SomberTuesday! The transition has ended. A new President is in office. While the lawsuits challenging the election results continue, the “emil’okan era has begun. It remains to be seen whether the courts would give serious consideration to the challengers’ claims. Yesterday, as the inauguration ceremonies proceeded, people did what they usually do with every administration. Many called for unity. Being ultra-religious people, Nigerians called for prayers for the new administration. Many of the calls remind me of some truisms. One is “the end justifies the means.” It doesn’t seem to matter how power is attained. What matters is that it is. The people are ever ready to close ranks behind the powerful. This tendency is normal for people who want stability and see challenges as dangerous as well as destabilizing. I remain appalled by Nigeria’s performance in terms of women’s political participation. I am hopeful that the country redeems its reputation on this matter. Nigeria’s gender policy is that there should be 35% women’s participation, but remain a minute minority in the National Assembly. Nigerians should be aware that Rwanda has women as more than 65% of its legislators, and so many other African countries have over 30%. It is puzzling and disturbing that there is public outcry. Only very few courageous women’s rights activists and NGOs demand gender equality and equity in representation.
The emil’okan era confirms Nigeria’s commitment towards a predominantly ableist, oligarchic gerontocracy. This is clear because youths (under 30 years old ) are 70 percent of Nigeria’s population and approximately 133 million people (63 percent of Nigeria’s population) are multidimensionally poor. Further, people living with disabilities are not in positions of authority, whether elected or appointed.
Another top priority for Nigeria is tackling the catastrophic problems of insecurity, abductions and kidnappings. The state as an institution is weak/ineffectual when such problems are allowed to persist unchecked. Does the Nigerian state lack capacity and political will to respond? Is this situation tenable? Without the positive transformation of Nigeria’s political, economic and social institutions, and without excellent infrastructure, we will not have an end to these devastating hydra-headed monsters.
Unemployment and underemployment are also pervasive and seemingly intractable. Nigeria must give focused and urgent attention to creating decent jobs for all citizens, not just the privileged and well-connected. Whether we like it or not, there is a social contract between the Nigerian people and our leaders. This is why people are hopeful when new administrations come into power. They express optimism about what is possible. The calls for unity, prayers, and support for the emil’okan administration are reminding the new government that it owes Nigerians a duty, and the people will unite as well as pray for its success.
Democracy? What does it mean without electoral integrity? Is INEC functioning well as an election management body? How about nation-building? Without access to, even guarantees to the full rights of citizenship, we would have failed at building a nation that serves us all. Justice must be seen to available to all of us for the unity that people are advocating to materialize. Equity and equality are also essential preconditions for political, social, and economic transformation but there seems to be a profound lack of desire to do so.
Democracy means, among other things, that all Nigerians have full and equal access to citizenship rights. It also means respect for fundamental principles and values including freedom, equality, fairness, equity, justice, and transparency, accountability, the rule of law, respect for human rights. If we have genuine democracy, these values should not only be rhetorically expressed, they should be felt as realities in the daily lives of all Nigerians. Nigerian youths are tired of shapa (unrelenting suffering) and rushing to japa–leaving the country by any means necessary to improve their life-chances and prospects of upward mobility. They are understandably perplexed and confused by the dominance of the octogenarians on the country’s governance systems, without much change to the status quo.
What will happen with the new currency? It’s absurd that it remains rare. When are the old notes going out of circulation? When will all ATMs does not provide money to people with deposits in the banks? When will network problems end? What does it mean to have the much-touted cashless economy? High inflation and the economic downturn are serious problems in need of urgent structural solutions. The masses are especially vulnerable to the vagaries of the affected markets.
Given the wahala that we have allowed to ramify, priority should be given to our engineering of genuine democracy and economic development, personal and human security, the wellbeing and welfare of citizens, and the masses’ ability to meet their basic needs.
EndSARS youth protesters were hopeful that the 2023 elections would bring about some movement toward changes in the status quo. The 2020 #EndSARS protests were demands for good governance, an end to police brutality, extortion, impunity, economic inequality, marginalization, targeting of youths and other minorities, and an end to political violence. They were calling for deepened democracy. However, in subversion of democratic values, state-sponsored violence was inflicted on them. Similar to the usual response to protests, the #EndSARS youths’ protests were erroneously categorized as foreign-generated, unpatriotic attempts to destabilize the country.
The 2020 Lekki massacre at #LekkiTollGate & other locations should evoke a “never again” response in Nigeria. Unity, peace, democracy and sustainable development are urgent necessities. If they are, the demands of the #EndSARS protesters must be fulfilled.
Kleptocracy has to end. Why should the resources that belong to all Nigerians be cornered by a few oligarchs? The depredations of oligarchs on the public purse has negative and devastating implications for human security for the majority. Majority of citizens in in future generations are also robbed of the benefits of being Nigerian.
We need positive transformation. Most Nigerians want a better country. We want democracy. We must be ready to embark on the quest to produce the country we want. Since we have allowed such a precipitous decline, we have an uphill task. We should be determined, tenacious, and optimistic as we all work to achieve the goals we desire.
NigerianWomenArise #EndPoliceBrutalityinNigeriaNOW
EndSars
EndSWAT
EndImpunity.
Nigerians should think deeply about Howard Zinn’s statement and its implications for our country’s economic, political, and social development:
“Civil disobedience, that’s not our problem. Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves, and all the while, the grand thieves are running the country. That’s our problem.”
In repetition of my weekly exhortation, I say:
Let the kleptocrats give back our stolen wealth so that we can fix our infrastructure, schools, hospitals, and also offer worthwhile social protection to our people. Let the masses enjoy the full benefits of citizenship in Nigeria. Let the leaders and political class repent and build peace with justice.
This is no time for politics as usual. The people elected should be those trusted to bring justice, equity and human security to the entire country, not expedient, unethical and egocentric individuals determined to dominate for self aggrandizement or sectional gain. We don’t need oligarchs’ continued domination. We also need a government that puts the interests of majority of citizens first. I hope this happens in my lifetime.
Prof. Mojúbàolú Olufúnké Okome is a professor of political science at Brooklyn College in New York.
