By Sam Omotosho Esq.
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Flashback
With the freest and fairest presidential election by national and international observers with Abiola winning in his Northern opponent home Kano, Abiola’s political message was “farewell to poverty”, “at last our rays of hope”, and “the burden of schooling”. He was detained afterwards and remained largely in solitary confinement. During that time, Pope John Paul II, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and human rights activists from all over the world lobbied his release. The sole condition for his release was that he denies his mandate, something he never did till his death. That election was in June 12 1993. It also marked the abortion of the foetus named Nigerian Democracy.
Fast forward to 1999, 2003,2007,2011,2015, 2019, six presidential elections after, our elections in Nigeria are still characterized by election-related violence and deaths. According to the Nigerian security tracker, 100 people were killed in election-related violence in 2003, in 2008 the number increased to 800. Ordinarily our elections should be an improvement of the 1993 elections but unfortunately the reverse is the case. Seems 1993 elections was the door to democracy but we threw away the key with our own hands hence deriving ourselves of entry to democracy. Asides knowing what it feels like theoretically, we barely understand it from a practical perspective.
But let us define democracy. In its simplest form, democracy is A system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives. The most popular definition was given by the sixteenth president of the United States; according to him democracy is the government of the people for the people and by the people.
Instead of counting our problems and naming them one by one, let us try to proffer some solutions.
- In the first place, there should exist forward and backward linkages between the rulers and the ruled in the socio-political scheme of things. The leadership concern for the followership reduces suspicion on the part of the latter. This in turn spirals into building a more enhanced culture of trust, harmony and peace between and among the political class and the entire Severing the relationship between the people while in office means that social contract is no longer respected, and this could lead to unwanted friction in the society.
- In a democratic society, independence of the judiciary should not be a myth, it should be a reality. Maybe the Supreme Court decisions arising from the 2019 elections will help you decide on what side of the divide Nigeria falls. Judicial independence can be defined as the ability of a judge to decide a matter free from pressures or inducements. It also means the ability of the Judiciary to be independent by being separate from government and other concentrations of power. The most important test in certifying if a judiciary is independent in a democratic dispensation is “Individual and institutional freedom from unwarranted interference with the judicial process by the executive arm of government and politicians.” Is this the case in Nigeria? Have the people of Nigeria not lost confidence in the judiciary?
Recommendation
- Every obstacle to justice must be removed in the discharged of duties of judicial officers. In a developing community such as Nigeria, there is the need to devise the vision and objective of justice and the rule of law. Government should in their economic reform programmes also take the Judiciary into consideration as failure might lead the economic reform programmes becoming unsuccessful.
- Magistrates, Area Courts, Sharia Courts and Customary Court judges as well as Chairmen of the Rent Tribunal of the various states should be treated as judicial officers especially as far as salaries and tenure of office are concerned.
- Corrupt judges should be flushed out from the system. More stringent mechanisms should be put in place to detect and remove corrupt judicial officers.
- Judicial officers should not in any circumstances be owed salaries or any entitlement. Only the Federal Government should be saddled with the responsibility of paying Judges all over the federation. This will reduce state involvement with the state judiciary.
- The leadership should be bold enough to create adequate force for decency, shun all forms of exotic thievery and executive crimes capable of defacing the good image of Nigeria, not only at home; but also abroad, especially in the midst of members of the international front.
- Above all, the electoral process, which is a spring-board for choosing public office holders is vital in our analysis so much so that, its success reinforces the effective functioning of the process of governance in no small way. It therefore goes to show that smooth conduct of elections in Nigeria is a function of the nation’s stability, strength, probity and accountability.
A vast majority of Nigerians look with great expectations of better things to come in the process of governance; they looked forward to the freeing of national commonwealth from the stranglehold of greedy public officials and to more effective and efficient programmes of social service delivery in areas of education, health, infrastructural development, poverty alleviation, disease control, unemployment, security, etc. These elements constitute the crux of meaningful human existence for the teeming 150 million Nigerians waiting on the prawl for better days ahead.
Conclusion
Consolidation of Nigeria democracy goes beyond mere words, articles, paper presentation or a speech. It means values and institutions of democracy, including the Nation’s National Assembly (both Senate and House of Representatives), the judicial system, the press, the executive, legislature, etc, would have to be strengthened indeed. Democracy is everybody’s business; the rich, the poor, the enlightened and the not so literate; the nonentity and the boisterous. As at today the 12th of June 2020 we are far from democracy as a Nation. It is still a journey but we can reach for it.
Happy Democracy day Nigeria , Samuelomotoso19@gmail.com
REFERENCES
- Akinsanya, A.A. and Erunke, E. 2010. The “Founding Fathers” of the 1979
- Asiwaju, A.I. 2001. Sharing Best Practice Experiences in Democracy Building in Non-French Speaking African States. A Draft paper presented at the 41st International Conference of New and Emerging Democracies, December 2001.
- Justice Umar F. A, “The Role of the Bar and Bench in the sustenance of Democracy” In Contemporary issues in Nigerian Law, Legal Essays in Honour of Hon. Justice Umaru Faruk Abdullahi, CON, Browntel Books, 2006, pp. 85 & 89.
- Nigerian Constitution, Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy. Being a paper presented at the 22nd International Conference of the Association of Nigerian Studies and Development, New York, Sept 16-19.
- Okolie, A. 2005. Electoral Fraud and the Future of Elections in Nigeria: 1999 – 2003, in OAU, A. Momoh (eds): Elections and Democratic Consolidations in Nigeria. Lagos: A publication of Nigeria political Science Association.
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