MAY 29, 2020 marked the 21st anniversary of Nigeria’s return to democracy after a staggered 39-year era of military dictatorship. Nigeria has only spent 31 years under elected governments since independence in 1960.

On June 6, 2018 President Muhammadu Buhari yielded to agitations and approved June 12 as our Democracy Day. It was the day the late Chief Moshood Abiola won Nigeria’s freest and fairest presidential elections which the military annulled.

Abiola died in detention while struggling for revalidation of his mandate. On a day like this, we should pause and assess how far our democracy has come against the background of the struggles that led to it and chart a better future.

The importance of a well-oiled democracy cannot be downplayed. When a country has a constitution that meets the people’s aspirations, produces quality leadership through free and fair elections and with very well-developed institutions that work without the fiddling of a “strongman” somewhere, it produces a stable and dependable system that the world can do business with.

Expectedly, that leads to life more abundant for the people. Winston Churchill postulated that “democracy is the worst form of government except for all the others”, meaning it is the best.

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This was what drove a country like Nigeria to adopt the democratic form of government. Anything short of that is seen as a “contraption” that must be discarded.

After 21 years of return to democracy, it is quite obvious that we are not much further than where we were in 1999. Apart from restoration of the legislature, we are still virtually in a dictatorship. The legislatures at all levels cannot effectively bring the Executive to account. This is more so at the state level. However, at the Federal level there is a measure of checks and balances.

The military mentality that dominated the past is still very much here. We have even elected two past military rulers as presidents. Our institutions are still on the centralised military template and deliberately wired to the strongman syndrome. Critical power still lies in Abuja and all efforts to give it back to the people through restructuring have been firmly resisted by those who benefit from the military-like structure of our democracy.

After a brief spark in 2011 and 2015, Nigeria has lost its capacity to produce free and fair elections, and our Judiciary has been pocketed by the Executive. There is really very little to celebrate about our democracy. The coronavirus pandemic will make sure that today passes almost unsung.

We have a duty to recharge our democratic aspirations. If we continue to allow the centralised military template to dominate and impoverish our democratic space, Nigeria will never be taken seriously in the comity of nations. We will remain the crippled African giant.

VANGUARD