Global best practice in electoral democracy demands that once the election with its bad-mouthing, dirty tricks and below-the-belt punching is over, all contestants and their supporters lay down their arms and rally round the winners, prepared to work together to move their country forward.
President Jonathan sealed his legacy when he phoned General Buhari, even before the final vote count was in, and congratulated him on his evident victory. After that, any of his supporters who went to court or took to the streets to slay his opponents were not doing so on his behalf. You cannot cry louder than the Chief Mourner.
Jonathan’s magnificent gesture is unprecedented in our national experience: it is the first time a serving president or prime minister in Nigeria has accepted electoral defeat by any opposition.
What is left now is for all Nigerians, regardless of their preferred outcome, to rally round General Buhari and help him to move the country forward and achieve or at least prepare the grounds for achieving the many promises he has made.
Democracy and national progress are not served by the losers abandoning their party and joining the winning party. Quite the contrary, electoral democracy, whether the Westminster model or the American presidential model which Nigeria has adopted, thrives on checks and balances enforced by an Opposition party that is robust, principled, and dedicated (loyal) to the same basic goals of national progress. The Opposition provides a “shadow government” that under-studies every Cabinet minister, understands every issue, policy and project, and check-mates and corrects the ruling party on behalf of the citizenry. That way, the government in power cannot go too far wrong without losing the support (“consent”) of the governed. This is the meaning of the slogan that the price of liberty (the only way to guarantee good government) is the unrelenting vigilance (monitoring, scrutiny) mounted by the people on their rulers.
In the British Westminster model, a government that loses the consent of the people will fall by a “No Confidence” vote organized in Parliament by the Opposition—and this could happen even within a year or two of coming to power. A fresh general election is then called.
In the American system, the mis-governing party will last through its mandatory four years—but it may lose legislative seats and governorships in “mid-term” elections which the Constitution deliberately staggered in order to achieve, if needed, the approximate effect of a “Vote of No Confidence.”
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was able to get away with everything and thoroughly mess itself up mainly because in 16 continuous years of governance there was no credible Opposition to check-mate it. Unchecked power corrupts absolutely. A scattering of splinter parties could not check the excesses of the ruling party. And it got to the point that a critical mass of the citizenry were ready to vote for change—any change, however uncertain. The splinter parties finally came together to form a credible Opposition—and we have seen the outcome.
If significant numbers of the now-losing PDP jump ship and join the All Progressives Party (APC), the gains of the democratic process would be lost. In the first place, those who run the affairs of APC would be foolish to welcome them. If they do, it would only confirm the accusation that they are just as unprincipled as the party they are replacing; that, after all, the fragments that became APC were cemented together by those who jumped ship earlier from PDP (some switched back and forth more than once)—and so what can you expect, etc. If PDP becomes so depleted that it cannot mount a credible Opposition to the incoming administration—then Nigeria will have lost a valuable opportunity to learn from its experience and actually move a significant step forward.
Whatever the case, Buhari and his party carry a heavy burden. All those things that Jonathan and his party did not do right, are theirs now to do right. These include:
Defeat Boko Haram and clear it off the Nigerian political and social space
Deploy the armed forces throughout the federation to clear out armed robbers and kidnappers and provide a degree of security of life and property to citizens
Revive and enforce universal free primary and secondary education (which the northern states never had and which
the southern states must continue) if Nigeria is to have a future
Reform the judiciary as a necessary first step in fighting corruption
Reform the banks so they can actually partner with government AND the citizens in rapidly developing Nigeria into a modern industrial state
End the bloody clashes between cattlemen and farmers by sequestering cows and other commercial animals in animal farms or ranches, as is the global norm
Drastically reduce the cost of governance—an unavoidably painful process which may require overhaul (not amendment) of the 1999 Constitution
Stand the annual budget on its feet, devoting the bulk of it to capital/development projects and no more than 15%-25% to “recurrent expenses”
Undertake no further debts, domestic or foreign—UNLESS in support of selected/priority capital projects in education, health care, infrastructure, etc.
There’s more. The point is to DO them, not just TALK about them. Half a century of empty promises is quite enough.
We shall examine some of these issues in subsequent editions of this column.
• To be continued
Onwuchekwa Jemie
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