It is lumpen democracy that is dying, not democracy, By Ahmed Aminu-Ramatu Yusuf

The deepening crisis of democracy we are currently facing is, therefore, more than Uncle T-Pain. It is deeply rooted in the lumpen democracy we have been practicing. Obasanjo, Obi, Abubakar Atiku, Nasir Ahmed El-Rufai, amongst others, played decisive roles in conceiving, nourishing, maturing and developing it… Lumpen democracy, for sure, has the elements and paraphernalia of liberal democracy. But it is the worst level of the degeneration, restriction, truncation, retrogression, and total negation of liberal democracy.

Chief General Olusegun Obasanjo, former military head of state and ex-president, and Peter Obi, ex-Anambra State governor and the 2023 Labour Party presidential candidate, amongst others, on 24 March, spoke on the deepening crisis of Nigeria’s democracy.

It was at the 60th Birthday colloquium of Chukwuemeka Ihedioha, the former deputy speaker of the House of Representatives and ex-governor of Imo State.

For Obi, the foundation of the current democratic dispensation started in 1999. While some leaders, “tried to build on it, others have knocked everything down. This is where we are now – nothing works.” He recalled that when he was illegally impeached as a governor, he went to the courts to seek justice, which he obtained, without bribing anyone. This “cannot happen in Nigeria today… Today, the president instigates impeachment.”

For Obasanjo, democracy, “is not failing; it is dying” because, “in both context and content, it is not African.” He added that democracy in Africa, “does not reflect our culture, our way of life, what we stand for, or what we believe. Ubuntu says, ‘I am because we are,’ but what we are practicing now is, ‘I am because I can grab’.”

Therefore, democracy in Africa has “become government by a small number of people over a large number who are deprived of what they need in life.” Obasanjo rhetorically asked, “What kind of democracy allows people to take everything illegally and corruptly, and then tell others to go to court – when they know justice cannot be obtained there?”

That wasn’t the first time Obasanjo has bitterly expressed dismay over the deepening crisis of democracy. It is just he has been doing so whenever he is out of power.

In 1994, in the heat of the popular resistance against military despotism and for the actualisation of the annulled 12 June, 1993 presidential election, Obasanjo at the Arewa House, Kaduna, quoted a foreign writer as saying: “Once Nigeria was considered the anchor and bellwether of the huge continent, blessed with clever and energetic peoples, favoured with ample oil resources; it is also Africa’s most populous country. But despite size and wealth, Nigeria lingers in the doldrums, perpetually a country of the future.”

Obasanjo then continued, “The writer was indeed charitable. Nigeria is a country perpetually potentially great, almost permanently in crisis, regularly threatened with disintegration, prolongingly devoid of democracy and economically plundered and mismanaged, forever talking of democracy but retreating from democracy.”

Join the Premium Times WhatsApp Community For Quick Access To News and Happenings Around You.

Open in WhatsApp

So, Obasanjo was indeed right to have said African democracy is failing and dying because a small number of people are illegally and corruptly grabbing the nation’s wealth, and depriving the masses of people what they need in life. He was equally right to have said that our democracy is not rooted in African history, culture, traditions and realities!

If Obasanjo, Obi and other politicians shedding crocodile tears about how democracy is failing, dying and collapsing, had demanded, when they were in power, that the National Assembly (NASS) amended the constitution to make Chapter Two justiciable, Nigerians would have been spared the calamities that has befallen the nation from 1999 till date.

Indeed, Chinua Achebe in his Things Fall Apart and Arrow of God, and Ola Rotimi in his The Gods Are Not to Blame, showed that governance was not just the business of the ruling and governing classes in pre-colonial Africa. Rather, it was everybody’s business. Even our ancestors, the gods, and the ALMIGHTY GOD actively participated in governance.

Also, Nigeria’s most outstanding and internationally renowned political economist, Professor Claude Ake, wrote that in most pre-colonial African societies, “everything was everybody’s business, engendering a strong emphasis on participation. Standard of accountability was even stricter than Western societies. Chiefs were answerable not only for their actions but also for natural catastrophes such as famine, epidemics, floods, and drought. In the event of such disasters, chiefs could be required to go into exile or “ask to die” – to commit suicide.

But the fundamental question we need to ask ourselves is: Was the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (CFRN) democratically made? Were Nigerians consulted before it was made? If yes, who were they? Were they drawn from the different classes, ethnicities, geopolitical, and religious divides of Nigeria? If no, why?

The truth is that the constitution was conspiratorially imposed on the rest of us by a gang of unelected, unrepresentative, unaccountable, unanswerable, and undemocratic ‘militicians’. Worst still, the 1999 constitution, like those of 1979 and 1989, is generally against the forces of democracy and the democratic forces.

Furthermore, it subordinated the poor to the rich; the electorate to the elected; ethnic minorities to ethnic majorities; local governments to state governments; state governments to the central government; the legislature to the executive; the judiciary to the executive, and the society to the state.

Only Chapter Two of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria greatly reflects our pre-colonial philosophies, principles, and values of democracy. But there is a proviso that this Chapter is not justiciable and, therefore, unenforceable.

If Chapter Two is primarily meant to interpret other constitutional provisions or statutes, or is to be used to enforce the justiciable rights under Chapter Four and other provisions of the Constitution, why not make it justiciable?

If Obasanjo, Obi and other politicians shedding crocodile tears about how democracy is failing, dying and collapsing, had demanded, when they were in power, that the National Assembly (NASS) amended the constitution to make Chapter Two justiciable, Nigerians would have been spared the calamities that has befallen the nation from 1999 till date. This would have been a reason for the working people and popular masses to defend the constitution, with their voices, tears, sweat, blood, and lives.

With such lumpen democrats, who Fela Anikulapo Kuti called “Vagabonds In Power (VIP)”, “International Thief Thief (ITT)”, “Beasts of No Nation (BONN)”, etc., what else should we expect, if not poverty, hunger, suffering, diseases, banditry and terrorism – “sorrow, tears and blood”!

The current crisis of democracy did not start today, in 2015 or 2023. It has been there long before 1999.

Just as Obasanjo, as president, did nothing to get NASS to enact legislative framework for the implementation of Chapter Two, so have all the administrations since 2007.

If Chapter Two were made justiciable, our commonwealth and resources might not have been looted and plundered in the name of “privatisation.” Like most of the current opposition politicians, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu would probably not have been a major actor in Nigerian politics; nor would he have emerged as president in 2023.

The rot in the judiciary did not start today and it will not end tomorrow. It will end only when the current constitution is made to protect and defend the interests of the various peoples in Nigeria. If Nigerians were largely empowered materially, politically, morally and spiritually, they would have willingly defended the constitution and democracy with all they have.

The deepening crisis of democracy we are currently facing is, therefore, more than Uncle T-Pain. It is deeply rooted in the lumpen democracy we have been practicing. Obasanjo, Obi, Abubakar Atiku, Nasir Ahmed El-Rufai, amongst others, played decisive roles in conceiving, nourishing, maturing and developing it.

Lumpen democracy, for sure, has the elements and paraphernalia of liberal democracy. But it is the worst level of the degeneration, restriction, truncation, retrogression, and total negation of liberal democracy.

Lumpen democrats have largely been ruling Nigeria, at local, state and federal levels. They have equally been fully in charge of the legislative, executive and judiciary arms of government.

With such lumpen democrats, who Fela Anikulapo Kuti called “Vagabonds In Power (VIP)”, “International Thief Thief (ITT)”, “Beasts of No Nation (BONN)”, etc., what else should we expect, if not poverty, hunger, suffering, diseases, banditry and terrorism – “sorrow, tears and blood”!

Ahmed Aminu-Ramatu Yusuf worked as deputy director, Cabinet Affairs Office, The Presidency, and retired as General Manager (Administration), Nigerian Meteorological Agency, (NiMet). Email: [email protected]