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For those who are interested, history is fascinating and exciting. I like to know as much of it as possible. So I took note when a historian, Prof. Sule Mohammed of the Department of History, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, made his mind known on the other anniversary that Nigeria marked this year i.e. 20 years of uninterrupted democratic practice. Well, while I pay attention to what academics who are historians say, I take in history through other channels as well. For instance, I acquire published texts, and my fulfilling time is the time I spend with elders who always have tales from their past to tell. I like to have all just to be informed, as well as have facts to deploy when needed in any of my outlets such as my playwriting.
Many of my plays are rooted in the facts of history. In fact, the judges of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) drama prize have publicly stated that I have a way of engaging the facts of history to achieve the purpose I have in mind in my drama pieces, one of which won the prize in 2014, and nominated as 1st runner-up in 2015 and 2017. Academic-wise however, I took History as a subject in secondary school and I enjoyed it. At the time I planned to do a doctorate programme some years ago, I wanted to move to History from Political Science. Enquiry however had faculty members informing me that with my background in Political Science, I wouldn’t be admitted. So, I ended up with a Ph.D in Political Science, not History.
But I reckon I could lay claim to being a historian of some sort since my weekly interventions from 2001 till date were a catalogue of contemporary happenings that would one day become a historical record. Nonetheless, I like to know the mind of professional historians through their work and so I was curious to know Prof. Mohammed’s take on Nigeria’s 20 years of democratic practice. He delivered the keynote address at an annual conference organised by the Department of History and International Studies, Ibrahim Badamasi University, Lapai, Niger State, on the theme, “Politics and Governance in Africa: Appraising Twenty Years of Democratic Rule in Nigeria, 1999 – 2019”. Of immediate interest to me is Mohammed’s take that the attainment of 20 years of unbroken democratic rule from 1999 to 2019 doesn’t happen because democratic culture has been entrenched, but because soldiers realise military rule has become unfashionable. He further remarks that Nigerians no longer want to wake up in the morning and hear a military officer announce the overthrow of government.
On this, I agree with Mohammed because I once made this same kind of argument sometime in 2011. In the course of a conversation with a friend and writer she expressed the view that Nigeria’s civilian leaders had been able to deter soldiers from any effort to step into power. But I was of the opinion that military coups subsided in Nigeria not necessarily because of what the politicians were able to do, rather it was about the soldiers themselves realising that they wouldn’t have a safe landing, and the entire endeavour might not be what it used to be in the 1960s into the 1990s. That was the decade the first wave of external support for democratic rule swept across West Africa especially from the European Union that took up the task in cash and in kind. (I suppose if I had been more of a political scientist – who writes and delivers academic papers – in the public space, rather than a journalist and literary writer, I would have consistently made this same argument about how Nigeria’s current democratic dispensation lasted this long). Nigeria’s foreign partners, over the years, continue to do their best to dissuade soldiers from venturing into power.
Last week, for instance, the British deputy Chief of mission was visiting one of the nation’s major political parties. The news was that it was part of the Brits’ effort to deepen democracy in Nigeria. It shows where the sympathy of the Europeans lies. As Mohammad pointed out, foreign partners feel comfortable engaging with Nigerians who wear long-sleeve Agbada clothing and cap rather than army uniform. From the end of the Cold War in 1989, the Europeans in general have been expending resources on elections as well as on the civil society in Nigeria and on the continent. It’s a comprehensive package they come with as they think democratic rule provides the best setting for free trade as well. The foreign partners equally seem to have lost taste for supporting military coup d’états everywhere, otherwise the Americans would have instigated it in Venezuela where the leadership called the Americans unprintable names of late. Moreover, with foreign partners showing signs that soldiers and their loot would have no hiding place overseas if they ventured into power, the signals are consistently strong enough to dissuade men in uniform especially in Nigeria.
Mohammed points to other external partners with regard to how democracy has lasted for so long here. The African Union, he states, views military coup d’états with impatience unlike the situation in the past when such was allowed to pass without a noise. I think the AU put a measure of this new vigour on display after the induced military takeover in The Sudan this year. Almost for the first time, the AU made itself heard, gave an ultimatum, and in some way influenced how soldiers in The Sudan eventually agreed to a transition programme that involved sharing power with the civil society and political parties. But there is still a long way to go to get democracy to stand firmly on its feet in Nigeria, the History professor and author notes. In his view, there are still challenges confronting the nation’s democracy after 20 years. He thinks there is a need for what he calls “domestication of democracy” in Nigeria. According to Mohammed, for any human system to be successfully operated in an environment, it must be suited to that environment; but since independence in 1960, Nigeria has been practising alien democratic systems.
For him, the parliamentary system previously practised in Nigeria during the First Republic was British-grown. Rather than domesticating it, it was practised almost wholesale until it was terminated by the military coup of 1966. In his opinion, Nigeria should have developed its own version in order to meet its peculiarities. Even the constitution from where every other thing flows receives a bashing as Mohammed is of the view that Nigeria operates an alien constitution. He thinks a constitution that is domesticated should be people-centred. Everybody would thus have access to the wealth of the country, healthcare, education, housing, security, among others. He argues that a people-centred arrangement can be reached by drawing from the Nigerian socio-cultural values. Age groups and cultural groups played key roles in decision-making process in various Nigerian communities in the pre-colonial period. By taking cues from there therefore, democracy should flow from the bottom to the top and not from the top to the bottom. If this is done, most of the current crises bedevilling Nigeria such as insurgency, kidnapping, cattle rustling, among others, will cease, he posits.
Mohammed’s view here however raises some old controversies. It’s been stated by some, for instance, that democracy isn’t such a success in Nigeria because what we borrow isn’t borrowed fully and practised according to the letters envisioned by the original owners. This has been said regarding the type of government and the structure of government that we operate i.e. parliamentary or presidential as well as federal or confederal. I think the extent to which wholesale adoption or adjustment of a system could be said to account for its success or failure is subjective and debatable. But the debate is welcome and the more the academics such as Mohammed call our collective attention to these issues, the more we consider what we practise and seek for ways to make it work better. Mohammed identifies other challenges such as the issue of godfatherism as well as the high cost of governance. On the whole however, I think the fact that we have travelled, uninterrupted, for 20 years gives cause for hope.
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