By Ebuka Onyekwelu, Ph.D
The popular opinion that Nigeria has become desperately problematic should act as an energizer for the country’s democracy because challenges offer growth opportunities. In Nigeria today, it is a popular view that the country’s democracy is not working and will not work till there is a messiah to fix the country. The reason why this opinion is deep-rooted is simple; the people generally believe that democracy is not suitable within the country’s governance experience. For many, not only has Nigeria defied all expectations for progress, but it has also failed to justify its common existence. Unfortunately, what has happened is that what should be regarded as a challenge to be addressed has been interpreted as a permanent feature of Nigeria’s democratic government.
Governance challenges in Nigeria are frequently interpreted as a feature of the government to be solved at once. However, many people simply project fine imagination towards the country through a certain magic wand of a leader. With such imagination coming short all the time, the government has been seen as a failure in perpetuity. But there are improvements and progress that need only acceleration, though frequently ignored. There are real issues, but indeed, over the years, this conception of government as a burdensome entity that is deeply problematic beyond repair and inherently anti-people has created a serious misalignment of the purpose of government in the minds of the people. For some, it does not really matter what system of government is in place; Nigeria will just not work for the people. But for others, for the country to function properly around the promotion of the people’s aspirations, Nigeria must do away with democracy. In all, there is a general conception of Nigeria’s democracy as something that should automatically fix the country’s problems or fade away. The human factor is scarcely factored except in leadership questions. But the responsibility placed by democracy on the governed is hardly mentioned. Yet, no system can work efficiently unless it has been built by human beings to work at the level of perfection familiar to them. Otherwise, the system can never become automated to produce the desired result. Nigeria’s democracy reflects not only the intellectual depth of the country’s leadership but also the quality of its citizenry.
Democracy in Nigeria faces a major crisis of expectation that has not been matched with duty. The people just want things fixed, and the leaders avoid taking responsibility and getting things actually done. Democracy is a shared duty between the government and the governed. Thereby, leaving everything to chance or as a mere show will result in an empty aspiration that has not been paired with a clear commitment to duty on both sides. The ingenuity of the human spirit has not been deployed in the governance and politics of Nigeria. So governance challenges are simply seen as a part of the elaborate scam, strengthening the conception of Nigeria as a deliberate design that is set up to fail. However, that is not all.
For Nigeria, the big problem is the inability of the country to learn from its mistakes and leverage them as part of its building blocks. Progress and sustainability in governance are incremental and not automatic. Therefore, it stands to reason that challenges and problems constitute viable materials to build and strengthen Nigeria’s democracy. The conception of governance or democracy in Nigeria, as something that negates the lessons and efforts expected from the results of trial and error, is in itself the ultimate challenge. The problem is that Nigeria has not been able to honestly grow from its experience by using it to address the country’s challenges. This is a problem of unwillingness to undertake responsibility that moves a nation from problem to solution.
Democracy is beyond a concept; it is a practice that must be constantly subjected to review by the gatekeepers, who are the leaders and the led, to bridge the constant gap between theory and practice as they arise. Nigeria’s inability to learn from its mistakes and errors and improve public management through honest commitment to the public good is the country’s key challenge. In every working democracy, problems are carefully addressed through available democratic institutions, such as the legislature, to develop sustainable laws. Nigeria should also leverage feedback channels to bridge the gap between policy and implementation.
In the final analysis, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to fixing governance shortfalls in Nigeria. No messiah is coming to fix Nigeria once elected. There is only a tone of work by the people and the leaders. Those require an honest commitment to the country. But, nothing else will replace the work that needs to be done, and nothing will take the place of turning problems into lessons used to fashion a sustainable future for the people and by the people in their own country.
