Guardian

MAY 29, 2013 is three days away. Wednesday to be precise. When the day comes, one thing is certain: President Goodluck Jonathan will give a Democracy Day speech. The yearly ritual of Democracy Day is meant to celebrate the eventual transition from political turmoil created by military adventurism.

As pundits have noted, the essence of Democracy Day is not of celebrations of the procedures, which has become the major concern of politicians and all those who benefit from the ceremonies, but delivering its dividends, re-engineering the economy and dividing the resources generated by the economy in a manner that there is equity.

Maybe after the thrills of Wednesday, it is time to consider these few lines of Fugazi’s In The Waiting Room:

I am a patient boy

I wait, I wait, I wait, I wait

My time is water down a drain

Everybody’s moving

Everybody’s moving

Everything is moving,

Moving, moving, moving

Please don’t leave me to remain

In the waiting room…

Nigerians waited for 15 years, four months and 29 days to get what they supposedly have now — democracy — but the wait still continues for its dividends 14 years after, as the country is still hamstrung by political gladiators, who are riven by partisan bickering.

For many Nigerians, the emergence of democratic rule on May 29, 1999 was seen as a golden opportunity to drive the economy to prosperity. Many social commentators and economic experts have reasoned that democracy would unlock the huge potentials of the country, which avoidable policy errors and mistakes that the military created should have opened.

As stakeholders and shareholders in democratic investments, they say that 14 years are more than enough for it to have matured enough for dividends.

Inspite of the early promises of democracy, the country has flirted with disaster in the past years. The economy has continued to swing like a yo-yo, no thanks, to the political economy players, whose buccaneering tendencies have made the gains of democracy to fade into oblivion like a giant mirage.

Basic things such as stable and effective power supply, affordable housing; water, social infrastructure and gainful employment are unavailable. It is even more painful that there is yet to be an enduring structure on which the future generation can build upon.

Since this democratic experiment started, Nigerians have continued to renew the mandate of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) — 1999, 2003, 2007 and in 2011 elections — a party still struggling to achieve the visions of re-building Nigeria into a pride in the comity of nations.

The country is still finding it difficult to institute a legacy of credible polls that has eluded the nation for ages, knowing that free and fair election is fundamental to democracy.

With happening around, the party untrammeled credibility as a truly national political party that will provide a platform for all Nigerians to realise their political aspirations irrespective of religious, ethnic or cultural affiliations as set by its founding fathers?

THERE is no doubt that democracy held hope at the beginning, considering its lofty objectives. As early as 2001, the country seemed like shoo-in for economic prosperity. There were signs of restructuring and amendments to the way things were done before. There were rapid investment and unemployment rate was falling.

The National Publicity Secretary of The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Olisa Metuh, on the occasion of the14th anniversary of the party, on August 31, 2012, noted, “Nigeria has fast-tracked into the digital world of information and communication technology. High speed broadband is becoming available in many places, allowing businesses to be conducted via information technology. The mobile telecom market in Nigeria, which started in 2001 is rated as the fastest growing in the world.”

Metuh also noted that there has also been massive revamping of infrastructures with improvement in various sectors. Infrastructures that have been taken for granted over the years have been put in place.

The massive investment in the railways is gradually yielding dividends as intra and intercity rail transport has commenced in some major cities in the country.

Metuh said, “thousands of kilometres of roads, which were hitherto death-traps are witnessing massive rehabilitation while some are completed. The Benin-Lagos road, Onitsha-Owerri Road, the East-West road, Kano-Maiduguri Road among others are examples of previously abandoned projects, which have received needed attention of the Federal Government.

“The dredging of River Niger to create a vibrant inland water ways system and the creation of River Ports and inland container depots are one of the most innovative and revolutionary measures ever undertaken in Nigeria’s history.

“One of the biggest impediments to the timely delivery of goods and services in Nigeria was congestion at the ports, but the Federal Government has effectively tackled this with our ports now offering 24-hour service and goods cleared in record time.”

According to the Economist Intelligence Unit and the World Bank, Nigeria GDP at purchasing power parity has nearly doubled from $170.7 billion in 2005 to $292.6 billion in 2007. The GDP per head jumped from $692 per person in 2006 to $1,754 per person in 2007.

Nigeria made history in April 2006 by becoming the first African country to completely pay off its debt (estimated $30 billion) owed to the Paris Club.

With the fall of oil prices during the oil glut the 1980s, Nigeria struggled to keep up with its loan payments and eventually defaulted on its principal debt repayments, limiting repayment to the interest portion of the loans. Arrears and penalty interest accumulated on the unpaid principal, which increased the size of the debt.

However, after negotiations by the authorities, in October 2005, Nigeria and its Paris Club creditors reached an agreement in which Nigeria repurchased its debt at a discount of approximately 60 per cent. Nigeria used part of its oil profits to pay the residual 40 per cent, freeing up at least $1.15 billion yearly for poverty reduction programmes.

Metuh said, “separation of powers among the executive, legislature and the judiciary has grown over the years. The three arms of government especially at the centre currently operate with least interference, having mastered the institutional checks and balances among them. This maturity developed over the years is instrumental in eliminating the friction that marked the executive — legislature relationship in the first five years of the dispensation.

“In the same vein, rule of law which became a cardinal article of governance under late President Yar’Adua has remained same under President Jonathan while there is also the freedom of information Act which bolsters in no small measure, transparency and accountability without which good governance cannot be.”

Despite the above gains occasioned by democratic rule, it is obvious that the last few years have dashed the expectations of Nigerians.

The economic outlook soured, unfortunately, as a result of the peculiarly spending binge of government, as a result of third term agenda. The soap opera that ran for six years, between 1999 and 2005, ended abruptly. Government at both state and national level resorted back to corruption, which ICPC and EFCC almost caged.

M. M. Yusif, an academic, in a paper titled, Democracy Development in Nigeria: The Role of Legislature, presented at the training workshop organised by Society for Youth Awareness and Health Development (SYAHD) on Sustainable Democratic Governance in Nigeria, noted, “there is no doubt that the deregulated economy has produced more wealth, more rich people and perhaps more prosperity for many people in Nigeria as in other countries. But this wealth has made the gap between the rich and poor wider. It has increased inequality in the society. The increasing inequality has vindicated a report of one consultant that only about 169 families control the economy and politics of Nigeria.”

Yusif said, “Corruption is very dangerous. It undermines democracy, the capacity to act democratically and every promise of development. It breeds sycophancy, godfatherism and in short marginalized those who are capable of fighting for democracy.”

According to Yusif,  “the problem of democracy in Nigeria or in any other country is that in a most fundamental observation, neo-liberal globalisation has put democracy under siege. Therefore, it is made to serve only the interests of big business, politicians and corrupt officials. But this relationship can be broken to free democracy and make it distinct from neo-liberal globalisation.”

The Federal Government in a bid to curtail the epileptic power situation in the country has spent overt N5 trillion ($31.45 billion) from 1999 till date. But it has only been able to increase the country’s electricity generating capacity by about 2,500 mega watts over the last 14 years.

Between 1999 and 2013, Federal Government’s budgetary provisions for power stood at N2.8 trillion, of which over N2.326 trillion went into the National Integrated Power Projects, NIPP and various power intervention projects.

However, these appropriations do not include investments by state governments, who have since been co-opted to intervene in their localities to improve the power supply situation.

In 2008, the Federal House of Representatives confirmed that Government approved the sum of N2.544 trillion ($16 billion) for the power sector between 1999 and 2007, which led to a public outcry, as there was hardly anything to show for it, as the lights got dimmer instead of brighter.

The uproar led to further investigations in which it was discovered that only N2.067 trillion ($13 billion) was disbursed in the eight year period, representing more than 81 percent funding.

Already, government has concluded plans to borrow $1.15 billion (N178 billion) for its power reforms this year.

The Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, said that $1 billion would be secured from the African Development Bank to finance gas supply, while another $150 million would be secured from the same bank to finance the liberalisation of the power sector.

The Federal Government’s decision to go ahead with the loan is despite condemnation from economists, civil society groups and opposition parties that Nigeria’s debt was growing without any real benefit to show for it.

THOUGH true leadership is very hard to measure, in a country whose default direction since independence has been downhill, this is the time for President Jonathan to arrest the potentially dangerous trend. This is the time to worm his way into people’s heart.

There’s still time to give people dividends on the democracy they have invested in for 16 years with sorrow, tears and blood.

This is the time to kiss the waiting room bye. Fourteen years seems too long to wait for dividend. A centenary is too sweet to be wasted without power, without good economy, without security, with unbridled corruption, de-investment and more.

President Jonathan must create an enabling environment that will allow Nigerians to unleash their potential both in human and natural resources.

Nigeria must tap her human and natural resources for massive infrastructural development that will create massive unparalleled employment for the millions of educated but unemployed youth.

The important task ahead now is to retool so as to tame the monster called corruption, provide steady and reliable electricity, a very important and basic ingredient for industrialisation.