Nigeria’s Democracy And Its Contradictions

One of the fallouts of Ekiti
and Osun States’ gubernatorial elections was the case of the militarisation of the polls by the federal government that earned it knocks for alleged intimidation of the voters with heavy security and military presence before and during the polling days. The main opposition party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) argued that the militarisation of polls created voters’ apathy and was unhealthy to the nation’s democratic process.
Government’s response to the accusation of using high security and military presence to intimidate and disfranchise many voters at polling days was not without a valued point. According to it, “it is better to have a militarised polls where votes would count and the peace of the people is guaranteed in the electoral process than bloody and violent elections.” In the governorship poll of Ekiti, power changed hands from the APC-led government to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), while PDP failed to unseat the APC government in Osun State.
Both Ekiti and Osun elections represented litmus test for the Independent National Electoral Commission as the commission prepares for the 2015 general polls. Nigerian’s democratic experience has witnessed many events that tended to question her march to democratic growth. The commotion at the National Assembly where the police reportedly tear-gased members of the House of Representatives, no doubt, represents contradiction to democratic experience and learning.
Sad as the action of the police was, members of the lower chamber had reconvened from its break to address a matter of urgent national concern bordering on the extension of the state of emergency in North East states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe as requested by President Jonathan in his letter to National Assembly. But the action of the police, however, not only prevented the lawmakers from gaining access to the premises of the National Assembly, but also placed them “under siege”.
Police action and what it intended to achieve eventually became a tissue of concern to the All Progressives Congress (APC), the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) and some civil society groups. While the APC, NBA and the civil society groups saw the invasion of the National Assembly by the police as a “threat to democracy,” leadership of the Nigerian police, defended the police action, claiming that the police acted based on the alleged “security reports.”
The NBA, for instance, said “the selective manner in which some persons were allowed into the National Assembly Complex, while others were shut out, raises doubt in respect of the authenticity of the alleged “security reports.” The NBA also condemned in strong terms the acts of members of the National Assembly, who in a manner unexpected of honourable members scaled the gates leading to the assembly complex to gain access to the complex. The Senate leader, Victor Ndoma-Egba argues that the precincts of every parliament of the world are supposed to be sacred, yet, he said that there is no law that prevents one from scaling the fence to enter ones place. In the absence of law, where is the place of morality in the affairs of men?
The reaction of Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State, however, added another twist to the scenario when he said “we don’t have democracy in Nigeria yet. What we have is diarchy. We don’t have democracy. Diarchy is dictatorship”.
Apart from accusing the federal government of appropriating the police as its personal property, Amaechi was also equivocal that his party (APC) would not go to court if the PDP decides to rig the 2015 presidential election, but instead would form a parallel government.
In his words, “if you rig us out, we would rig ourselves in. Which means if you think you can rig us out in 2015, we will form our own government. We have met on that and we have agreed on that. We will install our own government and there would be two governments. The only way to avoid a parallel government is to have a free and fair election.”
Amaechi’s presentation can be examined under two areas namely: the issue of no democracy yet in Nigeria and secondly, that APC will form a parallel government if PDP rigs the 2015 presidential election. From several perspectives, the two issues raised by Governor Amaechi represent some of the contradictions of the nation’s democratic experience.
Records show that Amaechi was in the Rivers State House of Assembly as member and speaker for eight years and from the Assembly platform, Amaechi gained entrance into Brick House as governor. Even when Amaechi’s ride to Rivers Brick House was truncated by human error, it took another human rationality through court process to correct the error. Today, the governor is at the eve of his eight-year tenure. Yet Amaechi believes there is no democracy in Nigeria.
Point two. While it is a fact that freedom of expression is an attribute of democracy, that expression must find its whole within the ambits of the law of the land. The call for “parallel government, if PDP rigs the 2015 presidential election” by Amaechi and his party, many argue, “is a sad commentary by politicians who will like to collapse a system because such system was not favourable to their line of aspiration.” If some politicians appeared to be losing faith in democratic principles and strengths, is the judiciary not alive in raising hope in a workable system of which some politicians have benefited from?
Another contradiction in democratic growth is the state of the legislature in some states. While in Edo and Rivers States, it is on records that governments have shifted the sitting of Assembly members to Government Houses following crises that rocked both Assemblies, seven PDP lawmakers in Ekiti State, in a twist to the unfolding events in the state had reportedly removed Ekiti speaker, deputy and also approved commissioner nominees sent in by the State Governor, Ayodele Fayose.
Recently, Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State and his Ekiti counterpart, Fayose had exchanged hot words over the state of the legislature in their respective states. Oshiomhole had told Fayose, in a statement by his chief press secretary, Peter Okhiria, that there was no crisis in Edo Assembly and that Fayose should not drag his name (Oshiomhole) into the “political gangsterism that has become peculiar with the Ekiti State government.
But Fayose fired back, saying Oshiomhole lacked the moral right to question developments in Ekiti when he had not managed well the crisis in his state legislature. No matter how hard Oshiomhole and his aides may try to convince the public that all is well with the state assembly, political observers believe that both Oshiomhole and his aides are economical with the truth.
Is it proper for  a State House of  Assembly to sit in the Government House where the governor, his wife and children reside? What legislation will emanate from a legislature that is sitting exclusively at the comfort zone of the governor at Government House? There are fundamental questions that are begging for answers.
Those who may argue that there is no illegality for lawmakers to hold sessions inside Government Houses may be right, but they should also be reminded that it may not be laughable afferall if President Jonathan moves the sittings of the National Assembly to Aso Rock.
Fayose’s media spokesman, Lere Olayinka, while arguing that the lawmakers cannot sit anywhere else apart from the state House of Assembly, also raised concern whether actions taken at the sitting of a House of Assembly held inside Edo Government House can be said to have “stamp of legality”.
Threat to democracy should not only been seen in crude method, siege to legislative assembly or disobedience to rule of law, but also in shifting the goalpost of legislative houses and democratic principles for selfish interests of those calling the shots.
There is also democratic sacrilege when the executive arm of government pockets another arms, the legislature for instance. What signals are Nigerians sending to the world about the  status of Nigerian democracy when judges and judicial officers are beaten and desecrated at the hallows of court chambers by men suspected to be party thugs?
However, the All Progressives Congress recently asked the Federal High Court, Abuja to declared the seats of Ekiti six lawmakers vacant, for defecting to the Peoples Democratic Party. APC also prayed the court to order a bye-election to fill their seats in accordance with the 1999 constitution. The affected Ekiti assembly members are Dele Olugbemi (the factional speaker); Alex Ade Ojo; Israel Olowo, Adeyinka Adelooye and Ayoka Fatumbi and the lawmakers are joined with the PDP and the Independent National Electoral Commission as defendants in the action.
The plaintiff (APC), in originating summons had asked the court to determine “where upon proper construction of the provisions of Section 109(1)(g) of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended, defendants being persons whose elections to the House of Assembly was sponsored by the ACN, now the APC, can continue to retain their seats in the said house having become members of another political party, the Peoples Democratic Party since October 16, 2014 before the expiration of the period for which the House was elected.”
Outside the realm of making comment on the issue before the court, one striking concern is that while APC is not losing sleep to protect its house members from being poached by the PDP, the same APC is committed in poaching the territory of the former, and would stop at nothing in defending the actions of defectors to its fold. The case of the speaker, House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, who dumped the PDP for the APC and since fighting a political battle to retain its status at the house at the hands of the PDP-led federal government, is a topical example of the irony of the nation’s democratic experience.
The political reality is that when it suits or favours one party, it glorifies that “our God is good” but cries to the high heaven of impunity and lawlessness on the part of opponent when it is disfavoured in the political chess game.
The recent protests on the streets of Port Harcourt by Ogoni youths over the adoption of Dakuku Peterside, member, House of Representatives as the APC consensus aspirant for the Rivers governorship election over and above their son, Senator Magnus Abe, further suggests that more than ever before, there are hazards arising from the nation’s developing democracy. Democracy itself entails participation in the affairs of men and where participation is shut out, it can rock the boat.
That the nation has practiced 15 years of unbroken democracy is not in doubt.
How has the democracy impacted on the lives of the people? True, the nation has not had the best of its times in the corridor of democracy, but that is not to write off the nation’s democracy. The bedrock for development and modernising change is to strengthen democratic institutions that will enforce standard and quality in growth.
Unfortunately, some persons lower standard to suit their landing and such practice spell trouble for the system to work well. Every attempt at putting a shine on the nation’s democracy should not be left for politicians alone. Even more necessary is that prevailing contradictions in democratic growth should not deter the people to work for democracy to survive in the land. Afterall, the gains of democracy is not accidental.

Samuel Eleonu

President Jonathan