The thought leaders spoke during Channels Television’s June 12 Special Forum to celebrate Nigeria’s 26 years of unbroken democratic rule.
Leaders of thought on Thursday agreed that true democracy remained a necessary ambition that Nigeria must attain, 26 years after the country transited civilian government and the military returned to the barracks.
The thought leaders spoke during Channels Television’s June 12 Special Forum to celebrate Nigeria’s 26 years of unbroken democratic rule. The special event was tagged ‘Nigeria’s Democratic Journey: An Inter-Generational Conversation On Building A Better Nation’.
They are former Governor of Ekiti State, Kayode Fayemi; political activist Usman Bugaje; social entrepreneur, Toyosi Akerele-Ogunsiji, son of the late MKO Abiola, Jamiu; veteran Nollywood actress, Kate Henshaw; and House of Representatives member, Bello El-Rufai.
Fayemi, who ran pro-democracy broadcast outfit Radio Kudirat during the struggle for democracy before 1999, said that while the country re-established the citizens’ right to vote for their leaders, efforts must now be made to achieve full democracy.
“What we mustn’t do is to conflate elections with democracy. What we got was to reestablish the right to vote for our leaders into office in 1999, what we are yet to get is real democracy in my view.
“We got civilian rule, we are proudly on the journey — we now have a semi-democracy, but now we don’t have full democracy. The effort that the previous president and now President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has put into it, we all must build on that,” he said.
The former governor admitted that a good government can’t come out of the present political economy that Nigeria has. For him, there must be a change in approach to governance to a people-centred one for things to change.
‘Enough Speeches’
On his part, Bugaje said true democracy must touch the lives of ordinary people and not just the lives of a few privileged ones.
“We have now graduated from just listening to speeches that are meant to be politically correct and sound good. What we are interested in is not the speech, but the action — the policies, the way the government is run. That is what will change the lives of the ordinary people,” he stated.
Bugaje expressed concern that Nigeria’s democracy, in its current form, had failed to serve its core purpose — to uplift the people and ensure their welfare.
“Democracy is about people, designed to serve the people. The real question is: are the people being served?” he asked, adding that, “the political economy we are running now is impoverishing the people”.
Despite his criticism, Bugaje said he still believes in the democratic process but emphasised the need for leaders to show conviction.
Actress Kate Henshaw agreed with Bugaje, noting that democracy is not being felt by the masses as “everything around us is crumbling”.
She lamented that despite Nigeria’s 26 years of unbroken democracy, citizens don’t enjoy security, and the necessary socio-welfare whilst leaders remain grossly unaccountable.
For Bello El-Rufai, democracy hasn’t been the problem but “the system is the problem”.
“I think Nigeria is a democracy. I think as young people we don’t read enough. You can’t come to me and say APC (All Progressives Congress) is the problem if all the candidates say, for example, subsidy will go. You can’t come to me and say APC are all bad leaders. APC gave Governor Fayemi, and they gave Governor (Babatunde) Fashola. It is not that. Young people think in black and white.”
For his part, Jamiu Abiola, one of the sons of democracy hero MKO Abiola, said Nigeria would have become far better economically had his father been allowed to become president in 1993.
“Nigeria would have been better because, at that time, it was a very special time in global times; that 1993 period was a time when the world itself was having an international economic boom,” he said
“So, we could have tapped into that. But what did we get in return? We got a Kleptomaniac as head of state. I am not going to talk about (Sani) Abacha because he has his problems wherever he has found himself,” he said.
Akerele-Ogunsiji said Nigeria’s democracy must concentrate on creating social development and not just a celebration of history.
She said, “We need to move from discussing democracy as a concept to think about what democracy means to a generation that is so disconnected from June 12. We’ve lost too much lives, there is poverty in the country (that) the economic indices don’t show.
“For me, I’m going to focus on the forward and not the past. What the democracy of Nigeria would like is a democracy of equal opportunity.”
