IT BEGGARS belief that democracy could end up as the terrible monster it has become in many nations, which deprioritises peoples’ lives and their welfare. Nigeria powerfully negates the correlation of democracy, with peace and development, which has made a few of its regions, and the nation objects of endless commitments and promises by successive presidents to rescue them from insecurity.
Five of the seven North Western states have parallel power structures: one democratic, made up of an elected government, and the other terroristic, controlled by the Bello Turjis, beyond the reach of the state, whose commands are more respected than those of the democratic leaders, because unlike the democratic leaders, the Turjis would do as they say.
Nigeria’s democracy is defined by paradoxes, which shouldn’t exist in a functional democracy. The pronouncements, promises and commitments of democratically elected leaders should be their bonds. Not in Nigeria, where promises and commitments are made not to be fulfilled.
Nigerians are used to unfulfilled commitments on account of which they hardly trust their leaders who most of the times wouldn’t do what they promised; and do what they say they wouldn’t. For the umpteenth time, they promised to make life more abundant; but took measures which made life more restrictive. They promised to fight corruption, but ended up strengthening it by either closing their eyes to corrupt practices, and treating corrupt acts with kid gloves, or conducting government business opaquely. These raise embarrassing questions.
Last year, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu committed himself to cushion the effects of fuel subsidy removal, but despite the increase in the salaries of principal judicial officers, the unions are still in the trenches fighting to smoke out a minimum wage rather than the palliative wage the government is intent on imposing on Nigerian workers.
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When it suits their prejudices and political beliefs, the leaders deny reality. Former President Goodluck Jonathan misunderstood the Boko Haram insurgency with the perception that it was a Northern plot against him and therefore became non-committal in containing it. He lived in denial of this even after the kidnapping of the Chibok school girls, till he sensed defeat in the 2015 election, when he belatedly realised that Boko Haram had to be contained.
The North West geopolitical zone illustrates the mother paradox of Nigeria’s democracy. Despite being the most populous geopolitical zone, and a major food and livestock production area; the North West perfectly expresses the scary state of the nation. As democracy takes root, the zone increasingly faces a bleak future.
Five of the seven North Western states have parallel power structures: one democratic, made up of an elected government, and the other terroristic, controlled by the Bello Turjis, beyond the reach of the state, whose commands are more respected than those of the democratic leaders, because unlike the democratic leaders, the Turjis would do as they say.
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A lot of vulnerable Nigerians have been pushed to the wall such that their grudge against the system is to rebel against it and gravitate their allegiance towards parallel power structures beyond the reach of the State that has apparently abandoned them. This underscores another paradox of Nigeria’s politics, that rather than authoritarian regimes pushing people to the wall it is democratic regimes which do so in Nigeria.
The Turjis shrink the authority of the Nigerian state; farms are deserted due to their fear; who rustle cattle out of the zone; travelling on some of the roads is suicidal as one could be killed or kidnapped. The North West is on a life support, revived back to life during elections, when its unemployed youths are effectively engaged as thugs during electioneering campaigns, who are used to being used and dumped.
It is this messiness that elicited President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s commitment to fight insecurity there, conveyed through the Vice President, Kashim Shettima, at a two-day Peace and Security Summit in Katsina, organised by the North West’s Governors’ Forum and the UNDP recently in Katsina
The choice of venue for the Summit is dramatic because an indigene of the state was massively voted by Nigerians in 2015, who believed his campaign promises to secure not only the North, but Nigeria, whose two term tenure ended with only a decreased tempo by Boko Haram, but left a legacy of an unfathomable ruthless rural banditry that has made life unbearable for the vulnerable groups in the states.
A lot of vulnerable Nigerians have been pushed to the wall such that their grudge against the system is to rebel against it and gravitate their allegiance towards parallel power structures beyond the reach of the State that has apparently abandoned them. This underscores another paradox of Nigeria’s politics, that rather than authoritarian regimes pushing people to the wall it is democratic regimes which do so in Nigeria.
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If 58 former Nigerian governors could loot about N2.187 trillion in the last 25 years, what could be the quantum of looted funds by thousands of elected and appointed officials at federal, state and local government levels in the same period?
The mindset, and governance praxes of the ruling elites are driven by selfish interests, which lead to opaque transactions of government business, which leave the people impoverished, which is counter-productive to peace and long-term development.
Nigeria’s democracy is a one-way route for the unrestrained movements of the political class and their cronies; whilst the people who legitimise democratic rule are diverted to a subway, where they sub-exist. It’s this dichotomy and the paradoxes which have led to the failure of Nigeria’s democracy to make meaningful impact on the lives of the people. It is this type of failure which has brought about the recent occupy the streets protests by Kenyan youths. Since it is agreed that democracy expresses the will of the people, this will shouldn’t be deflated by any paradox, however sweet it would seem to the ruling classes.
One Olufemi Adegbelugbe from Alberta, Canada, penned in a story entitled: “In Nigeria History is repeating itself: The Abacha Chagoury Connection VS the Tinubu Chagoury Connection”, which exposes another paradox of Nigeria’s democracy. Since the president is the moral beacon and conscience of the nation, he shouldn’t be associated with someone whose past seems dirty, as revealed by The News magazine in its 1995 edition entitled: “The Chaougrys: How A Family Has Hijacked Nigeria”. Chagoury has been awarded the controversial Lagos-Calabar Coastal highway at trillions of naira.
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The positive transformative value of democracy is lost, which has turned democracy into a localised mortalcracy that dispenses death, widowhood, orphans, compounded misery and wailings; and unprecedented dislocations of communities on the one hand; and coziest deliveries, safest motherhood and enhanced lives, fabulous riches and consolidated power structures, which are used to dominate and dispossess the people on the other hand. It is a classic expression of the one people-two nations syndrome, a microcosm of the state of the Nigerian nation. This is the mightiest paradox of democracy in Nigeria: creating two nations out of the same people.
Nigeria’s democracy is a one-way route for the unrestrained movements of the political class and their cronies; whilst the people who legitimise democratic rule are diverted to a subway, where they sub-exist. It’s this dichotomy and the paradoxes which have led to the failure of Nigeria’s democracy to make meaningful impact on the lives of the people. It is this type of failure which has brought about the recent occupy the streets protests by Kenyan youths. Since it is agreed that democracy expresses the will of the people, this will shouldn’t be deflated by any paradox, however sweet it would seem to the ruling classes.
Jahun, a commentator on public affairs, writes from Dutse, Jigawa State capital. He writes this column every Wednesday under the title: ‘The Other Perspective’. He can be reached via email @: aminuhabibu58@gmail.com or WhatsApp: +234 703 903 8088.
