What is the Dividend of Democracy?
Naturally, a shift from the worst form of government, military despotism,
to the supposedly best political system, democracy, was exhilarating to
most Nigerians. It elicited expectations from the people – high, but
somewhat confused expectations. From democracy, they expected all that
were absent from military rule. The last set of military leaders was
disgustingly, nauseatingly corrupt. They ran the country aground, ruined
every public institution and brought untold hardship on the people. So,
from democracy, the people anticipated a resuscitation of the country’s
institutions left comatose by military rule, the revamping of the economy
and a conspicuously palpable improvement in their quality of life.
Normally, democracy should offer much more than these mundane.
Acting either out of their own ignorance, or disingenuously exploiting the
confusion of the masses, the ruling elite are trying to equate this
enrichment of the people’s lives expected from democracy to the dividend
of democracy. So, for the dividend of democracy, they reel out statistics
and TV footages of their administrations’ successes in infrastructural
development and provision of social amenities.
As there are very little in our daily lives that give the impression that
the politicians are genuinely committed to using this country’s enormous
wealth to better the lives of ordinary Nigerians, one tends to wonder if
these statistics are doctored and the TV footages orchestrated. However,
let us believe that the statistics and TV productions are real. Then, is
the construction and maintenance of roads, building of additional class
rooms and maternity wards, laying the foundation stones for a new
university or polytechnic, provision of pipe-borne water, etc, the
dividends of democracy? Is it not obvious that we do not need democracy to
have good roads, additional class rooms, water, electricity, etc?
In the early 1970s, the oil proceeds were better managed. Government
policies were more generous and directed at providing for the needs of the
people and raising their standard of living. To a greater degree, we had
all the government is now trying to provide us as the dividend of
democracy. For example, there was a general availability of pipe-borne
water in the cities, and unlike now, the water was clean and
unquestionably drinkable. The cities were cleaner and their
infrastructures better maintained. The supply of electricity was more
consistent. The schools, especially, the universities were better funded
and equipped. The teachers were motivated and academic standards were
higher. Paradoxically, the president then, Yakubu Gowon, was a soldier.
Were those the dividend of democracy under a military dictatorship?
It can reasonably be argued that freedom of expression is the dividend of
democracy. As the saying goes, “the root of bondage is poverty and the
root of poverty is ignorance”. Invariably, no one bottled up by the
fetters of poverty and ignorance can exercise his right of free speech. It
means nothing to a man whose self-confidence, dignity or sense of worth is
so totally eroded by poverty and its attendant deprivations and
humiliations or to the ignorant that can neither read nor write.
Therefore, the foundation for freedom of expression is liberty from
poverty and ignorance.
But a society does not need democracy to be freed from poverty and
ignorance. A benevolent dictator can allows for freedom of speech, even if
he chooses to ignore the expressed public opinions. He can also institute
liberal economic and social policies that engender general prosperity that
improves the lot of even the downtrodden man at the bottom of the economic
pyramid, and successfully makes education more accessible to even the very
poor. Then, that will be the dividend of democracy from an undemocratic
source. So, the dividend of democracy is not freedom of expression (even
when it presupposes the absence of general poverty and ignorance).
The dividend of democracy is power. Max Weber, the 18th century German
sociologist once defined power “as the ability to get others to act in
accordance to your will”. Politics is all about power. Unlike tyrannical,
dictatorial or oligarchical politics, democratic politics strives for less
domination of power by an elite few, and the greater participation of the
people in governing themselves. It concerns itself not with mere struggle
for power, but an equitable distribution of power. An equitable
distribution of power recognizes that the people are the ultimate
repository of power, and the elected and government officials and every
organ of government are delegated to operate solely and totally in
conformity with the will of the people. Nigerians will have the dividend
of democracy when this reality becomes the governing principle of Nigerian
politics.
Presently, there is no dividend of democracy in Nigeria because the
elected and government officials remain scornful of the will of the
people. For example, through that institutionalized agency of electoral
fraud, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), they have
stubbornly refused to allow election results to reflect the electoral
choices of Nigerian citizens, as expressed through the ballot box. The
People’s Democratic Party (PDP) political godfathers in their conclaves
determine election results which are then imposed on the populace by the
INEC.
The $16billion earmarked for revamping the energy sector and boosting its
power generation capacities was stolen the ruling elite and shared between
themselves and their business and political associates. The Railway
contract of $8.3 billion reportedly was inflated by of $5.8 billion.
Undoubtedly, that excess of $5.8billion is for the pockets of some members
of the political class and their cronies. They steal funds budgeted for
improving health services in the country, and then, jet set to hospitals
in Western countries to treat even minor ailments. Are these and other
countless acts of excesses and arrogance, lawlessness and profligacy,
greed and corruption, etc of the ruling class not in defiance of the
public will?
Nigerians will earn the dividend of democracy when the power elite become
completely subject to the powers of the electorate, and consequently, act
only in accordance to their will. Then, it will be impossible for them to
rig elections, steal public funds, or engage in any act that is contrary
to the legitimate aspirations of the people. And Nigerian citizens will
rise from pawns and stooges in the elite power game to become the focus of
the interest, concern and actions of their elected and government
officials and every institution of government. And these officials will be
reduced from haughty, crooked, selfishness, superciliousness, and
money-stealing panjandrums to public servants.
By Tochukwu Ezukanma
Tochukwu Ezukanma writes from Lagos, Nigeria
maciln18@yahoo.com
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