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Former British Prime Minister, Mr. Boris Johnson, was right when he recently urged Nigerian leaders to allow the people to freely choose those to lead them. Johnson, who spoke late last month at the 16th edition of the Osigwe Anyiam-Osigwe lecture series in Ikeja, also spoke about the importance of the rule of law as a prerequisite for development. According to him, whether rich or poor, everybody receives the same scrutiny and same protection in the United Kingdom (UK). This, he said, was the first and most crucial freedom and the precondition for economic growth and investment. “The next great freedom is the right to choose those who govern you and the right to remove them from office. It is called democracy,” he noted.
Johnson’s position is germane to the past and present efforts by Nigeria to evolve true democracy. Since it gained independence from Britain in 1960, Nigeria has grappled with leadership crisis that has greatly stunted its growth. The leadership crisis is often precipitated by the greed of some politicians who deny the citizens the power to choose their authentic leaders.
This has led to military interventions in our polity. The military first intervened in 1966 and continued to rule Nigeria until 1979 when the civilian government of Alhaji Shehu Shagari came on board. Shagari was toppled in 1983 partly because the election that was to make him run for a second term in office was marred by irregularities. People’s choices were not respected. The military latched onto the disquiet in the country then to take over government.
What would have been a watershed in the history of elections in Nigeria – the June 12, 1993 election – was annulled by the military junta of then Gen. Ibrahim Babangida. The presumed winner of the election, Chief MKO Abiola, was even arrested and detained until he eventually died in custody. Abiola’s death engendered agitations and protests which eventually led to the constitution of an interim national government led by Chief Ernest Shonekan.
It was not until 1999 that Nigeria embraced democracy again. Since then, we have succeeded in transiting from one civilian government to the other. Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, then of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), ruled until 2007 when he handed over to the late Umaru Yar’Adua of the same PDP. Yar’Adua died in 2010, paving way for his deputy, Goodluck Jonathan, to mount the throne. Jonathan ruled until 2015 when he was defeated by the incumbent President, Muhammadu Buhari.
Buhari’s emergence went outside the norm. In Nigeria, as in many other African countries, the ruling party hardly allows the opposition to take over power. Politicians see elections as a ‘do-or-die’ affair. The PDP had boasted that it would rule for at least 60 years before any other party could come close to power. Unfortunately for the party, former President Jonathan scuttled this plan by conceding defeat to Buhari in 2015. This appeared to have sounded the death knell for the PDP.
Now, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), has been in the saddle since 2015. The government in power has tried to reform our electoral process so that the people’s choices will count. President Buhari, for instance, signed the amended Electoral Act in 2022. The Act makes provisions for the smooth conduct of elections and prescribes punishment for various electoral infractions. Nigerians were hopeful that the 2023 general election would be the best. Their hopes were heightened by the introduction of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), touted to be the game changer in the electoral process. Both Buhari and the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Mahmood Yakubu, also promised free, fair and credible elections this year.
These promises were never fulfilled as both the national and state leadership elections were marred by irregularities that put serious question marks on our avowed commitment to true democracy. There were voter intimidation, ballot box snatching, vote-buying and outright disenfranchisement of a large number of voters such that out of over 90 million registered voters, only about 28 per cent voted for the presidential election. It is not that people didn’t turn out to vote. They did. But many of them could not be accredited either due to late arrival of INEC officials or threats and harassment by party thugs.
As rightly pointed out by Johnson, democracy can only thrive when the rule of law is respected. In January, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Rishi Sunak, was fined for not wearing a seat belt in a moving car while filming a social media video in Lancashire. Sunak said it was a mistake and apologised. He accepted to pay the fine. In April last year, Sunak, Boris Johnson and wife Carrie were also fined for breaking COVID-19 rules in June 2020. This would not have happened in Nigeria where the rule of law is fragrantly disregarded by the people in power.
For our democracy to grow, those in authority must respect the rule of law and the wishes of the people. This will involve serious reform of our electoral process, including making INEC truly independent. We must find a way to stop rigging, harassment and intimidation of voters during elections. Else, our democracy will continue to suffer undue haemorrhage.
