The Democracy Nigeria Needs
Democracy as we practice it is daft but not the idea of democracy. While I agree education might play a role in people’s decision making, especially when it comes to complex matters such economic policies on a national level, the average person does generally have an idea of what they want, especially when it comes to their basic needs.
The truth is the way democracy is practiced across most of the world, has been construed to ensure that there will just a handful of people are always in charge of the political machinery, be it democratic, autocratic, plutocratic or monarchistic. It is the very idea being having a party system. This dates back to the days of ancient Greeks who believed that only land owners should have a say in elections, as they believed peasants couldn’t comprehend the nuances of polity but that has changed over time as democracy has evolved to be more inclusive. However, in many cases, it is just in appearance only.
The problem I think we have is that our democracy is based on Western ideals of politicians, where elections are no more than simple popularity contests, which is a hugely flawed model as it relies on the politicians trying to fit into an already accepted set of ideals and then try to appeal to people based on those ideals, be it ideology or integrity but very rarely competency. We often cajoled to vote based on our emotions to obfuscate our reasoning, which is why politics is always one topic you can guarantee that will start an argument.
I, however ask people this — If you were part of the board of a company, will you hire an entry level or even mid manager person to become the CEO? Often the answer is no, as people consider a lot of factors such as track record, ability and skill sets for such a position. I consider public officer holders to be more important than a being a business man as many people depend on you to truly do the right thing. Yet, we give politicians almost no resistance to select any position of their choosing with and with minimal qualifications, so long as they have a desire for it.
We have 3 branches of government but the only branch where any man or woman can just walk off the street to say he wants to head is the judiciary. He or she needs to have been a judge first, and before that a practicing lawyer. This makes easier to judge their track record and determine how suitable that person is for the job. Why shouldn’t be the same for the executive and legislature?
This is what I am proposing, if you want to be Senate President, you should have at least been a one term senator. If you want to be a senator, then you should have served in the Federal House of Representatives. To get elected to the House of Reps, you should have at least served one term in the State House of Assembly, and to get to that level, you should have least been a councilman. That way we know that the further up the chain we go, we have people who are in legislating.
We can also ensure that people with some merit move up the chain, we can set certain benchmarks to score them against their colleagues such as the number of bills sponsored, the impact of those bills, etc.
Also stay in your lane, just because you succeeded as a senator, you should not be allowed to run to become a governor. Yeah they are both politicians but I don’t see Army Generals running off to become Navy Vice Admirals even though they are both military men. Also those in the executives should not be allowed to switch to the legislature, unless they want to start from the beginning.
This means starting off a local government chairman, then state governor and then president. Let’s see what you can do in the lower levels before you get to be the big dog. Heck, you can’t even become a federal minister if you were not a state commissioner. If your state wants to put your name forward as a minister, let’s see what they have done in the state first.
Almost just as important, the Local Government and its elections should be independent of the state governments as they have made a mockery of it by using it a settlement system for their cronies. Also LG chairmen are the closest of our executives to the people, and are in charge of a lot of things that affect our daily lives — the roads right in front of our houses, primary healthcare, environment, etc. If we cannot hold these people accountable when they live amongst us, is it the state governor or president we are going to.
If democracy is truly about the people, time to move democracy closer to the people. Give the LGs more funding, instead of the lopsided sharing formula which currently favours the FG, shift it the other way — 40 to the LGs, 35 to the States and 25 to the FG, and then give the LGs total independence more responsibility. It is better to have 800 little engines moving the country forward, and say half failing, then one big engine that can’t even start.
Look, this is not a perfect system but I reckon it is better than this current system we operate which is almost guaranteed to prevent people from having a say in matters of importance to them. I have witnessed several communities come together to do things for themselves because they have been let down by government on ALL levels, so to say people don’t understand democracy just does not hold.
People do understand things that affect them in their communities, the problem they have is that they know they virtually have no say in how things pan out for them, so they are willing to sell their vote to the highest bidder, who might be paying cash or prying on their emotions. It is time to weed out a lot of those kinds of politicians and bring in does who truly want to serve, and who have the track record to prove it.
