President, governors’ security vote fraudulent —Professor Ajayi

Kunle Ajayi is a professor of Political Science and pioneer Director, Institute of Peace, Security and Governance at the Ekiti State University Ado-Ekiti. In this interview by ‘YOMI AYELESO, he speaks on the nation’s democracy in the last 20 years and other issues.

 

Looking at the last 20 years of civil rule, what is your assessment?

I think we need to congratulate ourselves for that feat of unbroken practice of democracy in 20 years. No matter how wobbling it is, it is better than the best practice of military rule. So, we are happy that for 20; years, there was nothing like coup. Yes, the practice may be wobbling but, like any other developing democracy, we are bound to experience challenges, even the United States of America (USA) that started more than 200 years ago is still work in progress. So, our own is work in progress. So we are not having a perfect democracy and I want to tell you there is no perfect democracy anywhere in the world.

 

What are the missing links in democracy growth in the country?

One of the missing links that I would like to talk about is the issue of leadership. Nigeria is lacking credible leadership in the sense of leaders that are people-oriented, leaders that are not self centered, leaders that have been able to see or acknowledge that when you are elected, it is an opportunity to serve the people. Democracy is service to the people. But many of them are servicing themselves and that is why corruption is so high in the country today. While President Muhammadu Buhari may be trying to reduce corruption, he is just trying. So our major challenge that I can identify is leadership. Though I have people that see leadership as service to the people, others see it as leadership to themselves.

 

In all of these, are you saying our leaders are not making efforts to deepen democracy?

Well, it is not that they are not putting up efforts but their efforts are grossly inadequate in driving people’s welfare. Their efforts have been to divert the wealth of the nation for themselves and not for the people. Look at the money we are spending every year in our budget, you cannot point to anything. Look at our roads today, roads across the country are bad; just go anywhere, they are grossly bad. Look at the railway system; it has collapsed up till 2016 maybe when the Federal Government has been trying to revive it. Look at the state of electricity; we don’t have it. For any country to develop, your electricity sector must be very active and efficient. Iit must be 24 hours if you want to survive because it goes beyond what we are seeing. Without electricity, industries cannot function. If it is a matter of private use, everybody can put on a generator. But it goes beyond that; you have to service the industrial sector, the real sector of the economy. If the real sector of the economy is lacking a 24-hour power supply, forget it; that country cannot develop. Go to the US and Canada, you will see they are having three shifts in a day, in 24 hour. It is because there is electricity 24 hours. Industries are supposed to work 24 hours non-stop. We have to revive the electricity and energy sector if we want to make it as a country.

 

In clear terms, what do you think is the best approach for the country to develop?

We can deepen our democracy, first of all through our leadership. If the leaders are not ready to change, nothing will change. Look at the issue of corruption; it is only the president that we can say is fighting corruption. Don’t let us deceive ourselves. If we can have 20 of Buhari in government, everything will change or most things will change rather. Let us have 20 governors fighting corruption, 20 ministers rejecting corruption, rejecting bribery, diversion of contract and so on, the country will change. So the first intervention is the human intervention which is the leadership. If our orientation changes today, everything will change. But if the human factor remains the way it is, forget about it.

The first one will lead to the second level, which is strengthening our institution. All government institutions have to be strengthened- be it the executive, judiciary and the legislature. The only way we can achieve this is to have a relative autonomy- executive do your job without interference; let the actors in the judiciary sector carry out justice without anybody interfering. Then the issue of delayed justice is a problem in the judiciary. If you say a case is lasting for 20 years that is no longer justice, as they say justice delayed is a justice denied. So, they have to fast track the judicial process. It is then we can be talking of this so-called rule of law.

Look at what happened to the just released Omoyele Sowore and Sambo Dasuki. What are they doing in prison for that longer period? In advance democracy, they will determine the entire thing within one month. There is no basis for keeping somebody permanently in detention. So, the judiciary must gain its autonomy and independent. So also the security forces, the law enforcement agencies- the police, the EFCC, ICPC and whichever, they must know their limit. Many of them do not know their limit- they think they can kill and nothing will happen. There must be legislation specifying how long a particular case must take in the court.

Look at what they are doing to electoral matter because that one concerns them. They will say it must not go beyond a particular date from the tribunal to Appeal Court and the Supreme Court; they even sit on Sundays. The same thing must be applicable to all other cases- criminal, civil and others. There must be a constitutional amendment, telling judges on any particular case ‘you must not go beyond one month or, at most, six months’. There must be time limit, otherwise there is nothing like rule of law because rule of law goes beyond that. If a case is in court beyond 20 years, that is not rule of law. We have to legislate on time limit on cases.

 

Putting in mind the recent elections in the country, especially the last governorship polls in Bayelsa and Kogi states, what do you think can be done to have a better election?

What we have now is a manifestation of an emerging democracy. Even in the US today, their electoral system is definitely not perfect. We need to de-escalate the importance attached to political office. The political office is too elegant in terms of what is accrue to political office holders; it is too lucrative to the extent today that, if you ask a young boy what he wants to become in future, he will tell you he wants to become personal assistant to a politician. Whereas during our time, we will be saying ‘I want to become an engineer, doctor, nurse, lawyer’. During our time, we look forward to become someone great in life. We need to devalue the monetary attachment to political office, the most lucrative business in Nigeria today. For instance, we don’t know how much our legislators are earning; they keep it secret. Ask a senator how much do you earn? He will tell you the basic; he won’t tell you the rest.

How about the governor? They have unrestricted access to security vote on something you cannot audit and must not be made known. That is fraudulent corruption per excellence; they should publicise it. You are aware that President Donald Trump of the United States announced recently that they used $2 trillion to purchase weapon. But can our military men make their expenditure public? I doubt it. Let us know how much governors are spending on security; let us know how much the president and others are spending on security. Accountability is a major element in democracy. We are not fulfilling that but we must be made accountable. By the time we force them to be accountable by law, you are de-escalating the competitiveness to hold public office.

Maybe, in addition, increase the value of other professions too. Let university lecturers earn good salaries and they won’t look elsewhere for money; they won’t extort students. Also, increase the value of civil servants. Now, they are asking to be paid N30, 000 as minimum wage. We have been on that for more than a year, no resolution yet. If there is a vacancy to become a councilor, they will rush out because they know they will earn more than N30,000. So let us increase the value of the work force across all sectors. When we de-escalate the rush to hold public office, it will help the process.

 

Considering our present challenges, how do you think the future looks like for the country?

Well, as far as I am concerned, the future can be good for us as long as we have good leaders; leaders that are people-oriented and that are not for wealth. Nigeria is endowed; we are so rich more than so many countries in Europe and the US but the problem is how to manage our resources.