Like many of you, I had always thought that democracy is a game of numbers. That has always been my thinking. I believe it still is. And I had always held that, as a game of numbers, democracy rarely offers the best opportunity in selecting the best for leadership. This is because, defined as government of the people for the people and by the people, democracy presupposes government by the vote of the majority. Some call it a popular vote. However, it is immaterial that the majority may be a bunch of morons and as such would elect one of theirs. What matters most is that the majority vote leads the society. This system of selecting leaders is so popular and very much accepted all over. I have seen primary schools adopt it in picking their class monitors. They encourage their pupils to indicate interest in which office (monitor) they want to contest and also give them the opportunity to campaign for votes. I watched my son mount the rostrum to campaign in primary four when he contested to be the sports monitor for his class. Motor Park touts also campaign for votes and allows the majority vote to lead. But the All Progressives Congress (APC), which holds the reins of power in Nigeria, seems to be scared, or, mortally afraid of this system through which it became the ruling party in Nigeria.
Nothing defined APC’s abhorrence for democratic, and proper, conduct than its letter of May 8, 2023, appointing Senator Godswill Akpabio and Sen. Barau Jubrin as president and deputy president of the 10th Senate and also, Abass Tajudeen, and Ben Kalu as speaker and deputy speaker of the House of Representatives. By the appointments, APC, under the dutiful leadership of Abdullahi Adamu, openly declared the death of democracy in Nigeria and the rise of fascism in much the same way that Benito Mussolini did with the Republican Fascist Party in Italy.
In ‘The Political and Social Doctrine of Fascism’ as translated by Jane Soames, and published by The Hogarth Press, Mussolini stated that “Fascism denies that the majority, by the simple fact that it is a majority, can direct human society; it denies that numbers alone can govern by means of a periodical consultation, and it affirms the immutable, beneficial and fruitful inequality of mankind, which can never be permanently leveled through the mere operation of a mechanical process such as universal suffrage”.
With what APC has done, we see a practical demonstration of Mussolini’s thought that “fascism combats the whole complex system of democratic ideology, and repudiates it, whether in its theoretical premises or in its practical application”. This suggests a very dangerous step forward for Nigeria. And, it calls on all lovers of democracy in Nigeria to rise, not only to challenge it but to defeat it and thrash it. Doing so will be a patriotic duty to prevent Nigeria from eventual descent into a system that would abrogate the people’s democratic right to choose their leaders and to meaningful dissent as well as virile opposition.
Nigerians, since 1999, know that the election of leaders of the National Assembly is the sole duty and function of members of the legislature duly elected to serve in that temple. Though a party leadership may have an interest in who leads the parliament, such interest is not, however, publicly demonstrated in brazen disregard for the democratic principle of majority vote. The party, as always, markets its preferred candidate among its members and lobbies others for support for a majority vote. However, by publicly demonstrating its aversion to democracy, APC has subtly put a call through to the opposition to frustrate its design and push for its own candidate. But, I am surprised that it is mostly APC senators who are more vocal in condemnation of the appointments. Does this suggest that the opposition parties do not have a voice here? Because this may as well be the opportunity for the National Assembly members to force a repeat of the 2015 Senate elections when Sen. Bukola Saraki pulled the plugs against the party’s anointed and effectively led the Senate through a very sensible period where the national interest was at the forefront of every legislative action.
Counting on the advantages that numbers confer on a united front of members of the opposition, especially those who campaigned, and won, with changing the status quo, alongside those in APC who are not comfortable with the fascist decision and looming destruction of democracy in Nigeria, the opposition may steal the victory and with that, save Nigeria from another very pliant senate like the one led by Ahmed Lawan, Ph.D. Lawan’s senate existed only as a rubber stamp on Muhammadu Buhari’s table. Lawan, and his senate, refused to think through executive requests even where mortally injurious to Nigeria’s economy. Allowing APC to succeed with Akpabio and Tajudeen, as handpicked and imposed leaders of the 10th National Assembly, will signal a continuation of Lawan’s legacy of malleability. This, however, is not to suggest that Nigerians need National Assembly leaders that will be confrontational. Rather, Nigeria needs National Assembly leaders whose mandates derive from the majority of the people through their elected representatives in both chambers. This is what democracy is about.
That is why Nigerians must disagree with APC’s support of such fascist tendencies as expressed in Mussolini’s thought where he argued that the liberty enjoyed under democracy, which allows the majority to pick their leaders through universal suffrage ought to be curtailed because some individuals who pushed the reins of power must be the ones to call the shots. According to Mussolini, “It is we who have the right to succession, because it was we who forced the country into the war, and led her to victory”, therefore, “the present method of political representation cannot suffice; we must have a representation directly from the individuals concerned”. If, therefore, the federal legislature of the 2023-2027 period intends to build a united Nigeria, then, APC’s fascist appointment ought to be thrashed.