It is a fact of our political experience that when it comes to
responsibility towards the electorate, there is almost no difference between political
parties with pre-election messianic fervour and parties with known evil
intentions. The parties are one and same; the comprising politicians freely
move between the two parties with the common intention to perpetrate evil in
power. Akin to when the animals could no longer distinguish between the pigs
and humans in Orwell’s Animal Farm, the Nigerian electorate can no longer
differentiate between good and bad politicians – they are two bad sides of the
same worthless coin. Nigeria faces a double jeopardy in having bad politicians
and an inappropriate political system - a Catch-22 situation where we have
inappropriate political system, so we have bad politicians and we have bad
politicians, so we have inappropriate political system.
That elected politicians disconnect from the people soon after winning
elections in Nigeria is a disease of Nigerian democracy. Election campaign
promises (if any) are dumped into the nearest waste-basket as soon as the
candidate wins the ticket. One Southwest politician famously spoke the mind of
many Nigerian politicians when she said that to be voted for was a short-term
contract between her and the people. A contract in which she paid for the
services of the people to vote for her. According to this politician, the people
collected their payment upfront during the campaign and there were no further
contractual obligations between her and the people after the election.
This is the mindset of most Nigerian politicians. After elections, the
people are seen as a nuisance to avoid at all costs. These politicians, the
ordinary people of yesterday, soon begin to hide themselves in bullet-proof
vehicles with tinted glass-windows and harass the people with their convoys and
sirens. Their convoys bump along potholed or un-tarred roads in the cities;
huge amounts of money are spent on generators and diesel to provide electricity
for themselves with no thoughts in their minds that they could and should make
a difference. The indifference of these elected politicians cuts across all spheres
and levels of expected service delivery and infrastructure development. It
appears no Nigerian politician has ever heard of the word, ”accountability” to
their electorate and if they ever did, to them it means getting fat
constituency allowances into their bank accounts and the occasional
distribution of worthless consumables to some of their most exigent cronies.
Experience has shown that there is very little we can do to make our
politicians change their ways in the current system and the checks and balance
system which the country has in place is subverted at different levels
(executive, legislative and judiciary) to render it ineffective. In order for
our politicians or change or be changed, the system has to change. Recent news
carried some rumours of a coup. This is not the kind of change our system
needs. The military can never be the solution to the political crisis of this
country. They are part of the problem. They are at the origin of the present chaos.
The kind of system change we need is one where the power truly belongs to the
people and not to a small group either in civilian or military outfits. We need
a paradigmatic system change away from the current situation where an elected
individual believes that he is above the people and the laws of the land.
Democracy exists in different functional forms in different countries –
the American system is different from the one practised in France, which is
different from the one in the UK or in Germany and so on. Each society adapts
the system to suit its good governance requirements. The bottom-line of all
these versions of democracy is that power belongs to the people and the elected
officials of the state see themselves as employees of the people and not as
capricious benefactors.
It is unfortunate that Nigeria, despite being the most populous country
in Africa and the largest concentration of the black race in the world has not
been able to contribute to democracy as a system of governance. Rather, it
copied verbatim a system that has proven its worth in another country and
corrupted it. The resulting bad governance has become the bane of Nigeria and
the cause of its many problems which has led to militancy in all its forms and
calls for restructuring and in some quarters, for outright dismantlement of the
country. These hardware solutions are tantamount to cutting off the head to
cure a headache. Nigeria has not exhausted all possible software solutions that
might bring desirable good governance, peace, prosperity and stability to the
country.
It is time
to rewrite our constitution and exorcise the military from our system. And when
we eventually get down to this, here are some useful ideas that may cut the
costs of election and improve accountability:
1. Scrap Governorship and
Presidential elections as we know it today
2. The
people elect Local Government Chairmen and council members through a simple
open ballot system.
3. The
people elect members of a unicameral national parliament through a simple open
ballot system. Scrap the senate; it’s of no use.
4. LGA
Chairmen and members of the National Parliament in each State elect their
governors.
5. Governors
and Members of the National Parliament elect the President for a single term on
a rotational basis among the six geopolitical zones.
6. A vote of
continued trust is organized every year - 40% votes of no-confidence by LGA
Chairmen and Members of the National Parliament of that State can sack a
governor.
7. A vote of
continued trust is organized every year - 40% votes of no-confidence by Governors
and Members of the National Parliament can sack a President
8. 25% votes
of no-confidence by the people can sack a LGA chairman
9. 25% votes
of no-confidence by the people of a constituency can sack a Member of the
National Parliament.
10. All elections
and votes of trust are conducted under simple open ballot system.
11. The
judiciary operates a jury system at all levels for all cases of bad governance,
corruption and crime.
Hopefully, someday soon, accountability will be a rule
rather than a rare exception in Nigeria.
2 comments:
Who bells the cat? Is it the present crop of robbers in the national assembly that will deliberate on that and pass it into law? It's a pity nothing good can ever work in this country if anyone counts on the currently serving bandits that we have as legislators in the country today. Not even a single one among them can be trusted to even read those motions on the floor of the house...
But, even at that, do we have an active executive that means so well for this nation and pass the bill to the national assembly for ratification? Hell NO! Even the so called corruption that they are bamboozing us to be fighting, not a single bill has been passed to the legislature for stiff penalties against offenders. That is why someone can steal a trillion dollars in Nigeria and all he gets is a maximum of six months jail sentence with an option of $1 as fine or best still, the EFCC will have to beg and plead with such thieves and tell them to simply "drop something" in their spurious plea bargains and that is the end of the case.
We can all dream of good things and a better future for this country, but, the rulers and the bandits that we have at the helms of affairs are the real cogs in the wheel of progress of this country.
I like the part of 'a vote continued trust. All these ideas are feasible. The only problem is the ignition. Who would start? How do we start? It's obviously going to start from the people but most people don't have the courage.
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