17 years on- Are we actually better off for our Democracy?

Prov 14:34 Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin condemns any people (The NLT Bible)

For 15 years, between 1983 and 1999, Nigeria was under the rule of 4 different military junta and one ‘patch-patch’ civilian transitional ruler. On May 29, 1999, the country returned to democratic rule when a former military head of state, Olusegun Obasanjo, was sworn in as the executive President of Nigeria.

We have now had about 17 years of democratic rule, and the question I asked myself earlier today is, “Were we not actually better off under the military rule compared with this democracy?”

To be clear, I don’t accept a military rule because they are lorded over us. They are not the choice of the people; they are not accountable to the people or the constitution; they are mostly made of men we always like to think of as illiterate or poorly read; they are notorious for their instability; they are corrupt to the core and above the law to mention but a few, and I am sure there are many other reasons we put forward to deride military rule. So for me, any kind of rule by the military is a travesty of the constitution.

But let us consider the other kinds of ‘rule’ we have had. The first civilian experiment between 1960 and 1966 was a failure. The type of rule then was parliamentary, but people still had to vote for who they wanted to rule them.

The corruption was massive and epic in scale. Politicians became our new ‘colonial masters’; living in the houses left by the white colonialists, but replacing their land rovers with Mercedes Benz and Rolls Royce’s; drinking champagne and spending lavishly on parties. Nothing worked. I say this because while we think things were working, we were just living off the work of the colonial masters. We were not particularly doing anything super to scale up. True, the early leaders were nationalistic in nature, and they built or attempted to build a solid foundation, but corruption got the better of them. Remember Festus Okotie-Eboh, the 1^st republic Finance Minister? The guy stole enough money for the city of London to notice (interestingly, the children have since then fought over the sharing of that wealth, and they have now passed it on to the grand-children, yet they have not resolved).

Long and short of it, we did not make a success of that democratic dispensation, and the military got tired, or greedy (or both) and kicked the civilians out. We had to wait for another 13 years to get another civilian rule.

When the soldiers came, they continued on a small scale at first, until the oil field found in 1956 at Oloibiri, Bayelsa state started production. Thereafter, the mass corruption and embezzlement started. Then General Gowon was quoted to have declared that the problem of the government was not how to make money, but how to spend the money it has! They kept sharing money and national assets till they were tired, and decided to handover to the civilians who were agitating seriously to resume their own stealing. Let me at this point remind you that the then 2^nd republic politicians were mostly the same ones who held sway in the first republic.

Corruption in the 2^nd republic outclassed the first, helped by the adopted presidential system of government with the bicameral parliament and unnecessary trappings of office. We had politicians spending money as if it was going out of fashion. A famous western politician, now late, had champagne manufactured with his name on the label. Jumbo projects were started not with the intention to complete them, but as a conduit for siphoning money out of the system. The civil servants had found yet another overlords, and ‘connivingly’ gave them all the information and strategies on how best to milk the country dry.

Upon the military’s return, and after the initial interlude from 1983-1984, it became business as usual starting with IBB and culminating with Abacha. Gen Abubakar came, creamed the balance, and promptly handed over government to the civilians due to pressures from western nations for a return to democratic rule.

The last 17 years of democracy has seen us slide even further into the gutters of decadence. Corruption is at a level never before seen in the history of this country. It permeates every sector of the nation/ You read the papers and your head is buzzing with the ridiculousness of the amounts being embezzled. In addition to that, the cost of governance has skyrocketed till we are now at the point where we spend 75% on recurrent expenditure, most of which goes to keep the political class happy.

Let me argue for military rule a bit because if you look at the cost of running the nation under the military, you would even argue that it was better for us to be under the military. After all, there were no national assembly, no state house of assemblies, no local government councils, no special assistants or special advisers or technical advisers. The number of MDAs were lower compared to now. The number of people in any board was lower than now. Political parties are not taking money from government coffers to put in their pockets; there was no INEC with its huge bill on tax payers to elect rogues into government, etc. What is happening now is insane, unsustainable, and destined to lead us all down the drain. As we talk of cutting down on expenditure, a serious government will need to revisit this area, but then we are in a democracy,  and the executive cannot shut down the legislators. The legislators want to enjoy the same trappings of office as the executives too, after all they were all voted into power, so we have some sort of competition on our hands.

I am not just chronicling these things for the sake of it, since I know most of you already know this history even more than I do. Rather what I am trying to do here is to show that it is neither the military nor the democratic style of governance that is responsible for the current state of the nation, but it is us, the people of this nation that are responsible.

By and large, Nigeria as a country and Nigerians as a people have not fared well under any of these forms of government. In fact, I will say it is worse with civilians than with the military. If we would throw in probability, we can say that if only we can just have one good and sensible military Head of State (like Idiagbon perhaps), maybe this country would have been better off. A Unitary leader doesn’t need the legislature to make laws or to repeal them, doesn’t need two third majority anywhere to get things done. Like Saddam Hussein in Iraq; like Muammar Gadaffi of Lybia; like Suharto of Indonesia; like Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore; sometimes it is better to get it right with a unitary ruler who knows what he is doing. So you may ask, what if he turns out to be an evil ruler? Well, that is always possible, but there is an answer to that which is why I want to go back to the verse I started with.

The form of governance does not matter if we have the right person as a leader. If we had a righteous leader, it would not matter if we were in a militocracy or a democracy. If we were a nation seeking after righteousness, it would not matter at all what form of governance we practice, because righteousness will bring up a leader who is righteous and has nationalistic values and will cause him to put the nation above self.

If we were a nation that seeks after righteousness, and integrity, and commitment to national causes, then anybody from any part of the country can be in power, and we will not mind. This is sadly not the case because, military or civilian, the society produces her leaders from amongst itself, and as long as the society condones unrighteousness, and celebrates iniquity, we will always have leaders after our own type. Therefore, whatever type of governance we import, it will not work. I repeat; the problem is not with the government; it is with us the people.

Now, even if we go and get a tested leader from the best country in the world and bring him to lead us in Nigeria, he will fail. The problem is not the leader; it is with us as a people. As long as we are the way we are, not living right before God; as long as our hands are soiled with iniquity; as long as we are a reproach before the almighty because of our sins, then the best leader will fail, because we will make him fail. Now, faith and religion matters to me but even in spite of our diverse faith foundation, we still need to ask ourselves individually if we are faithful to whatever faith, creed or doctrine we believe in.

In the bible (book of Zephaniah), King Josiah of Judah started a reform because of his conviction that sin is truly a reproach to the people, but as leader, try as he did, the nation only mouthed reforms and only made a show of changing their outer garments and acts, but not their ways and their heart. Of course, the reforms failed. President Buhari can try anything (imperfect as he also is), but as long as we do not accept that most of us have soiled hands and impure minds, he will fail, because we will make him fail. The ministers, the governors, and whoever is leading us may do what they can, but if we are not personally prepared to clean out the dust of our hearts, we will not see the change.

I am not excusing anybody, not even myself, but I sincerely ask God everyday to search me thoroughly and I know that the more of the light of God is shed onto my heart and my real person behind the facade, the more of the conviction to transform my heart I get. If you would also allow conscience or rather the Spirit of God to shed light unto the actual state of your heart, then you would also see that that it is possible and imperative to work away from iniquity.

Righteousness exalts a nation; Sin is a reproach! Therein lies the problem of the nation, and beyond the problem, therein also lies the solution! God bless Nigeria.