WHILST most people under despotic regimes prefer democratic rule, a lot of people have lost faith in democracy, because despotic ‘democrats’ are upending the democratic balance, concentrating disproportionate powers in their offices, anchoring governance on an unpalatable trajectory for the ruled.
It is the lapdog nature of the legislature which emboldened President Tinubu not to withdraw the rejected tax bill from the National Assembly, because no matter its toxic nature, he is confident that the legislative leaderships would try to facilitate its passage into an act; as the 2024 appropriation bill was summarily passed into an act.
The risk of power concentration at particular points, facilitated the perching of democracies on a triple governance plank, with different powers among the constitutive branches of government. For a democratic government to achieve its Lincolnian mission, no arm of government should be too powerful to constrain the functioning of the other arms. Should the power equation be disproportionately tilted against the other arms, society suffers as democratic goals would be subordinated to selfish ends.
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An unbalanced power distribution in government deprives, or mostly emasculates the no-executive branches of their powers, transforming them into the lapdogs of the executive branch, which uses different means to unbalance the power equation. First, the executive arm selfishly prefers working with a dependent legislature, so that its excesses can’t be checked by the legislative branch. This is achieved by planting stooges as senate presidents and speakers of HoRs. Secondly, members of the legislative houses, known to have abused their offices are threatened with prosecution, which incapacitates them for independent legislative roles. Thirdly, the imbalance is reinforced by preferring judicial stooges as heads of judiciary, who would go the extra mile to bend the law to the admiration of the executive branch.
As the red chamber was sufficiently muzzled by the PDP-led regime, senate presidents were changed like shirts in 1999 to 2007. It was only the green chamber, which was shielded from the indignity of executive imposition by the late Ghali Umar Na’abba, former Speaker, HoR, who fiercely upheld the independence of the house. Similarly, the APC led regime imposed the leaderships of the present National Assembly to realise a hidden agenda.
After emasculating the other governmental arms from effectively discharging their mandates, the executive branch finds it easier to crush the labour unions and civil society organisations. The labour unions are in bad shape, a shadow of their past, unable to effectively engage the government to significantly alleviate the difficulties faced by Nigerian workers, which are regarded as a department of the Ministry of Labour and Employment.
Had it been any other senator, besides Senator Akpabio, who emerged as Senate President, unencumbered by a corrupt past, the contract for Calabar Lagos Coastal highway wouldn’t have been allowed to pass. The budget padding in the 2024 budget would have been squarely dealt with; for bringing the padding to light, Senator Abdul Ningi wouldn’t have been punished; and the unending increases in prices of petroleum products wouldn’t have been possible; the rot in public agencies wouldn’t go uninvestigated and unpunished; and honourable members of the National Assembly wouldn’t spy on each other to be in the good books of the executive.
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It is the lapdog nature of the legislature which emboldened President Tinubu not to withdraw the rejected tax bill from the National Assembly, because no matter its toxic nature, he is confident that the legislative leaderships would try to facilitate its passage into an act; as the 2024 appropriation bill was summarily passed into an act.
Nyesome Wike, the FCT minister is being reinforced by federal courts in his political fights with his godson in Rivers State, and signposts how he would fight the PDP. A compromised judiciary would be handy to provide judicial succour in presidential election petitions in 2027 and beyond.
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After emasculating the other governmental arms from effectively discharging their mandates, the executive branch finds it easier to crush the labour unions and civil society organisations. The labour unions are in bad shape, a shadow of their past, unable to effectively engage the government to significantly alleviate the difficulties faced by Nigerian workers, which are regarded as a department of the Ministry of Labour and Employment.
Unbalanced democracies are on a trajectory of sit-tightism, highlighting the need for another struggle for balanced democratic governments, in which each arm of government is truly independent of the others, to freely exercise their constitutional powers. The opposition parties would find it extremely difficult to defeat the ruling party in elections, because the Wikes are reinforced by a compromised judiciary to make them lose focus on 2027 through endless infighting.
At subnational levels, the power balance is tilted to render separation of powers ineffective. Bigger stooges are imposed as speakers of state houses of assembly, and local government councils, bereft of legislative independence. As for the judiciary in the states, they are no more than the judicial pawns of the governors. The emirate tussle in Kano State; the prosecution of the APC National Chairman, former governor of Kano state, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje; and the political crisis in Rivers State have exposed the allegiances of state and federal judiciaries.
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But why should anybody want to disproportionately concentrate powers in an arm of government? The imbalance infuses dictatorial traits. The prolonged one-party dictatorships in African democracies, couldn’t have been possible without highly unbalanced governments. If Senegalese democracy had been highly unbalanced, like that of Cameroun or Nigeria, its Constitutional Court couldn’t have outlawed the extension of the poll by former President Macky Sall.
With a dependent legislature, a compromised judiciary, and impotent labour unions, Nigeria would become the guinea-pig of IMF/World Bank experimentations, where all sorts of unfriendly economic and political policies could be implemented. Should the IMF/World Bank feel that costs of education or medicare should be revised upwards, no one can stop it.
Unbalanced democracies are on a trajectory of sit-tightism, highlighting the need for another struggle for balanced democratic governments, in which each arm of government is truly independent of the others, to freely exercise their constitutional powers. The opposition parties would find it extremely difficult to defeat the ruling party in elections, because the Wikes are reinforced by a compromised judiciary to make them lose focus on 2027 through endless infighting.
Jahun a commentator on public affairs writes from Dutse, Jigawa State Capital. He writes this column every Wednesday. He can be reached via email @ aminuhabibu58@gmail.com, or WhatsApp on +237 39038088.
