Democracy, as a form of participatory government comprising the led and the trustees, had in recent times come under scrutiny against the background of grueling realities across the globe. The notion that elections are increasingly excluding the majority from meaningful involvement in power has culminated in the backlash of protests in countries like Kenya, Bangladesh, and Britain.
Typically, Nigeria, 64 years after independence, is also yet to come to grips with the fact that elections are not democracy and democracy is not necessarily election. By rightly situating the root causes of recent global protests vis-à-vis the responses of governments, it would sufficiently help us find out whether these protests were a spin-off from citizen expectations gone awry or a near-total collapse of the bulwark of democracy in countries where this reality is subsisting. It will help us inquire whether these protests were and are intended to undermine the democratic stability of government.
Unarguably, for a country that had long been exhibiting various pathologies of state failure, the one-year-plus administration of President Bola Tinubu does not fit into the first strand of the above mould, going by his commitment to good governance and openness to renewal.
No doubt, the government has had its share of challenges and cannot be “blind” to the distance yet to be covered, knowing full well the enormous expectations of Nigerians that preceded his election.
However, we must not fail to, as Nigerians, appreciate the efforts of the government and the mileage they have already covered in our journey to a prosperous country.
With the country’s mono-economy, total dependence on depleting oil resources, and decreasing foreign reserves, against an expanding population of over 220 million—youths make up over 60% of the total population, the reality cannot be ignored with idealistic articulation of theories. The reality of a chronic underinvestment in agriculture with a bottom line contribution of barely 21 per cent to GDP, which was 60per cent in the 1960s, made it not difficult for anyone with genuine intent to spot the ominous storm. Whether it would break on the country, as rain or hail, depended on what kind of bold policy decisions were made.
Remarkably, for Tinubu, pandering to populist theatrics or playing the ostrich by reversing the twin decisions of fuel subsidy removal and floating the foreign exchange, which had become a “noose around the economy’s jugular,” is not an option that guarantees the country’s future.
Evidently, there is a new, growing, and sustained trajectory of global confidence in government economic policies, which are already producing early fruits. The recent data from the National Bureau of Statistics revealed a GPD growth of 3.19 per cent in the second quarter of the year compared with 2.51 percent GDP growth last year.
In the agricultural sector, efforts at revamping the sector by the government have birthed a strong commitment from the Saudi Arabian government to concretise action to provide needed funds and incentives for private sector-driven investment in ranching, breed improvement, feed and pasture development, and special agro-processing zones in the country.
With concrete follow-up from the 2023 Saudi-Africa Summit by the Tinubu government, strategic plans have been rolled out to ensure continued cropping all year round and to squarely address the food crisis in the country. Therefore, it is not coincidental that the country’s headline inflation, which is predominantly driven by food inflation, has eased to 33.40 per cent in July from 34.19 per cent in June 2024.
The effects of food system failures occasioned by the disruption of farming activities, banditry, and insecurity are mitigated by a temporary government food input duty waiver on some basic food items.
The president’s zeal for national renewal is not draped in mere fantasy but is rather rooted in a vision of bolstering development through citizen participation in governance. Every policy of the government in the last one year has been mediated by the clear understanding that the people, collectively, “are the rightful masters of government,“ as the father of modern-day democracy, Abraham Lincoln, once said.
President Tinubu’s statement, “Show us a door, we shall open it; show us a road, we shall travel it; show us a problem, we shall find a way to fix it,” is being progressively transformed into deeds, as the recent economic indices have shown.
However, good leadership does not preclude good followership. In fact, good leadership can be improved by placing structural walls and bulwarks that the people represent.
In a democracy, leadership, whether good or bad, is a product of society, and this single narrative about bad leadership being the country’s problem, as recently promoted by respected columnist, Abimbola Adelakun, in her piece, dated 15th August 2024 and titled, “Can Nigeria Fight A Loss Of Hope?” does not effectively address the challenges of leadership and followership in the country.
The crucial question is, which should wag the other? Whether the tail or the dog, the quirky tenor of the recent #Endbadgovernance protest was a matter of decreased responsibility and increased hypocrisy of Nigerians, which feed into our unrighteous anger against the government. It was collectively expressed to pull down the “whole house” for an alleged breach of social contract.
Ironically, in our individual spaces of power as pastors, imams, administrators, businessmen, and women, we not only blatantly undermine God’s right to rule over our actions but flippantly dress up such actions in a self-serving cloak of being “smart.”.
So, it is not surprising that we have a country without a soul, but one full of “smart” people.
Moving forward, we must renounce this wishful anticipation that the country’s myriad problems would disappear into thin air with the right leadership. We cannot have a functional dog without a tail. Neither can we have a functional tail without the dog.
For too long, we have shaped our politics to focus more on appearances than substance. Without hesitation, leaders and followers have favored the symbols of progressivism, often disguised in shallow populism, over the sacrifices and calculated risks required for true nation-building. Whether we acknowledge it or not, this sets President Bola Tinubu apart from others: the political will and courage to confront the country’s challenges head-on and bring clarity for a better future.
The prevailing culture among a populace that abandons its country and aligns with external forces to weaken its national unity reflects a societal neurosis—a lack of genuine “love” for the nation. This absence of devotion hinders individuals from subordinating personal actions and idiosyncrasies to embracing a shared sense of responsibility toward God and country.
It is the same “love” for the country and not hope, as sermonised by Adelakun, that innervates Nigerians to express patience, hoping for a better country as taught by Apostle Paul.
- Ogundipe is a Senior Special Assistant to the President on Food Security.
