These 17 Years of Democracy
Jibrin Ibrahim, Deepening Democracy Column, Daily Trust, 30th May 2016
This weekend, the Savannah Centre founded by Professor Ibrahim Gambari convened a workshop to reflect on 17 years of democratic governance in Nigeria. It was well attended with eminent speakers such as professors Bolaji Akinyemi, Sam Egwu, Adele Jinadu, Ebere Onwudiwe, Hakeem Baba Ahmed, Itse Sagay, Ode Ojowu, Abubakar Siddique Mohammed, Okey Ibeanu, Clement Adibe and yours truly. Other participants included Femi Falana, Kole Shettima, Innocent Chukwuma, Senator Khariat Gwadabe, Bishop Idowu-Fearon and Amb. Babagana Kingibe.
The meeting started on an upbeat mode. Nigeria has broken the jinx of democratic breakdown witnessed following only six years of the First Republic, four years of the Second Republic and a Third Republic that General Ibrahim Babangida crash landed on take-off. Yes the Forth Republic has survived for 17 years and even offered the world the positive democratic achievement of alternation of power between the ruling party and the opposition. Many participants reiterated the point that the narratives we tell often defined how the world wee us and we Nigerians must learn to tell the positive narrative of our existence because we do have achievements to narrate. If we do not tell our good stories, others will tell only our bad stories.
The reality however is that we have under-performed relative to our resources, human and natural. We must understand the history of corruption, selfishness and bad governance that has undermined our ability to reach the heights we should have reached. We must reverse the culture of impunity that has assured generations of leaders that they could rule and ruin Nigeria in the confidence that the end game is only stupendous wealth for themselves and misery and poverty for the majority. We must confront our weaknesses and learn to severely sanction our leaders who engage in mega looting and transfer our wealth abroad to build other economies while ours remain underdeveloped.
There was an extensive discussion on the state of the economy. Nigeria currently has 40% unemployment/underemployment rate. Our agriculture essentially maintains technologies of the 19th century and every year the rains fail, hunger becomes the lived reality of a large section of our society. Our greatest economic failure has been our complete dependence on petroleum revenues, which, moving forward cannot provide the basis to run our society. There is an imperative for structural transformation and modernisation of our economy. It would be painful but if we persist, the future could become bright once again. If we fix our refineries, significantly enhance electricity supply and eat much more locally grown rice, wheat and sugar, we can set the country on the path to agricultural and industrial development. Meanwhile, we need to situate the monetary policy debate on the value of the Naira and demands for devaluation within the context of this larger debate.
In 1975, we took the decision that petroleum was a national endowment and that all Nigerians, wherever they live must have access to petroleum products at the same cheap price. We reversed the earlier situation in which petroleum products were more expensive the further the location is from the point of entry or production. We established the Petroleum Equalisation Fund to compensate for transport costs and provided subsidies to maintain a low price for petroleum products. The time has come to take decisive action not just on subsidy but also on the 1975 endowment policy. Can we really maintain the policy in the coming years when the United States and Western Europe will continue to improve technologies of fracking to make the price of petroleum very low for the foreseeable future. Should we not divert the resources expended to other more important areas of need?
The workshop had an extensive discussion on policy. Two issues were emphasised. The first is a wide gap between enunciated policy and practice. We have an educational policy that places emphasis to improving the quality of teachers and making sure that students have access to all the learning tools they require. The reality on the ground however is that resources allocated to ministries of education at all levels are largely utilised to provide comfort and wealth to ministers, commissioners, permanent secretaries and directors. The result is an education system that is currently incapable of producing educated people in the country. The second issue is the abdication of developing home grown economic policies for ourselves. Participants noted that since the coming to power of General Obasanjo in 1999, we have become completely dependent on the dictates of the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and the so-called Washington Consensus. The result has been 15-years of growth accompanied with rising poverty and unemployment. Today, the growth has ended and we are on the path to recession. President Buhari has for the first time since 1999 questioned some of the tenets of the Washington Consensus. This is a good development. The Buhari Administration has however not clearly articulated its economic strategy and there is a general feeling that the Government should establish a real economic team that could articulate a strategy and initiate a broader debate. The response of Government is that they have ministers handling economic matters, as if that is not evident. Many participants felt that the Government should know that there is a difference between a management and economic team. President Buhari should accept there is a clear weakness in the strength of his economic management team and open up to additional talent and above all engage in an open debate of the economic options before the country.
The meeting ended with a fascinating session of ethics, values and religion in the quest for national development. We agreed that we live in a very religious country and we should be proud of our religiosity. We must however combat our history of political elites dividing us along religious lines so that hey can manipulate us into keeping them in power. If we study our religions well, Christianity, Islam and even African Tradition Religions, we will discover that there are a common set of values and beliefs including respect for the other, ethical behaviour, helping the poor and the challenged, speaking truth to power and standing for what is right that should have united us, created trust and provided a common platform for advancing the cause of the nation. We need to rediscover that reality and embark along that path. As a first step, let's all agree that Nigeria does not need Christian or Muslim leaders. What we need are upright leaders who may be in addition good Christians and Muslims.
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