PROF. JEGA ON NIGERIAN DEMOCRACY

Politics, Governance and Leadership Recruitment in 21th Century Democracy: A Review of the Nigerian Situation By Attahiru M. Jega, PhD, OFR Professor, Department of Political Science Bayero University, Kano, Nigeria jegaattahiru@gmail.com Presentation at the Maiden Lecture of Kwara Visioners Network for Rural Development, Main Auditorium University of Ilorin, Main Campus, Saturday October 9, 2021 Introduction Nigeria’s democratic journey in the 21st Century is faltering, if not stalling, largely on account of deviation from the basic tenets and principles representative, liberal, democracy. This deviation is manifest in the role of political parties, especially the ways and manners in which they recruit candidates for elective positions and also the ways and manners by which they and their selected candidates engage with the electoral process, as well as engage in governance, once they get ‘elected’. The preponderance of political regimes in the 21st Century are democratic, and of the variety called representative or liberal democracies. The Economic Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index 2020, has identified 110 countries with democratic regimes, classified as “Full Democracies” (23), “Flawed Democracies” (52) and “Hybrid regimes” (35) (EIU, 2020). Nigeria is among the 35 Hybrid regimes globally, 13 of which are in Sub-Saharan Africa. Hybrid regimes are described as: … a mixed type of political regime that is often created as a result of an incomplete transition from an authoritarian regime to a democratic one. Hybrid regimes combine autocratic features with democratic ones and can simultaneously hold political repressions and regular elections… Also, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit: Hybrid regimes are nations with regular electoral frauds, preventing them from being fair and free democracies. These nations commonly have governments that apply pressure on political opposition, nonindependent judiciaries, wide-spread corruption, harassment and pressure placed on the media, anaemic rule of law, and more pronounced faults than flawed democracies in the realms of underdeveloped political culture, low levels of participation in politics, and issues in the functioning of governance (2020). Basic Tenets and principles of Representative, Liberal, Democracy As Diamond (2004) has aptly stated, Liberal (representative) democracy must include four key elements: “A political system for choosing and replacing the government through free and fair elections The active participation of people, as citizens in politics and civic life Protection of human rights of all citizens A rule of law in which the laws and procedures apply equally to all citizens.” For people as citizens to be able to choose and / or replace government, or more appropriately, their representatives in governance, whether in the legislative or executive branches of government freely and fairly, both the participants in the electoral process and the public institution conducting and its procedures and processes must have integrity. In this regard, political parties, which are the special purpose vehicles for interest aggregation, articulation, candidate recruitment and selection for electoral contest, and mobilization of citizens as voters in the electoral process, have to be well organized and have to function well in accordance with the democratic tenets and principles. A key principle of representative democracy, well conceptualized in democratic theory is that, the people as citizens are the principals, the government is their agent and the representatives they have elected are their servants, who should act in accordance with their needs and aspirations. In other words, those whom they have elected should be responsible and responsive to their needs and aspirations in governance. In their role with regards to leadership recruitment and selection, political parties are supposed to be guided by 1) a parson’s membership, familiarity with what the party stands for, its core values, orientation, manifestoes and commitment and loyalty to these; and 2) a parson’s good character traits and personal attributes, which include: Honesty, integrity, selflessness, competence and merit. So also, requisite qualifications, knowledge and experience. The Current Nigerian Context Not only is Nigeria classified as a hybrid regime (i.e. neither fully democratic nor fully authoritarian), because of the nature and consequences of its governance or mis-governance processes, it is also increasingly being referred to as a “failed” or “failing” State. In any case, the evidence of Nigeria being a dysfunctional state is overwhelming. As Ghani and Lockhart have noted, in a dysfunctional state, “officeholders focus primarily on personal aggrandizement while the state fails to perform essential functions [which] takes a high toll on citizens” (2017, 83). In spite of over 20 years of transition to democracy, Nigeria is characterized by very poor indices of growth and development in virtually all spheres. From, GDP growth rate, to GNP per capita, to Human Development Index (HDI), Poverty incidence, Physical Quality of Life Index (PQLI), Maternal mortality, and Child mortality, Nigeria ranks lowly in the comity of nations. The following Table provides additional illustration of Nigeria’s poor ranking on many global indices used to rank countries. S/no. Global Index Ranking among number of countries measured Measured over 100 or over 10 or 1) 1. Corruption Perception Index (CPI) 146/179 26 2. Censorship Index 115/180 35.63 3. Democracy 109/167 4.2 4. Ease of Doing Business 131/190 56.9 5. Fragile State Index 14/178 97.3 6. Gender Gap Index 128/153 0.635 7. Human Freedom Index Partly Free 48 8. Ibrahim Index of African Governance 33/54 47.9 9. Human Development Index 158/189 0.534 10. Organized Crime Index (African) 1/54 7.65 13. Physical Quality of Life Index (PQLI) 82/82 54.91 14. Religious Freedom Index 127/160 35.50 15. Insecurity Index Source: Virtual Presentation (VIKMAP) by the the Thematic Group on Governance, Social Development and Internal Security to the Research and Development Standing Committee, tetfund, July 13, 2021, page 11. These are further compounded by rising insecurity, poor management of diversity and increased instability, all combining to undermine the legitimacy of the state. Socio-cultural diversity, which ordinarily should be an asset, is so poorly managed that it is increasingly becoming a liability. The federal system, which is ordinarily facilitative of better management of diversity, has become so convoluted, distorted and skewed, that it has more than ever before increased mutual fears and suspicions, tensions, conflicts and ethno-religious and communal violence. What accounts for this situation? I argue that essentially, the major contributing if not causal factors of this unwholesome situation are as follows: Nigerian dominant elite glibly accepted the liberal democratic framework of governance for the country, and pretended to be practising it for 21 years, but in reality devoid of substance, and without living up to expectations of its basic principles and tenets. Political parties, created by the dominant elite, purportedly as the special purpose vehicles for leadership recruitment and fielding candidates for elections as citizens’ elected representatives in the governance processes, have instead, become special purpose vehicles for self-enrichment, obstruction of citizens aspirations and exploitative authoritarian control. They have therefore failed in discharging their core responsibility under a liberal democratic dispensation, by giving primacy to self-serving objectives. They are poorly structured and organized; if they have manifestos or programs of action at all, these are mere documents written to fulfil a legal requirement for registration, but there not believed in, they are not respected, and they are not implemented. There is no discernible effort are interest aggregation beyond self-serving objectives. Hence, when one closely examines the so-called dominant parties, there are substantive ideological orientations, and there is certainly no discernible ideological differences distinguishing one from the other. For example, who can tell what really differentiates the APC from the PDP? They are both funded and controlled by self-serving so-called “money bags” and “godfathers”. Indeed, in each of these parties, State Governors have increasingly become the “money bags” and godfathers, controlling and influencing the leadership recruitment processes and virtually all affairs of the parties, by virtue of their control of, and corrupt enrichment from, public resources. Consequently, patronage, clientelism and prebendal dispositions constitute the framework for leadership/candidate recruitment. The significance of assessment of character traits and personal attributes of potential recruits is jettisoned and replaced by arbitrariness, and selfserving objectives and dispositions. The integrity of the electoral process is being systemically undermined covertly as well as overtly by the dominant elite in governance and their political parties. For example, as they ‘select’ or ‘recruit’ potential clients an put them forth as ‘candidates’ in elections, they use all sorts of undemocratic, illiberal and fraudulent means to get them “elected”. Such elected ‘representatives’ in governance proceed to stand the assumptions of liberal democratic theory mentioned earlier, on its head: the dominant elite become the masters and principals, the state becomes their agent, and citizens become their servants, or even their slaves. Specifically, they proceed to use their elective positions to pander to their godfathers; to corruptly enrich themselves and recoup their personal ‘investments’ and those of their patrons in electoral politics; and either because of incompetence or lack of care, they proceed to woefully fail to provide exemplary leadership with good governance, and in satisfying the basic needs and aspirations of the citizens. The current Nigerian situation, therefore, clearly indicates that, although we are living in the 21st century and claiming to operate under a liberal democratic dispensation, our greedy and fractious elite who have put a stranglehold on electoral party politics, are not abiding by its basic tenets and principles and are undemocratically recruiting pliant, incompetent or equally greedy and selfserving followers, further compounding the crisis of leadership and governance, and accelerating instability, insecurity and the fragility of the increasingly failing Nigerian state. What is to be Done? Clearly the current context of our democratic development, as well as the character and nature of the Nigerian state, lives much to be desired. For Nigeria to stabilize and progress as a modern democratic nation state in the 21st century, we have to work hard to change our ways. The current so-called 2 dominant political parties, the APC and PDP, with their faulty recruit and leadership selection processes, who have shared power and have, tended to lead Nigeria astray in the past 21 years, are becoming incapable of redirecting Nigerian political and governance processes in the right direction. The dominant elite in these parties are too self-centred, fractious and quarrelsome; lacking in enlightened self-interest, and seem incapable of forging the desired elite consensus to more the country forward. We need to create a new special purpose vehicle(s) for people-oriented interest aggregation, interest articulation, and popular mobilization to free our country from the stranglehold placed on it by reckless, visionless and parochial politicians. For too long, patriotic, enlightened, capable and competent citizens of our country have pursued a “siddon-look” disposition, considering electoral politics as murky, dirty and criminally minded enterprise, which honest decent people should not engage with. By so doing, they have allowed dishonest, bad and unwholesome tendencies to become domineering in the Nigerian political, electoral and governance spaces. As things are now, this attitude needs to, has to, change, urgently, before the reckless band of politicians currently in control of Nigerian national affairs run the country aground. We need more betterquality citizens, honest people, with sincerity of purpose, with integrity and courage of conviction, and who are selfless, in electoral politics and governance at all levels, local, state and federal, so as to remarkably improve law-making and public policy making that can remarkably improve management of diversity in our federation and appropriate utilization of national resources to satisfy the basic needs and aspirations of Nigerian citizens. This may seem difficult, but it is not impossible, we forge unity of purpose and try harder to actualize the objective. Thank you and God Bless. References Ghani, A. and C. Lockhart. 2008. Fixing Failed States. A Framework for Rebuilding a Fractured World. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Diamond, L. 2004. “What Is Democracy?”, Lecture at Hilla University of Humanistic Studies. January 21st. Economic Intelligence Unit 2020. Democracy Index 2020: In Sickness and In Health? Virtual Presentation (VIKMAP) by the the Thematic Group on Governance, Social Development and Internal Security to the Research and Development Standing Committee, tetfund, July 13, 2021