Despite nearly twenty-five years of its unbroken practice, the single longest stretch in Nigeria’s history, democratic practice gets many K-legs here, which probably explains why the Senate is looking again into our old African governance pouch in search of a constitutional role for traditional rulers.
I was just mulling as we approach the twenty fifth anniversary of the Fourth Republic on May 29. I identified ten important K-legs of Nigerian democracy. 1] Our politicians are not democrats. No one believes that he should hold public office, control the public purse or exercise constitutional powers only because majority of the voters cast votes for him or her, no. One should use all tools fair and foul including bribery, blackmail, thuggery, violence, rigging, misinformation, procured ex parte court orders and if possible, rewrite election results. The only thing that matters is for the retuning officer to declare you elected; let the other guy go to court.
Our registered political parties, eighteen of them at the moment, down from nearly a hundred ten years ago, have no ideological orientation to speak of or any well thought-out party programs. The voters are not any better; some Nigerian voters once stood outside a polling station, put neem leaves on their foreheads and declared that they were for sale. Recruitment of ad hoc election officials is an opportunity for parties and candidates to infiltrate the electoral commission. Many security agents see the election season as a bazaar; in 2011 my friend went to congratulate a Police Commissioner who had just been promoted to AIG weeks before the 2011 election. Rather than accept congratulations, the cop openly mourned that it was sabotage, that he should have been allowed to head a State Police Command during the election period, instead of a dry Zonal Command.
Election monitors may be well-meaning but they lack the reach to cover all the polling stations. The media does some expose, especially of open vote buying involving poor folks, but not the big time electoral bribery involving rich folks, which takes place in exclusive guest houses. Not all of them, but many judges who sit in election tribunals smile their way to the banks. Politicians say that court cases often cost them more money than election campaigns. Widespread poverty does not provide a conducive milieu for democratic practice; voters want to get what they can from the candidate right now, because they will not see him again until it is time for the next election. And finally, the external environment is discouraging for democratic practice, seeing as we do that liberal democratic institutions, culture and practice are rapidly imploding in USA after 236 years of practice.
Hence the wide interest generated in this bill that seeks to establish a National Council for Traditional Rulers, which last week scaled second reading in the Senate. It is sponsored by Senator Simon Bako Lalong of Plateau State. Now, if this man, who was a two-time Speaker of the Plateau State House of Assembly; a two-term Governor of Plateau State; Director General of Tinubu/Shettima Presidential Campaign; Minister of Labour and Employment and now Senator for Plateau South, is saying we should take a second look at aristocratic institutions because of the obvious shortcomings of democratic institutions, who am I to say no? In this Republic I have never been elected even as a Local Government councillor, so when I see a man who has held so many elective and appointive political offices angling for a change, I cannot but agree with him.
I therefore wish to propose a few more additions to Lalong’s bill in order to fortify it against armchair critics who have elevated “democracy” to a Gospel truth, despite its apparent unsuitability to the African environment. Royal fathers versus politicians, for example, is a case of 1] continuity versus discontinuity. Whereas a politician newly arrived at a powerful executive or legislative office is in a hurry to dismantle the legacy and projects of his predecessor, a newly turbaned traditional ruler is eager to uphold and promote that legacy. I know a state governor who refused a community’s request to complete a clinic started by his predecessor, and instead asked the community to identify a site where he can start the project anew in order to get the whole credit. In contrast, if you tell a new emir that his father promised you something, even if he was not around when the promise was made, he will be honour bound to fulfil it.
It is also a case of 2] tradition versus law. Which is more important to an African, a law passed by parliament or a tradition handed down by his ancestors? My friends once asked me why I don’t eat goat meat. I said no law bans eating goat meat, but when I was growing up in my grandparents’ house, they did not eat goat meat. Why? Well, I didn’t ask them. Unlike the Gen X kids of today, we didn’t ask our grandparents why they did something; we just did the same. Whereas laws passed by National and state assemblies today require a battery of security agencies, police stations, courts and prisons to enforce them, traditions handed down from ancestors need no enforcers. Community isolation and retribution is enough deterrent for anyone who errs.
It is a case of 3] stability versus disruption. Peasants, which is what a majority of Nigerian rural folks are, live in the same houses all their lives, till the same farms, are married to the same spouses, observe the same rituals and ceremonies, stick to the same religions and usually know at most two or three traditional rulers in their communities all their lives. The first traditional ruler whose death I witnessed in my hometown had ruled for 39 years, so majority of the townsfolk were seeing a change for the first time in their lives. This new system, where people come every four years promising heaven and earth, and starting a campaign for 2027 as early as 2025, is alien to peasants and us, their offspring.
It is a case of 4] historical versus contemporary. My seven-year-old son asked me why I wouldn’t change my telephone because he has known it all his life and there are newer models. I said well, my grandfather did not change the copy of the Qur’an that he read every day even when it was partially burnt in a fire and even though he could afford a new one, as the owner of several farms and dozens of cattle.
It is also a case of 5] dignity versus demagoguery; or at least, it used to. Only a mad person campaigns openly to become a royal father. The approved method of campaign, not outlined in any Electoral Act, is dignified personal carriage, charity, good relationship with neighbours, being nice to kingmakers and intense prayer for God not to prolong the waiting period and for Him to look in your direction when a vacancy occurs. Unlike the other people, who place posters everywhere, make a lot of noise, tell a lot of lies, make empty promises and display naked impatience. While a prince patiently waits for decades to inherit a throne, a politician cannot wait for four years without showing visible agitation and unrest.
It is a case of 6] silence versus loquaciousness. A royal father believes in saying as little as possible in public, whereas a politician believes in saying as much as possible, even when he is off point. Northern emirs, especially, cover their mouths with the white veil called amawali to restrain themselves from speaking. Traditional rulers versus politicians is also a case of 7] non-partisanship versus partisanship. The royal father is expected to be the father of all and sundry, irrespective of creed or political affiliation. The politician is the opposite of that. One governor recently said he may extend amenities to those who opposed him in the election but he must first extend it to those who supported him. What about the president who once said we should not expect him to treat those who gave him 3% of their votes the same way as those who gave him 97% of their votes?
It is also a case of 8] inclusion versus exclusion. When a royal father convenes a community meeting, everyone is welcome, and issues up for discussion involve everyone. A meeting convened by a politician is a different ball game. Only members of his party are invited, and sometimes only members of his faction within the same party, and within that only those who do not nurse ambitions that conflict with the godfather’s own choice. It is a case of 9] influence versus power. The 1999 Constitution recklessly vested all executive power in a state governor, but why is it that when he appeals to the public on an important issue, no one listens unless he gets the royal father to make the same appeal? Time magazine once listed the most influential Americans during the Clinton era and excluded President Bill Clinton himself. The editors said in their explanation, “Sorry, Bill. You are not influential. You are only powerful,” but that Vice President Al Gore, who could whisper into the president’s ear and get things done, was the influential guy.
Finally, some critics will say that this is a contrast between 10] selection versus election. Okay, not everyone can aspire to occupy a traditional ruler’s throne. It is only when you belong to the royal family, and in most of Nigeria, women are excluded from contention. All these are repugnant to democrats, but where is the evidence that election ensures a better choice than selection? Are civil service directors, military service chiefs, managing directors of banks, heads of foreign missions, chief imams of mosques, general overseers of churches, captains of football teams or even bosses of bandit groups ever elected? Who said they perform their roles worse than elected officials? Most of the time, are they not the ones who correct the mistakes of elected officials and guide them to the right path?
Look, even the most important social unit, i.e. the family, whoever sat down and voted for the Father and Mother? If democracy is that great, why not extend it to the family, call for election of the Family Head every four years and sit as a parliament, complete with Standing Orders, to pass an Appropriation bill on the family budget? Oga Lalong, please add all these to that your timely bill.
