Guardian

Comrade Issa Aremu, vice President, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) spoke to Northern Bureau Chief, SAXONE AKHAINE on Nigeria’s 14 years of Democracy. He also reflected on the quality of leadership and the challenges.

 

How will you assess Nigeria’s democracy after 14 years, particularly under President Jonathan?

YES, from 1999 we have had uninterrupted civil rule without some lawless militicians (i.e. partisan soldiers) cowardly taking power through the windows. Nobody should ever rule us again without our mandate through free and fair elections.

However, our history in democratic process as a nation dates back to 1940s and 1950s, when the nationalists through series of parliamentary elections sought people’s mandate to engage the British Colonialists on decolonialisation.  Democrats fought for independence, namely Zik, Tafawa Balewa, chief Obafemi Awolowo, Aminu Kano and others. Of course before the senseless coup of 1966, Nigeria was democratic for six years. Between 1979 to 1983, we also had a robust democratic Republic with five ideologically distinct political parties, namely NPN, UPN, PRP, NPP, GNPP and Tunji Braithwaite’s NAP.

So, Nigeria is rich in democratic heritage that is longer than 14 years. However, back to the last 14 years, of course, it could be better, but we are not short of democratic efforts. With almost five democratic transitions â€“ four federal elections, scores of state elections and possibly hundreds of local government elections, Nigeria, to me is a fast growing democratic destination. Everything is contestable here, including informal forums like the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF). Even the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) is not immune from votes counting and at times with scandalous acrimonies that you will witness in local government elections. Trade union organisations hold elections periodically. So also women associations and professional associations like NUJ and NBA. We are truly democratic people. We might discuss the quality of elections and even the outcomes, but in quantitative terms, we have done well. The principle of one man, one vote initiated by comrade Governor of Edo State, Adams Oshimhole is already getting acceptable. Godfatherism is on the retreat and votes seem to be counted in a number of states. However there are still problems. Elections are still do or die for many. We still don’t have issue-based democratic politics. There is poverty of ideological politics and abysmal deficit of patriotism. Nigerian politicians are still largely insular, parochial playing religious and regional politics.

Africa just celebrated the 50th anniversary of the African Union (AU).

No known Nigerian politician has raised a pan African perspective.

Very few politicians know what is going on in Sudan - Southern or Northern or the Congo. No debate of African relevance in the Senate or House of Representatives. The so-called religious crisis and ethnic militias are the inventions of politicians who take dubious shortcut to power, rather than mobilising their

peoples for development. Herbert Macaulay, Zik and Awolowo could not have imagined that a Nigerian president or governor would occupy

visible seats in churches and mosques, rather than failing their communities for development through mass mobilisation.

Very few quotable political leaders. Indeed Nollywood actors and footballers are more popular than most governors. To this extent we have democracy without popular democrats!

Do you think there is really what we can call democratic dividends for Nigerians after such number of years of civil rule?

I don’t believe in the concept of democratic dividends. It promotes a sharing idea. It also assumes that if you serve the people that elect you, you are doing them a favour. Instead of democratic dividends, let’s talk of democratic gains. Even in a democracy, you don’t get anything unless you fight for it. Nigerians have fought against the incessant fuel price increases. That is one democratic gain, without the protest of early last year, led by NLC, Nigerians were already paying the increased prices anyway. Some state governments have delivered on their campaign promises; they built and are building roads, reinventing public schools etc. President Goodluck Jonathan, commendably signed into law a new minimum wage in 2010 after the demands and struggle of the organised labour. That is another democratic gain. But we also have democratic losses. It seems we have democratized corruption! It is now in trillions with lawyers and some

judges slamming economic criminals with miserable sentences, as if to say public thefts pay. We must severely punish corruption as much as the damage it does to lives and public property.

 

 

 

 

Also, there has been an increase of unresolved killings, high and low profile, largely politically inspired murders in recent years. We must get to the root of unresolved murders falling which life expectancy in the country is threatened.

Also, serial violence in some parts of the country is a dent on democratic process. It is as if we have democratized violence, while the promise of democracy is peace after long years of military violent regimes. On the whole we must deepen the democratic process because the alternative to democracy is dictatorship, which is unthinkable and undesirable. Indeed, the losses in the last 14 years are reflections of lack of sufficient democracy.

Is the emergency rule in three northern states not coming too late?

Better late than never. The three states were already in emergency violence anyway!

But we must complement the emergency physical measures with emergency economic measures. The root cause of the crisis is youth unemployment and youth abandonment.

How do you see the NGF controversy and what does this portend for 2015?

Devil is in the details of the NGF elections; Governors converged in Abuja to elect their chairman. They reportedly had the elections with two contestants, namely the incumbent chairman, Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State and challenger, Plateau State governor, Jonah Jang. The elections did take place with votes reportedly counted. The results were actually announced,

indicating that Rotimi Amaechi won with 19 votes, while Jang polled 16 votes. Indeed, the on-line media instantly reported to the world that

Rotimi Amaechi got the Forum’s mandate. Before observers could make sense out of a simple process, some 18 governors (including those that participated in the seemingly concluded fair process and one that did not attend) stunned the nation with a different result that Jona Jang is the new chairman.

This Africa magic show is not the best way to celebrate democracy. We carry our anti democratic malfeasance too far. All this development raises the relevance of NGF. Not in the constitution, NGF was conceived as an informal pan-Nigerian platform for governors, cutting across parties and regions. But sadly, the Forum has further mirrored the increasing divides of the nation.

The shameful performance of some governors in NGF took place at a time

AU marked 50th anniversary during which African youths demanded common citizenship, borderless continent.  It is regrettable that 100 years of so-called amalgamation of the North and the South and 50 years Nigeria became a Republic, we still read about South-South Governors Forum, Northern Governors Forum, PDP governors Forum and opposition governors Forum. Whence the policy ideas on good governance, national development and pan Africanism in all these Nigeria’s unhelpful itomised groupings?