By Alabi Williams
After 18 years of democracy, we do not need to search very
far to know how well the journey has fared. The glaring evidence of how
troubled it has been is the very fact that we are still discussing the idea of
a coup, no matter how embryonic and remote it may have been. That some people
still nurse nostalgia for the salvation procurable via coups suggests that this
democracy is not offering what it was programmed to deliver. There is
sufficient amount of desperation that triggers a search for alternatives. Unfortunately,
the one ready alternative people tucked somewhere in their psyche, is the
military, with capacity to obliterate the present nonsense and begin afresh.
Very tempting.
But many have rushed out to condemn the thought of a coup
because of very ugly past experiences. The military has so debased itself that
its original messianic capacity has been squandered. At the point it was forced
to exit from civil governance, the military had transformed into a rampaging
occupation force, abusing rights of citizens and stealing their money.
That was why in the twilight years of Gen. Sani Abacha, a
global outrage was triggered to compel the military to return power to the
people. As it was, it became the privilege of Gen Abdulsalami Abubakar to see
that happen in 1998/99. It was a staggered process to quickly exit those
horrifying days. Perhaps, that was when appropriate quality controls were not
put in place to ensure a deepening of the systems.
Remember that prior to 1999,
the last time there were serious political formations was between 1979 and
1983. That was when our heroes past, professionals in party politics, men who
participated in the struggle to attain independence and were the dramatis
personae of the first republic, returned for a last effort at consolidating
party supremacy. Unfortunately, all their experiences put together could not
rescue the second republic.
After that, it was a long process of trial and error, with
soldiers tampering with core values of party systems. First, it was General
Ibrahim Babangida, who toyed with the idea of decreeing parties into existence.
His two political parties, Social Democratic Party (SDP) and National
Republican Party (NRC) were programmed to fail, because IBB never wanted to
transfer democratic powers to politicians. He was too enamoured of awesome
state powers to let go. He dribbled Gen Shehu Musa Yar’Adua and exhausted the
man. Yar’Adua was later to be picked by Abacha, and liquidated. IBB then picked
MKO Abiola and had him thoroughly dishevelled. He too was handed to Abacha for
final winding up.
In between the two Generals, the party system was humdrum
and lacked direction. Whereas there was an assemblage of eggheads to nurture a
transition system, what took place was a calculated freeze to create suspense
and kill reality. It was Kafkaesque at its best, because IBB was a master in
power and mind game.
So, many serious minded politicians stayed away. The ones
who operated were jobbers and military apologists who didn’t have anywhere else
to go. They were the leproused hands that were to crown Abacha with lifelong
powers, like those of late Kamuzu Banda. But fate played tricks on them.
Come 1998, therefore, there were not too many good people
around. Abdulsalami was left with little choice but to groom some people.
Meanwhile, there were no good political parties to fall back on. A new template
was rolled out and the requirements not very lenient. But that was not the
issue. It was an emergency transition. So, political associations formed and
three parties emerged.
Power was handed to former military head of state, Gen
Obasanjo, after his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) came first in
that first election. After that, the military left the scene, supposedly. From
there, the so-called democratic leadership was tasked with responsibility to
grow the new system, deepen party structures and allow constitutional checks
and balances to dictate the running of the process.
Eighteen years after, we have seen all sorts. First, budgets
do not work. Whereas military budgets are read on January 1, every year,
civilian budgets are tossed back and forth between the executive and
legislature for many months. In between those months, the economy is left
miserable. While that exchange of budgetary debates was designed by owners of
the presidential system of government to carry everybody along for purposes of
accountability and transparency, what we have in Nigeria does not inspire any
confidence.
There is still no transparency of any sort. Even the All
Progressives Congress (APC) that promised transparency went to town in 2016
with the most padded budget in the history of this dispensation. As we speak,
in June 2017, budget 2017 is yet to be signed into law. These frustrating
trammels of democracy help to nourish nostalgic feelings about military rule.
While military regimes are trim and less expensive, the
presidential system is full of baggage. It is costly and less efficient. The
three arms of government share the budget, with the executive having lion
share. More than 70 percent of that of the executive is used to service
government. The remaining that is supposed to drive infrastructure is too
little to make Nigerians feel there is a government in place. As little as it
is, that sum, most times does not leave government coffers. It idles away
because the distance between the Central Bank,
Finance Ministry and Budget
Office is made deliberately cumbersome, so that nothing happens.
The Judiciary that is supposed to instill fear and restraint
in the other arms is starved of funds and made impotent. To enjoy better life
like their counterparts in the other arms, judicial officers are ensnared in
filthy sums dangled at election tribunals. They become complacent and cheap,
without bite. Democracy is threatened, when election matters are deliberately
programmed for the courts, where politicians may influence outcomes with huge
sums. The playing field is skewed to make the Judiciary appear lower than other
arms and subservient. But that was not how the original owners of the system planned
it. But here, the executives are too powerful. The system kills democracy, just
as it did during military rule.
The legislature, powerful and lacking in patriotic acts, is
the most troublesome. Many who were elected into Houses of Assembly in states and
federal in 1999 had no idea what they were going for. They were never groomed,
but once they saw the resources available there, they became entrenched, cult
like. Whereas the parliament of a nation can turn its fortunes around, the
Nigerian legislature has specialised in grooming a political class united by
resources. You cannot rely on them to transform the economy, which is why they
are now proposing another petroleum tax to fleece Nigerians. Instead of
reducing from their allowances to make sums available to build roads, they are
going for the easy way out. They want to transfer the burden to hapless
Nigerians.
There is no synergy among the three arms of this democratic
system to frog-jump Nigeria into serious action. There is no vision and there
is no patriotism. If you are fair enough, if you look up north, south, west and
east, there is despair. That is why some are afraid that soldiers are warming
up to sack this system.
I still think we can salvage this system. But people have to
open their minds and stop being ethnic champions. The lean resources available
can no longer service a presidential system that is consumption driven. We are
very close to that time, when men of good will should show Nigeria some mercy.
It is time to begin with simple forms of restructuring, beginning with a more
manageable and result oriented parliament. The one we have now is too large and
wasteful.
If we must run a federal system, since some are afraid of
returning to regions, states must be encouraged to earn their own resources and
pay taxes to Abuja. Let there be substantial decentralisation of
responsibilities and obligations. Let democratic institutions be freed from
federal stranglehold.
If those who have capacity to effect changes refuse, the
very monster we are all running away from will be waiting ahead for us,
willy-nilly.
