Nigeria would have been reaping optimally from its 20-year-old transition from dictatorship to democracy, but lack of accountability from political leaders, disregard for the supremacy of the rule of law and a system of governance enmeshed in corruption, short-change the country of dividends, stakeholders said at a Ford Foundation’s forum on ‘Democracy in Nigeria’.
Echoing from a room where depression on the poor status of things rented the air, the top stakeholders in business, law, civil society organisation, and international development agencies could not but conclude that in spite of significant progress at sustaining democratic rule, fundamental flaws in the country’s polity hamper it from matching the progress made with opportunities beneficial to its teeming population.
Hussaini Abdu, country director of Plan International Nigeria, said the system as currently structured is incapable of driving any major change as policies, advocacy at the National Assembly or laws enacted amount to little.
A national shock is coming, he foresees, whether organised or spontaneous. It will lead to a deciding moment of actions that the resilience capacity of the country may be unable to handle.
“We need to do more than what we are doing to respond to our challenge. This is because we have a segmented approach to national problems. We relate to problems based on where we sit and therefore, what I refer to as national shock is a significant shock that will shake the country,” the PI chief said, wondering why the country isolates leadership quality from the quality of its system and lacks synergy of purpose when it relates to having national conversations on how to drive this country differently.
The heralding of democracy in 1999 came with high hopes and expectations of improved quality of life and development in Nigeria. At the advent of civil rule, the concept of the dividends of democracy was birthed, reflecting the various interpretations of citizens on the gains offered by the fresh democratic regime. The last two decades, which have been defining periods in Nigeria’s post-independence era, have been a mixture of slow progress in key development areas of infrastructure, education, power, housing, technology, and agriculture among others.
Chichi Aniagolu-Okoye, executive director of community life project averred that some of the solutions to Nigeria’s issues need not be politically correct as citizens and civil society organisations must up actions to challenge the lack of accountability that cripples the democratic potential to transform the country.
Consequently, it is expedient to seek interventions beyond the shores of the country and engage international institutions across the world in cowing the levels of corruption that Nigerian leaders glory in.
“I will like to argue that it is not so much that the military in Nigeria got tired of ruling. It was the international community that decided that military rule is no longer fashionable. Yes of course, agitations locally helped, but I think that the writing on the wall was clear from the international community was clear that this type of rule was no longer acceptable,” she said.
“We have all come to identify the fact that our politicians are in politics for selfish reasons. If we don’t touch that selfish reason, nothing will change.”
But Martin Abrego, vice-president international programmes, Ford Foundation says it’s important to sustain optimism in the midst of these dire challenges, noting that since there’s sufficient understanding of the problems, the commitment will make the difference desired. And in so doing, civil societies have a specific role of getting deeper into the business of delivery.
On its part, the foundation has been stressing equal representation in governance, accountability, elimination of employment discrimination and wading against violence as an instrument for gender oppression, Abrego explained.
“Being in the business hope means we know that changes take time and we need to be patient. And while we are patient that sustainable change takes time, we also work with a sense of urgency,” the vice-president urged. “For us, the long term vision and the sense of urgency are critical element of our hope. The key thing is that we need to be prepared to seize the opportunities around the corner,” he concluded.
