Nigeria’s 25 Years Of Democracy Largely ‘Interrupted’ – CLO

The North Central zonal coordinator of Civil Liberties Organization (CLO) Comrade Steve Aluko, has said 25 years of democratic governance in Nigeria had largely been interrupted.

Aluko while speaking in an exclusive interview with LEADERSHIP Weekend in Jos said in the past 25 years the country had been in a situation where the electoral umpires are biased, and conscript the democratic space.  He said INEC is not playing its roles and the various state independent electoral commissions are not doing the needful, and under this circumstance one cannot say we have democracy or said to be practicing democracy.

Aluko further noted; “We are in a situation where politicians both in the opposition and those in government have failed to stand by their manifestos during campaigns, there is also absence of credible opposition from 1999 till date.

He also said in a situation where you have the president, governors, legislative and judicial arms of government not playing their constitutional roles by protecting and promoting the welfare of the people as enshrined in the constitution, you cannot say we are practicing democracy.

“We also have staggering elections which does not mean democratic elections. So, the absence of electoral injustice cannot produce good governance. In terms of the basic needs of Nigerians, the government has also withered, taking one step forward and 100 steps backwards, a country where the economic rights of the people are being abused consistently, people are talking about minimum wage instead of living wage.

According to him, the worst part is when you have the large chunk of the budget being consumed by a few elected and unelected leaders at all levels, one cannot call all these democracy.

“As far as I am concerned, we have 25 years of interrupted democracy in Nigeria. The only thing we have not had is a military coup and if you go by the experience in neighbouring countries, the only way to remove that negative sequence is to promote good governance which we have not seen from local, states and the federal government.

“To me, we have had interruption of democracy or negligence of democracy that has not produced pro-people policies and programmes . Then the insincerity or those in power both the judiciary, legislators, the executive spell doom for democracy in Nigeria,” he added.

Aluko said the greatest threats to democracy in the country are the politicians in power, stressing that the opposition is not playing its roles as it should be.