May 29, 2011, marked the longest period of time beginning 1999, that Nigeria will have run consecutively on a civil, democratic, setting since independence 50 years ago, in 1960. After years of turmoil, including a devastating civil war lasting three years (1967 – 1970) and consuming millions of lives, Nigeria had attempted to govern itself once more on a democratic setting when the military, which had retained the power it usurped in 1966, handed it over to Alhaji Shehu Shagari in 1979, following what had passed as a democratic election. It was a short lived arrangement as the same military seized power again in 1983 which it held under different excuses till 1999 when the General Abdulsalami Abubakar government conducted an election that saw retired General Olusegun Obasanjo elected as the third civilian leader of an independent Nigeria.
So, the question is apposite concerning Nigeria’s democracy since 1999: So far, how far?
Beginning from an electoral premise that many including international observers dismissed as terribly flawed, and coupled with irredentist sectarian and centrifugal tendencies that seriously threatened the unity of the country, the nation and government which Obasanjo inherited from a thoroughly discredited military, was a precarious one.
It is to the eternal credit of Obasanjo that he rallied the country together and prevented it from imploding from the suppressed tension that the military had induced from years of dictatorship.
From one crisis to another, including acrimonious frictions between the executive and legislative branches of government, sundry allegations of financial mismanagement and the forceful pacification of restive Odi in Rivers state and Zaki Biam in Benue, Obasanjo and his team managed to see out their four-year term.
The year 2003 could be said to be a watershed in Nigeria’s political history. The general election that transited the Obasanjo regime to the 2003 to 2007 term of office was the first of such in Nigeria’s political history to endure. Regardless of what is now said of that election, it marked a departure where no Nigerian national leader, democratically re-elected for a second term served out such second term.
But though that 2003 civilian to civilian election endured, still the polity wobbled. Scandal after scandal characterized that four year period, notably the cases of corruption against senior members of the Senate and Ministers of the federation.
Still, democracy survived till 2007 when another milestone was reached with the hand over of power from one incumbent President, Obasanjo, to another, in the person of Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar ‘Adua.
Having met some of the visible criteria of constitutional democracy like the hand over of power through the verdict of the ballot box as opposed to the barrel of the gun, other aspects of what democracy should mean to the generality of the citizens have been long in coming.
The regime of President Yar ‘Adua had been challenged by the now late president’s poor health which led to the radical ‘Doctrine of Necessity’ that saw incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan mounting the saddle of power.
As a result of the uncertainties of the Yar ‘Adua era, much of the projections that were made in terms of the provision of ‘democracy dividends’ could not be met till President Jonathan took over the reins of power and started moving the nation forward.
Howbeit, Nigeria and Nigerians have not fared significantly much better today than they did during the locust years when the military held sway. Public infrastructure is still in a state of disrepair; unemployment is still very high; crime is rife across the country; in spite of the amnesty granted the militants of the Niger Delta, crude oil theft is still on-going while ethno-religious crises and other sectarian killings still go on.
The 2011 election that saw the due enthronement of Dr.Goodluck Jonathan as President has been said by most observers to be one of the best in the land so far.
By its pan-Nigerian nature, the mandate given to Jonathan should be a tonic for him to address the thorny issues holding the country back economically, in spite of the fact that it has made visible progress in areas of electoral practices.
12 years after billions of US dollars have been reportedly expended in infrastructural improvement, Nigerians expect basic things like constant electricity, education, motorable roads, healthcare and the sense of peace and security that comes when a people freely and fairly chose their own leaders.
While democracy seems to have gained traction in the way Nigerians rule themselves, however, provision of a lot more ‘dividends of democracy’ is the major challenge before Dr. Jonathan as he commenced the journey as Nigeria’s President yesterday, May 29, 2011.