My book ‘Democracy without Democrats: Travails of Politics and Development in Nigeria 1999-2011’ is made up of articles written between 2004 and 2011, mostly in BusinessDay, which capture my continuing passion for and engagement with the economy, society, politics and polity of Nigeria and the country’s travails as it seeks to build a successful and prosperous nation.
The era covered stretches from return to civil rule in 1999 and the presidency of former military head of state, Olusegun Obasanjo, through the short-lived interlude of late President Umaru Yar’Adua, through a period of vacuum and struggle as power transmitted to President Goodluck Jonathan. The book does not go beyond Jonathan’s election as substantive president in 2011.
‘Democracy without Democrats’ is organized in two parts. Part A focuses on “The Obasanjo Years: 1999-2007”, while Part B comprises two sections: Section 1 – “The Yar’Adua Interlude”, and Section 2 – “The transition to Jonathan”. The broad theme running through ‘Democracy without Democrats’ is contained in the book title – the challenges of building a stable democracy when many if not most participants in the democratic space have not imbibed its ethos and essence and the consequences in a still evolving nation state.
Part A contains thirty-three articles and a four-part “Obasanjo Balanced Scorecard” which presents my evaluation of Obasanjo’s impact on Nigerian politics, economy, international relations, people and corruption. The articles x-ray significant developments during Obasanjo’s presidency including the so-called “US Intelligence Report” which supposedly “predicted” Nigeria’s breakup, debt forgiveness, the corruption cases of Governors Dariye and Alamieyesegha, Obasanjo’s national conference, the constraints of economic reforms, and imperative of social sector reforms, failure of power sector reforms, the third term distraction, the need (and failure) to institutionalize reforms and issues around the 2007 succession.
The title article “Democracy without Democrats” on page 97 adopts a phrase previously used by eminent political scientist, Professor Claude Ake, and makes the point that democracy is not just about civilian rule, but also about a “democratic spirit” which I argue we have not been successful in building. I examine the political party system, internal democracy within the parties (or lack of it!), the conduct (or misconduct) of free and fair elections, the absence of ideas and commonly-subscribed views or platforms within political parties, rule of law and respect for the judiciary. Writing in the context of the then approaching 2007 elections, I urge, “the first step in rebuilding democracy is to ensure that we vote in only people who believe in democracy in the upcoming elections”. The follow-up article, “Democracy without Rules”, on page 109 further explores the same theme.
Part A of ‘Democracy without Democrats’ closes with a fair but critical assessment of President Obasanjo’s eight years as democratic leader with ratings of A on economy; B+ on international relations; D on anti-corruption; E on impact on people and F on political development and an overall C-rating!
Section 1 of Part B (The Yar’Adua Interlude) opens with my three-part “Memo to Umaru Yar’Adua” and discusses other themes including Nigeria’s crisis of values, the “fight” against corruption; the Etteh, Siemens and Wilbros affairs, power sector reforms, reflections on anniversaries of “June 12” crisis and Abacha’s reign of terror, the “trouble in the Niger-Delta” and Nigeria’s days on the brink of the precipice as varying contending forces struggled for pre-eminence while Yar’Adua unfortunately faded away from power and life. The closing article in this section is aptly titled “Good Night Yar’Adua”, a closing reflection on the Yar’Adua “interlude”.
Section 2 (The Transition to Jonathan) starts with the need for Jonathan to go beyond “Goodluck” to “Good Governance” and then examines critical issues that dogged that period of transition – emergence of a “Nigerian Governors’ Fraternity”, a strange phenomenon in which elected governors sought to form a trans-political party political interest group with which it seems some of them sought to acquire and monopolise power; the politics of zoning; the independence day bombing by “MEND”; and the elements and context of Jonathan’s victory in 2011.
In an interesting article in this section titled “The Progressive Agenda” (page 340), I examine the vexed issue of “Who is a Progressive?” in the Nigerian context. I draw on historical individuals in the Nigerian “progressive” movement – Awolowo, Aminu Kano, Enahoro, Professor Chike Obi, J.S. Tarka, J.S. Olawoyin and Ibrahim Imam – and argue that progressives tend to be socialists or social democrats and their policy orientation typically centres around social investments in education, health and employment, for instance. I also posit that “progressives” must be involved in egalitarian policies aimed at emancipating the masses and that they are typically federalists who recognize federalism as the best constitutional structure for Nigeria; and also constitutionalists who believe in supremacy of the constitution, rule of law, separation of powers and an independent judiciary. The article closes with my prescription of a progressive agenda around these elements – federalism, constitutional reform, political party system reform, freedom of information, investment in socio-economic rights of citizens, improvement in public infrastructures and development of a mortgage financing system to boost home ownership.
‘Democracy without Democrats’ is an enriching and important historical record on Nigerian political economy. It is about 353 pages but is easy to read and highly relevant to contemporary political and economic developments. ‘Democracy without Democrats: Travails of Politics and Development in Nigeria 1999-2007’ is published by Goriite Publishing Ltd, a new publishing imprint associated with RTC Advisory Services Ltd, and may be ordered online through Kaymu.com.ng and Konga.com or at some leading bookshops in the Lagos area.
Opeyemi Agbaje
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