Democracy in Nigeria Challenges

Democracy in Nigeria ChallengesNIGERIAN DEMOCRACY TODAY THE EXPECTED DIVIDENDS AND CHALLENGESBYFRANKLINS A . SANUBI, Ph.D airliftAfter a long period of troops interregnum, the anxiety and high expectations which characterized the disposition of the local Nigerian polity shortly before 1999 had al almost waned in b arely a decade of the clownishs democratic experiment ascribable to bad and corrupt governing resulting in some fresh pessimism just about the workability of democratic regiment in the country These expectations which commence been encapsulated into a new paradigm in Nigerian politics known as dividends of res publica have worked up some academic and policy concern about the postulates of those who professed to have secured some dividends for their people and those who believed that such acclaimed dividends are a ruse. Using a structural-functional analytical mannikin in a descriptive research design, this paper presents some of the pertinent arguments for and a gainst the claim to the dividends of res publica in Nigeria, pointing out some of its key challenges. It observes among others, that while the claim to attaining dividend of democracy whitethorn be arguable under the platform that the adoption of democratic governance in Nigeria whitethorn have secured some favourable out-of-door image for the nation in recent years, there are ample evidence that much of the claims by governmental actors to dividends of democracy are non back up by tangible functional structures of an enduring democracy The paper recommends among other things, a vigorous pursuit of the institutional fight against corruption and an expedited reform of the countrys electoral dodge.IntroductionThe peculiarities of a nations practice of democracy distinguish it from a nonhers. As a tender process, democracy should course be evaluate to respond to the dictates of its immediate milieu while as much as possible it aspires to some universal principles or standards i n its practice. From its definitions as a government of popular sovereignty democracy permits the majority of the governed to have its will enthroned in governance at least in deciding who should take in its own affairs in political authority at elections. In Nigerias barely half-a-century of political independence, some attempts at democratic governance may have totalled up only to nineteen years of its nationhood. Of this however, much will be desired of both one to identify the boundaries of a true democracy as delimitate above if any, that is animate in the Nigerian experience.Typically, a democracy is characterized among others, by a regular general election, a highly defined electoral procedure, a high grade of the rule of law (with an independent and transparent judicial structure) and a people whose human rights is optimally guaranteed by existing executive, legislative and judicial institutions. While it may be argued at some academic forum that no ideal (true) democra cy can be demonstrate in any nation today, there is however much compelling impulse to associate some electric current western democracies with a high degree of ideal democratic phenomenon. The Nigerian democracy would, comparatively rank very low in such continuum in terms of both practice and dividends. republican Dividends A DefinitionOur discomfort with the use of the term dividend in the analysis of political performance, and particularly in Nigeria where self-interest seems to vehemently override bailiwickistic aspiration, lies not in its auspiciousness but in its origin. The term dividends is a business one, particularly in the region of enclothement. To expect a dividend in future is to invest today. Investment is seen from the point of view of economics as part of present income spent on goods or services in order to generate a high future income. Such goods however are investment goods as distinguished from consumer goods. This view of investment sees the process as a try fetching endeavour. To assure a risk-taker of a dividend is to minimize his risks elements while investing. Higher risks bring higher dividends. The most successful investors therefore belong to the class of high risk takers. By importing this process into politics, Nigerian politicians may be described as political investors who see their attainment of political office as a management of political investment rather than a call to service for ones fatherland. Hence, when you hear an average political office holder speak of dividends of democracy, he is implicitly referring to the size of the national cake he is able to cut for himself, albeit his people. antiauthoritarian dividends in Nigeria may therefore not be seen exactly as yielding a desired purpose of attaining national good governance for the advantage of the entire polity but particularly as an human face of a competitive struggle for natural economic resources to the satisfaction of competing individuals or g roups often defined in ethnocentric terms. Yet this term dividend of democracy has been a household one in the language registers of political actors in Nigeria.Structural-Functionalism and Democracy A theoretical frameworkAn auspicious social supposition under which the analysis of the dividends of democracy in Nigeria may be comfortably made is the theory of structural-functionalism. The functionalist school believes that the understanding of a given system (under this circumstance, the Nigerian political system in the democratic dispensation) must necessarily comprise not only the understanding of the institutions (or structures) which make up the system but also their respective functions1. The adherents of structural-functionalism verify that these institutions must be placed within a meaningful and1 Igwe, O. (2007) Politics and globe dictionary, New ed., Aba Eagle Publishersdynamic historical context if they are to be properly understood an idea that stands in sharp contras t to the prevailing approaches in the field of comparative politics such as the state- purchase order theory and the dependency theory. The structural-functional approach is based on the view that a political system is made up of several key components including interest groups, political groups and branches of government. fit in to Almond Powell, a political system performs some key functions such as political socialization, recruitment and talk2. Socialization may be seen as a process by which a guild passes along its abide bys and beliefs to succeeding generations while from a point of view of politics, socialization (and hence political socialization) may be described as a process by which a society inculcates civic virtues, or the habit of effective citizenship. Political recruitment on the other hand may be seen as a process by which a political system generates interest, engagement and participation from citizens while communication describes a process by which a system promulgates its values and information. A variant of structural-functionalism based on the analysis of Gabriel Almond sees all political systems as comprising four major characteristics namely that all political systems including the simplest ones have political structures that the alike(p) functions are performed in all political systems even if they may be performed with different frequencies and different structures that both the political structures of the primitive and the modern societies are multifunctional no matter how specialized they are and that all political systems are meld in the cultural sense3.2. Almond, G.A. Powell Jnr. B.G.(1966) Comparative politics A development approach, Boston Little Brown..3 Offiong, O.J. (1996) Systems theory and structural functionalism in political analysis. In A.O. Oronsaye, (Ed.) Nigerian government and politics, Benin City United City Press.As a political system in transition (as Nigeria,) moves from one state of equilibrium to anoth er, the unlike political institutions or structures should be expected to bring about a undeniable social change in their performance of the socialization, recruitment and communication functions. A social change according to Talcott Parsons occurs through four distinct and inevitable processes namely differentiation ( that is, the increase in the complexity of social organizations) adaptive upgrading (that is, social institutions becoming more specialized in their processes) inclusion ( where groups previously excluded from a society because of such factors as race, gender, social class etc are now accepted) and value generalization (that is, the development of new values that tolerate and legitimate a greater range of activities) 4. The application of democratic governance in Nigeria should therefore be seen from a structural-functional perspective as a desire to effect a required social change in our political development by the unlike democratic institutions performing their required functions in that respect. The Nigerian democracy therefore will be not meaningful, that is, not structurally functional, if it is not performing its required social functions (or yielding the expected dividends).The Dividends of Nigerian Democracy and the ChallengesIf any thing else, Nigerian democracy should be directed at fulfilling the nations philosophical goals as expressed in the official document of its Second National Development Plan (1970-1974) namely the creation of a free and democratic society a just and egalitarian society a united, strong and self reliant nation a great and dynamic4Kuper, A. (1988) The invention of primitive society Transformation of an illusion, London Routledgeeconomy and, a land of full and bright opportunities for all citizens5.Expectedly, Nigerian democracy should ensure the enthronement of a national consciousness, haleness and service. on that point should be strong desire to build ones own nation by its citizen rather than a plunge -it-down syndrome typical of much of our current dispensation. Democracy should provide equal opportunities to genuine service-minded individuals to express themselves in seeking political office through elections. Democracy should be a platform for the provide of political enlightenment for the teeming apathetic and economically-emasculated people of the countryside and metropolises. Democracy is expected to guarantee an un-biased allocation and application of naturally determined national economic resources for the benefit of the entire polity while providing relevant opportunities for component region or states to harness local potentials for healthy competitive development initiatives. Democracy should provide relevant safeguards against corruption and unauthorized acquisitions of national resources by individuals and groups who see themselves high above the bodily goals of the nation. Judicial safeguards in terms of regular prosecution and punishment should especially be adeq uately entrenched into such a political system. Democracy should provide relevant and adequate checks and balances between the three organs of government and as much as possible a freer press as the fourth estate in the realm. The phenomenon of regardon arrest, detention of journalists and the forceful closure of media-houses whenever they purvey any information acclaimed by political authorities5. Federal Republic of Nigeria, (1970) Second National Development Plan 1970-1974, Lagos Federal Ministry of Information,,p.32as inimical to their existence (albeit the corporate existence of the nation) typical of our current democratic experiment will therefore require some policy refinement and for policymakers to demonstrate subtlety. Democracy should be expected to yield the above ascribed dividends to Nigeria through its practice over the years.Alternatively, the Nigerian democracy has yielded few, if any, of the ascribed dividends to its citizens. The typical dividends however has re mained the propagation of ethnic dominance in the appropriation of national resources through what Deutsch6 describes as aa zero-sum game approach in form of appointments to vital national and state positions, regional self determination through the core vs. off-base perception of resource allocation7, , thus engendering a express for regional economic independence popularly called resource control by the oil bearing peoples of the Niger Delta. only and on the positive side, democracy may have succeeded somewhat in sensitizing the citizens in appreciating the need for good governance among political office holders. There is a growing wave of civic awareness among people in Nigeria today than it had ever been. The increasing quest for probity and accountability and the adoption of due process principles (even with its default) may be regarded as a vital recipe for the re-branding of our local democratic culture and practice. But for the seeming inadequacies such as the domain of a function of official responsibility and accountability, and electoral malpractice, the Nigerian practice of democratic governance may have helped to6 Deutsch, M. (1973), The resolution of conflicts Constructive process, New Haven Yale,7 Noel, C.L. (1969), A theory of ethnic stratification Social problems. Journal of Sociology, Vol. 16.(2).grow the nations international image as a major regional power in the African sub-region. The United Nations has often called on Nigeria to lead its team in the execution of its major international (especially African regional) economic, social and military initiatives. Nigerians growing involvement in regional peace keeping and other humanitarian missions and the African continent derives mainly from its recognition not only primarily as an economically-endowed nation, but also as a democratic entity with abundant hope. This perhaps may be adjudged as the most great dividend of the Nigerias democracy so far. Much however is yet to be desired of this image as its electoral process undergoes reform. The impetus provided by gold coast and South Africa in their respective recent elections have further strengthened the national call for electoral reforms and political transparency. The relevance of such call is underscored by a growing optimism in the national populace about the possible workability of the democratic arrangement as a better alternative in governance afterwards having been overwhelmed by military dictatorship (with it accompanying slow pace of economic development) for over two-thirds of its nationhood.By a tacit recognition of the expected and perceived dividends of the Nigerian democracy, it becomes a little easier to identify some of the major challenges of the Nigerian democratic experience so far.At the apex of the challenges is the issue of electoral reforms. The want of a credible independent electoral process has unfortunately created institutional safeguards for political parties (especially incumbents ) to exploit the existing political machinery for their electoral advantages. The office of the president has most often exploited its advantage as the appointing institution to impact significantly on the activities of the successive electoral commissions in the country. The result is that electoral rigging have been institutionalized often with threats of arrests on credible opposition. In the 2007 state and federal elections particularly the former, this anomaly was not only typical of but also rampant.Democratic government are expected to be less prone to corruptive tendencies since there are supposedly more institutional safeguards against them than the military regime. Unfortunately, the Nigerian democracy is yet to vindicate itself as a better alternative in this respect. Phenomenally, what may be regarded as some institutional arrangement created by government against corruption and other economic crimes though looked initially very impressive and praiseworthy during the mor ibund Obasanjos civilian regime, were later overrun by the same political structure (particularly the executive and legislative arms) which had seen such an arrangement as an erosion of their political and economic ambitions. Thus, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent stain Practice Commission (ICPC) became after an initial euphoria, figments of their creators imaginations. Corruption still remains a major challenge to Nigerias democracy.The ethnocentric clamour for economic self determinism, especially by the people of the Niger Delta has aroused a new awareness about the inevitability of good governance in the area of equitable distribution of natural resources especially in a plural society like Nigeria. The hydra-headed problem of the Niger Delta crisis is a logical aftermath of governments inability to anticipate the special environmental and economic needs of the Niger Delta peoples and symptomatic of the continuing absence of agreement on a workable revenue sharing formula after a trial of several sharing principles over the years. This phenomenon has created additional challenges for the attainment of the expected dividends of democracy.Conclusion and RecommendationsThe claim to the attainment of democratic dividends by political actors in Nigeria will remain as contestable in certain areas as there exist elements of political inadequacies in the three key theoretical areas of political socialization, recruitment, communication. By consolidating on its growing international image as a regional centre of hope, Nigerian policymakers should invest much energy on the institutional fight against corruption by allowing the relevant statutory agencies already created for this purpose to exercise their mandate without unnecessary executive intervention. The pursuit of electoral reform in an attempt to enthrone a great degree of (if not total) internal and external credibility in our public elections should be more vigorous and expeditious so that as early as 2011, fresh and enduring dividends in that aspect can be become visibly clear. Until democratic practice in Nigeria provides more functional evidence in terms of enhanced political participation, equitable and acceptable process of resource allocation, credible electoral practice and a political culture of national integrity and transparency, it will remain sharply contestable to lay claim to the attainment of a meaningful dividend of democracy in Nigeria.1