For Nigeria, and indeed much of Sub-Saharan Africa, our work is cut out for us. We need to take decisive actions to demonstrate that to govern is to advance the interest and welfare of the people. We need to reconfigure our economic systems, processes, and institutions in a manner that prioritises the next meal for majority of our people. For far too long, the focus has been on ticking the boxes on democratic institutions much to the neglect of what those institutions have been able to produce for the ordinary citizen.
This theme of strengthening democracy is globally topical and will be just as relevant in countries like the United States of America, South Africa, South Korea, Mozambique, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso and Ghana, to mention a few.
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Between 2020 and 2023 there have been about eight coup d’etats in Africa. A few leaders have also changed or are changing their constitutions to allow them stay in power beyond their constitutionally mandated terms. The increasing fragility of democracy in Africa and across the world is cause for concern. In democratic countries, the will of the people is expressed through elections, and leaders (especially incumbents) must trust the electoral process and accept the will of the people for the survival of democracy.
The year 2024 has been described as the year of political disruption because out of elections held in 60 countries, incumbents lost 80 per cent of the elections largely on account of increased cost of living following the COVID-19 pandemic amongst others. We have seen major examples in countries like South Africa, UK, USA, Japan, India, Botswana and Senegal.
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In Ghana, the presidential and parliamentary elections were held last month. As an incumbent vice president, I was also the ruling party candidate for the Presidency. Before the election, there was the usual anxiety expressed by the opposition, as well as the diplomatic community about the transparency, credibility and fairness of the impending election. The opposition claimed that the government had a plan to rig the election. I believe this is a standard claim by all opposition parties in any election in Africa.
Frankly, notwithstanding the above, I was confident in Ghana’s electoral process, as the Electoral Commission had demonstrated fairness and transparency. In addition to this, I was confident of winning the election on 7th December based on the solid record of achievement of our government, notwithstanding the economic challenges. However, when the polls closed and counting began, we started receiving the results from our party’s collation centres across the country. By 3 a.m. on Sunday, it was obvious from the data that my opponent, former President Mahama, had decisively won the election.
I knew it would take between 48-72 hours for the Electoral Commission to announce the official results. I was cognisant of the tension and potential violence that could result if there was a long-drawn-out process of announcing the results. Indeed, the tension had begun to mount. I therefore took the decision to hold a press conference at 9 a.m. the following day to concede the election to my opponent, even before the EC had announced any collated official results.
I was very confident that our data collation was correct. I believed that my concession within 14 hours of the close of polls was in the supreme interest of Ghana’s democracy and peace. The people had decided, and we had to respect their decision without equivocation.
The right of the citizenry to choose leaders in a free and transparent manner is sacrosanct and remains one of the most vital anchors of a true democratic dispensation. But choosing and/or changing leaders through the ballot box, though necessary, is not sufficient to guarantee a true and flourishing democratic culture.
There are several other imperatives including often-taken-for-granted issues that, when combined with peaceful and credible elections, enrich and sustain our democracy. I therefore propose to continue with the rest of my speech by looking at the common threats to our democracy, and then proceed to suggest, in my opinion, the things we can do to grow a democratic culture that is resilient enough to deliver governance, economic and social dividends to citizens.
One of the most important determinants of a flourishing democracy is the quality of institutions; institutions capable of guaranteeing rights, including property rights, and checking wanton abuse of power. These institutions include the independent election management bodies, the judiciary, the Ombudsman, the Police, other law enforcement agencies, and many others.
I am an economist, a banker, and a politician. One of the most topical issues about growth that has been extensively discussed by development economists is the now famous institutions and geography debate. Celebrated economists like Dani Rodrick, Daron Acemolgu, and others, have come to a firm conclusion that, when it comes to the determinants of growth, the quality of institutions towers above everything else.
Unfortunately, whilst the culture of peacefully choosing leaders is being entrenched, these institutions are becoming weak and endangered.
Several reasons account for this; first, when we place partisan, ethnic, and other interests over and above competence in appointments to these institutions, we are simply creating mere edifices and structures to reward cronies, creating avenues for reluctant democrats to get a back door route to autocracy and misgovernance.
Second, there is a growing phenomenon in our democracy whereby people deliberately run down these independent and accountability institutions purely on emotive reasons, especially when these institutions decide, as they should, to uphold the law in the interest of the masses and in strict fidelity to the law.
It is rather alarming that sometimes these bastardisations of the institutions are undertaken by people with loud voices; people with professional and technical pedigrees; and people who know the truth as espoused by these institutions. For these people, partisan and sectional interests are often packaged as technical and professional opinions, thereby setting these institutions up for public ridicule, scorn, and disdain. This has often set the stage for people with no appreciation of the issues at stake to run amok, eroding public confidence in these institutions and causing substantial damage to our democracy.
I need to touch on a closely related matter to the quality of institutions. Indeed, it is an extension of that point. It is about what we used to know in the past. In times when democracy was threatened, it was usually the case that a group of people with a known leader would take up arms, and assume control of state power and institutions. The group and/or its leader would proceed to abolish elections, ultimately collapse democracy, and declare a dictatorship. This is gradually giving way, even though few spots still exist for this path to toppling the democratic order, as we have seen in the sub-region recently.
In place of that, is an orchestrated hollowing out of democratic structures and processes and taking full control of the state and related organs, making it nearly impossible for the political opposition to win elections. This is a potent way to bury democracy by placing form over substance and depriving democracy of its essential functions. In other words, the form is democratic, but the substance is obdurate dictatorship!
One of the biggest threats to democracy today is what I call the Next Meal. Before I make my point, I need to reecho the words of one of Africa’s greatest sons, the distinguished Nelson Mandela, to wit, “As long as poverty, injustice, and gross inequality exist in our world, none of us can truly rest.”
Democracy must be a means to an end. The best democracy is the one that delivers public goods and services effectively and efficiently and creates opportunities for citizens, whilst making conscious efforts to leave no one behind. For Sub-Saharan Africa, the data suggests that we do not have an option to do nothing. In 2024, the World Bank estimated that two-thirds of the world’s population in extreme poverty live in Sub-Saharan Africa. Back home, the World Bank’s 2024 review reveals that more than half of Nigerians live in multidimensional poverty.
For Nigeria, and indeed much of Sub-Saharan Africa, our work is cut out for us. We need to take decisive actions to demonstrate that to govern is to advance the interest and welfare of the people. We need to reconfigure our economic systems, processes, and institutions in a manner that prioritises the next meal for majority of our people. For far too long, the focus has been on ticking the boxes on democratic institutions much to the neglect of what those institutions have been able to produce for the ordinary citizen.
The person who is unable to afford the next ‘eba’ meal is unlikely to appreciate any data on democratic progress. There is growing apprehension among the citizenry about the relevance and usefulness of government institutions, with many people losing faith in these institutions.
This is concerning and portends a bleak future for democratic sustenance if we do not rise to the occasion, and quickly too. For our democracy to remain relevant and sustainable, actors need to ensure that citizens have confidence in the democratic system to address their needs and concerns, particularly basic needs, which I call the next meal principle.
I now turn attention to a matter right in front of us, and which we continue, surprisingly, to downplay. I am talking about the youth demography, or what is known in modern-speak as the Gen Z demographic, and the potential of a growing youthful population to make or unmake our democracy. Across the world, we have seen young people stand up to dictatorial or malfunctional governance architecture, bringing in ugly outcomes in some cases. These have often happened because young people are considered the next generation and have a bounden duty to ensure that the actions we take today do not jeopardise their future. Viewed from that lens, one is tempted to say young people have played key roles in “rescuing” failing democratic systems by confronting and defying dictatorships or systems that are no longer fit for purpose.
But there is a catch: we know that the youth demographic is not necessarily homogenous, and that comes with some challenges. In many cases, some young people have rather helped misgovernance to fester by becoming proxies to perpetuate injustice and/or obstruct the smooth functioning of systems that will promote good governance.
I have presented two scenarios; the youth as enablers of democratic sustenance, and the youth as outlets for misgovernance. But whichever lens one views this, the real pointer can only be one thing: we need to ensure that democracy delivers inclusive opportunities. The productive energies of young people need to be harnessed properly to empower them to play positive roles in democratic sustenance. Whilst we ponder over this suggestion, I want to share, once again, some figures from the 2023 Open Society Barometer report with you. Shockingly, 30 per cent and 38 per cent of young people in Nigeria and Ghana respectively, said military rule was good for the citizenry. That is food for thought!
We cannot talk about a deepening democratic culture without devoting time to the role of the citizen. Have we played our roles in sustaining democracy? To answer this question, I would first borrow some lines from President Barack Obama: “The role of citizen in our democracy does not end with your vote.” Deepening and sustaining our democracy will require that citizens step up to the plate and show a greater voice. A voice that is long on policy coherence and strengthening systems; and a voice that is short on rhetoric and plain partisan verbiage. In that way, we can hold political officeholders accountable for their actions and teleguide governance efforts towards strengthening and consolidating democratic governance.
I am expanding the citizen discussion to include politicians and political officeholders. This group has a primary duty to demonstrate commitment to growing a democratic dispensation that upholds rights and delivers benefits to citizens. They must eschew corruption, nepotism, and the ‘power at all costs’ posture. Any politician or national leader that threatens fire and brimstone whilst seeking power is not looking to serve the people. Such a politician is seeking power for ulterior motives. This category of politicians threatens our democracy.
For our democracy to succeed and remain useful for the citizenry, we require a new set of leaders. Leaders who place national interests over and above individual parochial interests. Leaders who have no political integrity. The generality of citizens must ensure that we consign greedy and in-ward looking politicians to the basket of irrelevance, and project selfless and generational thinkers to the front row of leadership and service. Citizens owe this duty to themselves, God, and Country.
My initial promise was to tell you what threatens our democracy and follow that up with what we can do to strengthen it. But as you can see from my presentation, the ‘what we can do’ aspects have already been presented. Nevertheless, I will summarise a few of them, with the hope that we can collectively work to deepen and sustain democracy.
First, we must recognise that democracy is more than casting ballots, and declaring winners and losers. We must work to strengthen independent constitutional and democratic institutions. They represent the fuel on which the engines of democracy run.
Second, we should prioritise the next meal, particularly jolof rice of the Ghanaian variety, in configuring democratic systems and processes. A democracy that cannot deliver broad-based prosperity to all sections of society is a ‘Doomocracy’. Let us prioritise inclusive economic growth and opportunities, bearing in mind that democracy is a means to an end and not an end in itself.
Third, citizens need to play their part by holding duty bearers and political office holders to account by bringing relevant facts and information and well-thought through ideas and suggestions to the forefront of national discourse. In effect, the watchdog role of citizens, if devoid of misinformation, fake news and partisan narratives, can go a long way to sustain a culture of democratic governance.
Fourth, let us direct and harness the positive energy of young people in a way that creates opportunities for them to realise their potential, and to reduce their vulnerability to being deployed by predatory forces for ruinous causes. The youth can make or unmake our democracy.
In conclusion, strengthening democracy is not an event. It will require sustained efforts collectively applied to multiple sectors, institutions, and structures. Nigeria has been a leader for many years on many fronts not only in Sub-Saharan Africa but across the globe.
At the sub-regional level, Nigeria has played a father figure role in economic support and diplomacy, peacekeeping, and restoring democracy in some instances. It is expected that the steady progress being made in democratic governance will be strengthened and sustained. We therefore need to work assiduously to strengthen democracy by staying true to its prerequisites.
Despite the imperfections of democracy, it remains the preferred form of governance that can guarantee individual liberties and rights. Prime Minister Winston S Churchill beautifully summarises this point in a line, to wit “Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others.”
The 2023 Open Society Barometer report established that 92 per cent of Nigerians say it is important to live in a democratically governed country, with a further 69 per cent settling on democracy as the preferred form of government. This leaves nobody in doubt that democracy has taken root in Nigeria. Let us strengthen it.
I thank you for the opportunity. May God bless Nigeria, May God bless Africa, and May God bless humanity.
Mahamudu Bawumia is the former vice president of the Republic of Ghana.
This is the text of a keynote address delivered at the National Conference on Strengthening Democracy in Nigeria on 27 January 2025.
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