Does Nigeria practice a true democracy?, Is Nigeria mature democratically?, Simply put, there are some models that can be used to measure Democracy, such as freedom house world index which assesses the degree of Liberty and Democracy in a state. Another is the Democracy index compiled by The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), a UK-based company.
INTRODUCTION
The fourth republic of Nigeria has witnessed a lot of gravitating and heart rendering phenomenon especially in the recent time. The hope and the trust of the masses is shattered due to the frequent failure of the constituted authorities who are supposed to represent their interest in government. From the inception of the contemporary democratic epoch until now, Nigerians have not witnessed a positive peace, the prevalence of structural violence has prevented most people from meeting their basic needs and right. The idea of representative or modern democracy states that democracy must be practiced in line with the aspiration of the electorates (people), Newton and Van Deth (2010). The most important pillar of democracy is the people, as they are the essence of democracy. Their wellbeing is the most paramount in all as that is the main reason the populace entrusted their political power in the hands of few individual called government to provide an enabling peaceful environment that can consequently lead to a sustainable development. However, democracy as a system of government cannot thrive until the process of democratization is actualized. Without doubt, it will be fair to state that Nigeria did not pass through the process of democratization as it ought to, because all pillars upholding democracy are not fully consolidated. The practice of democracy in Nigeria is simply a mockery to democratic principles as it has not been able to guarantee a positive peace necessary for the actualization of the needs and aspirations of the citizens.
UNDERSTANDING THE NATURE OF PEACE AND VIOLENCE
It’s pertinent to understand that peace is not the mere absence of violence, conflict or war. Conversely, violence as a concept can be experienced where a negative peace exists and the concern for social justice spills over the concern for positive peace. In general terms, one may differentiate negative peace, that is, the relative absence of violence and war, from positive peace, that is, the presence of justice and harmonious relations. One may also refer to integrative peace, which sees peace as encompassing both social and personal dimensions. Put simply, positive peace can be seen as a state of law or civil government, a state of justice or goodness, a balance or equilibrium of Powers, a situation where the needs of the people are met. Regardless of the effort made to curb insecurity in the present day Nigeria, violence is still abounding. This violence is structural as it can not be directly linked to anyone, yet deadly.
Structural violence refers to a form of violence wherein social structures, social institutions or policies harm people by preventing them from meeting their basic needs or right. Although less visible, it is by far the most lethal form of violence, causing poverty, sickness and excess death that would not occur in more equal societies. Not only is it the deadliest violence, it is greater in scope and in implication than any other type of violence, it grows exponentially as unequal power differentials are used to create more unequal structures. Yet, because these limitations are embedded within social structures, people tend to overlook them as nothing more than the ordinary difficulties of life. Johan Galtung, the father of Peace lists poverty (i.e., the “deprival of basic human needs”) as the second category of violence and “structurally conditioned poverty” as the first category of structural violence. The rate of poverty in Nigeria is on the increase, and this alone can never allow a true democracy to be successfully practiced.
According to the 2018/19 national monetary poverty line, 40.1% of Nigerians are poor and 63% are multidimensionally poor according to the National MPI 2022.There is a high tendency that this percentage would have increased drastically in the recent time due to the effect of the unsolicited and the unpopular removal o fuel subsidy made by the incumbent president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, which consequently resulted to the “#EndBadGovernment” protest.
DEMOCRATIZATION AND DEMOCRACY
Democratization is the degree of development of political institutions at the national, state, and local levels as measured by the Freedom House (2007) index. It is the introduction of democratic principles in a governmental settings. The process through which a political government becomes democratic is known as democratization and is a revolution towards a democratic system. All people have several essential rights under democracy, including the ability to express their opinions. All residents have the right to pick their representatives and to have them replaced if they do not work in accordance with their views. This is achieved by democracy through the voting process, rule of law, and other democratic processes.
In the recent time, democracy has turned out to be the most supported political tool for a sustainable social change, positive peace, development and emancipation which has attained admiration by many world leaders. The origin of democracy is traceable to ancient Greek. The word ‘Demo’ in Greek means people and ‘Kratia’ means rule. These two words demo and Kratia metamorphosed into the word, Democracy meaning the rule of the people. What brought about democracy in Greece was the inequalities that existed for a long time between the rulers and ruled, so there was a need for emancipation for the masses who have been oppressed. However, the old Greek city-state practiced a direct democracy, a system that gave opportunity to the qualified citizens to gather in a large auditorium to make decisions directly by themselves without any representative, this was however made possible due to the small size of the country. Conversely, because to the large size of countries in our contemporary, it will be difficult to gather all qualified citizens in a place to make decisions by themselves. In consonance with this reason, there emerged a representative democracy which allows qualified adult citizens to be able vote for those who will represent their interests.
SYMBIOTIC RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PEACE AND DEMOCRACY
Peace and democracy are universal and related values: when one is lacking, the other is endangered. Both in their own right and in order to secure the premises of development, IDLO treats peace and democracy as sine qua non. But peace and democracy do not come easy: they are achieved by working, gradually, often painstakingly, on laws and institutions. Strong institutions and pillars of democracy make strong nations; good laws make good citizens and productive government policies make room for peace.
The decision of Nigerian’s government to use the armed forces to forcefully restore order on the protesters of the #EndBadGovernment will be catastrophic, just like the way the armed forces used vi etarm is during the #EndSarProtest and claiming a number of lives. In reality, the government need to understand that there are different actors that can be identified in the protest, i.e the protesters with well defined objectives, the opposition political groups who aim to stain the reputation of the incumbent government, hoodlums destroying people’s properties and vandalizing government properties. If the protesters are arrested or stopped for exercising their constitutional right of protesting because of some groups who hijacked the means by stealing and destroying properties then it will be right to conclude that Nigerian’s democracy is flawed, these perpetrators can be identified easily and apprehended for justice through a defined means.
With no doubt, force cannot be used to achieve peace and order, there might be a temporal order being restored afterward but such order cannot be sustained or guarantee peace. To restore positive peace and order in this present situation, there must be immediate actualization of the aspiration and interest of the populace. The will of the people is always democratic in as much it is coming from the majority, and such should not be treated with levity or compromised. The public opinion is one the pillars of democracy, data on the opinion of the masses on a particular pressing national issue like this need to be collected and measured appropriately to determine the majority view, which should subsequently guide the decision of the government.
Whenever democracy progresses, positive peace is guaranteed, this is because the interest of the populace must have been well respected and fulfilled by their representatives. In lieu of this, all forms of violence such as hunger, poverty, political unrest, electoral violence to mention but few will be curbed to it minimum level and a prosperous state will be established.
ASSESSMENT ON NIGERIAN’S DEMOCRACY
Does Nigeria practice a true democracy?, Is Nigeria mature democratically?, Simply put, there are some models that can be used to measure Democracy, such as freedom house world index which assesses the degree of Liberty and Democracy in a state. Another is the Democracy index compiled by The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), a UK-based company. This company measure democracy by assessing the following within a democratic state; Electoral process and pluralism, functioning of government, Political participation, Political culture and Civil Liberty. To standardize this, countries can be classified into any of the following four groups based on the assessment of the above-listed features.
Full democracy – These are nations where civil liberties and fundamental political freedoms are not only respected but also reinforced by a political culture conducive for the thriving of democratic principles. These nations have a valid system of checks and balances, independent judiciary, government that function adequately, diverse and independent media, and social justice. These nations have only limited problems in government functioning.
Flawed democracy – These nations sustain free and fair elections, they honour civil liberties but have shortcomings in relations to media freedom infringements, suppression of political opposition, critic and low level of political participation.
Hybrid regimes -A hybrid regime is a mixed type of political regime that is often created as a result of an incomplete transition from an authoritarian regime to a democratic one. These are nations with regular electoral frauds preventing them from being free and fair, these nations commonly have government that apply pressure on political opposition, non independent judiciary, widespread corruption, harassment and pressure placed on media, lack of practical rule of law, low political participation, unfavorable environment for employment opportunity and more pronounced faults than flawed democracy.
Authoritarian regimes – There are states that have no or limited political pluralism these states are often absolute monarchies or dictatorships. The media is state-owned, the judiciary is not independence and there is high suppression of constructive governmental criticism.
Nevertheless, from the Democracy Index compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit, there are 34 hybrid regimes, representing approximately 20% of countries, encompassing 17.2% to 20.5% of the world’s population. Consciously measuring Nigeria’s democracy using the above classification it is evident enough to say Nigeria’s democracy is a hybrid democracy.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, if the citizens must go through hardship in the name of rebuilding Nigerian’s economy, then it will be fair if the hardship start with the government by reducing their salaries and benefits so that the citizens can see them leading by example. This will also be a good instance of upholding justice in Nigeria.
For democracy to strive, it must be practiced on the principles or pillars of democracy such as; respect for the people and their view, political equality, justice over law, independent electoral commission, rule of law, accountability and transparency, freedom of press, impartial judiciary to mention but few. Although all the mentioned principles are clearly written in the constitution, adherence of the government officials to these principles is the only way structural violence can be eliminated and positive peace be restored in Nigeria.