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Basking
In The Light Of Democracy
By
Pat Utomi
culled from GUARDIAN, May 30,
2006
What a season to be celebrating
Democracy Day. When Nigeria's two nations, its politicians and the citizenry
got together on the floor of the Senate with the setting aside of tenure
elongation and the hurried constitutional review, there was a sudden
outbreak of the light of hope regarding our democracy. But how rich will
harvest be for the people?
First, why a rich harvest is
a matter of desperation, then about this idea of two nations, and
finally why democracy matters. The laggard nature of Nigeria's economy
and the quality of life our people seem sentenced to today in this age
of globalisation, where the standard of living of fellow travellers in
this global village can be interrogated or experienced with the click of
a mouse or a remote control, makes revolt or anarchy an ever present
threat. This is why the laudable reforms of the last few years were an
imperative rather than a matter or choice.
Unfortunately,
implementation could have been far more effective if we had more
involving political systems, greater tolerance for the other point
of view and ownership of reforms by the key stakeholders. The
limited success of our reform efforts, if I may say so as one who
was an advocate of these reforms a full decade before some who are
its prime promoters discovered the need, has been the distance from
the people that made it difficult for the leadership to affect
culture and mobilise the citizenry to act for their own base
interest.
If the current
general state of despair and exasperation in the land is to give
way to hope and prosperity that fits the potential of the land,
our democracy must be renewed in a new way with people of a new
mindset offering leadership at every level. Re-inventing our
democracy to embed accountability politics in which the people
constantly hold the leaders to account is a matter of
desperation because the consequences of failure to so do
portends much danger.
We must seek a
rich harvest to keep the people from retreating into a
demoralised mood from which the Senate vote seemed to have
liberated them. On the point of two Nations, it is important
to stress a phenomenon that may have eluded the notice of
many of the Nigerian elite. For a long time our notion of
public space has been shaped by Peter Ekeh's seminal work on
the two Publics.
Ekeh helped
us understand why people will not steal from their
village age-grade purse but find no trouble in emptying
the treasury of the Federal Government. It would seem
however, that our recent experience with democracy has
seen the idea of the two publics compounded by a trend
in which politicians have come to lose regard completely
for the voter and the citizen. Why else would an idea
opposed in poll after poll by more than 80% of the
population, like the so called Third Term issue, be
pushed so hard? The general contempt of the politicians
for the people is also evident in how unwilling they are
to subject themselves to public scrutiny or account for
their stewardship on the basis of promises they have
made. The wholesale abuse of the electoral process which
has caused many to give up on voting is the ultimate in
this culture of the new political class. Seeking office
should not be ascending but rather an inconvenience
justifiable because it advances a greater goal.
Even with
all these challenges, we must give thanks for
democracy in spite of the imperfections of our
recent experience. It is because of democracy that
we have a chance, with the commitment of citizens to
change the people lacking in the character that we
need for our country to be respectable. With such
change our country should turn to the issues that
matter: jobs for the citizens, economic growth,
security, peace and a sense of fulfilment of being
Nigerian. To achieve all these we need to reform the
electoral process and breed Nigerians ready to
defend their votes with their lives, if necessary.
We
must socialise a citizenry willing to go out to
the streets and march if the system does not
work for them and we have to grow institutions
and civil society always directed to the Common
Good. The media proved itself worthy on the
Third Term issue and reinstated its standing
with the Nigerian people. All other parts of
civil society should do same.
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Professor Utomi is of the Lagos
Business School
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