POLITICIANS are announcing their candidacy for the 2023 presidential elections against the unsettling backdrop of military coups across the continent. Burkina Faso, the latest to fall to military rule, has joined a club that has been growing at an alarming rate. Military leaders have overturned democratic governments in Mali, Chad, Guinea, and Sudan over the last 18 months. Nigeria seems literally surrounded by the spectre of military governments The contexts, causes, and consequences for these events are obviously diverse. However, they hold a central lesson for democracies and democratic participants; If you don’t deliver for the people you are supposed to represent then there may be nobody to save you if the despots seek to exploit the situation. I do not intend to sound alarmist for Nigeria, and I believe that there are many encouraging signs for the resilience of our democracy. We have a long history of fighting for democracy, and I believe it is now deeply ingrained in our culture as a normative value that cannot easily be ignored. Our democratic system provides people with multiple opportunities to hold leaders accountable from state legislatures and governorships to the National Assembly and Presidency. And we have established a healthy track record of the peaceful transfer of power between civilians and from incumbent to opposition parties.
However, nothing should ever be taken for granted, from our democratic essence to the very existence of our country within its borders. Because whilst there is inherent strength in our democracy, there are widening cracks in its foundation. People are suffering to an unimaginable degree. A sluggish economy where jobs are scarce and prices are high is leading desperate young men towards crime in a vicious cycle that suppresses hopes for economic recovery. The upcoming election is a far better opportunity for course correction than replacing Mohammadu Buhari, himself a former military dictator, with another military dictator. But the overwhelming clamour for change should make anyone aspiring to be president, and the party delegates who select them, sit up straight and listen to the people. Democracy is not just about committing to electoral timetables and going through the motions. Democracy needs to offer the people a real choice and the promise of meaningful change in their own lives. Party delegates’ decisions of who to select as candidates will have lasting impacts on the state of our nation.
The people don’t want delegates to select their candidate based on back room deals and horse-trading. They want delegates to select a candidate that represents the people. President Buhari will be 80 years old when he finally gives up the presidency whereas the average age in Nigeria is only 18. The Presidency should not be reserved for whoever has spent the longest climbing up the greasy political pole. It should be reserved for someone who is in touch with the people and understands what it means to live at the bottom of the ladder. It should be someone who understands how the world is changing and knows how to bring about change. When Nigeria has a president who doesn’t understand the modern digital economy and bans twitter, losing the country an estimated $26 billion, people will understandably lose confidence in the democratic process.
But the only thing that could make people lose faith in democracy faster than when democracy doesn’t deliver for them is when democratically elected leaders don’t respect democracy themselves. The shameful episode when President Buhari failed to assent an Electoral Act (amendment) Bill that had been passed by both chambers of a legislature his party controls should not be repeated. The provisions of the bill would have restored confidence in the democratic process by introducing biometric voting and requiring open primaries. The next president should be willing to entrench democratic norms and practices further, rather than ride the presidency for their own personal interests. We are Africa’s largest democracy, and we will be the world’s second largest democracy in 2050 when we overtake the US. We must ensure that we remain a thriving democracy by that point. The best chance we have is for party delegates to select a democratic person with courage to take tough decisions, the one who is in touch with and can deliver for the people.
- Quassim writes in from Abuja
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and then