Why Nigerian Democracy is by the People but not for the People, By Olaniran Joseph

Why Nigerian Democracy is by the People but not for the People, By Olaniran Joseph

NEWS DIGEST – Even though nowhere in his 207-word Gettysburg Address on November 19, 1863 did Abraham Lincoln– the 16th president of America–used the word democracy, a word similar to it, or even say  anything that suggests that he is defining the concept, some of his closing words in that battlefield speech: “. . .government of the people, by the people, for the people. . . ” are today, the simplest well-known definition of democracy.

The power democracy gives to the common man is why it is unarguably now the most popular system of government ( out of the 195 countries in the world, 150 practice Democracy). Whether totalitarian democracy, Electocracy, or any other type of ‘Democracy‘ , the power source of any version of democracy is the people. This point is captured eloquently in the putative Lincolnian definition.

However, the power of Democracy will never reside exclusively with the people( the masses) .Athenians understood this better.

When, as led by Cleisthenes, Athenians established what is generally accepted today as the first democracy in 508-507 BC, they ensured that no man, through ignorance, subjects himself to the uncontrolled rule of his fellow man.

To do that, only a tenth of the population of Athens ( i.e. politically educated and intellectually sound adult males) were allowed to participate in Democratic decision-making process. Women, slaves and men under twenty years of age were all unfairly excluded from Democratic politics,that was supposedly because women were considered intellectually weak; slaves were seen as inferior humans and under-twenty men, considered inexperienced.

For the common man who owns the power in a Democracy to enjoy the system, thorough political education is numero uno. The reality of the default, permanent imperfections of every Democracy amplifies, even more, the importance of political education in every democracy. It is also instructive to point out that political education is not necessarily higher institution degree, but rather the continual consciousness the masses have about their political status and a deep knowledge of how the Political system works.

While there are other sundry, monumental problems that make Nigeria’s democracy one of the over 150 imperfect Democracies of the world, one of the biggest of all these problems is mass protractive political illetracy. This illetracy is a serious problem for Nigerian masses because it is why ours is a government by the people but not a government for the people.

It is why Nigerian masses don’t understand the ‘Abecedarian Praxis’ of our representative Democracy and cannot therefore, make it pay them dividends.

Somehow only political elites are gaining the dividends of our democracy. We suffer on election day to vote them in, they take office, enjoy all the pomp and circumstance of power, gain unlimited access to public funds, loot these funds, serve us as they please and after all this, go unpunished.

There are are many examples that prove that majority of Nigerians don’t even know how representative Democracy works; If a governor or a local government councilor used tax payers’ money to build public schools, drill boreholes in a rural community, or provide scholarship for two or more brilliant citizens, many people will praise that politician to the skies as though it were not his official duty to do those things or as though he used his own money to discharge those duties.

Nigerian masses will endure the emasculate pains of the voters’ registration process and the long queue at the polling station to vote in their political servants and after putting these servants in office, the masses themselves ignorantly make these politicians untouchable. If the public servant they voted in is underserving them, corrupt, or even serving them passively,they enjoy the bad services due to the unfortunate activities. In unfortunate cases, some people even insult or physically attack the politically sound few who dare to make constructive criticisms of public servants who are evidently worthy of criticisms.

It can be argued that ethnicity and religion and pecuniary gains are the reasons for the problems in the examples above. But political illetracy is the overriding reason.

Consider this; if an average Nigerian hires a workman and the workman goes against the grain, it is most likely that he will take actions against that hiree without considering that he shares the same ethnicity with or adhere to the same faith of the hiree. Why then does the same Nigerian passively endures the bad service of a president, senators,a Governor and Ministers who share the same faith or ethnic identity with him? clearly, something other than ethnicity and religion is the answer to that question.

It is only logical to argue that he does so because his political illetracy had precluded him from knowing that those people are not powerful more than him; they are also his employees and he has all the right to take actions against them just as he did to his other hirees. As for pecuniary benefits, it is still a matter of ignorance because if a common Nigerian understands that the wealth at the disposal of politicians is his, it is most probable that no wily politican will be able to bribe his silence and passivity with that same wealth.

For Nigeria’s democracy to be a Government for the Nigerian masses, they must continuously remember that by the rules of the true praxis of representative Democracy a president, Governor, Senator, House of Representatives member, local Government councilor or anyone occupying a public office, is the servant of each and every citizen.

As such, any and all citizens have a complete right and a responsibility to hold any supine, underperforming, lazy public servant’s feet to the fire; It is the democratic duty and right of any citizen to pressure a lethargic judicature into punishing evidently corrupt politicians.

It is not beyond their democratic rights for the people to ask how a certain public fund was spent; it is not a political sin to make a peppery constructive criticism of a seating president or Governor that seems not to be fulfilling campaign promises; it is not out of way if the masses demand that the prognosis of an unwell president and the money spent on the illness be made public because it is they who paid the hospital bill.

Ultimately, continuous enlightenment campaigns of different forms are the solutions to this problem of political illetracy.
It is the responsibility of those politically enlightened crop of masses to enlighten those who are yet to know how democracy works. This they must never get tired of doing even if they are attacked, abused and resented by the same people they are trying to enlighten. For if they get tired no one will do the job- political elites couldn’t care less. The system is people‘s. The problem is people‘s. And genuine solution can only come from the people.

Olaniran Joseph wrote in from Ile-Ife in Osun State

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