him/her. Democratic governance, therefore, is not about who signs the
budget or how many cars constitute the convoy of a government official.
It is leadership that is centered on the people and does not lose them.
It is governance by the people and for the people. This cannot be
emphasized enough; democracy is about the people.
When we talk
about “the people” in a democratic system of government, we mean the
people, the masses, the folks, the community, and proletariat, the
common people, through whom the privileged occupiers of office derive
their power. Power belongs to the people, and "democratic governance"
recognizes it holds power in trust for the people. Its legitimacy is
derived from the authority invested in it by the people. It therefore
listens to the people, not out of a sense of benevolence but because it
has no choice. It has to carry the people along all the time to retain
its legitimacy. But all these of course, are near-ideal, or ideal
situations.
I acknowledge that no democracy anywhere is
perfect; either the one practiced in North America -and which constantly
holds itself up as a standard for other less fortunate nations-, or the
version of democracy that subsists in post-colonial African countries,
fully grants sovereign power to the people. Democracy in itself, is an
ideal, but one worth striving for by the society that claims to be
practicing it. There have been series of debates that have questioned
the appropriateness and sustainability of democratic governance in
Africa. Scholars and analysts have asked the question over and over
again, is democracy right for Africa or is there something in our DNA
that makes the quest for attainment of true democracy possible? These
postulations do not always offer an alternative form of government
Nigeria –and by extension the rest of Africa- can explore if democracy
refuses to work for us. And so, until they come up with a viable
alternative, we have to stick with democracy and make it work for us.
By making it work, I mean, we should consistently audit the system of
democratic governance we claim to practice in Nigeria and ask how well
it is working out for we-the-people. We must never shy away from asking
this very legitimate question at any time. If democratic governance
guarantees equality, we should not merely stop at lamenting the gross
inequality in the Nigerian society. We need to go further and challenge
our country to give us equal rights, access and privileges to the
commonwealth of our nation. We must not stop at theorizing how much our
lives will forever be circumscribed by corruption and its pernicious
effects. Instead, we must strive to meaningfully participate in issues
that affect our lives. We should refuse to be always treated as an
afterthought; instead, we should effectively participate in the
collective choices that define our membership of the nation. We all
should have equal access to the process of political participation, not a
few privileged villains who clog the mechanism of our society, turning
everywhere into an extension of their fiefdom.
The central
question here is, can we ever truly attain citizenship of our own
country beyond the ceremonial process of carrying our country’s
passport? To be citizens is a guarantee of equal rights,
responsibilities and privileges. It means we are treated with dignity
and respect that we deserve as human beings and sacred rights enshrined
in our Constitutional protect us all the time. These factors –rights,
privileges, equality, responsibility, and participation- as I have
listed them above are consequent of democratic governance. That is why
the process of democracy is integral to our existence as a people. It is
an ideal worth striving for; there are no negotiations around this
obvious truth. Democratic governance has the potential to guarantee us
the rights and privileges we desire as a people. Therefore, no matter
the level of difficulties we experience in the process of democratic
practice –and God knows we have been through a lot- it is still a sound
option for a difficult and complicated country like Nigeria to explore.
But like I said earlier, we need to consistently audit the process of
democratic governance to see how well, if at all, it is working for us.
Democratic Governance in Nigeria
The late music maestro and activist, Fela, criticized democracy in his
1986 album, Teacher, Don’t Teach Me Nonsense, when he sang, that
democracy is a crazy and under-achieving experience in Nigeria. Fela, in
his typical way of simplifying and satirizing a complex phenomenon,
inverted the two syllables in the word “democracy” and came up with
“crazy demonstration” to typify the absurdity pervading the Nigerian
society at that time. Again, he put the two syllables of “democracy”
together again and came up with “demonstration of craze!” Democracy, as a
framework with which we try to organize our society, Fela claimed, is
ruining things for us rather than repairing them. What we were
experiencing in our body polity, Fela’s album concluded, is not
democracy. Democratic governance, he implies, has to have a deeper and
more prudent meaning than the mindlessness that was reigning in the
society. A system of government in which as Fela puts it, “rich man dey
mess, poor man dey cry” cannot be said to be democratic governance
because it weighs down on the very people it promises to protect. A
government where the rich and the politically powerful trample on the
rights of the poor is not a system that should claim it practices
democratic governance.
It is more than 26 years since Fela
released the album. Nigeria has transited from military rule to 14 years
of unbroken civil rule, a fact that Nigerian leaders are very proud of.
Yet, I fear we have not moved too far from the society Fela described
when he sang, “This o, no be democracy.” Truth is, we still have a long
walk ahead to freedom. What presently goes on in Nigeria does not
qualify to be called democracy in the true sense of the word. It is
defective, wasteful, and too self-possessed. It forgets the people exist
and makes itself the center of all issues. The Nigerian sort of
democratic governance turns the very concept of democracy on its head
and reduces all conversation to the political actors. This is reflected
in the day-to-day activities of Nigerian government, ranging from
official lying to blatant corruption. Let’s take a quick assessment with
a few illustrations:
One, consider this story. In August 2012,
when the story broke that the Nigerian first lady had been hospitalized
in Europe, the government denied it. Her aids said she had only gone to
Europe to take a moment’s rest because she had been busy doing a job
nobody elected her to do. The president’s spokesman, Dr. Reuben Abati
added his voice saying that the whole story was a rumor. In October,
when the first lady herself returned, she told journalists that she was
not sick and had not been near the hospital they linked her with. But,
months later, in a burst of rhetorical efflorescence, the first lady
confirmed all that she had been denying for months! Without a sense of
shame at having lied to the people all along, she and her husband
admitted she had been in the hospital and had been operated upon
multiple times. So far, there has been no apology to the people neither
did they deem us worthy of any form of explanation for this executive
deception. And, let’s not forget, her eventual confessions happened
during a lavish party reportedly worth N500m. It is bad enough that the
woman and her husband lied to the people, it is worse that they could
throw such an improvident ceremony in the midst of grueling poverty in
the land. There was no sense of embarrassment, self-cautioning and
definitely, no iota of consideration for Nigerians who do not have a
choice than to use poorly equipped local hospitals in Nigeria where they
routinely die of treatable afflictions. And whoever was the preacher
for their flamboyant thanksgiving service forgot to choose “Thou shall
not lie” as the title of his message. How daring for men in cassock to
think they can mock God! Where is the courage to speak truth to power?
Do our men of God hob-nobbing with those in the corridors of power still
have conscience? And if I may ask where are the people in this entire
charade? Who is thinking of the people, the very ones to who power
belongs in a democratic system of governance?
Let’s take a
second example, also a very recent one. It is about the altercation that
occurred between the governor of Rivers state, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, and
the aviation authorities in Nigeria; a situation that has been skewed as
political victimization of a governor who will not kowtow to an
arrogant president. Please listen carefully to the press release by the
governor’s aide:
“We had set out from Abuja in the morning of
Friday April 26, 2013 for Imo State to attend the funeral rites of the
younger sister of the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Hon. Emeka Ihedioha…. Our plane, a Bombardier jet owned by the Rivers
State government, landed at the airport in Owerri. It was in Owerri that
the pilot of our plane was first tipped off that there was a plot to
ground our plane in Owerri that Friday. Fortunately, we took off from
Owerri airport and arrived Akure airport en-route Ekiti for the burial
of the Deputy Governor of Ekiti State, Funmilayo Olayinka without any
incident. On the flight to Akure was the Speaker of the House of
Representatives, Rt. Hon. Aminu Tambuwal who we met in Imo State and was
also heading to Ekiti for the burial of Mrs Olayinka….
By now,
you are probably wondering what the governor is doing with a private
jet and why the jet, nicknamed “our plane” should turn into a private
taxi service used to convey these so-called VIPs to private functions?
Who pays for all the costs incurred in flying this jet? The people, of
course. They bear the cost of their governor’s profligacy. The news
story also continues, telling us that after their plane was grounded,
they began to make frantic phone calls to get the plane released. The
story continues:
Calls were made as these two “democratically
elected” leaders, furious and perplexed, tried to fathom what could have
caused this monumental embarrassment.
After trying fruitlessly
for some time to get the plane released, Speaker Tambuwal offered to
fly Governor Amaechi to Port Harcourt with the plane (another small
aircraft) that brought the other four Honourable members to Akure. To
accommodate Governor Amaechi in the small aircraft, one of the House of
Representatives members offered his seat to the Governor. The pilot of
the Rivers State government plane was already locking up the aircraft
for us to leave for Lagos by road when a call eventually came through
that the plane could now leave. The Controller received a directive to
allow the plane fly out of Akure. The decision to let us go, we later
learnt, was due to the pressure brought on the aviation authorities by
Speaker Tambuwal.
Again, we see a number of things wrong with
this story. Interestingly, those who put out this press release do not
even see it. Their attitude has become so warped that there is a very
thin line between good and bad. The same people who described themselves
as “democratically elected leaders” have suddenly grown so big that
they cannot travel on the same road as the millions of Nigerians who
“democratically elected” them. These leaders, for not getting the
privileges they love to indulge themselves in, described themselves as
“furious and perplexed” and their experience as a “monumental
embarrassment.” But, what does their fury and the trauma they experience
at having their self-awarded gratifications do for the Nigerians who
travel on those stretch of roads Amaechi requires a private jet to fly?
Those same roads on which many have died and much more have had their
lives permanently damaged? You guess right, nothing! Absolutely nothing!
What does this “monumental embarrassment” they choose to whine about do
for the Nigerian people who elected them into office? Nothing! It is
all about them, themselves and theirs. Their idea of democratic
governance is centered around what they can get, what they can indulge
in and that is where it ends. It does not pretend to think of the future
because all it sees is itself. There is nothing in this press release
that details the so-called traumatic experience Governor Amaechi went
through in the hands of government officials, that shows that those who
we have in power in Nigeria think of the people at all. It is all about
them and what makes them comfortable. Even though they took care to
describe themselves as “democratically elected leaders,” they do not
live it. I go back to Fela who says, “This o, no be democracy.”
Let me give a third example quickly. Recently, the US released a report
that indicted the President Goodluck Jonathan administration, accusing
the government of massive and widespread corruption. The report stated
that government officials and agencies are steeped in the culture of
corruption and they carry it out with impunity. The report,
interestingly, did not state anything new. We have always known about
the level of corruption that pervades the Nigerian society. It is a
culture that has become part of our national bent, and no longer a
breaking news story. The year 2012 saw one of the biggest heists take
place in official quarters but where did it all end? Sting operation and
permanently delayed justice. But rather than the government face up
this reality, and admit that it was ready to work on itself, what did
their officials do? They started an aggressive campaign of defense,
describing the report as “parachute researches” and an
“over-amplification” of a minor problem. Their reaction is typical;
nobody should be surprised that they will rather put up jejune defenses,
telling us some long story of how transparent their government has been
and how they have been fighting corruption. Really? This present
government is fighting corruption? After the fuel subsidy debacle which
turned up the billions of dollar sleaze, this government still claims it
is fighting corruption when, in reality, what we have going on is a
demonstration of craze. Again, they display same grossly undemocratic
attitude that takes the people for granted. They have totally forgotten
or are not familiar at all with the wise words of Wael Ghonim:
“The power of the people is much stronger than the people in power.”
I admit I might have given a rather bleak picture of the state of
things in Nigeria. These instances are no exaggerations; they are cut
and paste descriptions of our quotidian experiences. These are the
basics of the reality of our Nigerian existence. But then, the question
is, where do we go from here? How do we return the people to the center
of the discourse around the structures of democratic governance in
Nigeria? The answer can be found in the slogan of the ruling party in
Nigeria, “power to the people.”
The Peoples Democratic Party,
like other parties in Nigeria, is fond of its slogan, ‘Power to the
People’. When they gather, they chant this slogan with gusto. They shout
it at the top of their voices and, like many other Nigerians also do,
the PDP has neither taken time to ponder the meaning behind “power to
the people” nor do they even plan to do so. When the PDP shouts “power
to the people,” what it actually does is to redirect more and absolute
power towards itself because in their small world, “the people” begins
and ends with the members of their coterie. They are that narcissistic.
The ruling party, over the years, has successfully run its kleptocracy
right before our eyes. As against democracy, kleptocracy is defined as
government of the thieves by the thieves and for the thieves! The people
as an entity, do not feature anywhere in this equation. The PDP simply
does not have time to waste on the people. They are the people and
everybody simply comes last.
Instead of democracy, what has
been perfected in Nigeria, as at today is kleptocracy; which is the
combination of military bravado in milking Nigeria, and civilian
pretense for the same objective. The result is increasing
underdevelopment of Nigeria, in colours of shame and perpetual
embarrassment.
The immediate outlook is a landscape dotted with
a small list of men and women who are suddenly and inexplicably rich.
You wake up in the morning and there are all these men and women who own
property in cities and towns and villages all over Nigeria and abroad;
you wake up and you are in a country where wealth is counted but not
character; a country where mediocrity is rewarded with National Honours
and lucrative contracts. This is how kleptocracy works.
That is
why, 53 years after independence, and hundreds of billions of Nigeria’s
oil dollars later, just a few Nigerians have unimaginable wealth that is
paralleled only by the astonishing poverty of most of our people. And
while most of Africa yearns for a courageous, patriotic leadership,
Nigeria allows itself to be manipulated by a duplicitous, mediocre
cabal. Fifty three years later, our leaders can claim a Ph.D, but since
anyone can beg, borrow, buy, hire or steal those or any combination of
letters, it is perhaps mere shorthand for Port Harcourt Degree, not
Doctor of Philosophy.
Fifty three years later, we are a nation
in fear. Our youth have no jobs, and many are learning to employ
themselves as robbers, kidnappers, thugs and militants. In place of
hope and inspiration, one ruler after another inflicts on them despair
and cynicism.
Fifty three years later, we fear whether we will
survive. We fear whether we will survive as one. Whether we will
survive to tell the tale. Whether we will ever have water to drink or
electricity by which to see our children smile; or jobs to go to, roads
to get to them, or safety from “unknown” gunmen, known militants, and
indiscriminating security agencies.
Fifty three years after
independence, it is almost impossible to provide younger Nigerians with
any inspiration they can grow and compete with the best of other
nations. Government Ministers who cannot spell “Naira” correctly lie
fluently about the dollar.
Ladies and gentlemen, Traditional respect
for authority reinforced by colonial authoritarianism has made it
difficult to establish democracy in Nigeria. And to compound the matter
the collusion between the electoral body, I-NEC (The Independent
National Electoral Commission) and the ruling party inspite of all the
propaganda to the contrary has made a free, fair and credible election
in Nigeria a pipe dream inspite of the yearnings and the aspirations of
the conscientious electorate. The judiciary is not also totally neutral
in this collusion as the past three elections and post election tribunal
judgments have shown. Can we then conclude there is no hope whatsoever
for the future of democracy in Nigeria? Not so soon. For if there is a
will and a people who are ready and able there will be a way. We just
need a handful of well meaning, totally committed and uncompromising
people who can influence the coming together of the progressives in
Nigeria under a unified vision to turn the tide and bring about the much
needed change in our nation. Such is the hope of our people in the
on-going merger process of three or more political parties in Nigeria.
Let’s all cross our fingers that this time around, the major players in
the merger process will put the nation first.
In addition, one
can only hope that the emerging party from the merger can rightly use
the slogan “Power To The People” to develop a blueprint for sustainable
democratic governance in Nigeria? How about working towards building a
system of government in which the people actually come first? How about
wresting the farce of “power to the people” from the hands of the PDP
and turning it into reality? How do we force the government to center
the people in their activities and stop treating us as if we are
destined to exist only at the margins in our own country? How do we
return the power in a democratic government to where it truly belongs,
the people? Remember, I said at the beginning of this speech that true
democracy is an ideal, which no nation has fully attained, but one
thoroughly worth fighting for; one truly worth committing our energies
to achieve. So, I ask, how do we achieve a society in which the
principles of democratic governance are not acted only in breach?
For one, after my participation in the 2011 electoral process, and my
observation of activities in our country since then, I have come to the
conclusion that not all voters and citizens are sophisticated enough to
understand how critical their participation is to the destiny of their
country. In Nigeria, we have gradually become inured to bad things such
that we are no longer startled when we hear news of how many more
billions have been stolen from the state coffers. This is why I strongly
believe the way to enhance democratic governance in Nigeria is firstly
for the best, the brightest and the fittest among us to be involved in
our politics at all levels and secondly to educate, enlighten and
empower the people; they need to ask questions and challenge their own
government. If an average young Nigerian devotes as much time as it does
to European soccer to the governance of her country, we will be out of
the doldrums fast. The greatest asset of a badly run government is a
disempowered and unconcerned citizenry. A nation where people routinely
look away from cases of abuse of office by her government officials is a
nation where people will be routinely abused. It is a nation that will
remain in the muck for a long time.
Let me conclude this piece by
appealing to this distinguished audience that more than ever before, our
activities as social crusaders, activists, critics, patriots and
particularly as Nigerians must be that of exhorting and educating our
territories of influence especially within Nigeria. We need a more
sensitized and engaged citizenry, one that actively participates in the
process of governance beyond merely casting a vote. As the former
British PM, Winston Churchill said, “The best argument against democracy
is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.” If the people
become the very structure of our democratic governance, we can begin to
chart our journey towards the ideals of democracy. We might not get
there in the same day but we would at least have begun. It is,
altogether, a lifetime journey, one that does not offer a short cut.
Democratic governance in Nigeria does not promise to make us perfect,
but at least, the process of striving will make us a better people.
To make this happen, there must be a core-catalyst group, ready,
willing and able to ignite the fire of change, foster the enlightenment
of our people and pay the price for their total liberation from the
stranglehold of power prodigals who possess power for self and not for
service talk less of the overall welfare of their people and development
of their nation. Across this room, I see such people but will they pay
the price and take on the challenge by accepting responsibility for the
greatness of their country? Only time will tell whether the “yes we can”
response can emanate from here and reverberate globally among the
well-able Nigerians in the diaspora and those back at home.
Thank you for listening.
God bless you all and may God bless Nigeria.
‘Tunde Bakare
Convener, Save Nigeria Group.
Lagos, Nigeria.
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