How to fix
Nigeria, By Muhammadu Buhari.
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| Fmr General Muhammadu Buhari at the Africa Diaspora Conference. Photo Credit: Demotix.com |
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Speech delivered
at The Africa Diaspora Conference, House Of Commons, London, United Kingdom, on
Tuesday, 5th March 2013
Protocols
1. May I thank the organizers for inviting me and my associates to this
conference which, if I may say so, is growing in influence by the day? The
presence of many Nigerians and distinguished Britons on these historic premises
testifies to the importance and to the high expectations of this occasion. At
the end of today’s proceedings many of us hope to have a better understanding
of our problems and perhaps identify more effective solutions to those
problems.
2. My contribution
today is based on reflection and practical observation rather than on studious
research or scholarly presentation. It is a soldier’s and politicians broad
observations on democracy and economic development in my country, Nigeria.
By convention one usually would like to talk about his country outside its
shores in glowing terms extolling its virtues and defending its values and
interests. But the situation in our country is so bad and no one knows this
better than the international community, that it would be futile to take this
line today.
Furthermore, it would be counter-productive to efforts we are all making to
understand and accept our shortcomings with a view to taking steps towards a
general improvement. If you continue to be in denial, as Nigeria’s government
and its apologists are wont to do, you will lose all credibility.
DEMOCRACY
3. There is no point in rehearsing all the text-book theories of democracy to
this august gathering. But in practical terms there are, I think, certain
conditions without which true democracy cannot survive. These conditions
include, but are not limited to, the level of literacy; level of economic
attainment; reasonable homogeneity; rights of free speech and free association;
a level playing field; free and fair elections; adherence to the rule of law
and an impartial judiciary. But these imperatives are not applicable to all
countries and all climes. India for example, suffers from great poverty and
diversity but its efforts at running a democracy are exemplary.
4. Democracy can
best flourish when a certain level of educational attainment or literacy exists
in the society. The vast majority of the voters must be in a position to read
and write and consequently distinguish which is which on the voters card to
make their choices truly theirs. In recent elections in Nigeria, many voters
had to be guided – like blind men and women – as to which name and logo
represent their preferred choices or candidates to vote for. When one does not
know what the thing is all about, it is difficult to arrive at a free choice. It
will be even more difficult to hold elected office holders to account and throw
them out for non-performance at the next election. Under these circumstances,
democracy has a long way to go. Our collective expectations on a democratic
system of government in less advanced countries must, therefore, be tempered by
these realities.
5. Nor must we
discount the role of economic development on the democratic process. An even
more compelling determinant to human behavior than education is, I think,
economic condition. I will return to this topic when discussing elections, but
suffice to remark here that if, for example, on election day, a voter wakes up
with nothing to eat for himself and his family and representatives of a
candidate offer him, say N500 (£2) he faces a hard choice: whether to starve
for the day or abandon his right to vote freely.
As the celebrated American economist, late Professor J.K. Galbraith said:
“Nothing circumscribes freedom more completely than total absence of money”.
6. For democracy
to function perfectly, a reasonable level of ethnic, linguistic or cultural
homogeneity must exist in a country and this applies to all countries whether
more developed or less developed. In the US, which like Nigeria is a
federation, Hawaii and Alaska send two senators each to Washington as do
California and New York. In our own country, Bayelsa with a population of less
than two million elects three senators to the National Assembly in Abuja equal
to Lagos State with a population of over ten million. Nassarawa State with
about two million people and Kano State with over five times the population
also send 3 senators each to Abuja. Such dilution clearly negates the intent
and spirit of democracy.
7. Central and
critical to democracy is adherence to the rule of law. That is to say, no
individual, institution, not even government itself can act outside the
confines of law without facing sanctions. Executive arbitrariness can only be
checked where there is respect for the law. Other desirable conditions of democracy
such as freedom of speech and association can only flourish in an atmosphere
where the law is supreme. Law does not guarantee but allows a level playing
field. In the absence of the rule of law, free and fair elections and an
independent judiciary cannot exist.
8. As a result of
the virtual absence of the rule of law, elections in Nigeria since 2003 have
not been free and fair. As a participant, I can relate to this audience my
experiences during the 2003, 2007 and 2011 Presidential elections. Hundreds of
candidates have similar experiences in State, Federal legislature and
Gubernatorial elections. Under Nigerian law, these elections are governed by
the 1999 constitution, the Electoral Law and the Independent National Electoral
Commission (INEC) acts of 2002, 2006 and 2010. Ordinarily, an election is an
occasion when contestants will join the electorate in celebration of freedom,
because the will of the majority has prevailed. Winners and losers alike come
together to work in the interest of their country. But this happens only if the
elections were deemed free and fair. In 2003, INEC, the body charged with the
conduct of elections in our country tabled results in court which were plainly
dishonest. We challenged them to produce evidence for the figures. They
refused. The judges supported them by saying, in effect, failure to produce the
result does not negate the elections! In a show of unprecedented dishonesty and
unprofessionalism, the President of the Court of Appeal read out INEC’s figures
(which they refused to come to court to prove or defend) as the result accepted
by the Court. The Supreme Court, the highest court in the land, said this was
okay.
9. In 2007, the violations of electoral rules were so numerous that most
lawyers connected with the case firmly believed that the elections would be
nullified. I will refer to just two such violations. The Electoral Act of 2006
stipulated that ballot papers SHALL be serially numbered and voters result
sheets must also be tallied on serially numbered papers. INEC produced ballot
papers with NO serial numbers and also used blank sheets thereby making it well
nigh impossible to have an audit trail. At all events, at the final collation
centre the chief electoral officer, after 11 (eleven) states (out of 36) were tallied
excused himself from the room – apparently on a toilet break – and announced
the “final results” to waiting journalists. He had the “results” in his pocket.
At the time, several states had not completed transmission of their tallies. As
in 2003 the courts rubber-stamped this gross transgression of the rules. Some
election returns confirmed by INEC stamps included, 28th April, two (2) days
before the election, 29th April, a day before the election and astonishingly,
31st April a date which does not exist on the calendar, illustrating the
farcical nature of the election. The Supreme Court split 4-3 in favour of the
Government.
10. In 2011 all pretences at legality and propriety were cast aside. In the
South-South and South-Eastern States, turn-out of voters was recorded by INEC
at between 85% – 95% even though in the morning of the election the media
reported sparse attendance at polling booths. The rest of the country where
opposition parties were able to guard and monitor the conduct of the Presidential
election turn-out averaged about 46%. In many constituencies in the South-South
and South-East, votes cast far exceeded registered figures.
11. Which brings us to the need for an impartial Judiciary in a democratic
setting. The judicial arm of the government, properly speaking, should be the
interpreter and arbiter of executive and legislative actions but the Nigerian
government since 1999 has successfully emasculated the judiciary and turned it
into a yes-man. An independent and impartial judiciary would have overturned
all the Presidential elections since 2003. In addition, hundreds of cases of
judicial misconduct have marred elections to Local Government, State and
Federal Legislatures. The Judiciary has run its reputation down completely
since 2003.
12. Here, I would
like to say a few words about the international observers. In 1999 the greatly
revered former US President, Jimmy Carter walked off in a huff at the conduct
of that year’s Presidential election. But compared to what took place
afterwards, the 1999 election was a model of propriety. I am sure many
Nigerians like me feel gratitude to the international community, notably the
Catholic Secretariat who deployed over 1,000 observers in 2003 and the National
Democratic Institute in Washington for their work in Nigeria. In 2003 and 2007,
all the international observer teams, along with domestic observers concluded
that those two elections fell far short of acceptable standards. The Nigerian
government, along with the international community ignored those critical
reports. Some members of this audience may recall the trenchant criticisms by
the UK and US governments on the Zimbabwean elections held about the same time
as Nigeria’s. Now the Zimbabwean elections were very much better conducted than
the Nigerian elections as the opposition party in Zimbabwe actually was
declared to have won the parliamentary elections.
13. Yet Western
Governments turned a blind eye to Nigerian elections and an eagle eye on
Zimbabwe’s and its supposed shortcomings. No better illustration of
double-standards can be cited. Accordingly, in 2011, the international
observers, having seen their painstaking work in earlier years completely
ignored, took the line of least resistance and concluded after cursory
examinations that the elections were okay.
14. So it is quite clear from these brief recollections that many preliminary
elements of a democratic set-up are missing in Nigeria namely: level of
educational development, level of economic development, homogeneity, level
playing field, rule of law, impartial judiciary and free and fair elections.
15. As observed
earlier, democracy cannot function optimally without a certain level of
economic attainment.
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| Photo Credit: Informationng.com |
16. Economically,
Nigeria is a potential powerhouse, a large population, 167 million by the last
official estimate, arable land, more than 300, 000 square kilometers, 13,000
square kilometers of fresh water. In addition, the country has gas, oil, solid
minerals, forests, fisheries, wind power and potentials for tourism and hosting
of international sporting events. It is a miracle waiting to happen. The lack
of leadership and policy continuity has resulted in great under-achievement.
17. Many Nigerians
in the audience today will relate to the situation of our countrymen and women.
More than 100 million of our people live below $2 a day according to the
Nigeria Bureau of Statistics and many internationally recognized estimates. We
lack security, are short of food, water, live in poor shelters with hardly any
medicare to speak of. Small scale farmers, foresters, micro businesses such as
market women, washermen, vulcanizers, tailors, street corner shop-keepers and
the like lack both power and meaningful access to small scale credit to ply
their trade and prosper.
No wonder, the publication, “The African Economic Outlook 2012” under the
auspices of the United Nations lamented that poverty and underdevelopment were
on the increase. In fact, GDP figures in the raw or in outline tell little
about the spread of wealth, employment levels, infrastructural development and
the effect of socio-economic programmes such as schooling, health care, and
security on the generality of the population. You may sell a lot of oil in an
era of high oil prices and boost your GDP and boast about it. But there is nothing
to boast about when 100 million of your people are in poverty and misery. Life
is a daily hassle; a daily challenge. It is under these circumstances that many
a voter is tempted to sell off his voting card for a pittance on Election Day.
CONCLUSION
18. We now come to crux of the matter by attempting some answers to the very
pertinent questions which the organizers of this conference put to me. How
stable is Nigeria’s economy? The short answer is that it very much depends on
the international oil market. The failure over the years to diversify and
strengthen the economy or to invest in the global economy has left Nigeria
perilously at the mercy of global oil prices. Instead of using the so-called
excess crude account which in other countries goes by the name of Sovereign
Wealth Fund to develop major domestic infrastructure such as Power, Railways,
Road development, the account has been frittered down and applied to current
consumption. There is no magic, no short-cut to economic development. We must
start from first principles – by developing agriculture and industries. Sixty
years ago, we exported considerable quantities of cocoa, cotton, groundnuts,
rubber and palm kernels. There were sizeable incomes to the farmers. Indeed in
two years, if I recall correctly, 1951 and 1953, Nigeria produced a million
tons of groundnuts. Today, other than a few thousand tons of cocoa, hardly any
cotton, rubber or palm products are exported.
19. Until and
unless serious budgetary attention is paid to agriculture, the vast majority of
rural population will remain on subsistence basis and will eventually wither
away by migration to the cities and increasing the stress on urban life. What
is required is applying today’s technology, primarily improved seeds and
seedlings, irrigation systems, use of weather forecasts, and above all,
substantial subsidies and access to cheap credit. In Nigeria, the basic tools
for agricultural take-off, the Six River Basin Authorities were wantonly
scrapped in 1986 under the disastrous Structural Adjustment Programme. They are
the best vehicle for our country’s agricultural revival and expansion.
INDUSTRIES
20. Next to agriculture, government and railways industries are the country’s
biggest employers of labour. Industries are vital in absorbing urban workforce.
Nigeria’s burgeoning industrial growth was brought to an abrupt halt by the
Structural Adjustment Programme which massively devalued the naira under IMF
harassment and bullying. Uninterrupted Nigeria’s capacity by now would have
been able to produce basic machine tools, bicycles, motor cycles, car parts,
parts for industrial machinery and the likes. But alas, the car industry is
down; tyre manufacturing is down, both Michelin and Dunlop have closed; battery
manufacturing and sugar industries are down; cable industries all but down: all
in the wake of the Structural Adjustment Programme. The last 14 years have
added to the misery due to red tape, high interest rates, power shortages and
competition from developed economies under World Trade Organization (WTO)
imperatives. Subsuming all these problems is the old and ever-present devil:
corruption.
Corruption has shot through all facets of government and economic life in our
country. Until serious efforts are made to tackle corruption which is beyond
the capacity of this government, economic growth and stability will elude us.
On corruption, don’t just take my word for it. The Chairman of one of the
bodies charged with the task of fighting corruption in Nigeria, Mr. Ekpo Nta of
Independent Corrupt Practices and other related Offensive Commission (ICPC) was
quoted by the Daily Trust newspaper of 14th February, 2013 as saying that there
was no political will to fight corruption in Nigeria.
21. A second fundamental question asked by the organizers is: Can Nigeria as
presently structured administratively and politically emerge an economically
competitive nation? I believe it can. There is a lively debate going on in our
country about the need to re-structure the country. What shape this reform is
going to take is uncertain. Even the most vocal advocates of re-structuring the
country, although long on rhetoric seem short and vague on details. We have
tried regions and this was deemed lopsided and a trap to minorities. We tried
twelve, nineteen and now thirty six (36) states and there is clamour for more.
I firmly believe that state creation has now become dysfunctional, as
disproportionate amounts of our meager resources go to over-heads at the
expense of basic social services and infrastructural development. Moreover, I
also believe that Nigeria’s problem is not so much the structure but the
process. Nevertheless, I believe a careful and civil conversation should be
held to look closely at the structure.
22. But how do we go about it? Go back to the Regions? I do not think this
would be acceptable; except perhaps in the old Western Region. Try the present
Six Geo-political Zones as federating units? I believe there will be so much
unrest and strife in South-South and North-Central; this is not to say that there
will be no pockets of resistance in the North West and North East as well – the
consequence of all these will unsettle the country. Go back to General Gowon’s
12 state structure? Here too, entrenched personal or group interests will make
collapsing and merging states impossible to operate in a democratic set-up. It
is only when you come face to face with the problem you will appreciate the
complications inherent in re-structuring Nigeria.
23. However, once a national consensus is reached, however defective, the
environment will facilitate political and economic stability. At long last we
can look forward to Nigeria finding its place among the BRIC nations and
instead of BRIC, the media would be talking of BRINC nations: Brazil, Russia,
India, Nigeria and China. I sincerely hope this happens in my lifetime.
24. The third
question put to me by the organizers is: Can the present electoral body in
Nigeria guarantee and deliver credible elections that will strengthen the
nation’s democracy in 2015?
25. All the present
indications are that INEC as it is presently constituted would be unable to
deliver any meaningful elections in 2015. I have gone to some lengths earlier
in my talk to describe INEC’s conduct in the last decade. The Electoral Body
has developed a very cozy relationship with Executive and Judicial arms of
government that its impartiality is totally lost. In the run-up to the last
elections INEC requested (and received with indecent haste) in excess of 80
billion naira (about £340m.) a hefty sum by any standards, so that it could
conduct the elections including organizing bio-metric voters data specifically
for the 2011 elections.
26. But when
opposition parties challenged the patently dishonest figures it announced and
subpoenaed the bio-metric data in court, INEC refused to divulge them on the
laughable excuse of “National Security”. INEC’s top echelon is immersed deep in
corruption and only wholesale changes at the top could begin to cure its
malaise. What is required is a group of independent minded people, patriotic,
incorruptible but with the capacity to handle such a strenuous assignment of
conducting elections in Nigeria. It is not difficult to find such people but
whether the Government and the National Assembly have the inclination to do so
I am not so sure. The only way I and many more experienced politicians than
myself expect the 2015 elections to be remotely free and fair is for the
opposition to be so strong that they can effectively prevent INEC from rigging.
I would like, here, Mr. Chairman to repeat what I have said time and time again
at home in Nigeria with regards to the election aftermath. Some commentators
and public figures have wrongly pointed accusing fingers at me for inciting
post-election violence. Nothing could be further from the truth. I have been a
public servant all my adult life: a soldier, a federal minister, a state
governor and the head of state. My duty is to Nigeria first and foremost.
Post-election violence was triggered by the grossest injustice of election
rigging and accompanying state high-handedness.
27. Lastly, Mr. Chairman, I will attempt to address the two very important
questions you put to me namely: How can the poverty level in Nigeria be
reduced? And How can the masses generally benefit from the nation’s vast
wealth? As remarked earlier, there is no short cut to poverty eradication than
to get people to work and earn money. Poverty means lack of income. If serious
efforts are made to support agriculture through states and local government
apparatus in the shape of inputs, i.e fertilizers and pesticides, extension
services and provision of small-scale credits, agriculture will boom within 5 –
7 years. Farmers will generate more income to enable them to grow the food the
country needs and to look after our environment. In addition, the drift to
urban centres will be greatly reduced. Equal attention should be paid to the
revival of employment-generating activities such as Railways, Industries,
notably textiles and other land and forest resource based industries to absorb
urban labour to tackle poverty, reduce urban stress and crime and at the same
time boost the economy. However, these two major policy initiatives can only
succeed if there is substantial improvement in power generation. As remarked
earlier, adequate provision of power will help small scale business to thrive
and link-up with the general economy. Power is the site of the legion, in other
words, it is central to all economic activity.
28. May I, Mr.
Chairman, conclude this presentation by referring to the distribution of income
in Nigeria today? No better illustration of the huge income disparity can be
quoted than the statement of Malam Adamu Fika, Chairman of the Committee set up
by Government to review the Nigerian public service. In the course of
presentation of his Report, the Chairman pointed out that 18,000 public
officers consume in the form of salaries, allowances and other perquisites
N1.126 trillion naira (£4billion) of public funds. The total Nigerian budget
for 2013 is N4.9 trillion (£20 billion). This is the worst form of corruption
and oppression. A wholesale look at public expenses vis-à-vis the real need of
the country has become urgent.
29. Mr. Chairman,
the Honourable Members, Distinguished Guests, I thank you for your patience and
attention.
