Nigeria’s Democracy Fragile, Can Collapse At Any Time — Agbakoba SAN

*Suggests State and Grassroots Policing To Curb Abuse of Powers By NPF
*Notes That 150B Naira Approved Budget For Judiciary For 2023 and 2024 Is A Welcomed Development
*Says Judiciary Controlling Its Budget Should Be The Way Forward
*Says ASUU Dependence on FG No Longer Realistic
*Charges Nigerians to Vet Presidential Candidates Properly Before Casting Their Votes

Former president of the Nigerian Bar Association, Dr Olisa Agbakoba, SAN, has shared his thoughts on Nigeria’s democracy, 2023 elections, among other issues, stating that Nigeria’s democracy is in a fragile state such that it may collapse soon.

He said this in an interview with punch newspaper, where he expressed his opinion and viewpoint on the state of democratic governance in Nigeria as well as its issues.

Speaking on his role in the annulled June 12 election and how it’s cancellation has affected Nigeria’s democracy. The learned silk noted that the election was a very good election, which had been free and very fair. He opined that most Nigerians believed that Chief MKO Abiola was the popular candidate with the clear mandate to deliver on the dividend of democracy. On the effect of the cancelled June 12th election on Nigeria, the words of Agbakoba SAN read thus: “How it has affected Nigeria is that we still have the belief that our elections are not free and fair and that there are forces that can control it. If you look at all the elections since then, the general perception is that it is neither free nor fair. It was only until the time of (Attahiru) Jega that people began to have more confidence in the electoral process. But that confidence is still challenged by Abiola’s election annulment. So, I think to that extent, it (annulment of June 12 election) has affected the confidence of Nigerians to want to go and vote with the belief that their votes will count. Many Nigerians feel that their votes don’t count and that’s not good for democracy.

You will see that the number of people voting or the percentage of voting is quite low. I think that has been the impact and its beginning to die down but very slowly. It’s almost 30 years now and we are still feeling the annulment of Abiola’s election and I think that has affected how our democratic experiment has played out.” According to him, MKO Abiola would have been a great president though the learned silk noted that he couldn’t tell because Abiola never became President.

Remarking Nigeria’s performance as regards human rights protection, Agbakoba SAN noted that the problem with Nigeria is that it is not really a democratic country. According to him, it is not enough to say that Nigeria is democratic, when it was known that in 1999, the military government gave way to what pretends to be a democratic government but the truth is that is not. “It is that truth that we are confronting so that you find that the government of the day, going back to even Obasanjo, doesn’t necessarily respect the views of the people. So, a democratic country where you have the leaders of the day, the leaders of the different political parties from the President down, they respond to the way people feel about how they are governed”, he said.

Comparing Nigeria with other democratic societies, he noted that in the United Kingdom, when Prime Minister Liz Truss was seen to have done badly, the voice of the people removed her from office. He opined that there is no possibility that this can happen in Nigerian democracy. He noted that public opinion in Nigeria doesn’t hold any sway, as he was yet to know of anybody in a political office in Nigeria since 1999 who has resigned on grounds of public resentment.

“I don’t know whether our democracy has reached a stage where our voices really count because I don’t see that our politicians, from the presidency down to the local government chairman, respond to the way the people of Nigeria want them to be. So, the question will be, ‘can we say that the politicians in different levels of government are the servant of the people? I don’t think so”, he pointed out.

Going on further, the learned silk opined that the Nigeria Police Force is very inefficient; that is the problem and part of the problem of the police is that the Federal Government controls the policing structure. According to Agbakoba SAN, there was no way that the IGP can effectively and efficiently superintend over policing issues in Nigeria from the 774 local governments. In lieu of these, a lot of things go wrong which can’t be controlled. He continued thus: “The abuse you see which you correctly identified is caused by the police structure and that is why people have said it is important to have state policing structures because the Federal Government cannot do policing effectively.” Recommending on what need to be done to make the police effective, the learned silk pointed out that there was need to transfer policing powers to the state government and also that it is not enough to transfer policing power to the state government. According to him policing power needs to be transferred to the local governments as well. He buttressed his point, my making reference to the policing in the United States where policing power is at the root of the local government. The local government there is called the county. The county in America is responsible for whatever crime occurs. So, crimes in ]Ikoyi are the responsibility of the chief of police of the Ikoyi local government. The IGP of Nigeria cannot interfere with the decision of the chief of police of the Ikoyi local government on how he does his work. He opined therefore, that if Nigeria have 774 chiefs of police in the different local governments, clearly, policing will be more effective, which is why a lot of people have said that the only way to make policing effective is to make policing a matter that is state and also local government.

On assault of lawyers by policemen, Agbakoba SAN likened it to an assault of democracy, and he went on to comment on the inefficient and sluggish management of Court procedure, noting that the issue about courts is that the courts are not working well. Explaining this further, he stated that the the problem with the courts is that they’re not dealing with problems that people bring to them, and to resolve otherwise, we’ll have a breakdown of law and order.

In continuation, he stated thus: “Right now, the public has very low confidence in the judiciary. What I was speaking to was that the judiciary, which is the third arm of government, will need to be responding to how the public views them. If the public has a low feeling of the judiciary, then I think it’s something that the judiciary needs to worry about and they need, in a short word, the speed of justice in the Nigerian judiciary because it is very slow. That encourages people not to want to go to the judiciary, rather they go to the police or the army to settle their quarrels and that’s not good for democracy.”

Speaking on the approval of the 150 Billion Naira as budget for the judiciary for 2023 and 2024, Agbakoba SAN noted thus: “That is generally good news because the problem has always been that the judiciary is not well funded and that encourages them to not do their job properly. If you pay the Chief Judge of Nigeria, that’s the CJN, N300,000 a month, how can he be effective? So, any news about the increase of the budget of the judiciary is welcome and one hopes that the funding that the judiciary will receive will translate to a more efficient judiciary process. I didn’t know about this. So, that’s good news, that’s very good news. It is good to know that finally, the government begins to understand that the judiciary needs a lot of resources to perform optimally; so, that’s welcome news.”

Reacting to the disobedience of Court orders especially by men of status, the learned silk established that a society where people don’t obey court orders is a society that is destined for ruin because what governs a society, no matter who you are, is the rule of law. According to him the rule of law determines what the public does, such that if you do wrong, it doesn’t matter how highly placed you are, you will obey the rule of law. He gave a comparative look at United States where obedience of Court order was a reality. In Nigeria, the learned silk noted that once again the problem is that the Country doesn’t have a democracy. “What we have are civilians who have taken over from the military. But the civilians in government are not necessarily democrats. So, they are different from the military because they’re not wearing Khaki uniform. In terms of whether they obey the rule of law, these current civilian politicians are exactly the same as the military politicians. So, the rule of law is not something that they understand, and therefore, people don’t obey it. If you have a judgment against a government agency, they won’t obey. If a judge issues an order directing the police to do so, the police won’t obey. So, when you have this type of chaos, society cannot grow. So, we need to come to the point where the government of the day understands that they are bound by the rule of law, and if there are judgments of courts against them, then they’re bound to obey. That’s not happening”, he said.

He pointed out that the only way that Nigeria can grow on the path of democracy is to obey the law. According to him a government that is in power that doesn’t want to obey the law will be a government that understands that it can do what it likes. “So, the fundamental problem in Nigeria is that politicians don’t understand that they are servants who go to these jobs of president, governor, chairman of local government on the basis of the votes we give them and that we can withdraw the votes and, we call them and they cease to be president or governor or chairman of local government. But when they get there, they absolutely forget all the promises and pledges they made to Nigerians. So, that has been the challenge; how Nigerian democracy can grow so that the leaders will understand that they should be obedient to the people who put them there. We are in a long way from that”, he continued thus.

Commenting on the state of democracy, Agbakoba SAN stated thus: “practicing it for the past 23 years?
It’s correct to describe Nigeria’s democracy as fragile, very fragile. We have a long way from being a democratic nation. So, we’re very fragile. It can go either way. A fragile system is the type that can collapse any day. So, Nigeria democracy can, I will not be shocked if 30 days from today, Nigeria ceases to exist. I will not be shocked if tomorrow, it ceases to exist because it’s a very fragile country.  It is divided by ethnic, religious, linguistic problems. Those are the three major fault lines we have and we have not kept faith with the central issues in our national anthem; though tribe and tongues may differ, in unity, we stand. So, what the national anthem says is that we are different people, who are diverse in nature, but we can bring our diversity, our differences in language, in religion and ethnicity together to form a great association of Nigerians that we haven’t achieved. So, to quote Chief (Obafemi) Awolowo, ‘Nigeria is a mere geographic expression’. It’s not yet a country. So, we’re hoping that the presidential candidate that wins the election in 2023 will understand this issue.” He went on to state that it was necessary for the presidential candidates to understand that they are inheriting a country that is fragile and the only way that they can make progress, to bring unity to Nigeria is to recognise that there are diverse peoples here, and that if we want to succeed, then we must include everybody in the discussion of how to strengthen Nigeria.

On his view on the Naira redesign, the learned silk stated thus: “think what the Central Bank wants to do is to see that the volume of naira outside, the control of the Central Bank, is reversed, but in developed countries, for instance, in the America, the dollar that is outside the control of the Central Bank is as high as 90 per cent. So, I don’t know what the reason for the redesigning is, if it is simply because there’s too much naira outside the banking system. But what I also understand is that if you design the naira, people who have hoarded corrupt money, bandit money and kidnap money will be forced to lose it. If that’s the reason, national security issues, then it’s a good idea. But in any event, most countries change theirs and redesign their currencies from time to time. The UK just finished doing that. So, there’s nothing fantastic about the decision of the Central Bank governor’s move to redesign the naira, but let us hope that the outcome will be favourable.”

Remarking on why it seemed like Nigeria’s economy prospered more in the Military regime than civilian democracy, the learned silk established that there were few politicians in military regime so all that they understood was being able to do things that made Nigerians’ lives easier, even though they were not elected. This according to the learned silk was a big contrast to the so-called democratic government that are not interested such that they take Nigerians for granted. “I think the military was more concerned about pleasing Nigerians, and you can see the difference”, he said. In addition he compared the two systems of governance, back then and now and established that the Military did indeed have a prosperous economy.

Furthermore, Agbakoba SAN stated that, Nigerian politicians have been very dishonest and have fooled Nigerians for a very long time. He urged Nigerians to look very carefully at the promises; be sure that the promise that is being made can be kept. According to him anyone can make a promise and break it. So, most Nigerians will now be aware that Nigerian politicians are not truthful people generally, and when they want our votes, you see them all over the place, campaigning all over the country. He noted further that immediately they get into office, they abandon all their promises. “I think it’s time that Nigerians are able to say to themselves we are tired of being deceived. I urge Nigerians to look very careful at the nature of the person who wants to be their leader and ask, ‘what is this one’s antecedent? Does he have a good character? Does he have integrity?  Is he the type of man I can believe?  If I vote for him, is he likely to keep his promise?’ It’s like an interview. I mean, when you were employed in PUNCH, you must have gone through an interview. You must have shown your antecedence, they must have asked you questions. So, it’s same thing. I ask question, who you are, what is your pedigree? What schools did you go to, what have you done? Then I can look at all and say this is the guy. If I vote for him, is he likely to do the things that he’s promising. Nigerians should realize after over 23 years that politicians have taken us for a big ride. They have lied to us for so long, and we’re now in this very sorry state that we are the poverty capital of the world, the country is broke and people are having a very hard time. But things cannot change if we keep repeating the mistakes. My message to Nigerians is cherish your votes, your voter cards, be wise and make sure that you vote for somebody that you truly believe will assist you to be a better Nigeria’, he said.

In addition, he pointed out that it would be best if the judiciary is in control of their budget, this way better pay would be a reality and justice would be served without fear and favour.

Speaking on how the issue between FG and ASUU can be resolved, Agbakoba SAN posited thus: “The way to address it is for the ASUU to say to themselves that the dependence on the government to fund them may no longer be realistic, because as you know, the Federal Government funds the universities.  But I think we can look at the model of the United Kingdom. Why can’t the various universities create their own funding mechanisms? Why must it be that the Minister of Education is the one that controls vice chancellors as if they are servants?  Again, the Federal Government needs to give up power of control of the universities and allow vice chancellors. In the UK, every university has a system of raising funds. In Nigeria, it is only the Minister of Education that can authorise the universities that are public to generate funds. So, it is this lack of energy that makes a vice chancellor a servant. He just waits for the Minister of Education to put a budget in the National Assembly and say, ‘okay, Federal University of Sokoto, this is your money; Unilag, this is your money’. No. Unilag is sufficiently a large institution that can raise money across the world. Look at what Afe Babablola has done with his university. So, the problem is that the government of Nigeria needs to get out of the way and leave us to get on with a lot of work.”

In finality, commented on his delight in setting the precedent as the then NBA President which other NBA President have followed.