Nigeria Democracy: Global Attention Needed

New Telegraph Newspaper Thursday back page of April 10, 2025 

By Ike Abonyi.

” _Our electoral process has created perverse incentives that have warped our democracy and empowered special interests and a vocal minority”-_ John Delaney

The rampaging American President, Donald Trump, is resetting global politics, and no one is being spared, including the Almighty European Union. Where is Africa, nay Nigeria, in this intriguing development? If Nigeria keeps quiet on the claim of sovereignty or pretends that all is well, the country will continue to stagnate at the expense of the ordinary people.

It’s against this backdrop that this week’s Political Musing is actually taking Nigeria's fledgling democracy issues to the World with special focus and interest on President Donald Trump, the undisputed global rule enforcer.

This week’s report is, therefore, intended to place before the global community the true picture of the system of government going on In Nigeria in the name of democracy. Patriotism, more than any variable, remains the propeller for this unveiling of the challenges facing the country's democratic institutions and their devastating effects. There are obvious concerns about the lack of independence of critical institutions and the inability of citizens to participate in the electoral process. The three arms of government, the Executives, the Legislature and the Judiciary that are designed to checkmate one another, have all dissolved into one, united by corruption., This discourse is, therefore, to urge the global community that is sincerely desirous of seeing a democratic system in Nigeria to show more than passing interest in this country and its mode of governmental operations. This they can do by encouraging the country's leaders to prioritize the rule of law, human rights, and good governance that are currently non-existent in our system.

A restive character like Donald Trump may not be the ideal apostle of democracy to the World, going by his visible brash and garish approach to issues, but his deportment is exactly the language needed to adequately screw and save Nigeria's democracy now.

Many Nigerians at home knew for instance that Trump’s victory was going to thoroughly inconvenience their brothers and sisters in the US but a number of them still prayed for his victory because of their belief that he, more than his rival the Democrat candidate, Kamal Harris is the only one who can make bold to bail Nigeria out of the quagmire she is at the moment pretending to be a democracy. 

This is even more germane as the US, more than any other country, contributed significantly to Nigeria’s current political predicament, not as a colonial master but as a bullish democratic enforcer through former President Barack Obama and his Democrat Party.

Going forward from the filthy and bawdy intervention of the US in our polity in 2015, our democratic struggle has been drawn back to the point where we cannot, by any barometer, qualify to be called a democratic nation.

Pointedly,  we are not ashamed to say that we are not able to help ourselves and therefore need urgent help. For instance, what is democratic in a supposedly elected President unilaterally with impunity removing an elected State Governor and the state parliament, and appointing a military man as Sole Administrator? What you get from the parliament is a yes-voice vote okaying it. What we are practising here in the name of democracy is actually a civilian regime but certainly not a democratic administration. There are so many reasons why our system of government does not qualify to be called a democratic one. It does not meet the basic tenets of democratic principles as enshrined in the founder's doctrine.

From the definition of democracy as a form of government of the people, by the people and for the people, it’s obvious that what is going on here is not anything near it. Our leaders are just brazenly stealing public funds and watching millions of people go from middle-class struggle to multi-dimensional poverty. Twenty-six years of uninterrupted so-called democracy, public officers, their friends, families and their cronies working as contractors and consultants are stinking in affluence while Nigeria turns into the poverty capital of the World.

Nigeria is the giant of the continent by both human and natural resources and in size and population but has not been able to translate these potentials into the required or anticipated gains because of the lack of genuine democracy in practice where the people really decide everything, including who holds which office.

How does one explain the kind of democracy that isolates the people from the leadership recruitment stage, which is the elections? 

If the leadership recruitment process is not excellent, how does any rational mind think that excellent persons will emerge from the process?

Sample, we are a nation estimated to be over 200 million with about 94 million of the population eligible to vote by the voter’s record of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC in 2023 but the person occupying the position of President today was declared the winner of the election with slightly eight million votes out of the 94 eligible voters. Arithmetically, about 85 million eligible voters did not want the man to be their President or were indifferent about him occupying the position. What that means is that the majority is excluded from our democratic process.

Nigeria's democracy faces several challenges that hinder its growth and effectiveness. Among the most visible challenges are weak institutions and ineffective governance.

The government's inability to deliver basic services, such as security, healthcare, and education, is often hindered by corruption, inefficiency, and lack of resources.

Perhaps at the root of Nigeria’s failed democracy is the absence of free, fair, credible and transparent elections. The Electoral challenges are dimensional, electoral violence engineered to enable rigging to happen, vote buying and inadequate voter registration.  Elections in Nigeria are often marred by violence, intimidation, and rigging. Vote buying and selling are common practices in Nigerian elections, and 

many eligible voters are not registered, and the voter registration process is often flawed.

Internal security challenges have also helped to worsen the situation as corruption within the political and security leadership continues to frustrate the efforts of the troops.

A deadly terrorist group known as Boko Haram insurgency, translated means education is forbidden, has existed in the Northeast region of Nigeria since 2009  and has posed a significant threat to Nigeria's democracy. Added to that are the latest trending crimes in the country called banditry and kidnapping, now getting widespread in many parts of the country, undermining security and stability. There is also ethnic and communal violence often fueled by political and economic interests.

At the head of all the sociopolitical and economic challenges of our country is corruption. It’s endemic in Nigeria, and it undermines the country's economic development and democratic governance. And most stolen funds are in US banks. Next to that is Poverty and inequality that are widespread in Nigeria, fueling social unrest and undermining democratic stability. Ditto high unemployment particularly among young people, and it leads to aggravated crimes. Youths in this country are hardworking and smart but the corrupt system is frustrating and turning them into criminals of various dimensions.

Consequently, Nigeria has struggled with ineffective leadership over time, which has hindered the country's progress. This anomaly is helped by the personalization of power by a political gang of corrupt persons in the public and private sectors. Nigerian politics is often characterized by the personalization of power, where leaders prioritize their own interests over the nation's. The tension generated every four years and resources wasted in the name of elections where votes hardly count is mouth-boggling. Succession Crisis due to injustice and unfair political considerations driven by ethnic, religious and geopolitical interests is also a critical issue.  Nigeria has experienced several succession crises, which have led to instability and conflict.

What this report aims to achieve, therefore, is to spur the international community, particularly the United States, into action to help the biggest black nation on earth that is in the middle of nowhere in its democratic journey. What is happening here in the name of democratic governance is the stealing and squandering of the nation’s God-given wealth.

If the global community helps Nigeria get its democracy right by ensuring free, fair and credible polls, they would be helping to lift millions of people out of poverty and would be indirectly tackling numerous nation’s immigration Challenges from the root as the exodus of Nigerian youths to even Ghana and other very smaller countries are consequences of poor governance delivery. A stable and well-managed Nigeria will go a long way in stabilizing Africa. If Nigerians are openly envying the progressive governance going on in Burkina Faso through Junta leader Ibrahim Traore, it’s not the military rule they are admiring but good governance.

The common response from developed democracies, which has not helped Africa, is always telling us that democracy is like blowing your nose. You may not do it well, but it's something you ought to do yourself. The truth is that we no longer can help ourselves as the criminal gang that hijacks power has devised a means that makes it incapable of us saving ourselves. A prominent Nigerian cleric, the Catholic Bishop of Nsukka Diocese, Prof Godfrey Igwebuike Onah aptly captured our situation In Nigeria when he said recently in one of his captivating homilies that “Anytime leaders are not afraid of the people that country is doomed” And that’s where we are, our leaders are not afraid of the people w tohy should they when their votes do not count instead the people are afraid of them.

In Nigeria today, it’s an indubitable fact that everyone is hopeless about democracy. We need help, and God can use the World to help us.